Autocar review out

[SUB-FT86]

Originally Posted by Liftcontrol

Wow! America is a shitty place in your holy European estimation!
Other than Germany, almost every European country has gone down the tubes because of the communist/socialist policies the governments are forced to adopt due to the lazy bum citizens that want to sit on their asses and get something for nothing.

If you are so disturbed by the American lifestyle it is surprising that you live in this deplorable country with its deplorable and pathetic citizens.

Why not take you rear end and go back to the world of the sane and smart Europe? Why waste the remainder of your miserable life in this miserable country where you have to work for a living?

.......


I agree if the U.S. sucks so badly then go back to where you came from.

[Maxim]

Originally Posted by lpnnlp

Tsk-tsk! Going the route of ad-hominem and/or "go home where you came from" attacks tells me that I touched a pain point for you. Also noteworthy is the discrepancy between what I wrote and what you read, namely, that many Americans are numb vs. America is a bad PLACE to live. If I thought so, I wouldn't be here.

You know, somebody being offended by what you wrote could simply be caused by what you wrote being offensive....it doesn't necessarily mean you "struck a nerve" and hit too close to home....Going off on a rant about how Americans can't relax and all we do is work, eat, shit, and make babies, and using that to explain why people don't share your view on cars isn't exactly going to make everybody cheer. The only people who would cheer that are the ones who also are just looking for a reason to justify their purchase of this car. Frankly, I don't particularly give a shit what other people think about my taste in vehicles, or much of anything else really, so my thoughts on your post are more along the lines of the issue being with the poster, not the people he lives around.

I've been all over the world....the US still feels like home for me. Maybe it's just the particular place you're in? I've never heard anything good about SoCal. The people there are just crazy. Judging the US by going to SoCal (or New York, etc) is like going to France and only visiting Paris and thinking all French people are like that...or visting London and thinking all brits are that way. We both know that isn't correct.

Try the mid-west We're a friendly bunch and the culture is much more relaxed. Plus u can rent a decent apartment for 450 bucks a month haha. It's basically a different country, compared to the coast.

Anyways...I think your views on why americans tend towards the high power, larger heavier vehicles are a bit colored by your....unfortunate experience with where you live. It really is just a matter of larger vehicles suiting america better. Our roads are not in good condition because there's so much more road in the US and taxes are too low to keep them all in good repair. A large, heavy car soaks up road imperfections better, and fits in with the lifestyle of traveling long distances by car, which is prevalent in the US since everything is so far apart. Everything is far apart and our roads are straight...it just doesn't favor small, lightweight sporty cars, especially since in most areas there's no shortage of nice fat parking spots. In most areas, it's hard to find a tight, twisty road, so acceleration is the only performance metric people have any way to exploit on a regular basis. It's pretty understandable why they would place higher emphasis on it, and it's certainly not "wrong."

[86fanatic]

Meh, take it for what it is, one guy's opinion. You don't have to agree or disagree with the whole thing but he does have a unique interpretation of things which I think is useful to discuss.

I never bought the wide open roads therefore big heavy cars argument. You can make a light weight small car comfortable. And America does have some of the smoothest roads in the world, despite some harsh spots. On average the roads in the US are like riding on a cloud compared to Europe.

[JohnnyR]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

THANK YOU for posting that. I swear the amount of ignorance I see on this site is more than all the other car sites I visit combined.

It is rather high here, but then again it's no different than the 7th gen celica forums and the likes. It's that more "younger" people can afford the car, and they'll talk it up. When the car is out, there will be some incredible street/track racing stories of this car smoking things it couldn't possibly.

Which it's going to make it tough for many who would be looking for insightful information on modding, care, or handling tips. Those with the insights will get buried by typical fanboy posts. But it's to be expected with a cheaper car specific site.

[Maxim]

Originally Posted by lpnnlp

I did say that my opinion was based on what I see mostly in SoCal, but I have been to many major cities including your usual suspects on the west coast (SD, SF, Phoenix, Reno, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver BC, etc) and also many cities on the other side, including Chicago, NYC, DC, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, etc. Also been to some smaller places like Fargo ND, Scranton PA, Ann Arbor MI, and how can I forget Jefferson City MO.

Having have driven some miles in the midwest, I agree that a larger, heavier, and lightly sprung car is better for longer rides. You also want a larger engine that purrs slowly for drama and vibration free driving. However, my claim is not that such cars are bad... my claim is that many Americans are emotionally numb. In the quest to feel something, they over stimulate themselves.... be it with horsepower, big plates of food, hardcore porn, shopping obsessions, more/better mentality, etc. Maybe the easiest way to say it is that numbness is the opposite of passion. Just like numb people, passionate people are everywhere... it's a question of mix. Go to Spain or Italy and you see a lot more passion than you see in Germany.

And yes, there are many places that are more relaxed than coastal US, but that does not equal passion. There are passionate people in the US too, but I don't run into that breed too often, at least not in Los Angeles.

I don't think they're numb....I know plenty of people who are anything but. There IS an unfortunate value of quantity over quality in the US though. I think you and I can agree on that.

I live in Germany and the only thing I really dislike here is that everything is so controlled...I can't hop in my car with some camping gear and go find a spot, the only camping areas are...not camping, they're like, cleaned up parks. It costs stupid amounts of money to go hunting, enough that I could do it cheaper by buying a plane ticket back to the states to go on a hunt. The Germans seem fine with this system, and I'll admit financially it works better than ours....but you can't just go out and DO things. Everybody here is...I dunno, a villager, I guess. No open land left where you can just go disappear for a week. I hate that. The Germans don't even seem to miss it.

I think every country has it's own downsides.

[Sport-Tech]

^^ Can't really hold it against the Germans for their land use policies - their population density is much higher than that of the US, and being a much older country they have to be particularly careful about conserving rather than exploiting their resources going forward.