Cyclists waste petrol

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 03:13:02 -0700 (PDT), Simon Jester, the mentally
challenged, troll-feeding, senile cretin, blabbered again:

I've yet to see any car that's reliable. Why, in the 21st century, can't
we make anything that just keeps working?

Cars, like everything else, are made to be as unreliable as the market will stand.
Manufacturers want to sell you a new car as often as possible.

Yep, you do sound as idiotic by now as the troll you keep feeding!

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 10:11:18 +0100
TMS320 wrote:
On 10/09/18 14:07, wrote:
On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 12:55:45 +0100

Roundabouts are brilliant, no lights to wait for when there;s nothing coming

the other way, there's always someone using the junction.

Until some ****wit in the DfT or a local council decides putting traffic
lights
on a roundabout is a Really Good Idea, so completely defeating the point of
having a roundabout in the first place.

I suspect these things are often just job creation schemes in local
councils. We had a junction ruination scheme a few years ago pressed by
local politicians and functionaries worried about some safety issue.
National agencies said there wasn't a safety problem and, needless to
say, the views of local people and the predictions of delays and the
shift of traffic onto other roads were ignored.

And no doubt by the time the consequences were obvious the ****wits in question
had probably moved on to screw up another department or council leaving others
to clear up their mess.

On 11/09/18 00:50, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:
On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 00:25:53 +0100, TMS320 wrote:

On 09/09/18 00:50, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:
On Sat, 08 Sep 2018 23:33:39 +0100, TMS320
wrote:

On 08/09/18 22:29, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:

I agree that all cars should be automatic. But for some
reason the UK hasn't caught up with the US in this respect.

Actually, Europe hasn't caught up with the rest of the world.
And to prove it hasn't a clue it invented the dual clutch.

Never had one of those, are they a bad thing then? Top Gear
seems to like them.

They were developed for racing. They probably work quite well where
the fast upshifts minimise breaks in power. They are said not to
cope with low speeds particularly well where the preselection can
be indecisive. Non-European markets don't like the abrupt shifts.
They have been the subject of warranty claims and law suits.

Why the **** would there be a lawsuit over shifting quickly?

Hmm... OK.
....there are also times they don't shift at all.

Ford recently dropped "Power****" and went back to a conventional
auto. PSA stayed with proper Japanese boxes all along without
putting themselves through the same learning process and it seems
some brands have quietly dropped auto completely from some models
where second hand cars with the box can be found in Autotrader.

Why are people so stupid as to want to change gears themselves when
the car can do it for you? An automatic is a wonder to drive in
comparison. You just press one of two pedals. Go faster or go
slower, simple.

As I said, the Europeans are a long way behind the rest of the world.
Europeans seem to put more value on cosmetic additions, rather than
genuine driving aids.

The "basic" rental sedan I hired in the US a couple of years ago had
steel wheels and tyres with proper sidewalls. But it had a 2.4 engine
headlined as 180hp and an electrically adjustable driver's seat (*).
Here, a base model comes with a wheezy little engine and if a proper
engine is wanted it has to be accompanied by a load of overpriced tat.

(*) A brilliant piece of kit. Not available here even on some £40k plus
models. You're driving a long distance and want a change of position? -
just nudge it with the buttons.

And every auto I've had, you can't even feel it changing, as the
torque converter smudges the two gears together way better than any
clutch could.

A lot depends on the shift mapping. The proper thing to do is that if
the engine can produce the requested power in the next gear it should
change up; if it can't produce the requested power in the current gear
it should change down. At part load there should only be a change of
engine speed and never a step change in power. Some manufacturers must
either not understand this simple principle or think they're being
clever by doing something different.

My 4sp often gets confused whether to be in 1st or 2nd at 10-12mph
because of some kind of clever dick mode. Rolling through a junction
(where one would be in 2nd in a manual) more often than not produces
undesirable lurching.

I have also driven a car that in its default "E" mode refused to change
down unless floored. This made it unpredictable on busy motorways and
impossible to hold at cruising speed on hills, where it would
alternately bog down and take off. In "S" mode they made it shift to
stay above 2700rpm. It fixed the first problem but was irritating in a
different way.

On 11/09/18 12:18, wrote:
On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 10:11:18 +0100
TMS320 wrote:
On 10/09/18 14:07, wrote:
On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 12:55:45 +0100

Roundabouts are brilliant, no lights to wait for when there;s nothing coming

the other way, there's always someone using the junction.

