I thought it was audi drivers that were the assholes in tin cans these days. This is like nostalgia assholery - “the assholes in my day drove bmw!”
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Yowza! That would be $407 today. Audi parts seem to be cheaper now. A brand new coolant reservoir can be found for around $75. It’s the dealer labor costs that get you though. I just replaced a coolant flange on my Audi on Monday. The part was only $28 but the dealer wanted $600 to install it because it’s in a tight spot between the back of the engine and the firewall. I completed the job myself after several hours and some very scraped-up knuckles. The internet and YouTube provide great resources for DIY car repairs, something that wasn’t an option in the 80s!
A Camaro would really be nostalgic.
Edit: I actually think the people this song is about are the folks who grow up to buy BMWs, Audis, etc.
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Oh, you can’t compare us and LA, that’s for sure… 
This is what I believe to be the problem in Los Angeles - There is no high percentage of either of the two kinds of drivers, those being offensive and defensive.
In San Diego, it’s mostly defensive.
It’s my contention that having it split down the middle creates more problems because there is constant fighting.
LA also seems to have a higher concentration of people that stick their slow butts in the left lane and don’t move over when other traffic is going faster. Though that’s overall an issue everywhere.
I don’t think we got those in the uk unless you buy an import so the name is immediately reminding me of the canyonero…
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Weirdly, the first car that I ever noticed to generally be driven by inconsiderate road-raging assholes was the ninth- and tenth-generation ('83-'97) Ford Thunderbird.
You don’t see them very often anymore. Probably because of aforementioned road-ragin’ assholery.
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Evolution is great, except for the collateral damage.
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A car is not an investment, full stop.
An investment is something that a person might reasonably expect to go up in value. Cars (with very few exceptions involving collector vehicles) do not go up in value.
Rather, a car is an expense. It’s part of the cost of living, and it continually goes down in value as you wear it out. The biggest drop in value is the moment you drive it off the lot, when it typically loses 30℅. But you never expect it to go UP.
When you buy an expensive car, you’re not investing in it. You’re paying extra for “luxury” which is difficult to quantify, or more often, for “status” which is even harder.
Some jobs require you to have a fancy car, so it might also be a business expense, but it’s never an investment.
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Collector vehicles usually depreciate too. When they sell for vast sums at auction, if you factor in the cost of maintaining a vehicle for which parts are nonexistent over, say, a 30 year period, the prices suddenly don’t look so hot given what you’re going to spend if you want to use them.
I’m not in the car collector game (looks sideways at wife) but occasionally I notice auction prices of bikes I owned in the 70’s and blink. And then I think of the cumulative cost of 30-40 years of exotica maintenance, and suddenly £15000 or £25000 doesn’t look a lot of return at all.
In that case it’s what we call “sweating your assets”. You are basically minimising your overhead but it is still costing you money. Of course it may be cheaper than taking taxis everywhere, so from that point of view you are saving money - but it still isn’t really technically an investment.
Fair enough but that really is a very corner case.
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At the risk of special case arguing, there are cars (new ones too) that are bought for purely speculative investment reasons. Take the Ferrari laFerrari which was available in 2014 for $1.4 million as an example. They now command over $3 million each with $4 million being common enough. That’s a solid return on investment.
Heck, one would do well to buy a 1988 Fiero GT. They are getting rare now and are only gong up in value.
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Perhaps, perhaps not. The car as an investment market is mainstream enough. To say they are never an investment is simply not true. http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-invcar04.html
You know, I may be wrong, but watching that segment several times it looks like the camera car doesn’t actually accelerate until after the BMW is visible in the front window – which acceleration might be a natural response to thinking you’re about to get sideswiped. Can’t say for sure, though. I also can’t say whether the camera driver would otherwise have stopped for the yellow.
(And I’m pretty sure that the beep that happens around the same time is indeed the traffic camera dinging one or both of the cars, but I don’t know enough about photo-enforced lights to know for sure.)
Oh come on, we didn’t all grow up in Lake Wobegon
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Fair enough, with your caveat.
However I think it’s good to keep in mind that this is really just “speculation” and not something a reasonable person would consider a legit investment. In other words, this is basically the result of there being a lot of super rich .1℅-ers who see nothing better to do with their money than fight over trendy baubles.
You’d have to be pretty nuts to put your retirement in a brand new Ferrari laferrari.
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Probably referring to this.
But, hey, I wouldn’t know about such things.
I can almost hear the guy in my head after he got out of his wrecked car; the flip flopping between excuses and blame, the uncomprehending pauses and eventually, the sullen silence.
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I loved having dented up cars at the 10 lane to 2 merges going into the Holland Tunnel. People here seem to have no idea what an alternate merge is, and think the idea is NEVER let somebody get in front of you. Enter the beater car vs that nice BMW…
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Actually, Vancouver is the best city I’ve ever lived in for driver attitude (but admittedly it’s a pretty low bar, coming from Australia - by far the worst driver attitudes I’ve encountered). I find it generally great. I’m just pointing out how only “really, really, good” drivers seem to post here (or anywhere for that matter). It always seems to be someone else who is the asshole. Just saying’s all…
Oh, BMW drivers.
Maybe the excuse for the behavior of the driver in the OP can be that his tire pressure was 1.5PSI too low, just like this guy:
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The Mercedes was a 1976 240D owned by Grigorios Sachinidis, a Greek taxi driver. It did 2.85 million miles before Mercedes gave him a brand-new one and put it in their factory museum. On the other hand, he did have two spare engines and kept switching them round.
The Volvo P1800 that now holds the record (over 3 million miles!) is owned by Irv Gordon, a retired high-school teacher in Long Island who bought it new in 1966. And that’s all on the original engine. The pushrod B18/B20s are bulletproof.
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