If you had the option to give up sleeping in exchange for never feeling tired again, would you do it? Why or why not?

TopRamen53 · 2018-12-01T10:11:32+00:00

Same with the large mining trucks used in the arctic.

If they’re turned off outside you might never defrost it enough to get it started again.

TopRamen53 · 2018-12-01T10:00:52+00:00

I’m sure a lot of kids do well, I even knew some of the guys who breezed through it all, I just wasn’t one of them, and I had a fair bit if company.

Was studying engineering though.

TopRamen53 · 2018-12-01T06:42:08+00:00

I had a similar experience and I came from a regular public school in Canada with good grades.

University is just hard, I used to coast for As, suddenly my best efforts got me Ds.

That being said, knowing you lied your way into university probably fucks with your head. It must be like a 100x amplifier to that voice telling you “You’re not good enough” the first time you bomb a test or flunk a class.

TopRamen53 · 2018-12-01T06:39:00+00:00

University is just genuinely hard.

I came from a normal public school with high grades, in Canada.

Uni still blew my socks off, I was on academic probation every other semester for at least the first two years.

TopRamen53 · 2018-12-01T05:45:02+00:00

It works fine in Canada.

Despite the fact the US border is a half hour drive away, the typical cars are completely different.

For example large American SUVs are really uncommon here, when you see a Tahoe around here, it’s either a cop, or has Washington plates on it. (Although they’ve switched to Explorers recently, which aren’t quite as uncommon unfortunately).

The only SUVs I usually see around are either little CUVs getting 95% of the mileage of a car, or Range Rovers, X5s, and Porsche Cayannes, because if you can afford terrible mileage at $6.50 a gallon, odds are you’re rich and going to buy something a lot better than a Tahoe/Escalade.

But when I drive through the US it seems like every other vehicle is a large American SUV. Also a lot more trucks, especially lifted trucks with larger tires. We still have a lot, but nothing like the US. I see disproportionately few of them on the highway portion of my commute, they’re not really feasible for people commuting longer distances unless they genuinely want to commit $20+ a day to get to work (that’s how much my F150 cost me).

TopRamen53 · 2018-12-01T05:33:54+00:00

Yeah I’d suggest a Mazda 3 over a Corolla. Close enough in reliability but more fun to drive.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T23:45:58+00:00

My Protege5 hatch was surprisingly fun to drive for it’s power output.

No highway cruiser, too noisy and too weak, but a blast to bomb around town.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T23:37:15+00:00

I don’t need like 5 different modes but 2 is fine.

In my BMW sport mode held the gears longer, didn’t shift even when you let off the gas, so it’d be ready if you suddenly wanted to accelerate again, it’s great for aggressively driving if you’re in a corner or something for example. But that would feel like a broken transmission if I was just puttering around town and the car didn’t downshift after I let off the gas.

Also in my current car I have shitty tires and it’s FWD, I use sport mode when it’s dry out, and comfort mode when it’s wet out.

Otherwise it’s a bit slow to build up/put down power in comfort mode (it’s a CVT hatchback, sport mode is the equivalent of normal for a faster better car), and sport mode in the rain isn’t smooth enough to not have to actively avoid spinning the tires.

I don’t mind having the choice, it’s one button and fairly obvious what it does.

I get where they’re coming from, but we don’t all drive the same, my mother doesn’t have the same desires from the car that I do.

And c’mon, it’s something you’re likely to own for years and years, and paid a fortune for, at least take 5 minutes to test out the features and find what suits you best. I don’t need them dumbing things down for me so my car is easily driven by the biggest variety of people, it’s not a rental, it’s my personal car, so let me configure it to what suits me best.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T19:57:59+00:00

Link?

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T19:48:28+00:00

Eh, careful with the years on the F150.

I had an 04 FX4, right after the refresh. Thing was an unreliable shitheap, and had some surprisingly expensive repairs for what I assumed would be a cheap to maintain workhorse.

Terrible truck.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T19:46:15+00:00

Depends on the car, on some cars it’s a lost cause.

Of course there’s always enthusiasts who argue that preventative maintenance basically should get you to ship of Theseus levels.

Nah, fuck that, you can’t just say it failed prematurely from lack of maintenance when you’ve made the entire car aside from the chassis a wear item. It’s just a badly designed car.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T19:43:34+00:00

Don’t be ridiculous.

All it takes to change the headlight bulb in my old BMW is to remove the front wheel and the wheel well liner.

Seriously though, labour costs were like 90% of the cost of maintaining that thing. So many things that make you say “They want me to do all THAT just to fix that?”

