I was always a "car guy". Crossovers & SUV's are ending that.
 

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1568726196(Generic crossover)

I've been a life-long auto enthusiast, always interested in the multitude of makes & models.

As a car-crazy kid, I remember realizing that I could identify a vehicle literally with my eyes closed -- going by the sound of the starter motor or the engine. Not a terribly useful or unique skill, I know! Lots of gearheads could do the same thing.

Here's the thing: the mass shift to SUV's and crossovers is extinguishing my interest. In the last couple of years, I've started seeing new vehicles on the road and realized I have no idea what they are. And I don't care to know.

Is it just me? Now I know how most people see all cars?

Agreed, nothing of interest in the current market and anything I might like the government taxes the living **** out of it

The fiction of separate brands will end soon enough.

A single pattern is all thats wanted.

Any drivetrain.

I kind of agree. There are some interesting vehicles.out there. But the crossover crazy has definitely impeeded on things.

As I've maintained, vehicles are being commoditized, and EV technology in particular will further that movement. They won't ever be fully commoditized, but I think we'll see certain skateboard standards with shells from 3rd parties the customizable part of the vehicle.

I said something similar to my wife a few weeks ago. We were at a light behind a new Chevy Blazer and there was a Hyundai or Kia next to it that looked almost identical. I don't even try to learn what each is, they're all the same anyway.

I feel like the industry must consolidate. It amazes me how many different vehicles are on the road, and the fact that there's people willing to buy objectively sub-par vehicles.

It's OK to be a car guy and not care about uninteresting cars. I haven't kept up with new cars for about 15-20 years. I still go to a new car show (Rochester NY) every year. Don't ask me why I go! Most of the cars I see are unfamiliar and quickly forgotten! They all just kind of blend together by the time I get home. Vintage cars shows are where I belong.

I doubt I would drive a new car if cars were free. I don't find them enjoyable. Maybe I just haven't driven the right new cars.

A lot of my favorite cars are from the mid-80s to the early 90s. But a quick flip through a car magazine from that era reminds me how many cars I'm glad I forgot about. They weren't all good or interesting!

I've been a lifelong car guy too. Practically memorized every page of every car magazine or book I got my hands on. My first word was car. :)

What ended it for me was the end of two round headlights. It started in 1958, and I guess VW and Porsche have held the line the best.

I wonder if there's a correlation between losing interest in new cars, and impending onset of shouting "GET OFF MY LAWN" at young people.


(I haven't shouted that yet, but I've thought about it...

I just get woodchucks and rabbits on my lawn. Not shouting at them yet!

SUVs CUVs
 

The bright lining for me would be,that we've finally caught up to the 1930s,and Tesla is building the Fachsenfeld/Kamm car,of Cd 0.23.
And we have the potential to got to Cd 0.12 if we choose.And carbon-free.All it took was a crazy from South Africa.
I'll be glad when car styling goes completely under the guillotine and you can only discern different carmakers by the logo,colors,and graphics.Nothing but waste since 1926.

And then everybody will install brush guards and roof racks to make their pumpkin seed stand out!

Now I'm just an "old car" guy.

Or is it old "car guy"? :confused:

My solution is simple,

I make sure I'm driving the interesting car..

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1568838194

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1568838099

Since doing this, I've seen more classics on my commute then usual

I also recently had a shot of a good friend's Lexus hybrid - very interesting as a concept and execution but not as a car design study

Old old car guy!


(I'm getting there too.)

I'd much rather see many vehicles (including trucks) fitted with a single drivetrain per brand than so many SUVs with different engines.

I don't really hate SUVs or crossovers, but I prefer vans and station-wagons.

One design to rule them. One powertrain to run them.

Variety and competition are wasteful. Unnecessary, as Efficiency is the advertising buzzword all here have bought into. Any subject. The limit to what cars can do isn’t worth pursuing any longer. There’s enough info to have a single pattern.

The suppositions supporting “efficiency “ are worth more in examination. That keeps one out of the rat maze designed to occupy mental (emotional) real estate better used in other ways.

Societal efficiency ISN'T your friend.

Keeping the game going long enough the wealthiest can cash out at the opportune moment is all that’s happening any longer. Along with that which increases their future advantage. Think, genetic stratification (the Chosen, but without the world’s worst inbred genetic problems).

It’s too many people on the planet, and nothing will change it except a cull. A planet full of useless eaters can’t save itself. No government thus far has the rectitude to address it head-on. They’d personally be at risk.

Time to unveil the aliens. Not shape-shifters, but blame shifters. (And handy targeting data courtesy of the NSA).

