I sat in a Demio like that on the showroom floor at a dealer when I visited the UK. It was such a neat car!
I bought my 2 new ten years ago. It’s a base model with a manual. I paid really close to 15 grand for it. It’s been an absolute trooper, and I hope to keep it on the road for many more years. I got a recall on a seat bracket done a few years ago and the dealer was like “we’ll buy this car from you for $3000!” Get fucked!
i watched that video partially as well, until i rage-quit over that analyst, yeah.
Those pesky millenials, only buying iphones and cryptocurrencies, and paying back their debt instead of buying homes and cars that cost two- to four times, what are they thinking! Gotta eat more cake, and do less instabooking!!!
grrmflfnfldhfgfhdhdbdbflflll
srsly though, a thing that is rarely discussed is that safety tech that is either mandatory to be installed or quasy-mandatory often comes with hefty optionlist-pricing markup - and honestly, often you want to have that (ESP and ABS for example).
However.
Things like BMWs idea of selling you abo-model access to things like apple/android carplay can go die on a hill and better takes down the clever business-d00d that convinced boardlevel to sign that off as well.
This is the kind of appalling shit that makes me think, yepppppppppppp, if you go bust, that’s well deserved for having no effin clue what your “audience” actually needs. And I absolutely look at the germanz and their premium product idea that everyone wants to copy, because hey - if X can charge 30k for their hatch, so can I!
And don’t get me started on 2 ton electro-SUV-crossovers - wait, is that an Audi?
tronyell x 10 times
You can buy an aftermarket stereo with carplay and backup cameras for like three to five hundred bucks. So you can’t tell me that’s moving car prices up thousands of dollars.
And yeah, this whole “upmarket” thing is such bullshit. Mazda is pulling that crap as well. Nobody is going to take you seriously if you try to sell the Mazda 6 as a BMW fighter when it’s still FWD. Tho I did read they have a new straight six in the works!
a-haaaaa, i see, let me just redesign the 2x din slot because i want to stop you from having the aftermarket alternative - dang, all that customer research suggested the kids want touchscreens, so we better slap that on top of the center console and hide the infotainment unit somewhere below the dash! Yeah, charging at least 1k for replacing a thing in a day that was formerly done in twenty minutes sounds like a thing our customers want.
Now that we got that sorted out, what else do we need…
… you know, these kids like their playstation. We need a Nürburgring lap record.
Can’t afford to go there, boss!
Then put the hardest ride in there and we claim the… best four-door ruggadized-notchback production car record, that’s left for us.
Checkbox ticked, what else… piano-paintjob finish, that’s novel.
Car designing comittees in 201x.
(and before anyone thinks i am biased - the french been there, done exactly that grrrdrrdrffgdbsbsssldkfjffhfhfgdgdhdhdfhfgf)
Mazda with a new straight 6?
Sounds good, but so did the idea of a REX wankel in an electric mazda, and then - my eyes met this
… uh… yeah, that Renault Zoe looks tempting!
That is gorgeous! Yes, I will be fine with Mazda competing with BMW on some models if they put in the right engineering. A RWD 6 with an inline 6 in this day and age would be pretty awesome.
Just don’t slap some piano trim, real wood, and leather in the basic 4 cylinder FWD 3/6/CXWhatever and call it a day and try to charge BMW money for it.
you know, watching k-dramas on netflix gives you a glimpse into the hot korean sedan/fastback market that is completely alien to yuropean shores, and makes me realize we don’t get the cool cars™ anymore or very late in the game. We have the yuropean designed hatches i10, 20,30 and the SUVs left… or consider Lexus - the 2021 IS supposedly won’t launch here, but we have the crossover-hatch-thing that even I cannot like?
i assume that’s the market where you can earn a buck nowadays, and I am out of touch with the hivemind… ooh god, i am firmly in the ‘Middle-aged Salaryman ready for a Midsize Lexus’ bracket and digging myself deeper in.
I have a strong need for this.
i feel like we finally came full circle, and GTA cars are becoming a reality now.
now, if there’s a mod for the BMW M5 that makes it look like the Mafia model from GTA3…
cross-posting content slightly related to this
topic, namely (by now) some old original designs i did in FM3/4.
first up, FM3 & 4:
#1) the beloved SB icon, the Fiat 131 Abarth, donning a nice black, green and orange SB (1.0) paintjob.
complete with birdcloud (computing) and toups (records) shoutout.
#2) a small fun project, doing fake liveries for an ace combat universe racecar, and what better car than the TVR Sagaris (that totally looks faux/virtual racecar, even though it actually exists):
featuring Gründer Industries as main sponsor, as well as OBC (Osean Broadcasting Corporation).
Samsung-frame racing-# template has been reused from a faux-nürburgring car, didn’t want to mess with the template since i was close to the limit of objects on top or one of the sides.
#3) JGTC/Super GT NSX-R, wanted to try a two-design-intersecting livery there.
re-using several korean corporation-decals I did for the Hyundai Genesis Coupe Racing version they put in the game (though I didn’t take any screencaps of that, for whatever reason - maybe it drove like a duck, and I never looked back) and slapped most of them on the NSX. Two-tone liveries are hard to pull off, but among the other SuperGT/JGTC contenders, it almost slotted in nicely.
FH4:
barely touched the editors in FH3 and FH4, aside for masking/accentuating creases in bodywork, like e.g. that additional NSX 2.0 rear-light-cluster-strip,
or some fun-liveries, like turning the 205 Rally 1.6 livery into a totally-lameass 1.9 automatic, four-door paintjob that resembles my first car (including minor details like the replaced front bumper being from another/lesser trim-line, without the faux-chrome strip, as well as the hatch-door strip being stepped like in the original version, see the real car intermingled below)
these guys built a contemporary mostly what-if LeMans-'69-spec Jaguar XJ13.
I think the XJ13 is prob. the best car.
That tartan interior trim… 
Nice.
[edit]
I just had to put this one cause it’s the perfect metaphor for me trying to make friends.
I rather like this
It’s quite cute but
the sporty mink camper is sturdy enough to reach remote destinations while being light enough ti hook up to electric vehicles without significantly impacting their driving range. its aerodynamic shape and frameless solid shell structure result in just 490 kilograms.
The trailer itself is another 260kg and uhh towing an extra 1700 pounds is gonna significantly affect the range of your EV lol
significant is the operative word for sure huh
I can’t help but be very charmed by it though
Kazunori Yamauchi should be executive producer of this car, and they absolutely should call it the… wait for it… Gran Turismo
and last but not least, when you’re waiting for a free spot on a (then broken) charger, you will be forced to listen to this track
in an infinite loop, until you are feeling like you are in Gran Turismo… forever and ever and ever and ever…
