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Oct 19, 2023
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A Lightning would actually work pretty well for me since I have the solar panels to keep it fed. But as you note it's a corner-case vehicle.

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Oct 19, 2023
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Amazing the kind of insider knowledge you can pick up while a half dozen dudes are watching you bang someone's wife in a sex club.

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Is Rodney going to any of these first principles meet ups?

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He was at the Detroit one and is a maybe (but unlikely) for Tulsa.

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What an oddly suspicious follow up question.

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Sometimes I doubt if Rodney is real and not Jacks black alter ego a la fight club.

"Rodney did it" Great excuse.

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27 readers met him in April!

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You would say that… rodney!

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Thanks for making me laugh out loud in the office.

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I was just listening to an Irish radio station and heard an add for a 5,000 Euro price drop on the Nissan Leaf. There are taxpayer-funded subsidies on top of that.

My company just announced they’ll be throwing money on the table for anyone who buys a full electric car.

Another anecdote to add to the performance of our economy: A friend owns a company that sells mulch, both wholesale and retail. It’s fairly big, he has a couple dozen tractor-trailers on the road. His sales are down 40% this year. He’s never seen anything like that drop, not even in ‘08.

Buckle up.

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I don't know if you are Irish or "Irish" but the Uniparty is coming after your peoples:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/16/ireland-corporation-tax-budget-surplus-freeloading/

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Don’t I know it, brother.

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Sounds like the Irish government needs to hire some assassins

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If only they had some sort of provisional military force that did stuff like that.

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They could call it the 'Special Assassination Squad!"

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Why? Is IRA taken now?

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It's a joke. Think about it...

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they were so close to calling it the irish protection agency and combine beer and car bombings into one convenient acronym

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The Irish government might be the only government worse than ours. They’re currently pushing through the broadest hate-speech law in the world.

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You're talking about a country were women voted for abortion because they felt bad that their mothers couldn't abort them.

Irish women are fucked in the head. Always have been.

(Half Irish here).

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It’s not just the women. I’m convinced that, like Scotland, a large percentage of the best of the Irish left as soon as they were able.

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Wouldn't you? :-)

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Also Irish. Can confirm.

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Sounds like the time is ripe to start marketing EVs to fat female soccer players.

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The range is gonna suffer

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Luckily obese women are used to needing extra time to cover short distances.

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no fat chicks

car will suffer a mild range penalty

excellent bumper sticker material

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Four obese American women in a Rivian pickup gives it a gross weight over 8000 pounds!

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Or about the same as a new Hummer... something you won't be getting in a Rivian.

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Will only work if done by Subaru.

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Don't forget the big-ass dogs. They are going to need springs like the Minis in The Italian Job.

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This is hella OT but I figure it will give some of the B&B chuckles.

Update on my 7-seater SUV purchase: The CPO 2020 Audi Q7 I purchased had an electrical freakout on the highway on my way home from the dealer and was towed back within two hours of my signing the papers. The Audi dealer, to its immense and infinite credit, accepted it back and tore my check up.

I am now buying a Lexus GX.

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Great discussion of Audi as a brand, etc. in the most recent Collecting Addicts podcast (Chris Harris and his rich buddies chatting about cars and making fun of each other every Friday).

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You can’t pay me enough to listen to that.

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I started to listen to an episode of Spike’s Car Radio the other day because it had a review of the Emira and I had to turn it off before they even got to it. Yuck.

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Well as a straight man you probably naturally recoil from people sucking each other's dicks online

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Be thankful you have me to tell you what’s going on in the podcast world

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Recently stumbled across Spike’s Car radio the other day and thought “well I’ll give this a shot”.

I should have shot myself in the head. They talked about cars for 30 seconds and, well, sucked each others dicks for the remainder of the show I could stand to listen to…

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Somehow, I'm not.

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the only car podcast ep to which I ever listened fully was Farah with you and Bark.

Otherwise it's The Fifth Column, Reason, Tim Dillon and the occasional Rogan.

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Can't believe it's been a decade since that podcast. I mean, I'm so much more emotionally mature now.

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Won't be any cheaper to run but at least you'll have some warning of what happens!

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The whole thing was so on-the-nose in a "Dear Penthouse Forum: I never thought this would happen to me, but..." way.

Having had Audis since the OG A4 2.8 back in the Clinton Administration, I thought I was smarter than Vorsprung durch Technik but apparently not. Having had multiple Lexuses from the "fat lexus" years (IS300, RX300) that have effortlessly gone 100s of ks miles I am cautiously optimistic. Like you said, running costs will be the same (or even worse given the gas milage of that ancient V8) but hopefully it will be a brick.

