What's the most obnoxious car in production, right now?

Maybe you can start a thread about obnoxious drivers

 

Cadillac Escalade because one rear ended me today.

 

So what IS an essential use of gasoline? Taking the kids to school, popping to the shops, driving to the train station?

A non-essential use is driving ANYWHERE in a car ten times the size it actually needs to be - pretty much any US SUV

 

Nowadays, my preferred hiking is at wilderness lodges where the hiking starts at the front door. But the place I was referring to is located in a small town in British Columbia. The hiking trails are some distance away, and the best hiking trails are up in the sub-alpine, accessible only via many kilometers of logging road. The only way to hike these spectacularly beautiful trails is either to drive to them, or to spend a couple of days walking on the highway and then the logging road from the nearest lodging to the trailhead, camping along the way. There simply is no lodging near the trails.

Is this activity a necessity? No. It is recreation. People drive to vacation destinations. Is this "wasteful"? In one sense, yes, any non-necessary use of energy is "wasteful." Living farther than walking/cycling distance from your job is "wasteful." Eating food transported by truck is "wasteful." Driving to grandma's house for that big family gathering is "wasteful."

But we all engage in non-essential activities. Hiking is one such, and for most of us, the best hiking is accessible only by driving some distance.

(I also drive several hundred miles to get from Spokane up to those hiking destinations, and at some of the wilderness lodges, I have to take a helicopter ride to get to the lodge itself. All very "wasteful." It's how I choose to spend my money and my leisure time in the summer. It's not merely about walking. It's about walking in the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my entire life.)

 

^ Related to the above is driving to a gym.

A recent study of people that exercise outside with the same effort as a gym actually have better results/feel better. Of course, might want to avoid extreme weather or smog alerts, but jogging outdoors is greener and more productive.

 

For me it is a tossup between old farts on Harleys and big lifted diesel trucks. Both because they are so loud it is deafening even with your windows up. I will pass either on the highway aggressively to get out of its sound wake. I would rather drive in peace then listen to that farting sound for miles.

 

Anyone of the new trendy cars that come in puke green. Although, I do love the dancing hamsters... :clap2:

 

The Nissan Cube. One of my neighbors has one and I feel that it belongs in a Dr. Seuss book and not on the road. It is even more odd that it gets such horrible fuel economy when it is a small car that has barely any storage space. Aren't small cars supposed to all get decent gas mileage?

 

Exercising out of doors is much nicer if the scenery is nice. But when there's ice on the sidewalk, or a lot of traffic, then not so much. And a balanced exercise regime will include some cardio and some weights. The gym provides a lot more flexibility.

YES!!! Though whether the driver/rider is old or young, LOUD vehicles are definitely my vote for most obnoxious!

 

At top speed, the Veyron has enough fuel for 19 minutes of driving. Yikes. I could commute to work (38 miles) in less than 10 minutes, if it weren't for all the other cars... and cops... and turns... come to think of it, why did I buy a Veyron?

 

The Veyron is an incredible machine. You buy one for collecting, not for commuting. The closest I have been to one is at the auto museum in LA, but it was a no touching type display.

 

I've been known to Heli-ski, which is probably the least green use of energy ever invented! But a hell of a lot of fun!

Icarus

 

I have done it your way (Campo CA to Mt Adams WA as a single hike) and I have to say driving past the boring bits and hiking the scenic bits just makes more sense.

 

Plus, if you want to hike in a certain place, and it's not within walking distance of your home, driving there should be an obvious solution to the problem.

 

They are not in production now, nor would I call them obnoxious, but the most hideous looking car I can think of is the .... (drum roll)


Chevrolet Caprice station wagon ......


ewwwwwwwww

 

I thought you'd buy it to drive on a track or raceway. If you're not going to drive it, and drive it fast and hard, you might as well just buy the body and set that down in your garage or museum.

Now, I hate the noise and vibration of ICEs, so if someone gave me a Veyron, I'd sell it as quick as I could. But I'm aware that not everyone shares my preferences. So I figure if you buy this car, you buy it to drive, not just to collect.

Or you buy it as a commercial venture, so you can charge other people large sums to drive it. Let's see, a million seven financed at 3% would be $51,000 in interest the first year. I'll pull a number out of my butt and say that with insurance and principle maybe between $150,000 and $250,000 per year could put the car on a track for customers to drive. Assuming two usable hours of actual driving per day, 365 days a year and rounding for estimation purposes, you could make money if you could find three people each day willing to pay $300 to burn a tankful of gas on the track. You'd also have to set a time limit for people who just drive slowly. Say, give each person 20 minutes for $300.

Of course you'd also have to pay track fees and buy tires and have a full-time mechanic crew, so maybe $1,000 per person.

I'm not going to invest in this because (aside from the fact that I don't want to run a business) there might not be a thousand people a year willing to pay $1,000 each to drive a fast stinker for 20 minutes.

:focus:

 

Daniel

You might be surprised. They line up all day long on the weekends at Exotics racing in Las Vegas for Ferrarris and Lambos at $399 for 5 laps. Tires are the #1 expense, new set every 4 to 5 days. Their drivers encourage you to go as hard as possible without being unsafe, might have to put a governor on the Veyron. I think you could charge $2000+ for 5 laps and keep the car busy. The other exotics you can rent in most major cities, the Veyron would be the Holy Grail to people with a lot of money but not enough money to get on the list to buy the most obnoxious (a good thing) car on the road.

 

There's a track around here somewhere, and I imagine they have a day when people can pay to drive their own car there. Open it up without concern about speed limits. The thought of taking my Tesla there occurred to me, but in the end, I much prefer to drive the speed limit on the country roads outside of town. Obviously, I'm not a speed enthusiast, though I do like the power for passing and merging.

 

It's very enlightening driving a fast car with a pro driver coaching you. Even the orientation lap in a Porsche Cayenne was amazing. With an instructor driving and 3 passengers your taking turns at 70-80 mph thinking there's no way and the driver looks like he's out for a Sunday drive. If you ever get the chance to do track time with your Tesla and an instructor you'll be a better street driver even if speed isn't your goal.

 

+1

Here you pay $250 for 5 laps (5, but 2 are driven by the instructor with you as a passenger, then you drive 2 with intense instruction slowly, and then you get 1 to open it up) in a lowly Ferrari. You have to make reservations a few weeks in advance because they are booked solid. They also have other sports cars in the same price range, and then a Lambo for about $500.