Cars and Trucks Are Changing Forever

[hiptech]

I'm sure most here have been brought up to love cars from an early age. If not you've probably been bitten by the bug sometime soon after. The former is true for me. I was raised to love cars before I can recall, I grew up around dealerships and been involved with cars in one form or another almost all my life.

That said there's been a trend over the last 15+ years that many have noticed and most have experienced whenever they have gone to shop or test drive cars. That is cars have become far too complex and outrageously expensive. But equally distressing is despite all the advancements they're feeling less involved, disconnected and mostly just not as fun to drive. I've felt this way for some time and wondered if anyone else was paying attention. Well apparently some have. There's far too many YT channels with car reviews that feel unsatisfying to watch with canned descriptions and never offering any real insight or being as critical as we might if we were talking here or among ourselves collectively. In short they feel like product demonstrators explaining an appliance or as I refer to them "carpliances."

Anyway I thought I'd share one YT commentary by someone who you may or may not have heard of. His name is Mark and his channel is "SavageGeese." I won't go into anymore other than I like his honesty, his technical skills and his ability to cut through the BS that others seem to shy away from mostly because they are afraid of the backlash from car manufacturers who will refuse to loan cars for review.

I'm curious to see how much of what he says here you agree with. Personally I find most of what he talks about to be spot on...

[Grumpys93]

That is what the world is coming to, removing the human out of things. I haven't got to experience any sporty cars, except when I first got to learn to drive stick in a Porsche Boxster. But that was only in a neighborhood. So I never got to experience that feeling of taking a sports car or super car around a track. But I can totally see what he is saying and I totally agree, one of my old instructors in Pensacola owned a GT3 and I loved it, I drooled over it. I always wanted to own a Porsche 911 turbo, but I don't think I'll ever achieve that goal and that is ok.

But this is one of the reasons why I am keeping the Accord and driving it for as long as I can. It may not be sporty, but it is pretty raw when it comes to feel. I want to get my hands on an 90-99 Hatchback and throw my h22 in it but like he said prices are outrageous and its only going to get worst.

[CyborgGT]

Yes! SavageGeese is probably my favorite car review source at this point. Them and Jason Cammisa - he's on Hagerty's channel, as well as a podcast he co-hosts called The Carmudgeon Show on the ISSIMI Official channel. Especially on Carmudgeon you'll get some brutal honesty from him. I tend to agree with Mark on a lot of his points. I have no interest in owning a new car because of all the tech. I feel it all just caters to inattentive driving, rather than fixing our system to make people better, safer participants in traffic. And of course from a performance standpoint, it sounds like they're becoming increasingly more numb.

[Raf99]

I use to watch savagegeese too. Now I've been watching carwow for weeks. All good chans. But ya... I'm pretty much done with the car business here, it's just so sad now. We're in the world of a new generation who all want the latest new thing. Like apple sheep lovers who buy it for the name vs. the love. Manufactures taking advantage of the sheep. Pretty soon there will be an EV apple car with a wheel, pedals, and seats. No music, no nothing and they'll call it the "back to nature EV" or some shit. And the sheep in the world will lose their minds over it. It will have a range of 30,000miles and it will be the instant stop! to fuel based cars. But seriously. As soon as someone makes a electric motor (vehicle) that can go xxxxxx miles no-one will buy gas. They may buy diesel for distance + power, large trucks / boats, etc. The dumbing / numbing down has already started. But hi-give to those manufactures giving at least one option. Mazda, Honda, Chevy, etc at least still offer a manual option although some computer assistance may still be involved. I got out of the Acura game bc they went non-manual and AWD computer numbing tech. I've heard from many that the cb7 is the last Honda that you actually "felt".

[verothacamaro]

Yes! SavageGeese is probably my favorite car review source at this point. Them and Jason Cammisa - he's on Hagerty's channel, as well as a podcast he co-hosts called The Carmudgeon Show on the ISSIMI Official channel. Especially on Carmudgeon you'll get some brutal honesty from him. I tend to agree with Mark on a lot of his points. I have no interest in owning a new car because of all the tech. I feel it all just caters to inattentive driving, rather than fixing our system to make people better, safer participants in traffic. And of course from a performance standpoint, it sounds like they're becoming increasingly more numb.

I love Camisa. He's a car guys, car guy. He's does a great job finding the good in anything he drives which makes his reviews on mundane or generic cars even more entertaining to watch.

[Size9zombie]

This is very on point, I have had similar conversations with car enthusiasts and non enthusiasts alike. It is deeply saddening, and it's not just the automotive world that is heading this way at breakneck speed. I don't personally own anything newer than an '05 and have no plan to. I haven't heard of this channel before, but have subbed to it now, thank you for that. The mood of this video makes me think of where Jeremy Clarkson was talking about the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish.

[CyborgGT]

Every time I hear someone say "this is the last of its kind" regarding some big naturally aspirated engine, I think back to that very Top Gear video... and then remember how long ago that was: 2009. Think about all the big-engined cars that have come out since then. Dodge alone has been on an absolute warpath. I don't see why ICE cars and EVs can't coexist. If the governments of the world (and the general public) really cared about emissions impacting the environment, shouldn't they be going after the airline and shipping industries before attacking the average car consumer? Or even the environmental toll it's taking to produce those "clean" EVs?

