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Peruse the local Craigslist for 911s. You'll find that the older ones have become outright investments, appreciating nicely. Likely the prices bottom-out at around 10-15 years. Older 911s have been rising in price, and presumably the ones from ~2005 have now hit bottom.
Having spent some years driving a Camry, there was an overwhelmingly desultory feeling of surrender and inequity. It was a V6... the first year of the 3.5L. One time to took it to amateur drag racing, and ran high 14s in the quarter mile. Not bad, really. But still, that nagging feeling of driving a front wheel drive suburban A-to-B means of transport....
Ironically, Toyota makes a "Camry" NASCAR entry. It's a pushrod overhead valve V8, with rear wheel drive and a manual transmission, a solid rear axle and a tube chassis.
Now why, oh why, is such a thing unavailable for mere "civilians"? I would love to drive such a car - yes, daily drive, including in the rain, the winter doldrums, traffic, important meetings, the airport, the beach, the grocery store. But such is not to be.
The fairy-tale world of vehicular Candy Mountain has high-lift mechanical roller cams and double-pumper 4-barrels. The real world mostly doesn't even know what those things mean... and excoriates people who do.
NASCAR lost me when they made the “stock car” part of that acronym a thing of the past decades ago. I’m not sure what part of racing is supposed to be interesting if what you see isn’t something you can buy.
Faster than a horse, more comfortable than a buckboard.
Quote:
Originally Posted by YourWakeUpCall
Women are as bad as men. They'll claim they don't care about cars, but refuse to be seen in a minivan - even when its a far better choice than an SUV.
Image is very important to many people. When someone tagged minivans as "mommiemobiles" they killed the desire in many people. Many women especially. Better a rugged utility vehicle with AWD, more macho image. Girls are into macho too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by leadfoot4
Bingo!!!!
I drove my wife to the vitamin store, a couple of days ago. I backed into a spot near the door of the store, so she didn't have too far to walk. There was a car already there, but I left plenty of room for the driver of that car to be able to open their door, and neither hit mine, nor damage theirs. A couple of minutes later, just before my wife comes out of the store, some jackass pulls in, on my other side. He was SO close, there was no way my wife could have even opened the door, to get back in with me.
It's amazing how many unconscious people there are, walking around, freely.....
I was thinking about this thread while in the market today. The same people who "drive" aka aim the cars on the road drive their shopping carts the same way. Unconscious of other traffic, on the phone, on the phone, and on the phone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Futuremauian
Who decided these rules? Nicknames are what people choose to call something.
A friend of mine renamed His Ford Explorer a Ford "Exploder" because of it's unreliability. His choice!
I've lived in both California and Hawaii and never heard anyone call them Bimmers; always Beamers.
The cited article is an attempt by some control freak to create "rules" for the rest of us to follow.
I nearly bought a BMW X3 recently. Went with a new Lexus RX450h instead. Beemers and Mercedes don't hold a candle to Lexus on reliability.
They are not "rules" they are simply common usage. And everyone you knew in groovey California and Hawaii was wrong. Go google it, it's not just one piece written by a "control freak." You will find boo coo pieces that say the same thing.
It's called common usage. Didn't mean to ruffle your feathers, but you're wrong.
BTW, "Exploder" I believe was tagged onto the Explorers of long ago with the defective and underinflated Firestone tires that did in fact explode, sending the Explorer off into the weeds, exploding AND exploring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cvetters63
It's been that way since the dawn of time. the cars are bimmers and the bikes, beemers. Youre like someone who pronounces a proper name wrong then complains when corrected. I'll bet you pronounce Porsche with one syllable, too.
Indeed. But since we live in ignorant times, lots of folks are not aware of the difference in bimmah and beemah.
Why is Porsche pronounced porsha?
Because the company made a video explaining how to pronounce its own name. It's not hard, folks. There two syllables in Porsche -- "Por" and "Shuh." Put them together, and you get Porsche. It's not Porsh
Been that way a while, too. Knowledge, it's scary and dangerous.
