Okay I'll bite, what guy?
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@yyzsantabarbara ......................... I feel very superior driving my Hyundai Elantra or Sonata. Seriously, I have had better luck with Hyundai than the Toyota’s, Acura, Honda, Nissan, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford and Dodge vehicles I owned previously. The Hyundai’s have been trouble free where the Chevy Malibu and Pontiac G6 was in the shop every few months for warped brake rotors. |
I have spent allot of time and money investing in audio equipment. I have even opened a company to import and distribute a UK line of amplifiers. It is my considered opinion that digital (with network servers, streaming, Roon, 24 bit ++) is the most convenient however the best musically open and closest to what I enjoy in the recording studio sound, is achieved with vinyl, an extremely good quality cartridge and a top shelf phono stage. |
I wonder if any of the researchers have driven any of those vehicles to gain a better understanding of what the allure / appeal is?? I'm 45, have owned many american made vehicles, and purchased a used BMW about 3 years ago. I was hooked after just a few test drives. Extremely well made, no annoying rattles, handles like its on rails, and has been extremely reliable. I definitely don't fall into the categories defined in the article, and I'm a responsible driver (for the most part). |
Stereo5, it was not warped rotors it was bad metal. GM used crappy metal for their rotors for years. When your rotors and pads get wet during a rain or snow event water stays under the pads when you stop and corrodes the metal under the pad. With good metal the corrosion does not go that deep and the disc gets cleaned off after a few stops but with the garbage GM was using the rotors would start pulsing as if they were warped but even good rotors will to this if the car is left outside, inactive for long periods at a time or washed frequently, immediately put away and left inactive. I has a GM pick up truck back in 2001 and the rotors were trash after only 10,000 miles I asked the tech how this could be and his response was that "they all do this." I have forever sworn off GM products. They should have been allowed to go bankrupt. |
As with Mijostyn I also will never buy a GM product. My caddy had two different metals for the cylinders and heads and due to the different expansion and contraction rates were known to blow head gaskets. Also known by GM and anyone who worked on them is that the cylinder head bolts required such high torqueing that they virtually always stripped the threads when attempting to install the heads. |
A realtor sends me daily real estate listings so I can get an idea of what my house is worth. I have received well over 500 of them and I am yet to see a pair of speakers standing in a room. I am also amazed by how people spend $5,000 on an entertainment center and that they are willing to listen through the TV speakers. No wonder the audio industry is suffering. Just think what might happen if audio manufacturers pooled their money to run TV ads to introduce music as a new platform of entertainment. One of things our guests look forward to is sitting down to listen to music in our living room over a glass of wine. They are amazed by how incredible music can sound. |
I have a lot more trouble with the pick up drivers that lean out and yell at you to "get out of the Fn road you Fn yuppy."Just put a bumper sticker on the back that says: "High Toned SOB" (George Stark, from "The Dark Half") And they’ll leave you alone...and... if not....oh well... |
larry5729 ... I spent a 40-year career in residential real estate. Over the years, I must have been inside a jillion homes. It always amazed me how many homes I went into that had no music and no books. Must have been 99% of them at least. Lots of big-screen TVs though. Frank |
@geoffkait ...'self absorbed'....*hmmm* The only practical way one could do that is head-up-ass, which is pretty commonplace Anyway...;) I'm a 'brisk' driver of a '12 Focus hatch, but I do try to not be a SOB or MoFo about it. I can be patient while you move over. If I was in that much of a rush, I'd be 'there' already..*S* Grew up in SoCal, driven in a lot of metro areas. 'Combat Traffic' is kinda de jour nowadays... But, if given into being Really Socially Distraught... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuDN2bCIyus ...a street version of this would be Just About Right...*evil laughter* |
I'll address a few things mentioned- My first choice is Made in USA stuff but unfortunately, if we're talkin "regular" cars, they just don't compare to a Hyundai, Nissan etc. GM's cars are still behind after having plenty of time to catch up. I travel a bit with work, and any time I rent a domestic car-they are inferior to their Asian counterparts. Sad. My 13 year old F150 with 210K however, runs like a clock. I cant tell you how many times I've had great, stoplight chats with guys in Ferraris or Lambo's, while on my $6K bicycle(i'm on of those freaks) For the most part, it's all about the "vibe" one projects, while battling SoCal madness. I can't think of ANY friends who even have a stereo in their home. This includes well heeled-only a big screen and the wall speakers. I'm near the end of boomer generation(1962) The majority of my generation could care less about a stereo. Once in awhile, one of the unenlightened get a listen, and you can see the wow look on their face. When they find out the cost of admission, it changes. I think they're more concerned about their health insurance premiums/deductible, paying off the house note,and 401K! I just don't get the drifting thing? The smell of tires and smoke is awfuI. I just don't find any entertainmient value in it? Reminds me of a silly action movie. I dig F1, drag racing. Oh well, to each his own. |