But boy do I wish I could afford the maintenance on an Aston Martin. The V8 Vantage from that era is one of the most beautiful cars ever made, in my opinion, and has a fairly affordable cost of entry nowadays!

[Size9zombie]

I agree, there are plenty of huge engine vehicles on the market and that won't stop anytime soon I don't think. I don't care much for electric vehicles or hybrids for that matter. The strip mining it takes to produce those batteries is horrendous to the environment and once they are spent, it's hazardous waste. Charging them mean a much larger strain on an already squeezed power grid along with copious amounts more of coal being burned. At this moment I can't see them being a viable option to internal combustion, and unless many things can get sorted out, I don't see them being viable in the future.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021...dead-batteries

This is a pretty good article about it for those who are curious what is being done to keep EVs from being an ecological disaster.

[CyborgGT]

As far as the power grid is concerned, I've read that that whole argument is based in myth and hearsay; that the system can handle it as-is, and is easily adaptable if strain ever does become an issue.

https://www.virta.global/blog/myth-b...the-power-grid

[Size9zombie]

The grid is old, and very fragile. Brown outs or straight up blackouts happen all the time, from too many people running their air conditioners at once.

Here are a few recent articles about our failing power grid.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.was...outputType=amp
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc6ony...own-power-grid

https://www.americansecurityproject....urity-concern/

[owequitit]

I use to watch savagegeese too. Now I've been watching carwow for weeks. All good chans. But ya... I'm pretty much done with the car business here, it's just so sad now. We're in the world of a new generation who all want the latest new thing. Like apple sheep lovers who buy it for the name vs. the love. Manufactures taking advantage of the sheep. Pretty soon there will be an EV apple car with a wheel, pedals, and seats. No music, no nothing and they'll call it the "back to nature EV" or some shit. And the sheep in the world will lose their minds over it. It will have a range of 30,000miles and it will be the instant stop! to fuel based cars. But seriously. As soon as someone makes a electric motor (vehicle) that can go xxxxxx miles no-one will buy gas. They may buy diesel for distance + power, large trucks / boats, etc. The dumbing / numbing down has already started. But hi-give to those manufactures giving at least one option. Mazda, Honda, Chevy, etc at least still offer a manual option although some computer assistance may still be involved. I got out of the Acura game bc they went non-manual and AWD computer numbing tech. I've heard from many that the cb7 is the last Honda that you actually "felt".

The anti-Apple sheep are just as much sheep as the Apple sheep. I use a lot a products from Apple, and not a single one was purchased because I am a sheep...

But the rest I agree with. I have largely lost interest in new cars too. The more they cram BEV's down my throat, the more I want to spend on something like a pre-1969 big block muscle car without even cats on it.

[Straight Success]

Demolition Man!!!

[CyborgGT]

Anyone else tempted by the new GR86? Gotta admit I'm really liking what I'm seeing from the videos that are coming out. I don't see why Honda couldn't bring the S2000 back as a competitor and keep it naturally aspirated. Keep it light, and we don't need the power that would push it into a more expensive class. The Toyota does come off as one of those 'love letter to the sports car' kind of experiences.

[AccordWarrior]

Anyone else tempted by the new GR86? Gotta admit I'm really liking what I'm seeing from the videos that are coming out. I don't see why Honda couldn't bring the S2000 back as a competitor and keep it naturally aspirated. Keep it light, and we don't need the power that would push it into a more expensive class. The Toyota does come off as one of those 'love letter to the sports car' kind of experiences.

I'm very 50/50. While I know making it a targa would add undesirable weight in the wrong location, I feel like it needs "something more" to truly appeal to me. I drove an FR-S when it first came out in an Auto-X setting and maybe the fact it was automatic didn't help, but I found the comments about it being underpowered to be extremely dead on. It would upshift and I'd brake for a corner and it didn't have the logic to downshift and it would just fall on its face. I am sure the manual would have helped that a lot, but you'd have to be very good at keeping the revs up all over the track. It just wasn't all that fun to push, but admittedly I was pushing too hard compared to the track. I know the new model is faster, so I'm sure that will hlep. That same summer I did a similar event with an Ford Focus ST and the extra oomph of the turbo made the whole experience a lot more fun.

I'm very interested to see where the Z slots in for price. It's not as much pure sports car as the GR86, but I love the looks (why couldn't you be a T-Top!) and offering the manual is key. Had the offered the removable roof I'd be trying to figure out how to raise enough capital to swing one.

What I'm excited to see is the new Integra. Here's to hoping it's got something lke the Accord 2.0 and three pedals.

[CyborgGT]

Maybe I'm just getting too much enjoyment out of being able to beat the hell out of my even more pathetic RSX without getting in trouble.

And for some reason I don't care about the new Integra. Maybe it's the FWD I expect it to have? I think it's awesome that Acura is bringing it back, especially with the Integra name, but I don't know. I don't even care about the CTR. I have my FWD cars, I'm not interested in getting rid of them, and I'm ready to move on once I'm in a position to get a third car, I guess.