Quick rant thread.

[jon dee 500]

Just to round out this particular rant, here is an excerpt from an email conversation I had with a friend in the US...

Quote

I moved around a lot. Did the country, city, suburb, and places the local cops ask you to just roll through stop signs to lower your carjacking odds.  At ten I was a country boy, at fifteen I was teaching my friend's parents how to bulletproof their exterior walls. Used to add 2x6 framing and pack in ceramic tiles backed by sandbags or steel shot before replacing the sheetrock. Most folks in Detroit will grab their kids and dive into the old cast iron tubs or under beds when it jumped off. At least this way anything below a window was a whole lot safer.

 That was a long time ago in Detroit, but since NZ is grimly determined to emulate the social decay process perfected in the US, you can consider this to be good advice for Auckland going forward  

Cheers... 

[Gaz 1061]

Quick rants that turn to long rants... 

[Driftit 2078]

42 minutes ago, Gaz said:

Quick rants that turn to long rants... 

Turned into a stuff.co.nz comments section.

[Ghost Chip 188]

Here I was, wanting to rant about slow drivers on the fast lane. I think I’ll just come back another day.

[gjm 3258]

3 minutes ago, Ghost Chip said:

Here I was, wanting to rant about slow drivers on the fast lane. I think I’ll just come back another day.

Slow drivers in the outside lane approaching a roundabout, who hang back because overtaking a truck on the roundabout would be too dangerous, and then don't accelerate off the roundabout, trundling gently along behind the truck because they might not make the pass in the two lane space available...

 

[coop 261]

Above two posts remind me of Nissan Tiida drivers. 

Find anther car steered by as many braindead incompetent retards. You wont. 

[Olaf 3317]

14 minutes ago, coop said:

Above two posts remind me of Nissan Tiida drivers. 

Find anther car steered by as many braindead incompetent retards. You wont. 

Honda Fit/Jazz.  I rest my case.

[Palazzo 477]

48 minutes ago, coop said:

Above two posts remind me of Nissan Tiida drivers. 

Find anther car steered by as many braindead incompetent retards. You wont. 

A Prius on the open road would be a close match for the Tiida.

[KwS 2425]

9 hours ago, Olaf said:

Honda Fit/Jazz.  I rest my case.

Gee Thanks....

[Kees 594]

12 hours ago, coop said:

Find anther car steered by as many braindead incompetent retards. You wont.

*Toyota Prius enters the chat*

[gjm 3258]

Just now, Kees said:

*Toyota Prius enters the chat*

Had one of them on SH2 around Napier this morning. Complete with one even narrower space saver type rear wheel.

80km/h, max. And right hand lane through every roundabout. 🤬🤬🤬

[Kees 594]

1 minute ago, gjm said:

Had one of them on SH2 around Napier this morning. Complete with one even narrower space saver type rear wheel.

80km/h, max. And right hand lane through every roundabout. 🤬🤬🤬

Haha thats the quintessential Prius move. 

Where I live the Prius Ubers patrol the streets prowling at a solid 30km/h in a 50km/h zone, making spastic stops and turns with no indicators. But if you hold up a Prius for more than 0.01 seconds at the lights they will beep at you. Priuses do my head in. 

[gjm 3258]

I'm on a roll today. Probably due to lack of sleep.

Why is that we now seem to accept that genuinely expensive (when new) prestige-badged cars need to have huge amounts of money spent on them at (what I'd think of as) low mileages?

A recent article in the news talked about a 2-million km Toyota Corolla based somewhere north of Auckland. In the UK, I'd routinely see older cars advertised with 200000, 300000, 400000 miles and more. Yet I now see reports of engine life expectancy, without $BIG being spent, to be as little as 200,000km.

Range Rover TDV8. Expensive when new. Over 150000km (not even 100000 miles) and turbos will have to come off for work which is likely to be required. Getting the turbos off means removing bodywork. It's not especially complex, but it's a long and messy job. Of course, that doesn't touch on the pletora of electrical issues that can be a problem. And don't buy a TDV6 because the crank can fail.

Audi 3.0 TDi. "Some of them can make it to 200,000 miles, but likely won’t last much longer." Obviously engine maintenance is crucial with these engines, as with most others, but "expect problems after 100,000 miles if not kept up properly."

[Let's skip over the BMW N42 and similar.]

These are far from isolated examples. Has the accountant's pen really slashed through so much good engineering that cars are now inherently unreliable, and even regarded as disposable at 10 years old?

Japanese cars are far from immune to issues, but do seem less susceptible than European or American ones. Maybe because they've never put the effort into making a decent small diesel, potentially diluting the funding for other mechancial work, so petrol-engined car development is properly addressed? Diesel high-pressure fuel pump failure is unheard of, because they don't make diesel cars! (Yes - there are exceptions.)

[Palazzo 477]

A bit south of Auckland actually.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-chronicle/news/toyota-corolla-serviced-in-whanganui-surpasses-two-million-kilometres/65OLV5QLKCI5T3Y3UQEJWWNX74/

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

53 minutes ago, gjm said:

Has the accountant's pen really slashed through so much good engineering that cars are now inherently unreliable, and even regarded as disposable at 10 years old?

Back when I used to work in the automotive supply chain I was amazed that in many countries the time period a vehicle had to be supported by law was very short. 7 years from end of production was about par and even as low as five years was common.

Now, not all companies work to that legal definition, but some definately do. Imagine going and asking for a part for your five and a half year old car and being told “sorry, we don’t supply that anymore, and there’s no alternative”!

