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

a new wagon getting a US release

https://www.caranddriver.com/bmw/m5-touring

oh my god

can someone please give me $122,675

i'll give you 122,674 but you're on your own for the rest

wow selfish

interesting how thats the bmw equivalent of the audi rs6 which is also in the usa as a wagon

i was at a campsite in france last week and let me tell you guys, european campsites are where station wagons come out to play

thats whats up

Audis are stupid

thats actually not true

the first time I took my eldest to the uk we rented an audi wagon. it was the best two weeks of my life

So many Chinese EV wagons crush the overpriced, overengineed Audis. The NIO ET5 Touring, NETA's S Wagon, BYD's Han wagon

damn i didnt know audi had been crush by chinese evs

NIO ET5 Touring (YT link) is probably the best car out there. If you want to know why US and Euro car makers are in total fear of Chinese EVs...

i visited a few chinese ev showrooms last year and rode in a couple via rideshare. the fit and finish was very very good

As of this week I'm leasing an Ioniq5 for a few years - sort of fitting for this thread because it's considered a "compact SUV" but it's kind of hard to see what makes it that and not a sedan with a wagon-type hatch.

Wasn't a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs recently enacted in the US? That will kill any potential market for NIA, BYD, etc. in the US, unless they shift production to North America or find some other workaround. I'm not a fan of protectionism; previous efforts, particularly in the automotive sector, have had unintended and negative consequences.

its not really protectionism if china is pursuing a dumping scheme, which is the claim, idk if its true, obvs theres some gray area when say an industry gets a lot of government investment which is whats going on with chinese evs, are they selling them at effectively subsidized prices, i mean they are really cheap

China also has long had a policy where non-Chinese manufacturers couldn't sell their cars in China, or at least couldn't set up Chinese manufacturing plants (can't remember which) except by forming 50/50 "joint venture" companies which were half Chinese. This, amongst other things, gave the Chinese a close-up look at foreign production methods which they have since copied.

As of this week I'm leasing an Ioniq5 for a few years - sort of fitting for this thread because it's considered a "compact SUV" but it's kind of hard to see what makes it that and not a sedan with a wagon-type hatch.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Saturday, August 31, 2024 8:56 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

did you look at the kia ev6 too? just curious as these are the models i'm considering when my kia niro ev lease ends in november

thats actually not true

the first time I took my eldest to the uk we rented an audi wagon. it was the best two weeks of my life

you can take an audi to a normal mechanic they are more expensive to repair than say a japanese car but thats the case for any german car, idk about the over engineered counter initiative part ive personally found them to be nice to drive around in

The Audis we have had have been great. I had a 2011 that had over 120,000 (hard) miles and never had any issues until it got totaled. It held up well in the crash. My wife's A3 had to have the entire car computer replaced with just over 10k miles on it, but it was under warranty so not that big of a deal.

My only complaint about the newer ones is that the technology is getting more and more complicated, but I think that is a general car trend and a me getting older trend. They also look way better than the BMWs from the last 15 years and the A4 is very fun to drive.

tbf my mechanic did say that he hated my the audi i owned at the time, which i guess could be "over engineering" but i mean thats german performance baby, i def wouldnt recommend buying a high milage one tho

and yeah tech in cars is out of control, think audis bad take a look at a new mercedes its a farce in there

I have had mechanics make comments about Audi's reputation for reliability, but I think that is lingering from many years ago.

I rented a Mercedes two years ago and I could not get into it when I picked it up because the drivers seat was so far forward (like up against the steering wheel), I could not find the switches to operate it, and the owners manual in the car did not match that model.

my mechanic was complaining about how fiddly they were to work on iirc

did you look at the kia ev6 too? just curious as these are the models i'm considering when my kia niro ev lease ends in november

― call all destroyer, Saturday, August 31, 2024 9:30 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I was considering them but didn’t go test drive or anything. I’m told they are fairly close to the same car and I think some people even like the EV6 trim options better. I kind of needed to resolve our car situation within a very limited amount of time, but would have done more comparison otherwise. Friends of ours love their EV6.

https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/BMW-M5-Touring-leak-profile.jpg

I was just in the UK for a couple of weeks and our rental was a volvo xc60. very nice but a bit big for the country lanes, and my first time driving a touchscreen climate control situation.

I gave one wheel curb rash on the first day. got a mobile refurbisher to come out and make the wheel like new for £95, better than the £500+ the rental place would have charged me. took about an hour. worth considering and much easier than I realized if you care about such things.

i wish audi and bmw would bring their smaller middling performance wagons to the usa i want s4 wagon or idk what the bmw equivalent would be a 340i, their high end performance cars yr Ms and RSes are so fast and expensive now that m5 upthread is $100k+ and has 700 horsepower thats some fantastical shit you just want something a little zippier than the normal ones you dont need some crazy track car

the usa can have a little wagon if it wants

the hatchbacks for their small cars would be nice too

we cant have it cause everyone wants tall car

S3 hatchback would be sick.

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