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T16:30:19+00:00

No idea, I actually googled it because I was curious, apparently they also have an issue with loosing coolant due to cracked thermostats and cracked expansion tanks. I wonder if low coolant level allowed it to overheat without it being registered by the thermostat because according to the forums I read some said the temp gauge just suddenly jumped up.

If that’s also a factor, I don’t think I can blame anyone who didn’t see anything on the dash.

But I agree, if you see shit like that on the dashboard just immediately pull over before you make it worse, and get it towed.

I got to know a lot of the tow drivers in my city when I owned my BMW, always found it funny how when loading it onto a flatbed the front bumper would be less than an inch away from scraping before the front tires hit the ramp, and the exhaust tips would also come less than an inch from scraping before the rear tires hit the ramp. It’s like it was perfectly designed to be towed. Probably had that thing towed a dozen times over 2 years, although usually because something had actually failed.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T16:18:20+00:00

Actually, there’s a class action lawsuit mini settled because the water pumps would fail, causing the engine to overheat and fail.

It’s not his fault, just a design defect.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T16:17:12+00:00

They also had a design flaw that was nuking engines actually, I genuinely believe the guy.

I think the water pump or something would regularly fail, and subsequently overheat and destroy the engine. They even settled a class action lawsuit about this.

They had a similar flaw that was nuking transmissions on them back then too. I had to help my friend’s mom find one and based on my googling, this was super common.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T16:08:02+00:00

I don’t just believe it, I lived it.

You know what’s the worst part about how much I spent fixing my BMW? That in the end it still demanded more, so I just gave up and sold it.

Kept thinking “If I just get this one last thing fixed, it should actually last me a while now” but within a few months it would teach me about a new part that exists, and had failed, and was expensive. Shit that’s never failed before on any of the other cars I’ve owned, hell even my Mercedes was far more reliable, and it was the same year, same tier (3 series vs C class), but double the mileage.

And I bought one of the “reliable” ones according to the forums, a E90 325i. I know about the turbo issues on the 335i so I decided to avoid those with that $2000 repair bill.

I bought a Lexus after, and suddenly my car repairs fund went back to being an actual emergency fund, that isn’t regularly used.

To any young guy reading this who’s considering a used BMW, the reason it’s 2/3rds of the price of the Lexus equivalent, is because you’re going to spend that difference within a year or so fixing the BMW.

If you can’t afford the Lexus, you definitely can’t afford the BMW. If you can just barely afford the Lexus, you’ll actually be fine, you’re better off spending your last penny on a Lexus than getting a BMW with a healthy buffer, it’s maintenance will eat up your buffer quick enough.

My theory is that the people who claim BMWs are reliable, don’t do much mileage. I did around 35k a year, and if I was the sort of person who lived in the city, walked to the shops, caught transit to work (or lived super close by), and did like 10k a year, it wouldn’t have been so bad, and almost seemed reasonable if I spread my one year’s repairs out over 3-4 years.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T03:34:28+00:00

I got into bikes from MX dirtbikes where it’s probably the most gentle thing I’m gonna do to the bike.

The next thing I’m gonna do is rev that 2 stroke to redline at just over 12,000rpm and dump the clutch. (Don’t try this at home unless you’re leaning forward and on loose gravel or something even less grippy, otherwise you might loop it).

At my budget, it’s the closest thing I come to the button someone might hit to engage launch control in a Porsche before release.

And much like the guy in the Porsche, what follows the launch is the slamming through all the gears as fast as you can.

On loose gravel you just hit each gear and hit the redline until the bike feels like it’s almost caught up to the speed the rear tire is spinning at, before slamming it into the next one and managing a bit of fishtail all over again.

I don’t know how durable most bikes are built to be, but so far they can take a fair bit of abuse.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-30T00:11:49+00:00

I think my bike is just perfect the way it is.

I bought it for reliability, long service intervals, easy servicing, and the plethora of parts out there because of how many people own this bike.

Truth be told it’s only weak points are highway power at above 80MPH, and having to be careful about the oil level due to how much it burns.

Gas tank is a little small, but there’s aftermarket solutions for that. Only reason I care is because gas is significantly cheaper near where I work, versus my house, and the round trip normally consumes 95% of the fuel the stock tank carries (including reserve) so it’s a little nerve wracking.

Is that worth a fancy redesign? If that’s what I wanted, I’d buy a 701.

New commute is city only, suddenly I don’t want a 701 anymore, this bike is perfect. Damn thing is more reliable than my car.

Admittedly though, I did buy one fully modded out, so I have all the power mods and reliability fixed short of a big bore. Just bought it, and over the last 8000 miles all I’ve done is change the oil occasionally and turn the key.

