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annoying car myths you've heard thread...

Discussion in 'Other Cars' started by cwerdna, Jun 6, 2012.

  1. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Post your annoying car myths that you've heard. They don't have to about hybrid myths and misinformation since we've got a bunch of those threads already.

    So, I was at a

    BMW Drive for Team USA - BMW North America

    event in Santa Clara, CA today. It was mainly featuring the 328i. As I was waiting, I got into a conversation w/one of the attendees and when I mentioned I was a Japanese car fan, he basically asserted Japanese cars are crap and that they rattle when they get old, etc. :rolleyes: He went on to talk about how BMWs are solid. He made assertions that American car makers are building now better cars than the Japanese.

    I brought up reliability and mentioned brought up horrible reliability of the Chevy Cruze. He poo-pooed GM and then praised Ford, mentioning this and that story about Fords. :rolleyes: He brought up the Ford Focus (no doubt he read the print version of Are the high-mpg versions of the Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Focus, and Honda Civic worth the money?). My reply was that it had below average reliability (I was right).

    He even brought up the 61/100 test score the Civic (HF) got in the above review, essentially asserting that they cheaped out on the car to make more money. I agreed that car was a step back and told him I'm sure it had to do w/how the dollar/Yen exchange rate is killing Japanese automakers. I told him that currently, $1 USD buys you ~78 yen and that when I went to Japan in 01, it was $1 USD == ~115 yen. He had no idea until I educated him on that, but at least he agreed that was a problem.

    BTW, back to the BMW event, I don't know their schedule, but if you have some free time and you like unsupervised test drives, check it out. They had the 3 328i's, a 335i and competitor's cars that you could try: Audi A4, Mercedes C250 and Lexus IS250. I didn't like the Mercedes that much and the Audi A4 (being FWD) seemed to have noticeable torque steer, even w/o hard acceleration. It was weird. I've driven plenty of FWD cars before and am familiar w/torque steer on my former 02 Nissan Maxima.

    At the end, they give you a little schwag: a BMW hat and a BMW insulated metal travel mug. There was also plenty of free (pretty good) food. For signing up online, I also received a $10 Starbucks gift card. Also attendees receive some sort of $1000 incentive towards the purchase of a new BMW...
     
    #1 cwerdna, Jun 6, 2012
  2. fjpod

    fjpod Member

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    Ok, my pet annoying car myth/peeve. People, especially car reviewers, try to impose ICE standards on EVs...like they are all supposed to be able to tow a boat 250 miles, in the snow, with six passengers and luggage for same, at speeds in excess of 75 mph. People should accept EVs for what they are right now...a very efficient city/suburban commuter/errand car.

    Believe me, I'm for progress, and wouldn't mind more power and range in my EV, but then it would be less efficient...more like an ICE, if I had to drag tons of batteries around just to commute to work, pick up the kids and groceries, etc. Different cars for different jobs...

    My other pet peeve is, "we all need fast charging for EVs to catch on". This relates to my first one in that... here we go again... imposing a fast fueling standard on a car that sits idle overnight, and is supposed to be charged with essentially "wasted" electricity from idle power plants. Run the damn car 50-100 miles per day, then put it away at night and charge it. Who cares how long it takes. If you can not fit into this "mold" right now, then get a hybrid or plug-in hybrid.
     
    #2 fjpod, Jun 6, 2012
  3. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    ^^^
    Not only is the car sitting idle overnight, but it's also sitting idle in many other cases (e.g. shopping, at work, at school, etc.)
     
    #3 cwerdna, Jun 6, 2012
  4. fjpod

    fjpod Member

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    Yes, but during the work day, there is a great deal of strain on the electric grid in places like NYC, especially on very hot or cold days. From a grid infrastructure and environmental perspective, it would be best if cars charged while most people slept and businesses are generally closed.

    One of the reasons our kwh rate is so expensive in NYC is the cost of building such a huge/redundant/high volume electric distribution grid...not so much the actual cost of the generation.

    I suspect this is one reason why charging infrastructure in NYC is non-existent, or largely ignored.
     
    #4 fjpod, Jun 6, 2012
  5. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The 3000 mile oil change interval never seems die.
    Related is the 0w-x oils are are as good as water for the car. Those numbers are just a labeling scheme and have no direct relation to actual viscosity of the oil.
     
    #5 Trollbait, Jun 6, 2012
  6. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Over at Can German engineering go digital? The Arri Alexa camera, a Hollywood test case - Yahoo! News, there's a comment (referring to Germany):

    :rolleyes:
    I was going to reply w/the following but am hitting issues w/Yahoo. It basically wants me sign into Facebook using my Yahoo ID and allow sharing of Yahoo info. No thanks.

    My intended reply below:


    ​
     
    #6 cwerdna, Jun 8, 2012
  7. Skoorbmax

    Skoorbmax Senior Member

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    Most annoying I see ALL THE TIME is when somebody starts a thread with something like "Why can't we get European diesels over here?" and then a quote using Euro testing standards on the Euro gallon about how some little car got amazing mileage, comparing it to the Prius and how it also has more torque (so of course must be faster), etc.
     
    #7 Skoorbmax, Jun 11, 2012
  8. a_gray_prius

    a_gray_prius Rare Non-Old-Blowhard Priuschat Member

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    I would have been annoyed just to be at a BMW test drive event and not gotten to drive an M3/5/6.....

    At least you got lunch, a hat, and a mug.
     
    #8 a_gray_prius, Jun 14, 2012
  9. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    ^^^
    Haha. Well, the intent of the event was to feature the 328i which is explains the proportion of vehicles.
     
    #9 cwerdna, Jun 14, 2012
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