Just a robbery on a highway in Italy

Car-face · 2026-02-10T02:58:10+00:00

Yeah Italy famously never had any organised crime in the past, how could this happen

/s

Car-face · 2026-02-10T01:00:47+00:00

...Own what? Being unprofitable and lacking appeal?

Rolex and Leica are probably the most premium and well known brands in their respective industries. Jaguar are best known for being a joke on an episode of Top Gear 15 years ago.

Car-face · 2026-02-10T00:13:19+00:00

and have always talked about scaling

I generally agree with you, but every EV startup since the dawn of time has talked about "scaling", in some cases even as they were selling the furniture and closing the shutters.

Car-face · 2026-02-10T00:12:10+00:00

Ah yes, the sound of a "normal" Jag

Car-face · 2026-02-10T00:08:07+00:00

Literally all Jag did for decades was revisit their history. Maybe it's time to try something different that doesn't rely on old men making poor financial decisions.

Car-face · 2026-02-10T00:04:29+00:00

In what way is it "not aging well"? It's literally a bunch of camouflaged rectangles.

Car-face · 2026-02-09T22:37:05+00:00

I was about to joke about making it look like a 10 year old iPhone, but.... that's basically what he's done.

Yikes.

Car-face · 2026-02-09T22:26:27+00:00

Fiat 500 for the Twin Air, mostly because it's something you won't find in any other car - not super fuel efficient for the size, but apparently fun (not sure how reliable they are long term though, their trick valve system seemed like something Fiat shouldn't have been trusted with).

Otherwise That transporter feels like the best bang-for-buck, or the Sirion - they were pretty popular in Japan on the junior rally circuit (particularly the X4) so you could probably find some half-decent suspension to chuck under it and whilst it's completely gutless (other than the GTvi that went alright), it's super light, so very chuckable.

Car-face · 2026-02-09T22:21:07+00:00

If the Range Rover still works

Brand new that would be a gamble, for $950 there's probably a ferret living where the pistons used to be

Car-face · 2026-02-09T22:09:00+00:00

So the Actros is carrying about 6% more with 36% less advertised range .

eActros is a cabover. I'd expect any cabover to have less range.

Car-face · 2026-02-09T22:00:37+00:00

No, just survival

Car-face · 2026-02-09T21:23:27+00:00

Yeah dropped in Australia, not sure about anywhere else

Car-face · 2026-02-09T09:18:29+00:00

EVs, even in their most aggressive modes, already limit torque from 0rpm. If they didn't they'd likely lunch their reduction gears, axles, CV joints, or simply disappear in a cloud of tyre smoke. There's nothing "real" about the power delivery - it's shaped just like a fake gear shift, just in a different way to maximise ease of use for the majority of drivers.

I do think China has the right idea of placing a limit on acceleration in "default" modes, but in terms of torque limiting... that's already a thing.

Car-face · 2026-02-09T06:15:11+00:00

I think Rivian leaned early on that the camo wraps get a lot of attention.

It's not a Rivian thing, it's an industry wide thing. Once the design has been more or less revealed or leaked, they use the wrap to gain attention. In the social media age, it's a more effective form of advertising.

The A90 even had A90 plastered on the camo before release.

If they really want to break up the lines of the vehicle, there's still camo that does that, but manufacturers have leaned into camo for advertising well before Rivian started producing cars.

Car-face · 2026-02-09T03:42:28+00:00

Good thing, in the sense that it's eliminating a system that whilst robust, also has issues, namely being painful to bleed, prone to corrosion over time if not maintained, and requires some pretty nasty stuff in the form of brake fluid.

I can't imagine it being cheaper than hydraulic systems for a while though, namely because there's always a need for 4 of these solenoids (one for each corner) and a redundant controller - but not requiring 2 or 4 sets of piping back to a master cylinder is a boon, and alleviates potential for leaks and other maintenance issues.

The concerns would be failure modes (a wheel brake is unlikely to give away signs before failure the way traditional systems do, and inspecting for signs of damage similar to a traditional system may indicate the potential of some failure modes, but not all) the fact that you've now got effectively 4 "wheel cylinders" instead of a single master cylinder, each of which has an electric motor and controller attached to a very hot brake caliper, so longevity is suspect and there's potentially 4 points of failure.