Until some ****wit in the DfT or a local council decides putting traffic
lights
on a roundabout is a Really Good Idea, so completely defeating the point of
having a roundabout in the first place.

I suspect these things are often just job creation schemes in local
councils. We had a junction ruination scheme a few years ago pressed by
local politicians and functionaries worried about some safety issue.
National agencies said there wasn't a safety problem and, needless to
say, the views of local people and the predictions of delays and the
shift of traffic onto other roads were ignored.

And no doubt by the time the consequences were obvious the ****wits in question
had probably moved on to screw up another department or council leaving others
to clear up their mess.

I believe the person in charge was allowed to oversee several high
profile cock ups before "moving on".

On Tuesday, September 11, 2018 at 11:26:58 AM UTC+1, Peeler wrote:
On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 03:13:02 -0700 (PDT), Simon Jester, the mentally
challenged, troll-feeding, senile cretin, blabbered again:

I've yet to see any car that's reliable. Why, in the 21st century, can't
we make anything that just keeps working?

Cars, like everything else, are made to be as unreliable as the market will stand.
Manufacturers want to sell you a new car as often as possible.

Yep, you do sound as idiotic by now as the troll you keep feeding!

If you have a problem with this tread then just ignore it
The comment stands.
Light bulbs are designed to fail at an interval acceptable to the consumer.
The same applies to all consumer products.

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 13:45:12 +0100
TMS320 wrote:
On 11/09/18 00:50, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:
Why are people so stupid as to want to change gears themselves when
the car can do it for you? An automatic is a wonder to drive in
comparison. You just press one of two pedals. Go faster or go
slower, simple.

As I said, the Europeans are a long way behind the rest of the world.
Europeans seem to put more value on cosmetic additions, rather than
genuine driving aids.

The "basic" rental sedan I hired in the US a couple of years ago had
steel wheels and tyres with proper sidewalls. But it had a 2.4 engine
headlined as 180hp and an electrically adjustable driver's seat (*).
Here, a base model comes with a wheezy little engine and if a proper
engine is wanted it has to be accompanied by a load of overpriced tat.

If anything qualifies as wheezing its a 2.4 that can only muster 180hp. That
might have been par for the course back in the 80s or 90s but today its pretty
pathetic.

As for electrified seats I fail to see the point. Mine stays in 1 position
until I need to move it forward to clean the car then it takes 10 seconds to
shift its lardy arse whereas if it was manual I could do it in 1. The rest of
the time its just dead weight increasing fuel consumption. Unfortunately it
was standard with the car.

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 06:58:25 -0700 (PDT), Simon Jester wrote:


Cars, like everything else, are made to be as unreliable as the market will stand.
Manufacturers want to sell you a new car as often as possible.

Yep, you do sound as idiotic by now as the troll you keep feeding!

If you have a problem with this tread then just ignore it

You wish, senile oaf!

The comment stands.
Light bulbs are designed to fail at an interval acceptable to the consumer.
The same applies to all consumer products.

It's a fact, you do sound as idiotic as the troll you keep feeding! You all
do after a while! Such is the "power" of his idiocy! BG

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 13:45:12 +0100, TMS320 wrote:

On 11/09/18 00:50, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:
On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 00:25:53 +0100, TMS320 wrote:

On 09/09/18 00:50, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:
On Sat, 08 Sep 2018 23:33:39 +0100, TMS320
wrote:

On 08/09/18 22:29, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:

I agree that all cars should be automatic. But for some
reason the UK hasn't caught up with the US in this respect.

Actually, Europe hasn't caught up with the rest of the world.
And to prove it hasn't a clue it invented the dual clutch.

Never had one of those, are they a bad thing then? Top Gear
seems to like them.

They were developed for racing. They probably work quite well where
the fast upshifts minimise breaks in power. They are said not to
cope with low speeds particularly well where the preselection can
be indecisive. Non-European markets don't like the abrupt shifts.
They have been the subject of warranty claims and law suits.

Why the **** would there be a lawsuit over shifting quickly?

Hmm... OK.
...there are also times they don't shift at all.

Ford recently dropped "Power****" and went back to a conventional
auto. PSA stayed with proper Japanese boxes all along without
putting themselves through the same learning process and it seems
some brands have quietly dropped auto completely from some models
where second hand cars with the box can be found in Autotrader.

