Cars We Drive!

[culverwood]

As I plug in at home I'm never at the gas station and the car is always fully charged every morning.

 

[Beckwith]

I'm only at the gas station for 5 minutes though.

I can do it in my sleep.

 

[jcman311]

Will it transport my family though?

 

[jcman311]

I’m in the electric camp, but I’m dissuaded by the slow developing tech and limited options. I need an electric vehicle that can carry my entire family.

 

[OtterMeanGreen]

In the best-timed “eff you” moment in the auto industry so far this year:

Ford : awww that’s the new Supra. How cute.



https://jalopnik.com/the-2020-ford-mustang-shelby-gt500-will-slay-hellcats-a-1831729434

Great car. Drove the 2010 GT500 when I was at Ferrari. Got sideways with it in the rain and it was a blast, only it was a manual transmission and not paddle shift (like in the the video). I don't know but when it comes to American Muscle I find it almost a prerequisite for it be a stick shift. Like the saying of old "Four on the Floor".

 

[A Y]

A hybrid drivetrain can cover up for the turbo lag with the electric motors while the turbo spools up. It's what McLaren does in the P1.

 

[OtterMeanGreen]

A hybrid drivetrain can cover up for the turbo lag with the electric motors while the turbo spools up. It's what McLaren does in the P1.

All this talk about efficiency,electric motors, zero turbo lag, and paddle shifters has me thinking about that not very good movie "The 6th Day" (although I still enjoy it). Pretty soon (but hopefully not too soon) we'll be debating about self driving cars and interfering with the what the car can do better then any human can. A slippery slope is all I am saying.

I tend to side with Arnold here..." I like the old fashioned kind..it reminds me I'm still alive"

 

[A Y]

All this talk about efficiency,electric motors, zero turbo lag, and paddle shifters has me thinking about that not very good movie "The 6th Day" (although I still enjoy it). Pretty soon (but hopefully not too soon) we'll be debating about self driving cars and interfering with the what the car can do better then any human can. A slippery slope is all I am saying.

I tend to side with Arnold here..." I like the old fashioned kind..it reminds me I'm still alive"

I'm with you. Self-driving cars will never happen because the problem is intractable, and networked cars give me the creeps since the potential for disaster is very high (eg. imagine what happens if someone makes every car go WOT in rush hour in LA, cf. Wired's Jeep hacking article). I'm keeping my two cars (one 18 years old with 180k+ miles on it, and the other 10 years old at 53k miles) for as long as they'll run because they have simple computers and aren't connected to the Internet.

 

[otc]

In the best-timed “eff you” moment in the auto industry so far this year:

Ford : awww that’s the new Supra. How cute.



https://jalopnik.com/the-2020-ford-mustang-shelby-gt500-will-slay-hellcats-a-1831729434

Ugh, that instrument cluster...

 

[HRoi]

As i sit here in an airport lounge, typing on my iPad hooked up to a powerbank with enough juice to charge the device three times over, i am seized with this thought :

Have the EV manufacturers thought about having a “long distance” pack where they stuff the car with additional batteries to improve range for long trips? At first, i thought, why couldn’t someone sell a small trailer full of batteries, but then...who the hell wants to tow **** during a road trip?

But...what about a pack that fills up one of the trunks with batteries and increases range to like 500 miles or so? Of course it makes the car even heavier and you have less cargo space, but you’d only use it for long road trips to try to quell ‘range anxiety’...

 

[clee1982]

I’m sure roll out true self drive car will be harder in the US but I can see other countries adopt it first then eventually everyone jump on the wagon...

 

[OtterMeanGreen]

Yes, I recall the movie like "Father Like Son." That XJ6 Series III is my favorite body style of Jaguar sedan. Pininfarina got it right when they were given the task of giving the XJ6/XJ12 a face lift. IMHO, no XJ sedan before or since as been as good looking, elegant, or distinctive. The models before looked a bit bloated. The model immediately after the XJ40, was slab side, and had a bland looking front and back. They returned to a more classic XJ shape in the mid 90s, and the XJR version was probably my favorite modern version...the 2000s models were ok, but the current car to me his hideous. It looks like something I would expect from Lincoln. Its just a bizarre looking car, and not remotely elegant, or distinctive. To me Jaguar lost its way.

