Armed Polite Society

Luxury features have trickled down to mass market brands such that the only reason to buy most luxury marques is to say / show that you have one. At least when I was a kid, when features considered luxurious at the time made their way into Chevys and Fords, the likes of Mercedes and BMW could still claim with authority that their cars were more solidly-built. That doesn't seem to be true any more.

The luxury brands are by and large junk

The everyday brands are usually much more reliable

My 2014 3 series was supremely reliable.  Only need oil changes and tires, and the tires were kinda my fault.

In comparison I've seen some *Very* shitty reliability out of "regular" cars.  My Aunt's Dodge Journey is a rolling POS.  Chrysler as a whole got MORE reliable when it merged with Fiat, which is not a good thing. The wife had a cavalier and then a camaro that were both cheaply made crap.  Even my F150 (which I like) has needed some pretty expensive manifolds and turbos, plus it cracked transmission cooler lines and left me stranded.

Meanwhile every time I go to Africa and Asia I see 3 and 5 series and C classes with 500,000 miles on them still chugging along running goat-piss bio-diesel or whatever 15 octane gas they can find.

In the "Luxury brands are cantankorus" column I did have a 2018 Alfa Romeo for a while that was ....not reliable.  ANd expensive and time consuming to fix.

Apparently Soros Inc. sends these paid protestors to really crappy acting classes before they graduate and get their "Heroes of the people" certificates.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1780636069479759901

https://twitchy.com/brettt/2024/04/17/enjoy-this-video-of-a-pro-hamas-protester-screaming-in-pain-while-cops-remove-him-n2395226

I look at most of the features that come on a "luxury" vehicle and ask myself... why would I want that?

The only features I TRULY want on a vehicle are heated seats, heated mirrors, and fog lights.

Unfortunately, I also prefer standard transmissions, which anymore means that vehicles so equipped are generally bottom of the line.

Subaru went that route a few years ago. You want a standard transmission? Nope, you can't get heated seats, heated mirrors, fog lights, an engine or doors.

REALLY annoying. My first Outback, a 1997 model, had heated seats, fog lights, and heated mirrors with a standard.

My second Outback had climate control, leather seats, heated seats and mirrors and fog ligths and a standard.

My first Forester, a 2012, was an automatic, but it was more baseline.

The 2015 Forester I got back in 2020 has a 6 speed manual, but by then you couldn't get any upgrades on it. If you wanted heated seats/mirrors, you had to go up to Subaru's soul-crushing mind numbing CVT transmission.

I paid $500 to get the dealership to add fog lights, but there was no way for them to add heated mirrors or heated seats because the wiring harness for the base model didn't support those connections.

I REALLY miss the heated mirrors. Heated seats are nice, but heated mirrors I really see as a necessity.

I hate to say it, but if I ever replace this Subaru, if they don't have a manual transmission model available I'll likely go to another manufacturer. And I've been a loyal Scooby person for the past 20 years.

Come on, deep down you really need to have your vehicle beep at you when you get to close too the edge of the lane.  And when you are coming up on another vehicle a bit too fast.  And when you seatbelt sensor is a little off and not seeing the seatbelt clicked in.   

"THE CANNIBALS ATE MY UNCLE!"

A few days ago I reported about how a Google employee achieved blessed martyrdom after he was fired for interrupting a town hall to decry Google's participation in programs providing AI to Israel.

Today, it's reported another 28 blessed martyrs have been terminated for, among other things, protesting against services to Israel.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/18/google-terminates-28-employees-after-series-of-protests-read-the-memo.html


I love this line... "This evening, Google indiscriminately fired over two dozen workers, including those among us who did not directly participate in yesterday’s historic, bicoastal 10-hour sit-in protests... Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about terms and conditions of our labor. These firings were clearly retaliatory."

Congratulations, aholes, you've just been introduced to several important concepts:

1. You don't have the right to take over space that isn't your as you protest.

2. You don't have the right to trespass during your protests.

3. You just learned that actions often have consequences.


BLESSED BE THE MARTYRS!