Subj : Re: New Mazda
To   : esc
From : Nightfox
Date : Wed May 24 2023 11:37:42

  Re: Re: New Mazda
  By: esc to Nightfox on Wed May 24 2023 10:23 am

 es> I also have had a number of VWs over the years. I had a 2003 GTI and later
 es> a 2008 GTI. These cars were amazingly fun to drive, and they felt faster
 es> than they probably were.

I like the GTIs.  I briefly had a used 2001 GTI with the 1.8T engine.  The dealership said it had been in an accident, but they didn't say what extent the damage was..  A couple days after I bought it, the Check Engine light came on, and it occasionally had some engine stuttering.  I brought it into the VW dealership for that, and they said they checked the engine code and found the engine had been swapped in from a Jetta.  I'd never bought a new GTI though because they always seemed fairly expensive.

 es> I also had a 69 Beetle that I halfway rebuilt just for fun. It was also a
 es> blast, and frankly, I really miss that car! I think I'll get another
 es> Beetle in the future to fix up.

I've known a couple people with older VW Beetles, and it seemed they were often working on them, either fixing them or tweaking something.

 es> I was /this/ close to getting a Westfalia camper, but ultimately we
 es> decided against it as it would be not only a vintage car to maintain, but
 es> since it was built in the 80s it would require extensive SMOG and CARB
 es> testing in California. If it were built ten years earlier, I wouldn't have
 es> had to worry about this, and probably would have one in my driveway!

I always thought those were cool.  And isn't there a 90s model (EuroVan)?

 es> These smart features are called L2 ADAS. My company works in this space,
 es> it's pretty fascinating. Autonomy is the goal for every company but it's
 es> still a ways off; L2 ADAS is a stepping stone.

Ah, interesting.

 Ni>> Overall, I wanted a reliable car that's less expensive to maintain
 Ni>> than my Volkswagen was - It sounds like hopefully this Mazda will
 Ni>> be. 

 es> Nice. Hope it plays out that way. I bought a 2018 Fiat 500E (Electric) for
 es> a cheap commuter that doesn't require much maintenance. As it's a tiny
 es> electric car, it's very maneuverable, rather fun to drive, and costs
 es> astonishingly little to keep charged up at home.

That's cool.  I wouldn't mind having an inexpensive electric car, but currently I live in an apartment and I don't have a godo way to charge one.  Also, I'd like to be able to take longer road trips, and currently I'd worry about being able to charge it in such a case.

 es> This car has a funny pedigree. Stellantis (basically Chrysler) was told
 es> that too many of their vehicles were gas guzzlers, and California told
 es> Stellantis that if they wanted to continue selling vehicles in CA, they'd
 es> need some way to offset this. What Stellantis did was tell Fiat to build
 es> an electric car. Fiat begrudgingly built its 500 model into an electric
 es> car. They lost like 10-15k on each one of these sold, but as they were
 es> compliance cars, they had no real choice in the matter. To my knowledge
 es> this car was only sold in CA and maybe Oregon or Washington, but I can't
 es> remember exactly. 

Interesting..  California seems to have some strict laws about cars.

Nightfox
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