luxury trucks, suvs, crossovers and the death of the sedan

I deal with a TON of Sprinter vans at work, followed in popularity by Dodge Promasters and Ford Transits

#vanlife

if the sedan dies, will that mean the death of ILX?

its a huge failure that no one from this board has ever bought one of those

it's a huge failure that Acura doesn't subsidize this board

they should be giving us free sedans

theres also a special offroad edition of the outback, which idk might be something for the post modernists to delineate

https://i.imgur.com/TlF0UCG.png

but the thing is ... with these new, bigger vehicles, it limits where you can actually live and own one of these things. Like, I have to park my little mini-suv almost right against the retaining wall so I can make sure that I can get in and not be blocked by my neighbor's car in our off-street parking.

i think there's one of those special offroad edition of the outback that I see semi-regularly ... in the parking lot of Whole Foods. ... definitely requires such a rugged vehicle

you'll have to pry my little Prius hatchback outta my cold dead hands, and yeah ease of parking is key

aren't there these custom window jobs you can get on the rear window that fuck with the high-headlight people by revealing scary ghosts or something like that?

there's a fellow ilxor who i know IRL and for years we both had late-80s Toyota Corrollas ... right around the same time each of our Corrollas met their ends and he got some small Honda thing that is quite environmentally friendly and easy to park, and I got the RAV4 ... anyway, if at some point I stop being a "hauler of things," I would totally go for a little Prius hatchback.

seriously, why do I always draw a blank on the models of vehicles made by Honda????

if i lived in the big city i would like to have a small sedan or hatchback, preferably one thats zippy, to zip around in

would you be calm and debonair?

no i would be caffeinated and whimsical

im a truck guy now. well i guess two trucks... got a 07 gmc sierra z71 as my car and a 08 suburban z71 for the fam car. use both for camping and road trips quite a bit. love having a big car that sits up high tbh. the gas mileage thing is rough tho.

used to be a sedan guy but a drunk driver hit my wife head on ten years ago with two oldest kids (newborn and 2.5 y/o) in the car. the buick sedan (le sabre?) held its own but there were broken bones, cuts, concussions, trauma... so we immediately bought a suburban cos i wanted my family to be in the biggest (practical) car possible.

if the sedan dies, will that mean the death of ILX?

ILX was killed last month

Years ago a musician friend had a Volkswagen Squareback from the early 70s and in it's own way, it was the ideal ur-crossover for someone who needed to carry stuff but not 500kg of it. It also had a front trunk (I HATE the word "frunk") which gave it a surprising amount of cargo space.

https://www.ambassadorautomobileco.com/imagetag/53/11/l/Used-1968-Volkswagen-Squareback.jpg

I used to obsess over this Mustang station wagon one-off/concept from 1966. Boomers that give me "that's not a Must..." shit when I tell them that I have a Mach-E on order usually stfu when I show them this. It's a great design that should have been built.

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/images/media/51/ford-mustang-wagon-inline-7-photo-562256-s-original.jpg

Oh wow, I had to look up Mach-E. I saw one outside my grocery store a month or two ago and thought somebody was being cheeky by slapping a Mustang horsie emblem on their electric.

xp I haven't seen that Mustang study before, ET. I'd call that a shooting brake, but maybe the the tweed and shotguns imagery doesn't work for a Ford. I really like that body style.

I would consider purchasing a well used but well loved ILX vehicle, at the right price

as a driver of an outback and a forester the main difference is that the outback is longer than the forester which means its easier to transport ikea billy bookshelves home in the outback

good way to remember this is it's "out" in the "back"

and the forester is made for moving wood in the form of bookshelves

lOad
Up
The
Bookshelves
After
Cashier at
iKea

the difference between the Honda Fit and other competing subcompacts is that it is Fit to serve all your driving needs

the honda fit is the result of a least squares regression on a plot of "cool vs car attributes"

lol

I use a zippy little Mazda 3 hatchback, it does fine holding a full drumkit, three or four guitars, assorted amps and whatnot. It has a roof rack for Ikea trips and each year's Christmas tree.