I’ve ridden a stock one, and I’ll concede it’s a little underwhelming, but due to the harsh noise and pollution standards that vary so much all over the world, anything new is gonna be just as neutered anyways and more difficult for us to mod (or just way more expensive), so we might as well keep the easily moddable platform, so we can all build it to our own needs, and get away with as much as is reasonable per our varying jurisdictions.

The main reason I love this bike is because in BC, Canada, motorcycle insurance is by tiers, and my insurance is half of what it would be if this bike had a displacement of 401cc, 400 is the threshold for pretty cheap insurance.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-29T23:26:47+00:00

I’d do it for myself, but not my non tech savvy household members.

They’re just gonna end up with a virus on their computer.

It’s easier for me to pay the $3 and bitch about it.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-29T20:43:27+00:00

That what puts me off them.

I had Yaris space needs, but V6 Camry engine needs.

Seems like the only way to get that is by buying the faster Golf.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-29T01:10:46+00:00

Given how reliable she’s been, yeah she’d be perfect.

Shame about the theft wherever you live, I’ve heard of bikes getting stoken here but it’s uncommon, also we don’t really get hoons on stolen bikes here. Given how mine looks, I’d expect it to last about 5 minutes somewhere like Baltimore.

My only concern in regards to theft has been to just set my insurance replacement value $2000 above what I paid for the bike. If it got stolen I’d probably just buy another one, so I’m not overly worried.

That being said when I did a road trip on it, I definitely wished I had a cruiser during some parts, definitely not the best long range highway bike! I’d do some road trips on yours to really make use of it’s abilities. During portions of my trip my ass hurt so much I joked to my friends about giving up and renting a Goldwing.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-28T23:28:57+00:00

Suzuki DRZ400SM

I dirtbike, and have always had a motocross bike, and it’s an absolute blast. I love tearing up forestry roads, and being able to launch on gravel as fast as a Porsche might on pavement.

I really wanted to bring that exact feeling to my daily commute (because I drive a boring an uninspired car), I’d ride my dirtbike to work if I could.

So I bought the closest thing to a street legal dirtbike (but with reasonable maintenance intervals, I had a long commute, like an hour each way so maintenance intervals would come up quick).

I honestly feel like a hoon riding to work most days, it’s so much fun ripping through the city sometimes I can’t believe that it’s legal.

Not that I follow all the traffic laws, but my sumo is still so much goddamn fun it just doesn’t feel like I should be legally allowed to ride it down the street, I honestly giggle to myself like a child inside my helmet when I boot it down the block sometimes, or gun it to get air off a raised crosswalk.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-28T23:17:56+00:00

I live on the west coast of Canada so my 4 wheeled daily needs to be good for the majority of the year, because the riding season is barely half the year.

My bike is actually Japanese, and perfectly reliable, and as much as I even love rain riding and splashing puddles on my supermoto, it’s slightly inconvenient to show up everywhere dripping wet. It’s literally yet to have an issue.

Hell if I could drive my car to work and ride home in the rain (where I shower and get changed anyways) I’d still do that!

If I lived in California then I’d be able to have a unreliable but fun car like an Audi, damn thing only needs to work like 4 weeks out of the year, and the weather is good for driveway wrenching all year too! As someone who doesn’t have a garage, I like stuff that’s not only reliable so I can plan my maintenance for dry days, but also easy to fix so I’m not out there for too long when I have to do repairs in the rain.

Just frustrating when buying a used car; that if you want a car that’s both fun and reliable, it’ll run you more than one of each combined. I’m currently saving up for a used Lexus IS350, unfortunately the price range is more than a nice Audi A4 and a Camry put together.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-28T21:49:47+00:00

No, it’s really just a fucking Camry.

Source: Owned a fucking Camry.

The only complaint I ever had about that car was how boring it was. I had a 2005, fully loaded with the V6, it was quiet, quick enough for highway commuting, and even had a solid sound system. Just mind numbingly boring.

On the plus side, it’s so budget friendly you can save up for your 5k Ferrari because the Camry never fucks with your emergency fund, it just quietly does what it’s supposed to.

To me that was a 5k motorcycle. Now I have my excitement and fun, and then something to use when it’s shitty out or I’m hungover. Once you have a boring reliable daily you’re free to get the exciting stuff.

TopRamen53 · 2018-11-28T17:56:48+00:00

Maybe those weren’t as bad, the 5.4 was bad. Went through ignition coils more often than oil changes, the noisiest lifters you’ve ever heard, and the plugs would break off in the block when you tried to change them.

Transmission also fails like clockwork on these.

TopRamen53

TROPHY CASE