@CaffeinatedNoms: I looked at the Evoque on the Wikipedia page and the first thing I thought was “that’s not a rear window, that’s a slit in the back wall of the car”. The Range Rover site may call it an “Award-winning design”, but I see three big problems with it:
The five-door version shown on Wikipedia looks like Range Rover put black duct tape on the left and right side of the rear window, reducing visibility by at least 6" on both sides.
The “awning” along the top where the third brake light is will reduce visibility even further.
The way the roofline slopes down from the front to the back and the way the bottom edges of the side windows slope upward from front to back means you lose surface area for the glass, which means you lose visibility.
I have had to rent a few cars over the past few years while my truck has been worked on and those where the view in the rearview mirror was like looking through a tunnel were immediately marked off my list of models to consider whenever I decide to buy a new vehicle. The picture of the Evoque will be one that I take to the dealership and say, “if you have anything that looks like this, I don’t want it”.
I made my oldest watch that texting video when it first came out. She was actually a little shaken by it.
I think it’s funny the amount of focus texting gets, it’s not like you don’t see people doing everything up to and including having sex while driving. I think it’s just become such a hot spot because you can look at phone records and prove they were doing it, while there is no way to know that I just dropped my Big MAc in my lap right before the accident, or was looking for my lighter, or dropped the AUX cord for my phone, or was staring at that someone’s outfit, or reading a bumper sticker, or whatever the hell.
Indiana has semi truck police cars now so they can catch people texting while driving easier. I don’t see the number of accidents out there going down.
I feel compelled to weigh in, even though I have nothing really to add.
I drive the pinnacle of Australian motoring: a Mitsubishi Magna. No, really.
Mine is a 3.5L V6, so it’s got a bit of poke. Being a front-wheel-drive, understeer is present but not very bad unless you’re being silly. It’s nice to drive around town but it really lives for long-distance road trips. It stays planted on the road and feels safe and solid.
The interior is pretty basic by modern standards. It has power windows, remote central locking (that still works!), air conditioning and cruise (the latter two were non-negotiable when I was looking around). I recently put a Bluetooth-enabled stereo unit in it so as not to get pinged for holding the phone while driving.
This thing is in its 16th year on the road. I’ve owned it for almost 12 of those years, and it’s been a great car. Fuel economy is not great at 11.5L/100km, compared to more modern cars.
Get your stupid car alarm adjusted. You know we have motorcyclists in this neighborhood that like to rev their engines as they drive by and the noise from the exhaust keeps tripping your alarm.
Update, 5 hours later: that same car alarm has gone off twice more. Once from a car’s muffler and once from a motorcycle’s.
You have your hazard lights and your rear fog lights and your brake lights on. So I’m gonna assume the pot cloud in your car is so thick you’re about to turn left and right at the upcoming off-ramp.
The only reason you had a green light is because I pushed the walk button. Have enough gratitude to wait for me to get out of the crosswalk, instead of waiting twenty minutes for the light to change.
I used to fantasize about this when I was driving route 270 nightly. The Maryland HOV lanes are HOV-2, so you only need 2 people to qualify for them anyway, but tons of people don’t even follow that. I also used to leave work around 6:00 PM, and the HOV restrictions ended at 6:30, so a lot of people probably figured that it was only a few minutes from ending anyway if they’re breaking the (misdemeanor, rarely enforced) law at 6:25.
