Advice Z4... girl car, boys car, either?

[leviramsey]

It's quite amazing that you don't do diesel cars en masse yet. A Canadian cars salesman I know who is back there now but worked in Europe for a decade says that's one area where N.America is way behind. I suppose with fuel at the price that it is, there's no real need yet. Although you have certainly gone more economy-conscious in recent years so you are probably heading that way. There's undoubtedly some cultural thing too (muscle cars etc). But even that doesn't quite fit given that diesel have all the torque low down. The old cliché that torque turns wheels and horsepower turns heads.

Diesel consistently costs 20-30% more than regular unleaded in the US (most states tax diesel more heavily than petrol, the opposite of the situation in at least most of Europe). Using 30% fewer gallons doesn't save you much if anything if each gallon costs that much more.

The very properties that make diesel more fuel-efficient (high compression ratio and lean air-fuel mixture) produce a lot more NOx than gasoline engines do; US emissions standards make no distinction based on the fuel used: the 50-state NOx standard for light-duty vehicles (i.e. not including the giant diesel "heavy duty" pickup trucks that are beloved of the construction and agricultural sectors) is 0.05 g/mile of NOx emissions, which is an eighth of the EU standard. Mercedes found that they had to either detune the diesel engines to the point where they'd be getting single-digit mpg or devise a special US market catalytic system (BlueTec, since licensed to BMW and VW). They chose the latter, but that typically makes a diesel cost $5-6k more than an equivalent petrol model.

Diesel ultimately only saves money, if you can make a deal with a local restaurant to pick up their grease and convert it to biodiesel (it's become a sort of chic thing to do in the Happy Hippy Valley recently... the burger places around here now make almost as much profit from selling the grease to diesel owners as they do on the burgers!).

[chrisp65]

 

 

NOT A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY:

I was counting Z4's on the motorway today for you, total count on the M25 was 4, all driven by the ladies

got into Shittingbourne, one more Z4, driven like a proper juvenile cock on his own imaginery race track - that was a male

 

so 80% of todays Z4 drivers were female, the other 20% were cockheads

 

hahaha... love this! 

 

Good work! 

 

Do another count tomorrow please

 

 

NOT  A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY - DAY 2

 

girls 2 : 3 boys

 

twice as many miles today but saw the same number of Z4's, either that's random luck or I had a little light sleep between Slough and Newbury

 

anyway, 2 ladies vs 3 blokes today, only right to report one of the blokes was clearly a homosexual gay - that's neither a good or a bad thing, just an observation to throw into the mix

[PieFacE]

haha, cheers mate! 
 

Is a homosexual gay person someone who's straight? It's like a double negative 

 

Good work! Try for day 3, after day 3 we'll know for sure if it's a boys car or a girls car!!!

[chrisp65]

yep, last day tomorrow, a little run out to Bristol, so it'll be a poncey up their own arses pretend hippy but actually aggressive middle class daddies boy demographic

 

I don't honestly know what the orientation of the homosexual gay guy was, but he was parked up in the services, convertible down and clearly had plucked and shaped eyebrows

[b23avfc]

I say if you like the car, who cares what people think

I had a ford puma and some called it a hairdressers car. Mine was faster or otherwise better than most of theirs, even vs some beamers in cornering etc (due to some small fun features)

[chrisp65]

I say if you like the car, who cares what people think

 

 

yep, simple as, end of

 

same goes for clothes, partners, music and dance moves

[darrenm]

 

I say if you like the car, who cares what people think

 

 

yep, simple as, end of

 

same goes for clothes, partners, music and dance moves

 

My favourite car of all time and I don't care who thinks it's shit:

 

[Condimentalist]

 

 

I say if you like the car, who cares what people think

 

 

yep, simple as, end of

 

same goes for clothes, partners, music and dance moves

 

My favourite car of all time and I don't care who thinks it's shit:

 

 

 

Seeing as you don't care - that's shit   

 

As for the Z4 - anyone's car but I'd say more of a man's than a woman's myself. 

[mjmooney]

I could never get sufficiently interested in cars to have a 'favourite'. They're just a machine for getting from A to B. 

[villaajax]

 

 

I say if you like the car, who cares what people think

 

 

yep, simple as, end of

 

same goes for clothes, partners, music and dance moves

 

My favourite car of all time and I don't care who thinks it's shit:

 

 

 

That looks like a child's drawing of a car.

[chrisp65]

NOT A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY - DAY 3

 

er, did the Bristol trip, didn't see a single one

 

which if you really want one, we can spin as me not having seen a single woman driving one all day, which is true

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

Please see the "Any Audi Drivers?" Thread,  I have added some Audi R8 pics that I would really appreciate some feedback on from the car peoples.

 

Thanks. very much.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Amsterdam_Neil_D

[PieFacE]

NOT A SCIENTIFIC SURVEY - DAY 3

 

er, did the Bristol trip, didn't see a single one

 

which if you really want one, we can spin as me not having seen a single woman driving one all day, which is true

hahaha... cheers dude!

 

I'll go with this

[leviramsey]

Buying one of these tomorrow (now that this is kind of "Cars - general chat") for $1200.

[chrisp65]

it's amazing what you can design with a sheet of graph paper!

[BOF]

My favourite car of all time and I don't care who thinks it's shit:

 

Was the owner trying to make it a budget version of one of these bad boys?

For those who don't know, that's the 177mph Lotus Carlton (see the yellow badge).

[Kingfisher]

Wow, the old Vaxhaul Carlton's, now there's a blast from the past, I'd completely forgotten that they ever existed. Manufacturers don't, as far as I know, tend to put ridiculously large engines into terminally bland motors any more. They're just, well, terminally bland these days.

[Dom_Wren]

Drove the brz all weekend, mostly highway, but some twists, it is a lovely balanced and purists car, but after having the evo, I just think it needs more power, word is a sti version with 50hp extra is coming. It's a gorgeous car and I get people chatting to me all the time about it.

[darrenm]

 

My favourite car of all time and I don't care who thinks it's shit:

 

Was the owner trying to make it a budget version of one of these bad boys?

 

Apart from the wheels, that's how it rolled out the factory.

[BOF]

And the suspension, no? Looks lowered.