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Oct 19, 2023
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A good friend of mine has a 2013(ish) A6 TDI, and he drives around Florida all day for work. A couple years ago, the a/c failed and it took weeks for the dealer to figure out, they eventually replaced the compressor and charged him $7k after giving him a discount because they felt bad about an earlier misdiagnosis. Later on, he took it in for a slight oil leak while the powertrain was still under warranty. The tech sent him a video of the engine and transmission sitting on a table, I guess that's the service position.

He loves the car, once it was out of warranty he upgraded the turbo so it now makes over 400 ft lbs and still gets mid 30s mpg. The cars look nice, and for the money I think it's hard to beat Audi interiors, but they're really not designed to be kind to the 2nd or 3rd owners, which is a shame.

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How can an AC compressor cost $7000?

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And B8 S4s are considered reliable, especially by Audi standards.

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German software engineers are the worst. Almost as bad as the Chinese.

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There is nothing like their short and meaningful table names. Because everybody knows what table TVLVT stores.

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BSEG.

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I'm taking a hard look at a GX after our 3rd $1000+ trip to the dealer in our XC90 this year.

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Wow. We've had nothing but regular maintenance on our XC90, admittedly only to 40k miles though. We had 3 other Volvos and they were also pretty low maintenance.

Some recurring issue?

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Rear Diff exploded at 36k, covered by warranty

Rear rotors and pads plus a hole in the flex pipe = $1700. Not counting the air conditioner leak that was covered by the extended warranty and would have been another $1000

Front brakes plus the 70k regular service = $1500

Check engine light keeps coming on and off intermittently

Exhaust Smell we're waiting on the dealer to get back to us on. Average wait for a Volvo service appointment is one month in VT

Front headlight condensation problems

Yeah yeah yeah "Gotta pay to play" in the "luxury" space but it seems a bit excessive. We service at the dealership because we purchased the extended warranty too. I love driving the thing but the weird Euro issues are super annoying.

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Sorry to hear about all that. Our XC90 is our 4th Volvo and we've avoided a laundry list like that.

Although I did replace rotors on the V70 at least once. I was told the Volvo uses a softer steel, and to get aftermarket rotors instead.

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I'm just waiting for the day the Audi burns me. So far though, I'm a huge fan. I did recently find out my TPMS don't tell me which tire is low. Slightly annoying on a 60k car.

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Possibly wheel speed based which is what's in the $24k Mazda 3!

Have to put it in learning mode every time I swap from all seasons to winters.

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I can just reset them to say "This is the proper pressure" It's a dumb system.

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It is, VW has it. On the plus side, no more TPMS sensors.

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Honda is the same way, though they have some models which will calculate the pressure in each wheel.

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My 3.2 Turbo 6spd Allroad was dead nuts reliable in all situations.

Wait, no, that wasn't it at all!

Edit, 2.7. just saw one on the road and I feel like a fool.

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That's the car even MacGyver couldn't fix!

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The 4.2 Allroad was that car.

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Was that the one with the wear item timing chains that require an engine out to do?

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Absolutely. They were on the back of the engine or something like that. I think my Phaeton was the same way but I didn't keep the cars long enough to get bitten by it.

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I have wanted one of these for so long for kids duties. Fortunately I have never found one close to me.

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It was nuts anyway

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my 3.0 6mt a4 avant was dead reliable. 4.2 6mt s5 not so much...

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Same here, weird setup.

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From my experience with my C7 A6, they dont have tpms and measure tires by the wheel speed sensor or whatever else and as far as the Audi experience goes.... $24.000 bill to replace the “matik” plus a two month wait....

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I’m going to have to get the extended warranty in a couple years if I’m not sick of the car yet.

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Considering my cats fell apart by the end of my ownership, all I can say is definitely get the warranty (CPO is a godsend) it makes things way less stressful

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I have the factory one for three years I think. I didn’t buy the extended one upfront but I’ll probably get the Audi one in a year or so.

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I wuz admiring a well kept couple-of-decades-old a4 wagon beside me at a traffic light a couple of days ago.

A couple of things turned me off the first of which was a 2.0 badge on the rear hatch, and the second was the very obvious check engine light blazing on the instrument cluster. I was transported back through time to my ‘07 turbojetta experience which alternated from deep passionate feelings of love to murderous raging frustration.

Never again!

Well, almost never again.