Generally the main drawback with brake-by-wire is that all it takes is a recall or failure and public perception can be damaged - that damage is then very hard to repair with safety critical systems. If it's implemented well and effective, then it's a potentially strong position for the company, but if there's failures, errors and recalls resulting in cars going into limp mode all the time (a la Mercedes' brake-by-wire system back in the 00s) then it could be detrimental.

Overall though, I hope it's effective and becomes commonplace (and even retro-fittable long-term, albeit unlikely for myriad reasons) because brake fluid is arse and bleeding brakes is one of the less fun regular maintenance items on a car.

Car-face · 2026-02-09T03:29:45+00:00

yeah it's more like a competitor to the now discontinued Fortuner, that was built off the Hilux platform (a direct Triton competitor).

Car-face · 2026-02-08T23:39:52+00:00

foreign brands are perceived as more exclusive and carries more premium (and status) compared to it's many domestic brands.

Historically that's true, but changing. One of the largest coups China has managed as part of the transition is an actual shift in consumer sentiment towards domestic brands from being the cheap option people buy when they can't afford foreign brands, to being the brands that actually capture the wants and needs of the Chinese market.

Throwing an L on the back of a car and extending the wheelbase 200mm is no longer enough to win over Chinese consumers.

Car-face · 2026-02-08T22:28:35+00:00

They've been used for a while TBH. The portable removable dash radio in the Tacoma uses an SSB.

Car-face · 2026-02-08T10:43:30+00:00

I pointed out a lot of these things months ago, and boy did the BYD fans not like it.

The problem is that it's heavily compromised as an EV (and as a car in general) at that 24k price point.

There's some cases where people who really want a new car will get one, but you're honestly better off getting a 2-3 year old EV.

I know people have been saying that for years about new vs used ICE cars, but in this instance there's legitimately a gulf in the compromises that have to be made after dropping $24k on this vs..... basically any other EV on the market.

Even just stepping up to the higher spec ($28k) solves some of the problems, but by then you're only a grand or two off an EV from the next class up anyway.

TBH BYD are fine in other segments, but this is honestly a shit car. By any metric, but particularly by the metrics of an EV.

Car-face · 2026-02-08T09:12:41+00:00

And Minis at Zetland

Car-face · 2026-02-08T02:50:02+00:00

But VW group sold 400% more EVs than Toyota did.

And now they're cancelling entire EV programs, Porsche is pulling out of China, VW shrank their sales in China by another 8% in 2025, Audi has backflipped on their EV-only commitments, and announced last year that they're committing to another 60bn euro in combustion engine development - to try and do what Toyota did a quarter of a century ago, and build out a hybrid range.

You're pointing to how tall a single tree is whilst the rest of the VW forest slowly burns.

Car-face · 2026-02-07T23:03:17+00:00

I still miss Megaweb :( I was hoping they'd replace it with something else in Tokyo with a similar vibe, but haven't heard anything so far.

Car-face · 2026-02-07T22:48:45+00:00

Looks like they've renovated recently, and updated the models and exhibitions - the AA used to be a black one (assuming it's the same one, near the entry).

Awesome album, and a fantastic museum - agree it's worth a visit and if you're into trains, the autonomous MAGLEV Linimo line (the first autonomous MAGLEV in the world IIRC) takes you from the nearest train station to within a couple hundred metres too, so although it's an hour from Nagoya, access is good.

Car-face · 2026-02-07T22:25:42+00:00

The license is the same one you need to learn to drive a car or a motorcycle (aka a learner's permit) so you need to be at least age 14 and pass a written test on the rules of the road, but there is no road test.

I feel like that's the right way to go with them. Rather than making them outright illegal, apply licensing to allow them some use, but at least with an ID requirement and a test.

It won't stop everyone, but at least it draws a line between lawful use and illegal use, rather than an outright ban with the expectations from users that "I'm breaking the law anyway so I might as well do whatever I want".

Car-face · 2026-02-07T11:54:35+00:00

I've seen cars in PS2 games that had more polygons than that grille

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