The F Type is a decent attempt at a GT car. Its at least one of their more attractive offerings in recent years. Although, a friend who likes vintage Jags was rather disappointed with the proportions. He loves the old E-types, but he thinks the back end of the F-type is too fat and too bulbous.

As a teen in the 1980s, the XJS (Pre-90s face lift) and the XJ2/XJ12 represented a really handsome alternative to luxury cars from BMW and MB...although Jags back then were really lacking in engineering, quality, and it was tough for them to be competitive when BMW and MB had 4 speed automatics, and Jag was still using 3 speed autos in their cars. When my dad had a 911 Carrera back in 1986 his friend had recently purchased an XJS (after owning a few XJ6s). He loved Jag's but told my dad never to buy one unless he could do the work on them himself (his friend did all the work on his Jags and had an engine hoist in the garage).

Interestingly, we were at a Porsche dealer in the late 1980s, and my mom asked a sales person when someone doesn't buy a Porsche, what car do they usually lose sales to. The salesman said, they most commonly lose sales to Jaguar. Not because they were anything close in terms of performance or engineering, but because many sales were lost back then because wives often couldn't drive a stick. The salesman said they get a lot of guys who test drive a Porsche, love it, bring the wife, and the wife would say, you aren't spending that much money on a car I can't drive. In follow up calls, the guys would often say, my wife wouldn't agree to the Porsche so we got a Jaguar....and women seemed to love the looks of Jags back in the 80's. I went to a private school in the 80's and there were lots of kid's mom's driving XJSs and XJ6s. Cheers!

I hadn’t realized Pininfarina was in charge of the redesign, that’s awesome. Tragic loss that company suffered with the death of Andrea. I agree the Jag in that movie is among my favorite too, but the 1988 XJ 12 I shared is also a favorite model year

I also think of this movie when I think Jaguar, have you heard of this one? I use to watch this movie on a monthly basis, VHS from Blockbuster lol.


If there’s one thing I love about Jaguar, it’s their interiors. They’re just so classy and timeless. From the seats, to the over-use of wood grain, I just get it. Unlike Maserati, which I have a bad history with; rattles, cheap leather and sticky instrument components.

That’s too funny what you say about the loss of Porsche sales to jaguar. That makes sense though, as unfortunate as it most certainly is.

 

[clee1982]

speaking of Jaguar, the last one I drove was the super charged XJ Super 8 (X358, the old body style), it was a lot more "raw" and dare I say "fun" than my current BMW 540i (wasn't called Super 8 in Taiwan, was Daimler, guess they couldn't use it in the States due to trademark issue), though to be fair I purpose ordered my BMW to be more on the comfort side, forgo all the dynamic handling or M suspension stuff

 

[HRoi]

Not that either automaker would turn down their money, but anyone cross shopping a Porsche 911 and a Jaguar XJS has no idea what they want.

 

[Dino944]

Not that either automaker would turn down their money, but anyone cross shopping a Porsche 911 and a Jaguar XJS has no idea what they want.

That was back in the 1980s. Lots of successful people daily drove their nice cars...and they weren't necessarily dedicated car people. They just wanted to drive what was perceived to be a nice car. Out of my mom's friends, my mom was one of the few wives who didn't care if my dad bought cars that she couldn't drive (his 3.2 Carrera, or 930 Turbo because they were stick). Most other wives wanted to be able to drive the husband's new "fancy car", or they would put their foot down and say, "I can't drive stick so you're not buying that car." I think the Jag was usually the wives' idea since they liked its looks.

Today, it is less of an issue since the bulk of Porsches, even 911s are PDK.