Volkswagen Squareback from the early 70s

my mom had one of these when i was a kid that she used as her delivery vehicle when she worked for the post office. she delivered mail to rural areas, and rural carriers had to use their own vehicles, as opposed to the USPS vehicles.

guy who delivers my mail has a rav4 but its some ridiculous limited edition in electric blue, really funny car to get a special one of

the ultimate small zippy car is prob the bmw 2 series, audi 3s are nice too and a lil more practical, volkswagen golf too basically same car as the audi tho, i would like to have the audi s3 i believe

my mom has had vw golfs for the past two decades (she no longer is a mail carrier) ... she loves to zip

when i once tried to 'relationship up,' i ended up driving my bf's s3 around and it felt like a beast (much larger, more powerful) than the economy yaris i was used to driving. but somehow less space for hauling stuff.

i don't think i could ever have an audi, because one of my regular "words or phrases that get stuck in my head to the tune of ..." is

douchebag in an audi
i know
i know
it's serious

whenever i see the four hoops i reflexively think 'douchebag' tbr

and my ex was a douchebag. i don't see any need for additional data points here.

my "stupid annoying coworker" is also an audi owner, though he is only sometimes a douchebag, but when he is a total douchebag, you better believe i sing to myself "douchebag in an audi, i know, i know, it's serious"

ive owned a couple audis, if you like nice cars you kinda just have to roll with the douche affiliation

out of he german lux badges id prob be most embarrassed to drive a benz, id do it tho if the right one came into my life

A lot of "small SUVs" just look like sedans on stilts to me

yeah theyre just tall cars

BMW way douchier than an Audi.

Drove an Audi A3 hatchback on vacation a few years ago. Perfect car, but they don’t sell them in the US.

yeah i wish they still had those here, they even look a lil more like a small station wagon than a typical hatch which is p sweet

We own a Mini Cooper S, which is fun to drive but has the worst ride ever (stiff suspension plus low to the ground plus run-flats).

idk i feel like benzes have more street cred than audis -- i mean, janis had a song about a benz, and there are rappers that rap about benz ownership -- audi doesn't have that; kinda feel like BMW is a bit more retro ... like Audi is as douchey now as BMW's were in the 80s

roughly how i break it down

bmw: the drivers car
benz: the luxury car
audi: the competent car

obvs theres a lot of crossover and if you get a huge bmw suv its not going to drive differently than the other guys but on the other hand bmw does still make a lil rwd manual coupe thats just going to be more fun than the equivalent audi, you get a benz and itll have like 20 ways you can adjust the seats and a really over the top interior etc, audi generally will be a lil more minimal germanic no nonsense experience that just feels quality and well made but not specifically fun or opulent

xxp - the mini countryman wagons are super cute

my parents drive Audis and it's very fitting as a middle-class suburbanite boomer car. a "nice" car but not too flashy. comfortable, reliable.

benz g wagon is the car that most signals douche to me currently

would be such a good city car

aren't you basically after a golf then?

yeah basically the same car but doesnt have the nice audi design

all cars are a little small for english country lanes ime

all british car youtubers talk about how poorly the roads are over there whats up with that

ya cannae pump yer brex

The ioniq is slightly taller than sedans and wagons I guess, but low for an SUV. Part of its visual appeal I think.

https://i.redd.it/4a7lt4zl7gld1.jpeg

just read about the audi 48v "mild hybrid" start/stop system, that's crazy, who needs 48v? apparently audi

let audi cook

48V is a sweet spot for battery voltage fwiw

lots of vehicle lithium systems using that now, esp vans

yeh i'm guessing audi chose 48V because of availability of parts from EVs. but apparently the audi 48v system is only used for a smoother start/stop (hence "mild" hybrid) and the rest is pure ICE

is also apparently broken / subject of a recall and leaving audi owners stranded often

im watching a doc on the calabrian mafia and the cops there have bmw wagons

https://www.thedrive.com/news/overweight-ford-f-750-plunges-through-historic-wooden-bridge-in-maine

The picture is perfect

looney tunes ass plunging into the river ass hole

the ford f750 is a commercial truck fwiw, spec'd out i think they go into the 6 figures

we drove a normal subaru outback over a wooden bridge to a pier in astoria oregon... never really feels like cars are meant to go over wooden bridges

theres a covered bridge near me that has a similar weight limit i have driven a much smaller truck over it

https://www.tiktok.com/@creiser36/video/7414259011106671903?lang=en