Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:54:45 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: VW FOX - Been driving one since Feb. but have not seen one
other than mine. Why?
In-Reply-To: <001501c7cfc6$cb0adef0$0401a8c0@cspfr2>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
The VW Fox - the boxy one, the one made in Brazil( not the Dasher fox ) ...?
Great if you love your fine little ride.
I haven't seen one of those alive around here ( southern Oregon, and west
coast in general ) for a long time.
No offense but they are considered a real POS.
One thing I can tell you, you DO NOT want to do a clutch cable on one.
Possibly the most nightmarish and impossible thing to deal with up under the
dash I've ever seen, and that's from someone who has worked on thousands and
thousands of cars of all makes just about.
( well, OK, I haven't worked on a Tatra......you got me there. )
You can pick up VW Fox's inexpensively, that you can say for sure !
You probably could get 5 for 1,000 bucks and stay in a set of wheels until
they don't have gas and normal car driving anymore.
We are in a very lucky age of automobile history......and we are near the
end of the 'era of practical, and fully driver-controlled cars."
Pretty soon, if you are on a freeway in heavy traffic at high speed, and you
tell a hyper modern car to do a sudden lane change at full throttle, the
car, due to built in intelligence, just will not do it.
You command full right steering lock and 100 % throttle...the car would just
say 'nope, not doing it."
Probably get a display that says 'Invalid Input Command.' And it would
continue on in its lane, spaced properly from the car in front.
Seriously, I'm reading on cutting edge car technologies.....
You figure with throttle by wire, the engine still does what you tell it to,
right.
Not on the soon to be here ones,
You command 100 % throttle at the pedal, the car does what it deems to be
the right thing with that information.
If it's running on 4 our of 8 cylinders at the moment, for efficiency, and
you input 20 % throttle for light cruise, it knows that 70 % throttle on the
4 working cylinders is more efficient, and will net you the result you asked
for ......
The direct link between the car's systems and the driver is being taken
away, most definitely. No burn outs, no power slides, ...durn shame.
The dumbing down of *everything*
Heck...get this, ( sorry to go on ) in Nascar for some tracks the even
dictate what rear end ratio you MUST run, or give you a choice of two.
Traditionally, race cars are controlled by engine size, weight, dimensions
etc...
And as long as you stay within those limits, how you get around the track
the fastest is up to the car's builders.....and gear ratio has always been
tradionally 'free' thing....
They're taking away individuality and creativity.
Durn shame.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
if wanting to comment and not use up bandwidth here, can continue on
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/turbovans/
comments on *anything* are fine there.....well maybe not sex with minors
...but you know, politics all that , is all fine. sdf
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
BJ Feddish
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 1:52 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: VW FOX - Been driving one since Feb. but have not seen one
other than mine. Why?
>> Do you suppose that most VW Foxes went to the junkyard prematurely? I
mean people ,ect didnt know to buckle the shoulder belt? Just wondering why
I never see another Fox.Rust? <<
Search the archives on my rant about the Fox. Had VW pushed this car, which
came out at the same time as the Hyndai for only $1K more, and advertised it
they could have sold a bundle. Instead they pushed the Jettas on everyone.
If it's any consolation I see allot more Foxes than I do Vanagons here in
SE, PA. Especially the little wagons. My last Vanagon sighting was a few
weeks ago.
Bryan
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