so basically, the http://www.google.com/search?q=Chevy+Corvette+Stingray+Concept&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=677is, well, a kick you know what design. however, i think it needs some changes to it still, to make it most kick you know what it can be. http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/3296/fixvette.jpg. thoughts?

in general, what do you think about the automotive world today?

personally, 1) i think our cars are suffering from ALS(Aesthetics Lack Syndrome); looking at some Nissans and Renaults today, i wonder who signs off those designs and who should take the blame. seriously people, just because it is utility, does not mean it has to look boring or ugly. or both. as i said in one of my essays(yes, i wasted one my English class essays on this, the Final for the semester to be exact): "The automotive world today looks more and more like a sea of grey face conformity and uniformity, a torrential tidal wave sweeping off the face of the planet anything automotive with any individuality in it, eradicating anything colorful, interest catching, anything with any kind of individuality or variety. A torrential tidal wave that is way too prevalent and way too principal in the automotive word today."

besides that, 2) our drivers are suffering from way too much individualism. in that everyone thinks they must have a car because they need to get to work or something. the thing is, you don't need 4 cars in an average 2.5 children 2 parents and a dog family. in big cities especially(can you say New York?) mama or papa can drop off Bob and Lisa at one of them shared use cars lots. with a bit of revolutionary stagnation and individualism defying thinking, yes we can make New Your cleaner. and other big cities.

now, for those who don't know what i am talking about when i say shared use cars lots, start here.
that's not the whole point though. i think it's time for a revolutionary changes to car usage today. like the kind of changes proposed in the book titled http://www.amazon.com/Reinventing-Automobile-Personal-Mobility-Century/dp/0262013827, a book by William J. Mitchell, Christopher E. Burroni-Bird and Lawrence D. Burns. in this book proposed and outlined are nothing short or revolutionary new approaches to car as we know it. One, changes to the car itself that, amongst others, include electric power supply and power instead of gasoline, electronic and not mechanical control, and new dimensions that will triple or even quadruple amount of cars that can be parked in space we set aside today for parking. And these are only scratching the surface of the proposed changes. two, here is also proposed changes to the world around these new proposed cars that will compliment these new cars as good as blue compliments red and bring a variety of other benefits outlined in the book. These changes to the world around these new proposed cars include, amongst others, very expanded wireless communication between the car, pedestrians, and transportation infrastructure(a new meaning to smart cars, if you will), changes to how we use these personal mobility alternatives to the car of today: particularly, but not limited to, dynamic pricing for shared-use cars rental and the electricity they will use. frankly, after a brief overview of the book, I am signed up. As long as the proposed cars look better than the Leaf. more info http://cities.media.mit.edu/projects/citycar.html and a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSKpE2d3BaY.

so that's the topic, what do you think about the automotive world today? green cars, hybrids and all of them green vehicles.
if nothing else, share your idea of ideal car for you? pics help. mine would be this, i think: http://autoreview.belproject.com/wp/2006/07/porsche-cayman-s-techart-gtsport-tuning-kit/

I don't give a [censored] what a car looks like. Looks don't save me money, only MPG does (in all likelihood, looks will be detrimental to my wallet)

i think you'll love GM cars then. GM seems to be banking on small and ecologically friendlier cars to pull them out of the the fiscal mess, so they be rolling out cars with that philosophy in mind. though the Chevy Volt(a car that GM was hoping would be big) fails that philosophy, i think.

I don't really care if I have a boring car. As long as it gets me from one place to another.

Basically, from all your examples, you want a well-designed car (sports car, in particular) that will get absolutely terrible MPG. And then you talk about defying individualism.

Also, the problem with lightweight / other such cars is safety - cars like the smart fortwo, for example, simply don't have high safety ratings due to their small size. If an Escalade crashed head on into a smart fortwo, I know who would win.

As for my ideal car, it would be a restomod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1937_Cord_812.JPG.

i think that car is purdy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car

Automobile sounds like such a lovely state. I should really vacation there.

I think most cars released these days either look terrible, or just unexciting. An exception being the http://newcarreleases.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-dodge-challenger-se-supercharger.jpg, which is an amazing looking vehicle. That Stingray looks interesting, but it's not really my cup of tea. The best looking cars, in my opinion, are the 1969 Dodge Charger, the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, and the 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle. I really don't know the first thing about cars, so it's all about aesthetics for me.