Every now and then, it gets suggested on these threads that some people buy expensive audio equipment to impress others. Is there really such a crowd? Similar approach seems to follow the owners of expensive cars. That they want to be seen, impress others, etc. That is probably true for some, but great number of such drivers bought their cars simply because they like them. |
Our sales manager loves to point out that "no sees the size of your bank account, but everyone sees your car". I do think an awful lot of that goes into people buying cars. Now, the criticism that audio nuts buy expensive gear to impress others has also struck me as highly questionable. Very, very few people get down to my basement bastion to see or hear my stereo, because they just don't really care about it. What I buy is truly for me. Always has been since I first started earning dough with a paper route - - the money I can spare has gone into the best stereo I can enjoy. Sadly, only a few friends really want to sit and listen to music as a focused experience. |
@tablejockey ...*G* Actually, I’m in your corner on F1 drives. But here in NC, if it’s not NASCAR, dirt bikes, or 4WD anything (preferably with a fresh splash of mud on the flanks)....there must be something wrong with you.....! I’ve been a fan of rally cars, GPrix, and the like forever. Used to enjoy going to the Lions drags back in my L.B. ’wasted youth’ era, just to enjoy the ’heat blast’ of the AA fuelers whip by....*reverie*sigh* Used to ride bikes too, but these days my skin comes off too easily...and the blood thinners make me look like I’m going to die.... *blood dripping down the arm, hitting the floor* ARE YOU OK?! "Oh...it’s nothing...just dumping some excess...." (5 minutes later, I’ve clotted, minor elbow scrape....one gets used to it...) I just want Block’s car in ’street guise’ and only ’slightly tame’....;) Ever heard of a ’Q ship’? Channel Jan & Dean’s "Little Old Lady From Pasadena".... There was an old ratty VW ’bug’ that looked like it started life as a factory second and had gone downhill afterwards....Literally had gone down a hill. It wasn’t real obvious that it had a 911S engine of the era in it. The driver in the next lane would laugh...until the tire smoke cleared from his eyes that had become like white platters with a dot in the middle...;) |
As a person who has spent his life studying psychology and sociology, with the specialty, Sociology of Mental Illness, I am drawn to this phrase from the article about that study:
“These are people who often see themselves as superior and are keen to display this to others.”
BUT! They want to see see themselves as superior... and keen to display. Guess what? They do not see themselves as superior. They are trying to be noticed as superior, but really know they are not what they want to be. To get noticed, they must continually prove to themselves that their cars are something special, so that you notice and think the driver must therefore be special. As the study points out, many people who driver great cars simply like quality. These people are not driven by a desire to prove anything, so they drive normally. Too many tweakettes fall into the same category, by obsessing on proving to themselves how special they are, when they could be listening to and enjoying great music. |
Addendum: Due to the characteristics of a very special car I loved, I got rid of it in order to quit looking like a weirdo, and to keep my license. It has nearly 400 horsepower in a 2700 pound car, but no power below 6000 rpm. It runs its best except in its power band from 7200 to its 9200 rpm ignition cutoff. The car made me drive like a moron to have any fun. Luckily, turbos solve the low end problem that car has, without sacrificing light weight. Don't be a moron. Buy a really good audio system, listen, and be content with your life.. |
On a clear day you can see General Motors” of course required reading is Halberstam, Ford vs Datsun if course Ford just lost $1.7 B in an everything is perfect record full employment economy.. how do they manage that ? where are all the Tesla short seller pundits, now? Geoff are you going to answer the question? And excellent Neil Young song quote BTW buried in that question... |
"Used to enjoy going to the Lions drags back in my L.B. ’wasted youth’ era, just to enjoy the ’heat blast’ of the AA fuelers whip by" avsjerry- Long Beach native here. I was just too young to experience the "Golden Era" of drag racing or Lions Drag Strip. I did however get to witness the 1st run of the Long Beach Grand Prix when it was Formula 1. It was very unorganized, I was able to slip right in,along Shoreline Drive to see the race. You could FEEL the violent downshifting, then the drivers mashing the pedal back up to 15,000 rpm. Being a gearhead at heart, I "get" what you say about NAACAR and other motorsport. I’m also a fan of Moto GP and appreciate MX.Those guys are superhuman. I unfortunately, am part of the generation that only experienced the remaining bits and pieces of SoCal which made it great. It’s still great, just in a different way. My oldest brother was a teenager during the early-mid sixties. Vietnam vet as well. He got out of Dodge mid 70’s and never came back. Retired comfortably in Florida. No time in history was perfect, but it sure seems if you were a teenager in SoCal during the late 50’s -60’s, you were in the peak of SoCal greatness, and you just didn’t know it. Anyhow, I still manage to see through the insanity with my diversions. Thank goodness, I’m past upgradeitis. Other than consumable items-phono cartridge and tubes, I just don’t feel the desire to acquire anything. I can just enjoy looking and hearing cool new stuff, knowing it’s really the same thing, only a tiny bit more convincing. We still have a few record stores in the neighborhood, where I get my "stampers" for cheap. Edit-Q shipI was raised by parents of "The Greatest Generation" Dad was a WWII vet. He was on a sub, probably blowing up stuff. .Parents settled in Long Beach after the war. |