Well, maybe I’ll just take a new one for a spin. No harm no foul, and surely audiwagen has got on top of these historical issues? Right?

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Us idiots keep buying German cars for a reason. When they're running, they are really nice.

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Is it different in their home market? I wonder if it’s somehow much less expensive and less painful to own a German car in Germany..

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German inspection rules are ridiculous where it’s cheaper to get a new car every 5 years than it is to get a used car up to code

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given thats the last of the v8 toyota off-road trucks, there's few mass market things that you can buy on the lot today that will hold their value as well. I wish I bought a v8 4runner when I had the chance, now they are all beat to shit and overpriced

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Back in the day, seeing a picture of a B5 S4, with its front clip off for a timing belt change was enough to keep buying Japanese. The only non-Japanese car I've bought (a new Fiesta ST) 'made' me trade for a Toyota.

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Funny you mention the A4. As any ACF reader must know, I got a new 2023 S4 this year. It replaced my last unfortunate new car in forever, a Mark VIII VW GTI that I put up with for 3 months. The Audi has a cornucopia of buttons, switches, and knobs, located in an ergonomic way on a traditional dash. It has a screen, like they all do, that is plainly tacked on to an old design. Aside from the screen, the interior is wonderful. I can perform most any function physically and redundantly. Since I'm not a moron I can remember where hard switches, dials and knobs are located and what they do.

I have no doubt that when the new A4 chassis arrives it will be as fucked up as the new VW. It will be built for morons who can only absorb a screen interface. It will be built cheaper and nastier, so the few physical controls can be left unmarked and subject to software updates.

I bought the "old" Audi figuring that it will likely be the last car they make that won't irritate me. I'm pretty sure that's not what VW had in mind

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As someone who also got a new 2023 S4 this year, I completely second this.

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I was considering a '23 A5 hatchback. Does this forum say NEIN? I truly respect the opinions.

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They're beautiful cars and I don't know what else would serve the same purpose for you.

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At age 51 I have somehow never experienced the utility of a hatchback. I love Mazdas but the 3 might be a little small. I do love the proportions and size of the A5 5 door and would rather be dropped into an active volcano than give BMW any money, so I arrived at A5. With a warranty of course.

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For hatchbacks, the answer is always Prius.

That Audi is gonna cost, what $4k per year to run, whether leased or purchased? It's not a lot to scratch the Audi itch, I suppose, in some privileged context, but then again, maybe it is. I'm not knocking you. I love hatchbacks and Audis too. Audi let us all down.

Thus ... Prius.

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I love hatchbacks! The Saab 900 was great, and the Fiat 500 was, too.

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Love the 500, both new and old.

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Jack's jaunt to southeast Ohio sent me reviewing old PCOTY articles leaving me teary eyed reminiscing my beloved Fiesta ST.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a5850/2013-road-and-track-performance-car-of-the-year/

Fuck you Ford Motor Company. Fuck you.

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I have a '23 A5 Sportback. Purchased new back in March. I actually originally intended to get an S3 but decided it was too small for my snowboard gear and the A5 sportback was looking damn good in the showroom. The car, IMO, looks like a million bucks and while I wouldn't consider it "sporty" I do happen to think it drives really well. It's fast, fairly good on gas and rides like a dream on the highway. I can't tell you about reliability but I get bored of cars easily and am unlikely to own it for more than 3 years.

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Also, food for thought, VW Arteon is similar to A5 sportback in form. Has the nice hatchback, but it is slightly bigger. It is basically a glorified euro-version Passat. Nice thing is though, a top trim Arteon will be about $4.5k less than the top trim A5 sportback, and the VW engine tune will be a bit more powerful. It would be a choice of which design you like better, because they are closely related.

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I rented a 2022 Q3 earlier this year. It soured me on any new product from the brand. Felt cheaper than my Bolt, drove like any other FWD crossover, and had several obvious problems at 44k miles.

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These are made for status seekers who want the badge. I had a loaner of it's more or less equivalent BMW X1 when I had an old BMW wagon in for service and it was such crap. My 13 year old wagon was nicer in and out by leaps. To get the stuff Audi or BMW (if you can stomach the styling which I can't ) were known for, you need to go to the upper trim non SUVs.

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I wouldn’t fuck Rapinoe with Jack’s dick (or more accurately, I suppose, a strap on) but I at least understand how she can model lingerie. She’s fit. It’s the land monsters modeling it that I don’t get. As someone who is nearly land monster adjacent (dammit gotta get back on that Peloton and put down the cheese fries) no one wants to see that shit.

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