Why are people so stupid as to want to change gears themselves when
the car can do it for you? An automatic is a wonder to drive in
comparison. You just press one of two pedals. Go faster or go
slower, simple.

As I said, the Europeans are a long way behind the rest of the world.
Europeans seem to put more value on cosmetic additions, rather than
genuine driving aids.

The "basic" rental sedan I hired in the US a couple of years ago had
steel wheels and tyres with proper sidewalls. But it had a 2.4 engine
headlined as 180hp and an electrically adjustable driver's seat (*).
Here, a base model comes with a wheezy little engine and if a proper
engine is wanted it has to be accompanied by a load of overpriced tat.

(*) A brilliant piece of kit. Not available here even on some £40k plus
models. You're driving a long distance and want a change of position? -
just nudge it with the buttons.

And every auto I've had, you can't even feel it changing, as the
torque converter smudges the two gears together way better than any
clutch could.

A lot depends on the shift mapping. The proper thing to do is that if
the engine can produce the requested power in the next gear it should
change up; if it can't produce the requested power in the current gear
it should change down. At part load there should only be a change of
engine speed and never a step change in power. Some manufacturers must
either not understand this simple principle or think they're being
clever by doing something different.

My 4sp often gets confused whether to be in 1st or 2nd at 10-12mph
because of some kind of clever dick mode. Rolling through a junction
(where one would be in 2nd in a manual) more often than not produces
undesirable lurching.

How odd. Every auto I've had doesn't change gears at low speeds at all, but just uses the torque converter.

I have also driven a car that in its default "E" mode refused to change
down unless floored. This made it unpredictable on busy motorways and
impossible to hold at cruising speed on hills, where it would
alternately bog down and take off. In "S" mode they made it shift to
stay above 2700rpm. It fixed the first problem but was irritating in a
different way.

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 15:11:17 +0100, wrote:

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 13:45:12 +0100
TMS320 wrote:
On 11/09/18 00:50, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:
Why are people so stupid as to want to change gears themselves when
the car can do it for you? An automatic is a wonder to drive in
comparison. You just press one of two pedals. Go faster or go
slower, simple.

As I said, the Europeans are a long way behind the rest of the world.
Europeans seem to put more value on cosmetic additions, rather than
genuine driving aids.

The "basic" rental sedan I hired in the US a couple of years ago had
steel wheels and tyres with proper sidewalls. But it had a 2.4 engine
headlined as 180hp and an electrically adjustable driver's seat (*).
Here, a base model comes with a wheezy little engine and if a proper
engine is wanted it has to be accompanied by a load of overpriced tat.

If anything qualifies as wheezing its a 2.4 that can only muster 180hp. That
might have been par for the course back in the 80s or 90s but today its pretty
pathetic.

As for electrified seats I fail to see the point. Mine stays in 1 position
until I need to move it forward to clean the car then it takes 10 seconds to
shift its lardy arse whereas if it was manual I could do it in 1. The rest of
the time its just dead weight increasing fuel consumption. Unfortunately it
was standard with the car.

It depends - if you get uncomfortable on long journeys (eg you have a bad back) then moving your seat slightly would be very useful.

On Tue, 11 Sep 2018 11:13:02 +0100, Simon Jester wrote:

On Monday, September 10, 2018 at 6:11:26 PM UTC+1, Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote:
On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 17:57:32 +0100, rbowman wrote:

On 09/09/2018 10:53 PM, Rod Speed wrote:
rbowman wrote
Jimmy Wilkinson Knife wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Once you lot are out of the EU, you'll have decent Korean cars
available

Like Dacia and Daiwoo? Loads of them about already.

Dacias are Romanian, aren't they?

Yep, and a Renault subsidiary there.

While I work with a woman named Dacia, that's as close as I'll ever get
to one. We don't even have Renaults any more and after the Yugo, any
eastern European creations are suspect. There are some who feel that the
only worthwhile thing Clinton did was bombing the Yugo plant.

I've yet to see any car that's reliable. Why, in the 21st century, can't we make anything that just keeps working?

Cars, like everything else, are made to be as unreliable as the market will stand.
Manufacturers want to sell you a new car as often as possible.

I thought that might have improved with the 7 year warrnties now available.

Also, surely if you buy a car and it doesn't last, you buy a different make next time, so the 1st manufacturer gains nothing but a loss of custom for the rest of that person's life.