BF2S Forums Car Talk 2021

Sitting outside the barber waiting for it to open I watch cars going round the roundabout.

Its amazing seeing all the stupid little people wobbling around in the lumbering monster-trucks.
American truck stupidity has infected this country.
You do not need a Ranger or whatever the fuck stupid truck GM makes for going to the shops in 'burbia.

The most stupid vehicle I've seen here is probably the Ranger Raptor Shelby.

on the one hand, obviously nobody should be looking to emulate east asia for their work culture. chinese working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. japan putting in some of the longest working hours in the OECD while boasting pitiful productivity, etc. suicides and low fertility. it's Not Good.

on the other, it's so funny that americans want to 'return jobs to america' but have no fire in their belly to even begin competing with this. a century of forcing capitalism and free markets down the throat of developing countries, gunboat diplomacy, etc., and now they're just whining high-fructose corn syrup man children.

I wish I could have a more simple life. Drive bimbos around in a F-150. I can afford to do that in Pennsylvania.

i frequently drive people to or from the mechanic. like, trade in your shitboxes before they become shitboxes. nobody has time for this.

it's always some junker from like 2000, or some 1970s project neither they, nor anyone in the 2020s, have the expertise to deal with. and did you just fuel up with ethanol?

e: should be noted that i don't mind doing it. i'd like to think someone would give me a ride to the mechanic.

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2026-02-23 15:18:36)

OK, um, its changed a bit with the reduction in cost of electric cars.

In AUD because I can't be bothered converting.

Premium for an electric car is ~$10k (was 20k), battery will likely need to be replaced after 10 years at a cost of about $10k.
A minor accident, hit a pothole too hard, ground the chassis on a bump or some hidden manufacturing flaw - the battery will need to be replaced. The cost may or may not be covered by insurance or warranty. Currently no-one will think of repairing a battery pack.

I spend $1500-$2k on petrol/yr, of that ~40% is tax. In real terms its ~$900-$1200, so $9000-$12,000 over 10 years.

Its easy to make the argument that $ spent eventually ends up as emissions by whatever route.
Its improbable that battery production doesn't ultimately use carbon fuel - and that fuel is cheaper and a tax write-off so probably a lot more of it gets burned.
If not then it gets spent running a factory, employing people who drive to work and heat their homes etc.
So $10k emitted making a battery or $9-12k emitted burning petrol - the whole thing doesn't really work at this point.

Maybe I'll do it for the intolerable smugness I can adopt "By the way, did I say my car was electric?" If thats worth $500/yr to me then the maths does start to work.
Probably we will be moving house so not a lot of point in putting a charging point in this one, so thats a factor.

I did a long late night country drive a while back, an associate with a 4x4, floodlights etc did the same trip at the same time and said afterwards "Did you see all the emus?"
"Nope, didn't see a single fucking one"
My little car would not survive hitting an emu.