Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Appalled!

Anyone seen the latest You Tube from Harry - the electrified BMW 5 series. Its like a fairground ride for children with the dash changing colours, driving modes by driver mood, huge weight, absolutely ridiculous price and miniscule range. Is this the future we want I ask myself.

Giver the chance to design my own car, I pondered what gadgets I would install. My conclusion was:

air con
manual box
fuel injection and electronic ignition
memory seats - swmbo being 1 foot shorter than me
cruise control
abs
full wishbone suspension

And thats it. I dont want engine modes. I dont want menus and screens, I dont want coloured interior lights or lane assist, I dont want infotainment,

In fact I guess what I want is a new car from the 1990s.

How about you?

It's the first time I have seen Harry tell people "do not buy this car".

Yep, it's being discussed over on the MG forum.

However, at £115K some people will buy it because it costs £115K and they'll like to tell their friends how much they spent.

As long as they replace the thrombosis behind the wheel with functioning indicators I couldn't care less really..

air con (not for me. Open a window)
manual box (yep)
fuel injection and electronic ignition (prefer carbs, but like electronic ignition)
memory seats - swmbo being 1 foot shorter than me (no, I have a manual forward/back and a recline lever)
cruise control (no)
abs (no)
full wishbone suspension (nice to have but not essential, just a reasonable set up so I don't have to slow down for corners)

And thats it. I dont want engine modes. I dont want menus and screens, I dont want coloured interior lights or lane assist, I dont want infotainment, (agreed, just a reasonable stereo for those boring traffic moments. My Mrs VW has a touch screen thingy and I reckon it's dangerous as you have to take your eyes off the road so that you can press the right part of the screen. On mine, I can reach down without looking and click a switch on/off or turn a dial. I understand that VW have dropped the screen this year due to similar issues.)

In fact I guess what I want is a new car from the 1990s. (1980's for me. And that's what I drive every day and have a weekend car from the 70's)

I watched some of it but as it will never be my sort of car, I got quite bored which is a first for one of his video's, what a horrible, ugly stupid vehicle

Another result of cars being so competent .... anything you buy these days will get you from A to B and up the hills and dales in between .... they can no longer sell cars based on utility ... they sell on gimmicks and 'lifestyle' .... hence modern cars loaded down with marginally useful (or downright stupid) 'stuff'.

K

At last year’s Taffmog Winter Weekend some people went to Vintage Voltage in Newtown ( as seen on tv).
They convert cars to EV, including full restoration.
One Taffmogger blagged a passenger ride in a Testarossa. The owner had one already but was getting another. About £190k each using second hand/reclaimed Tesla motors/batteries. Really? The magic of such cars is the engine/gearbox/sound. Yes, great acceleration but the only sound was road/wind. The old mechanicals were being sold onto recover some of the EV conversion cost.
Popular conversions wereDiscoveries, Minis. They had kits ready to fit due to popularity.
In the tv series the big sell was always performance, acceleration in particular.
A travesty to butcher some of those classics they worked on.

I watched the Harry's Garage BMW review and found it fascinating. I wasn't in the market for one anyway but Harry has put me right off mainstream modern cars. My 2020 Discovery has a fair bit if stuff in it but at least the Lane-Keep-Assist defaults to off as does any form of speed warning.

Does anyone remember the Simpsons episode where Homer designed a car?

Saw the 5 series big brother, the electric 7 series in Portugal having its photo taken for brochure pics. Not a pretty car and blocked quite a lot of the view. Even the dogs didn't want to get too close to it.