In the USA. Florida.
Didnt think about that being a factor in why it's not unusual for me (not sure why I didn't factor that) but cars like that are in every 3rd driveway here in upper middle class neighborhoods.
I see so many damn BMW x5's, or Mercedes-Benz GLE they are like toyota corollas..lol.
I dont live in a upper middle class area. But on the fringe of one, that morphs into doctor/lawyer/whatever money area. And its america, most families with a comfortable margin of expendable income want some sort of status symbol to show they are doing well
Drive down any upper middle class neighborhood here, and hatchback 4 door like a BMW, Mercedes, Audi, AMG, Lexus are all over the place. I could drive down to the 'fancy' grocery store chain down the road called Publix and probably count 30 of them on a busy day...well wouldn't say Publix is fancy high class..but its a normal grocery store chain made with the atmosphere where moms that get nails done, and drink wine while at a book club type shop at. Where middle class 'Karen's' shop to avoid the 'REAL middle class people' type thing.
There is a reason why people buy BMWs, Audis, Mercedes and Cadillac SUVs. They are comfortable, safe and convenient. That Camaro SS is a terrible drive in almost any possible metric, except, maybe for a small section of drivers that would enjoy all the bad things (like some of us gamers enjoy old Doom, for example). You hear the same voices speak against modern sport cars. An Audi TT is “boring”, a GT R is a “shit car” because the transmission is a DCT and not a manual and some such absolute nonsense.
@LeoNatan
If Im dropping 50k on a car. I want one that's dangerous, noisy, and fun. I'm not buying it for comfort or daily use. Id buy it for the same reason you buy a jet ski, or motocross bike, or ATV...it's not for the luxurious ride and comfort. Its for going out and having fun with with no frills.
There is no way Id spend 50k on a 'this is my day to day car'. Seems overkill unless you got a 1+ hour drive roundtrip to work or something. I can think of a LOT of things I'd spend 50k on before a 'everyday get me around town' car IMO. My (well wives) daily driver cars is a boring, cheap(ish), used thing that is reliable and reasonably comfortable car to sit in. For us it doesn't need anything more than that to move us at posted road speeds from place to place. If all we are using it for is to drive the speed limit, and move kids and bags of food to the house in...I dont need to spend 50k to do that.
If comfortable, safe and convenient was in my top 10 of what I want in a car, I would not have a 1997 jeep now as my vehicle I picked to own
I dont even like driving any of the modern sports cars in racing games. I go for old racers, muscle cars, or open wheel like caterhams, atom, and such. The others are...dunno, not my style. Sitting in them feels like I am racing my doctors BMW around the neighborhood.
-We don't control what happens to us in life, but we control how we respond to what happens in life.
-Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. -G. Michael Hopf
Disclaimer: Post made by me are of my own creation. A delusional mind relayed in text form.
It's not like you're gonna use your blinkers or respect traffic laws in either, so what's the point?
Fucking dickhead mercedes and bmw owners, every single time. At least here
boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote:
i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then
@Areius
Yea. 100% my mentality.
My daily driver is just that. A mundane, do the speed limit, get me from point A to point B and needs nothing fancy for 50k to do that. Im paying 35k more for what SLIGHTLY more comfort? Ive sat/rode in my wifes 15k used toyota rav 4 with some slight option upgrades, and a 75k BMW and mercedes friends own. I dont feel the 60k in difference. My ass hurts no more of less when I get out of one than the other.
Sure one has real wood trim. I get in and go "ohh is that wood?, and double stitched seats with color matched thread? What? No..I didn't notice the panel seams are divinely uniform. I will inspect when I get out." then literally never pay any attention to any of that again.
TO me a car is for only 2 reasons:
"I am here now, I need to be waaaay over there later."
Or
"Try to kill me car while I try to ALMOST wreck you taking that track corner, lets see who wins".
Why pay 50k for something that a 15k one does just as well? Drive around town like normal.
My favorite car I owned to drive (not my favorite to own..but most fun to drive) a shitty 6 banger mercy hatchback when I was young and broke: with bald tires, blown out shocks, and rev limiter removed. It was an adventure anytime we drove around like madmen in it sliding around corners in the rain.
Or my Chevy Luv truck..tiny truck with a 427 [7 liter] in it with 4 barrel carb and NO shocks (lowered by welding the axle to frame) it would pick the front tires up if you floored it. or accidently do a 180 at a redlight if you tried to turn and punched it too hard.
A heavily modded. engine swapped one of these, but mine was black...0% luxury...300% fun:
Spoiler:
Same reason (when I had them) I paid 10k for some ATV's when a $200 bike would do the same for me on dirt trails. One is for pure fun of 4 open wheels and fast speed on dirt while always feeling like you barely have control of it. The other is to get down the trail just to wherever you was needing to go.
Because for that amount of money vs just like 15k for a good used average one that does the same thing..that 35k difference Im paying for the play toy better be able to smoke the tires off it itself, rattle my teeth out of my head and about kill me in every corner if I push it too far at a track day, or just doing doughnuts in someones huge 20 acre back yard.
