Early Risers.

[polybear]

22 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Almost two years so far of pretty much daily drawing up car bodies, working out edge flows and subtle panel shaping and creasing means I spend a lot of time unconsciously studying the modern cars around me, and  that makes  me realise how much designers have lost the plot over the last couple of years.

 

 

When Bear was a cub every car looked different - we never needed to look at badges to see what it was.  But now I have to look at the badges just to see who made it, let alone what model it is.

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Ford never matched it with the later Cortinas, but here at least we had the Falcon coupes of the 70s to get excited about, they had a lovely smooth unencumbered shape. Well until the stick on after market body kit abomination craze of the 80s, at least...

Did you ever get the Ford Corsair in Australia?  My Dad bought one in 1966.after having a new Cortina the previous year.   It took me ages to find a 1/76 Corsair to place on my model railway. . One day I will spray it in the same colour as Dad’s. 

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

But now I have to look at the badges just to see who made it, let alone what model it is.

Aditi’s is white with moss growing on it. Mine is black with added seagull and pigeon poo. Dead easy to tell apart. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Tony_S

[New Haven Neil]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

We had an original shape Scenic for years. Fortunately we had the one with the bigger engine as the smaller engine wasn’t impressive even on Essex hills. It was very comfortable and practical. 

 

The Espaces were OK on power, the boxy one was a 2 litre, the second version a 2.2.  Loved that one, shame it wasn't really mine!  I wasn't entitled to such a big car but a (much) more senior manager left and the fleet manager wanted someone to take it on for the remaining two years of the lease as no-one else wanted it, at the price of a car I was entitled to - that being a poverty spec Fiesta or Renault 5.  Actually the R5's were great fun, but the lure of the camping gear space in the Espace did the deal.  It was the only good thing about that job.

[New Haven Neil]

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

When Bear was a cub every car looked different - we never needed to look at badges to see what it was.  But now I have to look at the badges just to see who made it, let alone what model it is.

 

You're not wrong.  A while ago in the car park outside Trackshack I walked out to find my i30 flanked by an Astra and an Avensis - all black, all looked the same!

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

You're not wrong.  A while ago in the car park outside Trackshack I walked out to find my i30 flanked by an Astra and an Avensis - all black, all looked the same!

When I visited Houston, I hired a Ford Focus. A few times in the hotel car park people nearly pulled into where I was parked as they didn’t realise a car was parked in the slot. Most of the other vehicles were of the SUV or truck style. 
I think cars are definitely getting bigger, my Range Rover Evoque is smaller than many.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Tony_S
River to Rover

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On the Toyota Alphard, my sister-in-law has one, she loves it. In all honesty, as a way to be driven around they are excellent. 

I'm sure it is. Minivans are great for riding in - (relatively) easy to get in and out of with plenty of room and often middle-row passenger "captains'" chairs.

 

I owned a Chrysler/Dodge Grand Caravan for a while. Seated six in comfort, seven in a pinch, and if you took the seats out could carry just about anything clean that you could lift into it. (Newer models than mine have seats that fold into cavities in the floor, automatically if you pay the extra, to convert to hauling space.)

 

They inherited a bad rap as uncool and unstylish, but I've never seen one as truly ugly as that Alphard.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

'Allegedly' exactly this is to blame for the Nissan Juke - it was a 'joke' by a p!ssed off designer, and the marketing people ran with it. 

Did he/she do the "Cube" as well. Really monumentally ugly. 

 

I saw one (driven by a teenaged girl) in pink/grey camo. The camouflage scheme helped. 

 

(Can't imagine why Nissan discontinued it.)

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Late today due to a dental check-up appointment. Been missing out since COVID so needed to go. Been that long that it was a check-up only, no cleaning.

Why you may ask!

Apparently, they're still suffering the long-term effects of COVID with the loss of dental hygienists. My cleaning appointment is... wait for it... JANUARY 2nd. 2024!!!!

On the list for cancellations, here's hoping.