I agree most cars are pretty generic. I recently bought a new one and test drove all the compact suspects like the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 and Chevy Cruze. They were nice enough, but so bland and ubiquitous no one noticed them as I did the test drives. I could have been driving a plain white box on wheels for all the attention they garnered. Then I stumbled across a relatively rare car in that class (that happens to be quite nice none the less). The http://i56.tinypic.com/akde21.jpg http://i52.tinypic.com/sgo55e.jpg http://i54.tinypic.com/296oxgn.jpg. It may be an relatively inexpensive car, but I've had at least three strangers comment or ask me about it and people who know me (that didn't know I had bought a car) gush over it when they see it. I also notice people staring at it as I drive along the freeway. I'm really not vain, but when I shell out that much money I don't want to completely blend in with the crowd (like I would with my second choice - a Civic).

To be honest I think the general automotive industry has gone to hell. The other day I was cleaning something off my Jeep Wrangler and noticed that the grill is made of plastic....PLASTIC. A few years ago I had the 65th Anniversary Jeep Wrangler and it had a metal grill and cost a few thousand less than the new one I bought. It just goes to show that the car industry is making crappy cars and draining your wallet for them. I see this mostly in American made cars while the European car companies still make quality cars for the most part.

Ford has gone to hell as well, I wont even think about buying a Ford made after 1968. If they would just remake a model of the 1960's mustang with all the same specs as the original I would jump on as soon as I had the cash to buy it. Dodge impressed me a lot with the look of the new Challenger (maybe not the quality, but the look), I wish Ford and Chevrolet would do the same for the Mustang and Camaro.

I would also like to see some sleeker and sportier looking hybrids. If companies would build a nice sports car hybrid then I'd buy it. I'm all for going green but I refuse to drive around in a Prius...

I feel like older cars had much more class and feel to them. They just seemed so much more, well I don't know how to put it in words other than would you rather drive http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2008/03/01/23/56/1968_ford_mustang_fastback-pic-11878.jpeg or http://www.babez.de/chevrolet/aveosedan07/chevrolet-aveo-titel.jpg.

Another thing is cars practically drive themselves now. No random person could go sit down in a 1968 Pontiac GTO and start racing up and down the street, especially with the stiff clutches and Hurst shifters. You had to be a real driver to handle one of those.

New cars look like they're just generic models made to sell to the mindless and expressionless masses of people. I really like what they've done with the Mini Cooper, I looked on the website and they give you hundreds and hundreds of different things to customize it and make it yours.

IMO cars from 1940s-1950s where the best.


Those aren't cars those are tiny suicidal go karts.There is a HUGE list of problems with those go karts I would never get into those death traps. Electric cars hopefully will fail (or at least stay rare) so electricity won't be the next gasoline.


That looks like a bobsled on wheels.

Electricity isn't solely derived from a non-renewable resource.

In order to avoid a massive energy issue when gasoline finally runs in out (in either 50 or 100 years), we need to start developing better hydrogen or electric vehicle technologies now. There needs to be more electric cars on the road, not less.

well, if not a sport car like 'Vetter then i'll take this, http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&authuser=0&cp=7&gs_id=26&xhr=t&q=fisker+karma&biw=1024&bih=621&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi.

the defying individualism was more about in relation to those proposed in the book cars being such a defying. i'd not want to give up my personal car for good though; it's nice to be able to have one for weekend drives and whatnot.

my cousin has one of those. that thing is not what i'd want to drive, but taking it our for a drive once, just so i can say i did, sound like fun.

solution: down with with Escalades and Suburbans? people aren't giving up their 6000 pound toys, i know, but its a thought.

never understood classic car appeal... i understand if it is one of them supercars of the past or some other legendary car... muscle cars of the past... but i never understood why cars like that.

can't agree more. Challenger looks OK, but i'd not want to be seen in it. and i don't think it'd change if you knew more. but then again, generally anyone who i know does anything with fixing cars, they seem to be not caring about the looks anymore. or if they do then they care less.

i think maybe they were more curious about it because of its sibling, Lance Evo.