90-100 IQ is the goal. And not too many of The Interchangeables ever again. Their efficiency won’t be marred by either slovenliness or thinking done outside prescribed norms.

An SUV-like vehicle will be fine. Legal use thoroughly defined.

.

I really think you're on the wrong forum, slowmover.

I enjoy SM writing form and candor even when I disagree with the conclusions.

Population reduction doesn't take a cull. The US already has a negative birthrate and it continues to decline. We'll begin to have the opposite problem in 50 years.

Reversing the accumulated genetic frailty will be accomplished with genetic engineering, not "culling". It will be opposed at first, and clumsily implemented, but eventually will be commonplace, and another reason why population maintenance will be difficult. If our proliferation relied on conscience decision, we'd have gone extinct long ago.

Diversity is usually the enemy of achieving a common goal, but it's also the source of innovation and provides resilience to the group.

You mean sub-replacement birth rate? Negative birth rate is impossible, as it would mean babies are jumping back up their mothers.

US birth rate is just below replacement rate. And overall, our growth rate is still positive. I would bet we'll slip into contraction sometime in the next ten years or so.

Growth rate is positive due to
2 things

Immigration
Longer Lives

Once the last of the baby boomers knocks off the population will decline increasingly quickly (unless birth rate or immigration increase a lot)

This will only prove your point, but have you ever heard the legend of the Nissan Figaro? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6fr...youtu.be&t=129

There is one 15km from where i live :D
Stands out at the parking lot, for sure.

+1

I drive a lightweight car with a manual transmission, and people think I'm a freak. I'm really just a guy who enjoys driving.

Even the car companies admit it, focusing more on their infotainment and whatnot to get you attached to the car than on... how it drives or how it helps you do what you need to do.

The longer I drive, the more I appreciate a compact, nimble, and practical car. And now that I have owned a rear wheel drive electric car (a Smart EQ), I would say my ideal car is the upcoming VW ID.3 which is a rear wheel drive electric car.

I always appreciated the classic Beetle as being neither to large or too small.

Transport Evolved says that Canada gets the ID.3 but not the USofA. We get a 4-door crossover, the ID.4.

I feel this too. What really kills me reading most new car reviews is how often a vehicle can be reduced to the following:

"Does it have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto?"

Seriously?

I am definitely a car guy. I appreciate trucks and suv's but my 1st choice will always be a car, though not necessarily small or efficient cars. I am seriously tossing the possibility of buying a 7 series bmw next, used market of course. But, I'll probably get a tesla

Somewhere there is a Model T with CarPlay.

Due to knee-ball displasia on both knees, which eventually might lead me to a full knee-joint replacement surgery, driving vehicles with manual transmission is likely to become troublesome for me. Otherwise, for fuel-efficiency and ease of rebuilding a manual transmission, it didn't seem so bad at all.

Or, it has adaptive cruise control, or not. Or has "soft touch" interior materials ...

Pity. I once saw that if you put "Google" into Bing you could Google search from Bing, but I guess you cannot do that anymore.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...2&d=1569687003

By the way, Bing had eleven ads and trackers. Don't use Bing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startpage.com

In the last year or so, I've had more people stop and ask me about (or simply take photos of) my cars than ever before.

But I think that's because they're getting so old, some younger "car guys" don't even know what they are (in the case of the Metro/Firefly). In the case of the Miata, I think it's mostly because I've blasphemed and taped/screwed coroplast onto a classic design.

(Hmmm... I wonder if the company could increase sales by rebranding a line of coroplast as Aeroplast...)

The reason I'm reluctant to sell the SUPERBeetle is that every time I take it out it makes someone reminiscent or just happy.

What makes it acceptable is that I have right of first refusal on a (five-speed three-cylinder) Geo Metro.

After I debadged, took the bug shield, and roof rack off my pumpkin seed colored suv, my wife complained she can’t find it in parking lots anymore.

#iamtheproblem

I must confess, even though I'm not so convinced by the newer generations of crossover SUVs, I still like some old-school ones. They might become a good base for experiences with alternate fuels too...

Notice the CNG tanks under the trunk floor of that Blazer.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6TLBPzXSP...004_005719.jpg

No it is not just you!!
Todays cars /trucks are victims of manufacturers' laziness and apathy.
Yes they all look the same. After 10 years, my wife still confuses her car with others. More importantly, a great enthusiasm killer is the price/reliability.
It seems that the only "new" features are some cheaply made electronic gizmos. Sometimes I think they are just marking time until electric cars are the norm.
BTW: the lack of interest (for me) extends to today's music.