New BMW smoking like crazy...weird!

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: PZR2874
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: dailydriver
Can't these video game playing, flatulence-pipers come up with anything new automotive-wise to be into??

Would you prefer the mall crawlers we have here? The kids that wear the flat bill baseball caps and have their pickup trucks lifted 10+ inches with 20 or 22" wheels that never go off-road or get any specs of dirt on them whatsoever. The ones with diesels run straight pipes and roll coal all over the place.


No, not much better, but at least it IS something different, and at least they are domestic nameplates (the oil burners anyway).

Some of the "JDM YO!", kanji characters all over their 'whips' punks around here seem to worship Japan (and everything/anything NIPPON) MUCH more so than their OWN country.

Just because you buy from a Japanese car company doesn't constitute this remark. 99% of Japanese cars that are sold here and MADE here... Not 100% of the car granted (some parts are made elsewhere and shipped here) but c'mon. If you are going to point fingers, better think about the other countries "we Americans" buy.


My "Japanese" car is made in the same factory as the Ford Mustang. What's a more "American" automotive icon than the Ford Mustang? The tri-five Chevies maybe?

I have no desire to put any "Kanji" stickers on my car nor do I want to pry off the "Mazda6" badges and replace them with JDM "Yo" Atenza badges. That looks dumb to me. But that's my opinion. If someone wants to put Ferio and Type R badges on their '96 Civic LX coupe, that's fine. I will have a laugh at their expense and then forget about it.

I prefer Japanese cars because they work better for me. Compared to the domestic offerings in 2005, my car is a driving dynamic tour de force. Plus the interior controls are WAY better. Headlights? On the turnsignal stalk like most other Japanese cars. Wipers? On their own stalk on the other side of the column like most Japanese cars. Cruise? On steering wheel spoke with ON, OFF, RESUME, COAST, SET...all spelled out for you. Wanna' turn off the climate control? Press the big round button that says OFF. Turn it back on? Press ON and turn the thermostat knob to the temperature you desire. My house's thermostat should be so well designed

I had a Mercedes Benz E430 come in for installation this morning and as of circa 2000, the Germans still had no concept of interior controls. It's bad. Yeah, you'll eventually figure out the pictograms and hieroglyphics that make up the interior controls but they are sadly not intuitive.I'm certain the rest of the car is pure engineering brilliance but the interior controls are poor.

 

[hattaresguy]

My good old boy American Chevy truck is made in Canada, or Mexico I forget. Very American of GM.

OTOH Toyota builds a lot of cars here.

These days a Camry is a domestic and my Chevy is an import.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog


I had a Mercedes Benz E430 come in for installation this morning and as of circa 2000, the Germans still had no concept of interior controls. It's bad. Yeah, you'll eventually figure out the pictograms and hieroglyphics that make up the interior controls but they are sadly not intuitive.I'm certain the rest of the car is pure engineering brilliance but the interior controls are poor.



You have to remember that not everyone in the world speaks and reads English. So having the switch's marked with simple universal symbols works because the same climate control might be installed in a car that ends up in the states, or in China, or in Iraq. More so since Mercedes has been using all the same controls and symbols for oh 60 years, so once you are familiar they don't change.

This hurt GM for years in overseas markets because if you speak only Chinese [censored] does cruise mean?

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Originally Posted By: Spazdog


I had a Mercedes Benz E430 come in for installation this morning and as of circa 2000, the Germans still had no concept of interior controls. It's bad. Yeah, you'll eventually figure out the pictograms and hieroglyphics that make up the interior controls but they are sadly not intuitive.I'm certain the rest of the car is pure engineering brilliance but the interior controls are poor.



You have to remember that not everyone in the world speaks and reads English. So having the switch's marked with simple universal symbols works because the same climate control might be installed in a car that ends up in the states, or in China, or in Iraq. More so since Mercedes has been using all the same controls and symbols for oh 60 years, so once you are familiar they don't change.

This hurt GM for years in overseas markets because if you speak only Chinese [censored] does cruise mean?

That makes sense on a car like what Volkswagen used to be. A "people's car" Affordable and able to operate in many conditions. But cost cutting for one universal interface on an E-class? I don't know.

Maybe that explains BMW's desire to implement i-Drive. Even if the early navigation on it was hopeless, you could set it for English, German, French....probably Cyrillic or Mandarin if you desired.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
I prefer Japanese cars because they work better for me. Compared to the domestic offerings in 2005, my car is a driving dynamic tour de force. Plus the interior controls are WAY better. Headlights? On the turnsignal stalk like most other Japanese cars. Wipers? On their own stalk on the other side of the column like most Japanese cars. Cruise? On steering wheel spoke with ON, OFF, RESUME, COAST, SET...


GM has been using the dual column control stalks and steering wheel controls for awhile now since about '95, '95 up Cavalier/Sunfire, '97 Malibu/Cutlass, '99 Grand am/Alero etc. The N-cars drive good especially the Pontiac G6 version. It's gone now but was around till about '08.

 

[yonyon]

Mercedes does have some unfriendly controls. The cruise control switches should not get in the way when palming the wheel. Why is the word "rest" used to mark the "off" button on the climate control one year, then the same model a year later not have any one button that can turn off the climate control with a single push while it still has a button marked "rest"?

