So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[GHT]

The more kitted-out in Expensive Bicycle Gear a bicyclist is, the less likely that bicyclist is to observe the rules of the road. At least that's been my observation around here.

You are right, I have noticed that with car owners too, the more expensive the car the more the plebs should get out of the way. I actually saw one of those Range Rover type of cars, parked in the middle of four parking bays in a supermarket car park. If they had done that in a municipal car park it would have attracted a considerable fine.

One of the most expensive and sought after places to live in London is the district of Chelsea. An area where every other car is a four by four, that's why they are dubbed: "Chelsea Tractors."

 

[tonyb]

...

One of the most expensive and sought after places to live in London is the district of Chelsea. An area where every other car is a four by four, that's why they are dubbed: "Chelsea Tractors."

Around here a 4WD isn’t all for show. It snows here, and while the various jurisdictions do a bang-up job of keeping the freeways and surface arterials plowed and de-iced, the side streets NEVER get cleared. The police cruisers are mostly Ford Explorers.

But yes, if I were to hazard a guess, it would be that the higher the price of the SUV in the Whole Foods parking lot, the less likely it is to ever go off-road.

I’ve been told that Ford is dropping sedans from its product lineup. Those things just don’t sell like they used to.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In this ad-hoc drive-in theatre deal we're doing here, we have a system where we park cars according to classification -- trucks, SUVs, conventional sedans, and compacts are all grouped in their own rows so that there won't be any blocked views.

One of the kids working parking detail for us asked "What's a 'sedan?'"

In a very few years, the word will be as archaic as "phaeton" or "cabriolet."

 

[Benny Holiday]

Most of the gyms are open here, but while I used to go every lunchtime, with the virus wreaking havoc everywhere I'm not ready to go back yet (is there any place more unsanitary than a gym?). So I've taken to going for quick half-hour walks around the local CBD, and there's barely a day goes by that a food delivery rider on a bicycle doesn't fly past me on the sidewalk with about an inch to spare between me and him.

 

[belfastboy]

In this ad-hoc drive-in theatre deal we're doing here, we have a system where we park cars according to classification -- trucks, SUVs, conventional sedans, and compacts are all grouped in their own rows so that there won't be any blocked views.

One of the kids working parking detail for us asked "What's a 'sedan?'"

In a very few years, the word will be as archaic as "phaeton" or "cabriolet."

We drove around west Texas for a month last year.....I was convinced the government had made 'sedan's' illegal because we didn't see one......F150 trucks were the compact vehicles. I scared my wife one day outside ElPaso by screaming..."look, look!" ....it was just a Prius but I figured it was akin to seeing a Yeti.

 

[Trenchfriend]

One of the kids working parking detail for us asked "What's a 'sedan?'"

That's, why we always say notchback, here.

S.T.U.F.E.N.H.E.C.K

 

[Lean'n'mean]

One of the kids working parking detail for us asked "What's a 'sedan?'"

Although I have heard the term before I had to google it to know just what type of vehicle it once refered to.

 

[Zombie_61]

...One of the kids working parking detail for us asked "What's a 'sedan?'"...

Answer: "Not a 'coupe'."

 

[Bushman]

You are right, I have noticed that with car owners too, the more expensive the car the more the plebs should get out of the way. I actually saw one of those Range Rover type of cars, parked in the middle of four parking bays in a supermarket car park. If they had done that in a municipal car park it would have attracted a considerable fine.

I find it particularly amusing when the "expensive" car they're driving up my tailpipe is mid-priced at best. I look in the rearview mirror and say, "Relax, Karen, your Lexus is just an overpriced Toyota."

Around here a 4WD isn’t all for show. It snows here, and while the various jurisdictions do a bang-up job of keeping the freeways and surface arterials plowed and de-iced, the side streets NEVER get cleared. The police cruisers are mostly Ford Explorers.

