Thursday, September 21, 2017

One of the best articles I've ever heard of happened when I wasn't subscribed... thank goodness for online content from magazines. Try this: Car and Driver's field guide to automotive bullshit, because awareness is the first step in an effective defense.

Drift mode. If you need a special mode to do it, you can’t really do it.

 Bumper stickers that are already implied by the vehicle:
“Go vegan!” on a Prius, or promoting gun rights on a pickup.

 synthesized engine noise

 “Midnight,” “Blackout,” or any other “special” edition that just adds black stuff.

 MSRP. Not included is destination and delivery, which is added no matter what price you end up negotiating

 Not driving at least the speed limit. The purpose of driving is to get somewhere quicker than walking. Do that.

The J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. It doesn’t measure initial quality, it measures the amount of stuff people can’t figure out about their new cars.

In modern BMWs, the first push of the power button doesn’t turn the car all the way off, and the first pull of the door handle merely unlocks the door. So you arrive at your destination, throw the car in park, then turn it off twice and pull the door handle twice to get out. It’s the slightest of intrusions, but what was so hard about the process of turning a car off that it needed to be improved on by adding steps?

Our country’s lax driver-­licensing procedures.

That there’s not a nation-wide standard duration for yellow lights.

They aren't all short simple jokes either:

It's bullshit that crash-test regulations push cars to get heavier while fuel-economy regulations drive them to get lighter, but subsidies keep our gas among the cheapest in the world so that nobody here wants the cars that meet fuel-economy requirements, and still we resist the fuel tax desperately needed to fund infrastructure improvements.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/the-car-and-driver-guide-to-automotive-bullsht-feature

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