Still, Ford certainly did worse at times with the Explorer. I don't want to use my knees to operate the steering wheel, I want to use my hands. I do not want to have to open the window and reach out the window to open the door because I can't reach the inside door handle because my left leg is in the way and can't be moved without sliding the seat rearward, which also can't be done with the door closed.

 

[hattaresguy]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Originally Posted By: Spazdog


I had a Mercedes Benz E430 come in for installation this morning and as of circa 2000, the Germans still had no concept of interior controls. It's bad. Yeah, you'll eventually figure out the pictograms and hieroglyphics that make up the interior controls but they are sadly not intuitive.I'm certain the rest of the car is pure engineering brilliance but the interior controls are poor.



You have to remember that not everyone in the world speaks and reads English. So having the switch's marked with simple universal symbols works because the same climate control might be installed in a car that ends up in the states, or in China, or in Iraq. More so since Mercedes has been using all the same controls and symbols for oh 60 years, so once you are familiar they don't change.

This hurt GM for years in overseas markets because if you speak only Chinese [censored] does cruise mean?

That makes sense on a car like what Volkswagen used to be. A "people's car" Affordable and able to operate in many conditions. But cost cutting for one universal interface on an E-class? I don't know.

Maybe that explains BMW's desire to implement i-Drive. Even if the early navigation on it was hopeless, you could set it for English, German, French....probably Cyrillic or Mandarin if you desired.


The E class is a peoples car in the rest of the world, its a taxi.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
I prefer Japanese cars because they work better for me. Compared to the domestic offerings in 2005, my car is a driving dynamic tour de force. Plus the interior controls are WAY better. Headlights? On the turnsignal stalk like most other Japanese cars. Wipers? On their own stalk on the other side of the column like most Japanese cars. Cruise? On steering wheel spoke with ON, OFF, RESUME, COAST, SET...


GM has been using the dual column control stalks and steering wheel controls for awhile now since about '95, '95 up Cavalier/Sunfire, '97 Malibu/Cutlass, '99 Grand am/Alero etc. The N-cars drive good especially the Pontiac G6 version. It's gone now but was around till about '08.


Chrysler has been using them since the mid-90's. My Cherokee has the wipers on the right side of the column (which looks to have been taken entirely from a 1G Dodge Neon), though the throwback Cherokee still uses a dash-mount headlight switch. I drove a Liberty recently that had the headlights on the turn signal stalk...didn't like it at all. I wish I had a 96...I much prefer the old square-interior Cherokees (with vent windows) to the later ones.

 

[rslifkin]

Personally, I find the interior in my Jeep very well laid out and easy to use. Only dumb thing is the OD off button on the dash, rather than the shifter, which makes downshifting 4-3-2 a little awkward. Headlight switch is a twist on the dash, easy to get to and use, and keeps all the lighting controls (headlights, fog lights, etc) together. It's got 1 steering wheel stick with wipers, turn signals and high beams, nothing extra. The cruise buttons on the wheel are stiff enough not to hit accidentally, and they're well placed for use when cruising on the highway. The controls all have a good feel too, not cheap and mushy.

As far as the darn ricers, they're everywhere. I love when one tries to pass me getting on the highway as he's winding up into vtec with his [censored] can, and I just slam my foot down and leave him in the dust with an earful of V8 as he's sitting there asking "how did that Jeep go so fast?"

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: rslifkin
Personally, I find the interior in my Jeep very well laid out and easy to use. Only dumb thing is the OD off button on the dash, rather than the shifter, which makes downshifting 4-3-2 a little awkward. Headlight switch is a twist on the dash, easy to get to and use, and keeps all the lighting controls (headlights, fog lights, etc) together. It's got 1 steering wheel stick with wipers, turn signals and high beams, nothing extra. The cruise buttons on the wheel are stiff enough not to hit accidentally, and they're well placed for use when cruising on the highway. The controls all have a good feel too, not cheap and mushy.

As far as the darn ricers, they're everywhere. I love when one tries to pass me getting on the highway as he's winding up into vtec with his [censored] can, and I just slam my foot down and leave him in the dust with an earful of V8 as he's sitting there asking "how did that Jeep go so fast?"


Played with a new Civic with the M5 tonight on my way home. He was grinning ear-to-ear when the note of that 5.0L left him in the dust on the steep banked corner hill we were going up. Not a ricer, knew exactly what the car was and enjoyed watching it being exercised.

 

[Spazdog]

The wiper stalk is "backwards" on my PT Cruiser. That is to say it works in the opposite direction of my Mazda (and prior Hondas) but at least it's on the column where I can reach out with my fingertips in the dark and find it.

The ricers? If it's not a Civic with the camber all goofed up and 195 wide tires stretched over an 8" wide wheel, it's a 3.4 V6 teal green Camaro with a red door, a big chunk missing from the plastic front fender and a leaky exhaust partially feeding a Flowmaster. Or a 3.8 Mustang with Cobra wheels and badges and the same obnoxious exhaust. Boy are they surprised when a lowly PT Cruiser puts them down

 

[kkreit01]

Well, this thread certainly went off topic....lol.