Ah! Like I thought, the price of a house.
Sound thinking that you have and that's why I only have a small VW Polo.
But as we have many dirt roads, I have recently changed the wheels from it's 17" low profiles. They are a pain on ground roads.
So I got 15" rims and fitted tires with more rubber to make up the 17".
Of course I would also love a Toyota Landcruiser but...
So, I am also in your wastage of money club :)
You know, for the last 20 years I've wanted a Landcruiser but chose not to have one. It's not because I couldn't buy one, more that I couldn't buy it in the way I wanted to at that point. So I waited. I had some nice trucks, very capable off-roaders like Hilux, Ranger and D-max, but the Landcruiser had to wait. In 2018 I decided to get it done and you know what? It was worth the wait. It's not the most costly car I have purchased, but the best I have had, the most suited...It wasn't cheap, $100K is a lot of money here, but I am happy to have spent it and glad I waited. Instant gratification is one thing, the value I find in saving, working hard for something and then achieving it is quite another thing altogether. Would I like an Iveco Daily, an OKA or Unimog, a Hummer (with .50 cal on top) etc. Yeah of course, but I'm content with what I have.
You said about your Polo before, nice little car but probably not so good on the dirt as you say...How has the 15's and the additional tyre-wall you gained performed? Better suspension over the rough roads I'd say.
You are absolutely right and I had a very wise mother. After her divorce, we had to leave the farm and she took us to the big city to make a new life for herself. At first we we moved in with her brother for a time, then we moved into one room, which was madness, but then she found a little rental house and we moved in with nothing but our few suitcases.
Let me tell you that she never bought anything on credit and ever month that she got paid, she bought something for the house. Piece by piece she put that house together and it was a life lessson to all of us of how to go through life.
Yes, agreed with you that we value things more because we worked and saved for it.
The Polo now runs so much better with more rubber under her. I will soon go and try the ground road mountain pass on our way to Hermanus and will let you know if she made it.
On tar she feels like a Merc compared to the jarring low profiles.
It speaks highly of a person who nibbles away at a problem, life itself I guess, and moves it forward slowly but surely. I'm sure you'd thank her now, years later, for the good example she set and the lessons you learned. :)
Those low profile tyres are nice, look good and help with performance a great deal, but are not great from a comfort perspective. I'm glad the Polo is going well; When you want to enter it into a Formula One race you can always swap the low profiles back on. Lol.
Oh yeah, she taught us the arts of target setting, perseverance and patience my friend and she remains my hero. Died too young in a car accident.
Funny you you should say this, as there is a guy here that owns a little 1.6 Polo like ours. He also owns a motor racing tune up center and that little Polo runs with the big V8s on the racing tracks.
My favorite is the 2 liter TDI, but they are expensive.
They are saying that within 10 years everyone will be driving electric cars and I struggle with that view, as we have a very long distances to cover and the batteries in those things are limited in range.
What's your feel about the issue?
Vehicle accident? I didn't know that, I'm sorry.
Hmm, the electric thing huh? Like you, we have vast distances to travel, when out of the cities, and for an off-roader like me who travels around a lot range is important. I get around 950-1050 kilometres from a tank in the big dog, (LC 200 Series) and when travelling remotely may carry another 80L of the dino-juice (diesel) with me so have another 500-600km of range. The issue is that there's a whole lot of nothing between fuel and if in low-range 4x4 the vehicle churns through the fuel...So, range is my issue from that perspective. I'd go battery though, for sure, they just have to get more range, have a smaller battery and more easily (rapidly) charged.
I have it in mind that eventually the battery pack will be similar to the one my Ryobi One+ tools use, but more powerful. One charges them all and off you go...They harvest power for charging from the braking and deceleration process and when low one just replaces one for the other...Something like that although maybe it'll all be integrated rather than interchangeable.
If the technology gets better then maybe recharging stations aren't required, due to the range of the batteries? Or they have them, but one can easily carry a battery on board for and additional range-boost.
So, I have the same concerns as you although will go battery for a town car in a shot, maybe my next town car even? All depends on the cost though as they are very costly here. An example? The Nissan Leaf starts at $49,950AUD. When you consider that my Landcruiser, a whole lot of car was double that it puts it into perspective The electric cars are costly in comparison to dino-juice ones.
Yes and totally agreed about the cost factor. But like all things, the newness factor always result in prime rates. Someone somewhere will design a spare battery that charges on the run, similar to our current alternator system and that will be a game changer.
Mind you the only Lambo that I will ever come close to affording is this small one :)
No need to fetch your magnifying scope.
I knew you were a Lambo kind of guy. I can definitely see you rollin' in this one mate, windows down so all the wannabes can see you *livin' large! 🤣 #player #lekker
You're right, the technology bwill improve and it'll work itself out. I wonder how heavy industry will go with it although mining vehicles there are largely electric these days I guess, with small diesel generators. It'll happen. I guess it has to as the dino-juice runs out.