I never understood football, baseball or basketball. For me, there are two sports: weight lifting, and car-racing. Within the means allotted to me, physical or financial, I crave indulgence in both.
To me, a "good" car is one that is light, nimble, minimalist, response, simple and athletic. The status that it connotes may actually be one of borderline penury, bad taste, maladroitness in whatever capacity. It may case parking-lot valets to snicker or respectable people to cringe. Find.
The "status" to which I aspire, is a narrowly personal sense of what ought-to-be, rather than that which is popularly recognized, or what even happens at the moment to comport with reality. This is why most of my cars are projects. They have more "potential" than extant achievement. Most at the moment don't even run.
The deeper question, then, isn't a yearning for prestige, via one's material possessions... but why we'd regard a mere conveyance, an instrument of transportation, as an object of passion and fondness. And the answer is, that it blends a striving towards the art of the possible, and the personal thrill of sport.
I can’t remember if it was BMW or Porsche, or if it was in the 1970s or 1980s, but there was a print ad that read “Performance is the Only Thing That Makes an Expensive Car Worth the Money”.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vision67
Seems to me that the status symbol vehicle for American men is now more likely to be a giant pickup.
Same for ladies in Texas (F150's Crew Cab = girly truck), every TX home has a couple of them.
Quite a few gals have dually 1T for their horse trailers.
I think it’s a matter of perspective. For me, my car has always enabled my lifestyle. I don’t buy luxury cars because I spend my discretionary income elsewhere. I ski so I’ve owned something 4wd since 1986. I had years with a big commute and racked up the miles in a VW GTI purchased as a leftover at a steep discount when my peers tended to drive European and Japanese luxury brands or more exotic sports cars. I always preferred to spend the money on the sailboat and the ski condo and trips.
If you looked at my cars from the perspective of someone making minimum wage, I have always driven middle of the road cars with a 100k extended warranty that aren’t affordable to someone lower income. I view the car as an appliance to enable my lifestyle. The worker at the drive-thru window making minimum wage might view it as a status symbol.
BTW, "Exploder" I believe was tagged onto the Explorers of long ago with the defective and underinflated Firestone tires that did in fact explode, sending the Explorer off into the weeds, exploding AND exploring.
Nah. I owned a Navajo and two Mountaineers from 1992 to 2015 that all had 100k extended warranties that were used frequently. Exploder was a mechanic joke about a very unreliable car. I didn’t care because the dealer fixed the car under warranty and gave me a loaner but the cost of those repairs over 20-something years would have been astronomical if I’d been paying out of pocket. I had a 1987 S-10 Blazer with an unlimited mileage warranty that racked up an even more absurd number of warranty repairs.
I had the ATX death radials that were replaced for free. That wasn’t why it was called the Exploder.
NASCAR lost me when they made the “stock car” part of that acronym a thing of the past decades ago. I’m not sure what part of racing is supposed to be interesting if what you see isn’t something you can buy.
I agree with that. Remember when Richard Petty would change brands, depending on whose car had the best aerodynamics that year?
Same for ladies in Texas (F150's Crew Cab = girly truck), every TX home has a couple of them.
Quite a few gals have dually 1T for their horse trailers.
Yup
I remember a trip to Dallas in about 2010. The freeways were racetracks and about 70% of the passenger vehicles were trucks!
You've probably never been to Italy. The vast majority of Italians drive their little Fiats and are totally satisfied with that. Italians and French don't care about their cars getting a little bit damaged; dents don't matter to them at all.
Your intimate knowledge of males of two countries is fascinating. You drive what?
I remember a trip to Dallas in about 2010. The freeways were racetracks and about 70% of the passenger vehicles were trucks!
Hahaha 70% might be an exaggeration, but you’ll definitely see plenty of pickups in Dallas. And Dallas is one of the less truck-y parts of Texas, too.
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