Sadly, found a couple of cavities to be addressed in a week or so, and an implant that was "in progress" when COVID hit and will be continued now.

My dentist continued through the pandemic - and I had my regular (quarterly) cleanings along with other required work.

 

They installed high capacity filtration and for a long while had people exit through the back door, rather than loitering at the front desk on the way out. Masking was required in the waiting room until a couple of weeks ago.

 

There is some hygienist turnover but I didn't see any inability to sustain their level of service.

 

While waiting for a recent cleaning, one of the front office people told me the dentist's adult daughter had died from CoViD-19 during the early (pre-vaccine) days of the pandemic. With all the precautions in the office, the front office assistant did not contract it.

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Clarification

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

When Bear was a cub every car looked different - we never needed to look at badges to see what it was.  But now I have to look at the badges just to see who made it, let alone what model it is.

One factor is that there were fewer models - back in the day. In Australia the big manufacturers would use one chassis and sell it under multiple* different configurations and badges. They all looked essentially the same - the front end of each body style was exactly the same.

 

* Holden (GM) badges:

• Belmont
• Kingswood
• Premier

Body styles:

• Sedan
• Coupe (Monaro)
• Station wagon (aka estate)
• Panel van
• Ute

 

Similarly in the US, the GM badges (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Buick) and Ford badges (Ford, Mercury, Lincoln) etc each produced essentially the same car on the same chassis with different levels of trim.

 

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

You're not wrong.  A while ago in the car park outside Trackshack I walked out to find my i30 flanked by an Astra and an Avensis - all black, all looked the same!

I noticed, watching a tennis tournament (in Nottingham if I remember correctly) that the traffic beyond the fence (on A6005) was incredibly uniform - just about everything was essentially shaped like a CUV (Crossover/compact Utility Vehicle).

 

There's a lot of 'shape convergence between' the small hatchback / five door hatchback and CUV.

 

This is not yet the case in the US. There certainly are an awful lot of similar SUV/CUV body styles - it is the dominant 'family car' today, but there remain many sedans and of course light trucks. The most popular selling vehicles per model are trucks.

Quote

Despite having its lowest sales since 2012, the Ford F-Series was the country's top-selling vehicle for the 41st year.

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I think cars  designed  as  things of beauty to gaze on with joy took off in the twenties and thirties, went into a bit of a wartime slumber until the early 50s then really got going  through to the late 70s when it came to a shuddering halt up against  overall  80s hideousness.

There was a huge period of 'design' in the US in the 1950s. The Chevy Bel Air is considered the epitome - chrome lamp hoods, contrasting panels, etc. Mid-to-late 1950s Ford Thunderbirds were similar.

 

It was the beginning of the space age design - lots of fins.   Early 1950s Chevys were the starting point for Holden.

 

The 1980s were dire. The nadir was the Chrysler K car.

[NGT6 1315]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

(…) or Renault 5.  Actually the R5's were great fun (…)

 

My dad had two of these during the 1970s. I bet the real fun came with the R5 Turbo, though!

 

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

You're not wrong.  A while ago in the car park outside Trackshack I walked out to find my i30 flanked by an Astra and an Avensis - all black, all looked the same!

 

Whilst working in Gosport I managed to lose a Hire Car in Tesco's Car Park - in the end I only managed to find it by wandering around the car park whilst pressing the remote lock/unlock buttons on the key fob to see what car flashed it's indicators.  The fact that I was looking for the wrong colour of car didn't help either. 🥴

[Hroth]

20 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Whilst working in Gosport I managed to lose a Hire Car in Tesco's Car Park - in the end I only managed to find it by wandering around the car park whilst pressing the remote lock/unlock buttons on the key fob to see what car flashed it's indicators.  The fact that I was looking for the wrong colour of car didn't help either. 🥴

 

We always used to put a distinctive ribbon on the aerial, at least it helped narrow down the possibilities...

