06-15-2015, 09:46 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-15-2015, 10:10 PM by bryanw1995.)
(06-11-2015, 05:04 PM)gstanford Wrote: You don't take a PS4 apart to replace the hard drive. You slide off one plastic top cover and remove one screw. Your granny could do it blindfolded.
You'd better be a damn fast walker if you want to talk with me while I'm travelling up an on ramp in my Yaris. You don't need ridiculous amounts of horsepower when there is only a lightweight car body to push along. Have you forgotten your high-school physics (or did you party through that just like you did college first time around)?
Wait...you drive a Yaris?
gstanford
and yet in the wake of the US car industry meltdown the American car industry promised the government in writing, published in major newspapers, that they would stop focusing on pickup trucks and SUV's and start developing cars that people actually want (cars a lot more like a Yaris than a pickup truck).
At least we know what the US car industries promises are worth - nothing. No wonder they are fighting Tesla tooth and nail over direct vs dealership sales, otherwise Tesla would wipe the dinosaurs out overnight.
And no, if the F150 magically cost the same as my Yaris both to purchase and fuel, I still would not want to purchase it over my Yaris. American SUV's and pickup trucks belong on railway lines, not urban streets!
You are way off base here. I'm part of a pretty good-sized auto dealer group. We have 2 Toyota Dealerships, 4 Dodge, 3 Ford, and one GM. Small cars are popular with oil at $120 a barrel, but with the "new normal" or ~ $60 oil, nobody with means is buying them. The government and the manufacturers are going to have to subsidize them indefinitely, at least here in the US. In other countries it makes a lot of sense, but over here we have nice, large, open roads that don't require a go-kart to be navigable.
Oh, and Tesla? Really? They only exist at all due to HUGE government subsidies. Even at $120 a barrel oil, Tesla was marginal at best. They are years away from being able to make money without help. Elon Musk is a badass, don't get me wrong, but he didn't reinvent the wheel here (or the car)...he just did a really good job of mooching off of the government. He is betting the entire company on huge improvements in battery technology over the next few years, and even then he'll really struggle unless Iran/Iraq/Saudi Arabia/Egypt/etc etc all go to war. With nukes.
By the way, Auto DEALERS are fighting Tesla because of his determination to circumvent us when selling his cars, the manufacturers (the guys who made the fuel economy promises) have no skin in that game. If anything, they're probably laughing at Tesla because of it...they've all tried and failed at selling cars to consumers directly. Now, that doesn't mean that Elon Musk couldn't do it himself, and it doesn't mean that it's impossible to do it on a $100k + boutique car with personalized service technicians who go out to your house to fix anything that breaks. But, it will be orders of magnitude more difficult to sell a mass-market product in the future using that same distribution model. Tesla would be well-served to start using franchised dealers to market/sell their cars, they could make a fortune in licensing fees, micromanage the entire process, etc etc... A good model for them would be Lexus dealers, any number of those guys would pay absurd money for a chance to sell Teslas, and their ability to take care of customers and create a real "WOW" buying/ownership experience is second to none.
I do agree with you that a Yaris would be a lot more pleasurable to drive in mostly city driving situations though. I'm currently driving a large SUV, it works great out where I live but it's a chore to drive it in town.
(06-12-2015, 06:01 PM)gstanford Wrote: I have a Wii console buried somewhere.
I dispute that my Yaris is a lesser car than an F150. To me a car is a means of getting from point A to point B first and foremost. The cheaper it can do this and the more reliably it can do this determines how good it is to me, not how many pointless toys and luxuries and distractions are crammed into its cabin.
My Yaris has all the instrumentation you require to operate it properly it has seating that is comfortable enough and it has a weatherproof cargo storage area. It is economical to purchase, maintain and run. And it will be running long after your oversized monstrosity has a date with destiny in a car crusher.
AMD CPU's are poor value for money, unreliable (they 'breakdown' running code that other processors handle just fine), they are expensive to fuel (eat lots of power) and they pollute (produce lots of heat compared to other processors that outperform them).
Toyota quality is not what it used to be, and Ford's quality is enormously better now. Plus, Ford makes a disproportionate % of their income off of the F150, whereas Toyota makes Jack Squat on a Yaris. If I had to gamble on it, I'd predict that an average F150 built and sold today would last longer than an average Yaris. And I don't work for our Ford or Toyota stores, though I am very good friends with dealers from both. I just texted one of my Toyota friends with the following query: What vehicle do you think will last longer for one purchased today: F150 or Yaris? I can't wait to see reply.