Some people like modern smooth railed steel roller coasters for the comfortable ride of excitement and sense of speed. Some like wooden coasters for the visceral feel the coaster adds to the excitement of speed and danger. (If I had to pick one, put me on the wooden ones that always sounds loud and dangerous).
-We don't control what happens to us in life, but we control how we respond to what happens in life.
-Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times. -G. Michael Hopf
Disclaimer: Post made by me are of my own creation. A delusional mind relayed in text form.
Around here the worst are Nissan drivers, due to Nissan offering credit to basically any buyer. They're usually held together by duct tape yet weaving through traffic on the freeway 30mph faster than everyone else is going.
In terms of this BMW vs MB predicament, i can't believe anyone would even entertain the idea of owning a car with a grill like that BMW. Just awful, worse than even Lexus.
In the end I prioritize other things more than looks (as long as the car doesn't look crap) and to some extent brand although I'd only pick from well known quality brands. It would definitely a have manual gear box (never again automatic).
#1. Comfort (seats, wheel/pedals/shifter, dashboard etc.)
#2. Practicality (storage etc.)
#3. Safety
#4. Price
#5. Performance
#6. Features (everything from wipers, sensors, parking cameras etc.)
#7. Any known issues about it's longevity and any flaws.
#8. Maintenance costs/intervals.
etc.
Looks would end up in the last part of that list. However, I'd pick a couple of choices that obivously look good within a certain price range and usage needs and then prioritize according to my list.
I'm not getting a used car and I don't care what'll happen to the car after me. If some kebap bro or poser want to drive it afterwards, enjoy bros. The drug dealer should really re-consider his choices though. With that kind of money, he should definitely go for a two seater coupé, not a boring family sedan
If you don't have to deal with lots of traffic, don't mind slower acceleration and higher fuel usage, go ahead and pick the manual. I won't go back though, the ZF transmission in my F36 was great!
Automatic is for lazy wimps and housewives who love the awesome button
Kidding aside, I live in a place that's surrounded by smooth hills with lots of turns and almost rally-like roads, so manual transmission is my jam. I'd likely embrace auto as well if I lived in Florence, Rome, or any other big city here which are absolute hell for drivers.
If you don't have to deal with lots of traffic, don't mind slower acceleration and higher fuel usage, go ahead and pick the manual. I won't go back though, the ZF transmission in my F36 was great!
*cough* bullshit *cough*
the only thing the antiquanted ZF transmission is good at is comfort as it switches very smoothly, and number of gears 8+
it uses a Hydraulic converter as a clutch, that introduces around 20% of power loss that turns into heat that soaks in the oil, thus you need to pay more for maintenance and decreases fuel economy
that is also why it switches so smoothly, but also the slowest
it also weights more than any other type of transmission
the Dual clutch (DSG) transmission changes gears instantaneously and is best at acceleration as it also doesn't cost any power loss
but switching gears is rough, also sometimes wrong gears will be chosen
it's very good for going straight, but not very good for driving sporty on curved roads
manual is as good as the driver is proficient, it is also the cheapest and lightest
bad driver will be worse than ZF, a good driver will be almost on par with a DSG
but the involvement for the driver is best
If you don't have to deal with lots of traffic, don't mind slower acceleration and higher fuel usage, go ahead and pick the manual. I won't go back though, the ZF transmission in my F36 was great!
*cough* bullshit *cough*
[b]the only thing the antiquanted "whatever automatic" transmission is good at is comfort...
manual is as good as the driver is proficient, it is also the cheapest and lightest
bad driver will be worse than ZF, a good driver will be almost on par with a DSG
but the involvement for the driver is best
Hear hear...
I only had manual until my last car (can't remember how many cars I've had.. not that many.. 6? 7?) and it's always been easy and effortless with manual. I learned to save gas by gear skipping, I could shift pretty fast (although not as fast as the smooth and fast chip-programmed auto-transmission which is probably a major reason why it broke down completely.. it was simply not designed for the increased engine power and the adaptive gear ratio program while having some years on it already when I bought the car).
yes modern automatics have ways to change/select gears manually
you can force a downshift or even go into semi-manual mode
where the gearbox will not shift unless you go too low or too high on the RPMs
It's still an automatic gearbox, in "manual" it just allows you to enforce the gear change manually. If you are in a too low range, you won't be able to change to a higher gear and if you are in a too high range you won't be able to shift down, but f.e. if you go up or down a hill you can enforce to stay in a specific lower gear.
Just check out the engineering explained video
Or this one:
And here you can see for your self how "slow" the gearshifts are
If you are in a too low range, you won't be able to change to a higher gear and if you are in a too high range you won't be able to shift down, but f.e. if you go up or down a hill you can enforce to stay in a specific lower gear.
Aaah, I was just about to make a post about that. I had a tiptronic system in my old Audi A4 (nudge the clutch stick forward/backward) and I could change up or down but if the RPM was too low it wouldn't shift to a higher gear, if it was too high it wouldn't shift to a lower gear. Besides, it doesn't stay in the gear you've put it in when you accelerate/slow down since it's still automatic transmission. I guess some newer/modern automatic transmission systems may be different.
Signature/Avatar nuking: none (can be changed in your profile)
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