 

[Tony_S]

31 minutes ago, polybear said:

managed to lose a Hire Car in Tesco's Car Park -

Imagine how I felt in a very large shopping mall in Houston. I had gone in with Matthew  so he could buy new shoes. I was sure we had returned to the correct car park. I think it may have been one of the larger shopping malls in North America then. We were just about to go out and try walking in from the street entrance when we found it on a section of mezzanine floor rather than a main floor. Fortunately we must have been within the range where the horn remote worked. 
Tony

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Did he/she do the "Cube" as well. Really monumentally ugly. 

 

I saw one (driven by a teenaged girl) in pink/grey camo. The camouflage scheme helped. 

 

(Can't imagine why Nissan discontinued it.)

 

At least you knew where the corners are. I drive a Hyundai I10, I have also driven an 18 seat Transit minibus. I found the Transit easier to reverse than my car. The reason was that the rear corners of the Transit are visible in the mirrors whereas because of the Hyundai's egg shape nothing is visible beyond the rear window.

[NGT6 1315]

Also a rad performance in its own right...

 

 

You may be able to tell how much of an earworm this is for me currently!

[Tony_S]

My present car has a feature where the Land Rover app on the phone will guide you to the cars location. I think it uses GPS. I haven’t mislaid this car so I don’t know how good it is. 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon/evening all from Estuary-Land. Another day seems to have flown by but not much has been done except for a lot of washing. I've still got to get on with clearing the drying rack to make room for more stuff from the machine.  

[pH]

16 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

We always used to put a distinctive ribbon on the aerial, at least it helped narrow down the possibilities...

 

Many (many!) years ago in Ontario, a fast-food chain gave out bright orange polystyrene balls to stick on the top of the car aerial to make your car stand out in car parks. That was fine, but the promotion went on for some time, until a significant portion of cars in any car park had an orange ball on the aerial. We got round that by nicking the balls from other cars till we ended up with an all-orange aerial.

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, pH said:

on the top of the car aerial t

Do any new cars still have a telescopic aerial? Our Fiesta has a short flexi aerial on the roof. My car has a couple of what I believe are called shark fins on the rear spoiler. 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Do any new cars still have a telescopic aerial?

I may well be wrong, but I don't think so - not for a long time.

 

The mixed-signal electronics for radio tuners is so much more effective these days.

[TheQ]

Evening awl,

Don't have any problem finding the Landrover, with the amount of lichen on the roof  I'm expecting to find reindeer up there.

 

Museum went well fairly quiet, did a lot on the 1/1000 radar model, is that HT scale? Half T gauge?

 

MRC went well too, a long discussion on pharmacies having a shortage of staff in the area and cutting their opening hours, one  in aylsham is open only every other day.

 

Of course uniformity in car shapes is caused by two requirements, one to not cause unnecessary injuries to pedestrians, the other being aerodynamics.

 

Muggachoccy gone

Goodnight Awl.

 

 

[AndyID]

15 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

And whilst on the subject of cars: does anyone on ER have any experience of/with the current generation FIAT 500? I’m toying with idea of buying a secondhand one so I’m not without motorised transport when Mrs iD is in the Holiday Hovel with Hettie the Yeti

 

IDSPIDY shares the same turbocharged 1.4L engine with the Abarth 500. The other 500s seem to use a lower tune version of it too. Seems to work fine. The only complaint might be a tendency for oil to contaminate the air filter but that's probably more a consequence of cornering at excessive speed (The spider has excellent road holding and almost no body roll.) The solution is to keep the oil level half way between the min/max marks on the dipstick.

[Ozexpatriate]

18 minutes ago, pH said:

Many (many!) years ago in Ontario, a fast-food chain gave out bright orange polystyrene balls to stick on the top of the car aerial to make your car stand out in car parks.

Very common to see Unocal/76 antenna toppers in the US - back in the day.

 

Blogpost here.

Quote

... in 1967, Union 76 distributed tens of millions of plastic-foam Polystyrene balls imitating their iconic sign to customers along the West Coast.

 

This is the first recorded invention of what became known as the “antenna topper” or “antenna ball.”