to hell or not, succumbed to greed, yes. cuting on quality in favor of quantity. its like consumerism has found its way into automobiles, too... scary though there. i mean, second biggest purchase for many people, and to consumerism.

especially Germany. there is a reason Germany and its automotive sector are booming while USA and its automotive sector is, well, you know, what it is today.

so true... what about Tesla? or the Karma i mentioned before. though both are costly.

speaking of cars that drive themselves: look ma, no hands. but they are still being worked out. go GM, about time we get some tech wonders from GM. but Toyota partnering up with Google, i don't know, something about getting behind self-driving a car that Toyota and Google made makes me nervous.

the thing is, i think maybe they are. i mean, that's what automotive world calls volume brand, a brand that sells most cars possible. which today generally means cutting back quality of assembly and the looks have to suffer, somehow. i guess hiring carrozerias to design the volume brand's cars(like the aforementioned Cruze, for example) makes no sense, or dollars, for GM. too bad, i'd be something to see Bertone designing next Malibu or Cruze or Aveo.

Mini understand the appeal of offering its consumer options. BMW wins in the process. GM doesn't seem to understands anything besides making money off consumers. Chevy loses in the process.

you mean like hazard of getting shocked? or rollovers? the issue of head on collisions, or any collision at all, would be less issue if more people drove these and less drove Escalades and Suburbans.

indeed. but even if it did not run out, there is still a need for developing new tech. always. stagnation is never good, progress in world of cars is no less progress than elsewhere.

Unless the electric car gets completely overhauled and greatly improved it just won't work (even then there will always be problems). Natural gas cars are most likely to work (and be the car of the future and they're already available) as most of South America (I heard) already uses them and there growing in popularity worldwide.

as awesome idea as it is, there is something about driving with a tank of natural gas in my trunk... they need to find a way to, well, not keep it in the trunk.

on the point about the electric cars... i admit i know little about electric cars, so i am not sure why they need to be completely overhauled or greatly improved. explain?

I love the Escalade, Suburban, and Tahoe.

i love oil and gas. :whistling: i would really like a http://www.allcarcentral.com/Studebaker/Studebaker_Champion_1951_Source-George_Schulze_2008.jpg.

That's actually the reason that small, economy sized cars have not caught on in the USA. The USA apparently has one of the highest vehicle safety-standards and most (Read: Nearly all) of the small, cheap, fuel efficient cars just don't stand up to the standards, and thus aren't allowed to be sold.

Or so I read. Off of TVTropes. So god knows if that's actually true. TVTropes also said that the US actually has one of the lowest numbers of crashes out of all western nations.

To bad I hate GM for the sole reason I like a 4 minute walk away from the GM factory in Ontario.

I don't have the luxry of choice.

As long as it can get me to point A to point B, doesn't break down., with some safety I'm good.

I usually say that I don't care how my car looks like, but that's a slight exaggeration. I don't want an ugly car. I want an economically feasible yet nice looking car. I want one which shows my character. Preferably big, like a Toyota Hilux, but that's too big to be practicable.

The car is designed that way most likely because of how air flows over it, to push the wheels down.

But I agree, at least with American made (manufactured here) cars. The engines aren't half bad in some, but the design, materials and reliability are shoddy now n days. I am going for foreign for each new car I buy that's for sure. I mean, look at the Corvette of today, great performance, looks decent but it's made of plastic. It should be carbon fiber or aluminum. Not plastic. Not to say older American cars are bad, I'm either going that, European or Nissan for my next car. Course I want a GT-R but I can't afford that so yeah!

Look wise, as long as they don't get any more futuristic...I've yet to see a good looking futuristic car.

I think there should just be more focus on training drivers better, and preventing wrecks in the first place, rather than making vehicles massive urban assault tanks. 16 is too young to drive in my opinion, and drinking and driving is still a problem.

Not to say I don't like aesthetics. I'd get a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Sports_800 in a heartbeat. :hehe:

That said I also wouldn't give up my beat up old 2000 Honda CRV for the world.

I wish cars were made from stainless steel, not steel coated in rust-resistant stuff that ends up getting chipped and then rust sets in anyway. And I want cars that are built to survive pot holes, since my state's roads are more pothole than road.