It snows here, and I'm definitely going to need new tires before the snow flies this winter. Definitely thinking of getting the top range tires, as the ones I've got now are the dealership tires and have poor grip in the snow. I've always wanted a 4x4 lifted junker truck just to have fun in. I live in a semi-rural town, and there's plenty of places around here to have fun with four-wheel drive.

 

[GHT]

Are pot holes a menace where you live? They are a blight in our country, The Highways department, whose responsibility it is to keep the roads in good repair, tend to do a temporary fix, that lasts about a week. This a picture of our VW Golf's front coil spring that ran over one pot hole too many. For safety's sake I had both springs replaced. It's got to the point where I try to watch, within the realms of safety, what the car in front is doing, a bounce to the left and he's hit a pot hole, steer a fraction right and hope I miss it.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
A pot hole ruined a tire (sidewall damage) on our van a few months back. Best to replace tires in pairs, so, 400 bucks later ...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pot holes are so deep here they have their own time zones. It's a community joke how bad our streets are -- mine hasn't been paved since 1998, other than the occasionally shovelful of coldpatch in the spring, and you risk your tie rods every time you drive down it. Our Main Street -- US 1, by the way -- gets so bad that they have to put traffic cones around the more dangerous holes. Last year we had one that went all the way down to the cobblestones and exposed the old trolley tracks -- which were paved over in the 1930s. Which, I think, was probably the last time the whole street was resurfaced.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine
They should scratch the asphalt away und use the little maintenance requiring cobblestones again. I can't imagine, that the cobblestones are too bad to do the job again.

https://www.facebook.com/RMSIDowntown/photos/a.10152432425638278/10157376991773278/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/RMSIDowntown/photos/a.10152432425638278/10157376991583278/?type=3&theater

GDR used many of the old 20s/30s cobblestone-highways until the end and they always did the job and partly still do.

 

[tonyb]

Pot holes are so deep here they have their own time zones. It's a community joke how bad our streets are -- mine hasn't been paved since 1998, other than the occasionally shovelful of coldpatch in the spring, and you risk your tie rods every time you drive down it. Our Main Street -- US 1, by the way -- gets so bad that they have to put traffic cones around the more dangerous holes. Last year we had one that went all the way down to the cobblestones and exposed the old trolley tracks -- which were paved over in the 1930s. Which, I think, was probably the last time the whole street was resurfaced.

In decades past, when southeast Seattle was the low-income district (it’s been thoroughly gentrified since), the side streets got patched with asphalt left over from other projects. The result in many places resembled a mogul run at a ski resort, except in shades of gray and black. Seriously, nothing but bumps.
Remember back in the mid-1960s when Ford ran TV ads touting the twin I-beam front suspensions on their pickup trucks? It was like that.

 

[Hercule]

Every time I visit the in laws in north central Pa. I am amazed that their dirt roads are smoother than most of the paved road back in the city.

 

[MisterCairo]

I’ve been told that Ford is dropping sedans from its product lineup. Those things just don’t sell like they used to.

Correct. The only "car" they are keeping is the Mustang. Nothing else but trucks and SUVs.

 

[MisterCairo]

"Not a 'coupe'."

Like sedan, a term usually seen only in auto press reports for the most part.

I know in the UK these terms are more widely used and understood, "motoring" being not just transport there, but a fun activity for many.

And "coupe" is pronounced the proper French way, "koo-pay" with the accent aigu over the e. Not the North American "koop".

 

[LizzieMaine]

The accent aigu costs ya $2000 extra.

 

[tonyb]

...
I know in the UK these terms are more widely used and understood, "motoring" being not just transport there, but a fun activity for many.

And "coupe" is pronounced the proper French way, "koo-pay" with the accent aigu over the e. Not the North American "koop".

Yeah, the Sunday drive in the “country” isn’t what it was when I was a kid. It was an inexpensive family outing back then, and for us working-class families on tight budgets, it was a popular form of recreation.

 

[Zombie_61]

Correct. The only "car" they are keeping is the Mustang. Nothing else but trucks and SUVs.

And they've even turned that into an SUV:

An electric SUV.