This has probably worked it’s way through to the design parameters for various components, with refurbishment and/or replacement out of the question. Throw-away society now.

[balancerider 758]

15 hours ago, coop said:

Above two posts remind me of Nissan Tiida drivers. 

Find anther car steered by as many braindead incompetent retards. You wont. 

So much agreement with this. @KwS you can rest easy, Fit drivers are in a totally different league

[gjm 3258]

1 hour ago, Palazzo said:

A bit south of Auckland actually.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-chronicle/news/toyota-corolla-serviced-in-whanganui-surpasses-two-million-kilometres/65OLV5QLKCI5T3Y3UQEJWWNX74/

Got my Whanganuis and Whangareis mixed up. 🥴

41 minutes ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

Back when I used to work in the automotive supply chain I was amazed that in many countries the time period a vehicle had to be supported by law was very short. 7 years from end of production was about par and even as low as five years was common.

Now, not all companies work to that legal definition, but some definately do. Imagine going and asking for a part for your five and a half year old car and being told “sorry, we don’t supply that anymore, and there’s no alternative”!

This has probably worked it’s way through to the design parameters for various components, with refurbishment and/or replacement out of the question. Throw-away society now.

20 years or so ago now, but we were able to buy every part for a W123-series Mercedes (end of production in 1986) from the dealer. Including a bodyshell (which we were offered at a MASSIVE discount! Wish we'd bought it...)
I know that parts for the Porsche 928 are now NLA from Porsche, and that there are no official plans to reproduce them. Third party only.

Manufacturers can't support vehicles indefinitely, but it seems that the need for that support is happening sooner. Stuff just seems to wear out much, much faster than it used to. Built in obsolescence?

Edited March 28, 2022 by gjm

[Palazzo 477]

A mate bought an Italian scooter end of ‘14, did 5000kms on it. Stopped Nov last year, ignition coil had died according to the dealer who had sold and serviced it.

“Can’t get those anymore, it’s scrap, come and get it from our workshop.”

 

 

[KwS 2425]

4 hours ago, gjm said:

Had one of them on SH2 around Napier this morning. Complete with one even narrower space saver type rear wheel.

80km/h, max. And right hand lane through every roundabout. 🤬🤬🤬

TO be fair, i commend them on driving correctly regarding the speed. A space saver is speed limited to 80kph.

[Sammo 2544]

Got a speeding ticket on from a Sunday morning country drive a few weeks ago - 77km/h in a 60km/h somewhere in the sticks out Riverhead Coatsville - I can't recall it at all but I'm guessing it was an 'open' country road where a section dropped from 100 to 60 and they put a camera right there and I was still slowing down / missed it.

Technically my bad I guess but give a guy a break? 

Fortunately for the coffers I'm a good boy, not a gang member and I will studiously pay (after my reminder notice).

Edited March 28, 2022 by Sammo

[M3AN 4016]

I got a $150 ticket from AT for travelling in a bus lane, on an empty road, on a Sunday FFS. I'm a bus user, I appreciate the intention of bus lanes and wouldn't have used that lane if a) I'd realised it was active on a Sunday when there was no traffic, and b) I wasn't trying to be a good boy by using the leftmost available lane. The photos they sent, which covered about 200m, show my vehicle as the only one on the road in either direction. SMH.

AT didn't care but told me I didn't have to pay until the fine had been transferred to the debt collectors and as long as I paid upon the first notice from them there would be no extra charge. So I set a reminder after receiving that letter and waited until the last day. I was not complimentary to AT in the reference field for the transfer (not that it was likely to be seen). 

Edited March 28, 2022 by M3AN

[Palazzo 477]

1 hour ago, M3AN said:

I got a $150 ticket from AT for travelling in a bus lane, on an empty road, on a Sunday FFS. I'm a bus user, I appreciate the intention of bus lanes and wouldn't have used that lane if a) I'd realised it was active on a Sunday when there was no traffic, and b) I wasn't trying to be a good boy by using the leftmost available lane. The photos they sent, which covered about 200m, show my vehicle as the only one of the road in either direction. SMH.

AT didn't care but told me I didn't have to pay until the fine had been transferred to the debt collectors and as long as I paid upon the first notice from them there would be no extra charge. So I set a reminder after receiving that letter and waited until the last day. I was not complimentary to AT in the reference field for the transfer (not that it was likely to be seen). 

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/125194882/i-can-still-get-to-you-bank-payment-references-used-to-send-thousands-of-abusive-messages

[M3AN 4016]

1 hour ago, Palazzo said:

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/125194882/i-can-still-get-to-you-bank-payment-references-used-to-send-thousands-of-abusive-messages

I recall reading that when it was first published, pretty grubby behaviour for a person-to-person interaction, especially under those circumstances. There should be tighter control of that, or at the very least you should be able to block payments from a specified account.

Edited March 28, 2022 by M3AN

[Karter16 405]

On 3/24/2022 at 10:22 AM, jon dee said:

I guess you are cool with this then ?? Let the bad guys keep their guns and the Police unarmed ?? Just saying...

Cheers...

I've managed to stay out of this so far, but dipping in here to point out that this is factually incorrect. All police vehicles have firearms in the lockbox in the boot. Officers can access these if needed.

[Blackie 510]

Good old 'weak on gangs toothless police' at it again. 😆

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300551983/lamborghini-ferrari-and-1m-cash-seized-after-600kg-auckland-meth-bust