The Official Funny Stuff Thread™
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C(onjugated)TFY
i see what you did there.
and true, the hummer mod market is super tiny.
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We do own a Prius, yes.
Do you not get distracted by all of the graphics and animations about where the power's going from/to or how much power you're generating?
I had one as a hire car for a couple of days and spent plenty of time looking at those rather than at the road.
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i know the screen you are talking about, and yes. that's why i keep it on the 30 minute herstory screen. much less going on to distract.
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Do you not get distracted by all of the graphics and animations about where the power's going from/to or how much power you're generating?
In my car, the "powertrainview" is obviously just there as a sales tool. It's not the default view, and the icon to activate it is extremely tiny on the home screen.
I usually keep mine on map view, even if I don't have the nav system going. It looks the most "car-like". And it's not like the stereo or air conditioner or cell phone interface need a full screen of controls, when all their shit is duplicated in physical buttons on the steering wheel or console.
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I suspect if I had it as an actual car that I owned, I'd get bored of it and have something more useful like the nav, but as I only had it for a couple of days the novelty didn't wear off.
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It mostly serves to annoy you by shoving the car's bad programming in your face. "Why do you have the engine going? Climate? You're burning gas to run the heater? STUPID CAR I DON'T MIND IF ITS CHILLY, STOP WASTING GAS!"
Everything in the fucking car is electric, the steering, the power brakes, the fucking PARKING brake-- except the goddamned heater. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING FORD!
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Everything in the fucking car is electric, the steering, the power brakes, the fucking PARKING brake-- except the goddamned heater. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING FORD!
Ford was probably thinking "heaters use a lot of power".
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Ford was probably not thinking
"heaters use a lot of power".FTFY. Thinking takes a backseat to "environmental concerns".
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FTFY. Thinking takes a backseat to "environmental concerns".
Are you an insane person?
How is "running the gas engine for literally no reason other than to create heat" environmentally friendly? I'd turn this "feature" off in a millisecond and save gas if I could.
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You're missing the point. The engineers were too busy wanking off to federal green-vehicle grants to consider that maybe someone might actually want to use basic features like the heater.
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Naw--the heater's essentially free as it's powered by waste engine heat. If you wanted to use electricity you'd have to add an extra heater, and electric heaters generally use a lot of power.
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If you wanted to use electricity you'd have to add an extra heater, and electric heaters generally use a lot of power.
True, but with basically everything else being electric (as blakey was describing) then having a small electric heater would make sense (though maybe needing a warning about high power use).
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True, but with basically everything else being electric (as blakey was describing) then having a small electric heater would make sense (though maybe needing a warning about high power use).
Well, possible, but my guess is that the Ford engineers disagreed. :) They probably decided it took too much off the battery life.
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That's probably it. Plenty of cars now have extra electric heaters so that you're warm and toasty long before the engine warms up, but when the engine's providing the electricity that's not so much of a problem. When you're relying on the battery then that's when it matters, otherwise you'll run out of battery faster and then end up back on engine power sooner.
Surely turning the temperature down stops the car from thinking it needs more heat inside though?
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An electric heater for a small car is probably what, 2 kW max? I wonder what the power draw is for actually accelerating the vehicle, and for cruising at steady speed.
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Naw--the heater's essentially free as it's powered by waste engine heat. If you wanted to use electricity you'd have to add an extra heater, and electric heaters generally use a lot of power.
Right; but then again my friend with the goddamned dirt-cheap Kia Rio he bought in like 1997, his car has an small electric heater that keeps the air warm before the engine heat is sufficient.
Since all Fusions have gas engines, and since the gas engine's gonna kick in in the first few minutes of driving anyway (generally speaking), having a small electric heater to fill the gap would mean:
- Not running the gas engine for a really stupid reason, and
- The customer who spent a lot of $$$ for the car gets heat from the heater immediately instead of having to wait 5 minutes for the engine to warm up
They could study the MPG impact of this, but I'm wagering it's negligible... who knows.
But right now, my car in the winter is both cold and wasteful. While my friend with the dirt-cheap bare-bones Kia Rio has a car which is nice and cozy.
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Surely turning the temperature down stops the car from thinking it needs more heat inside though?
Right but that defeats the purpose of having an automatic thermostat if I have to adjust it literally every time I start the car in winter.
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An electric heater for a small car is probably what, 2 kW max? I wonder what the power draw is for actually accelerating the vehicle, and for cruising at steady speed.
No idea. Batteries don't like cold. Some recent car--the Tesla? The Volt?--suffers massive range reductions in snowy areas, and I thought I'd read last winter that using the heater enhances the effect.
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No idea. Batteries don't like cold. Some recent car--the Tesla? The Volt?--suffers massive range reductions in snowy areas, and I thought I'd read last winter that using the heater enhances the effect.
Right; but Fusions are all HYBRIDS so this is a non-issue for the car I'm talking about. The gas engine's gonna have to fire up anyway in the first 15 minutes of driving. (At most.)
I'm not saying it should have an electric heating element on all the time forever, because that would be wasteful. But having one to "fill the gap" between the car starting and the engine heat being available would have been nice.
Especially when it's available on DIRT CHEAP KIAS BOUGHT ALMOST A DECADE AGO.
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Right but that defeats the purpose of having an automatic thermostat if I have to adjust it literally every time I start the car in winter.
Agreed - just wasn't sure whether you cared more about having the engine off or being chilly.
They could study the MPG impact of this, but I'm wagering it's negligible... who knows.
I suspect it's pretty small considering the MPG is already significantly lower until the engine warms up.
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I suspect it's pretty small considering the MPG is already significantly lower until the engine warms up.
And the car has a fucking computer controlling everything. They could just, like someone said above, has a little notice that this drains the battery (assuming it does, which I doubt) and let people turn it off. There's a million other preferences you can set.
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That kid looks creepy.
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That kid looks creepy.
He is eating jam advertised as "tastes like grandma". Pretty sure he is supposed to be creepy.
EDIT: and by The Family Fruit Basket LLC which just make the phrase worse.
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There's a million other preferences you can set.
Now, let's add in the time required to test all that stuff. And the fact that reengineering physical stuff is more involved than deleting some widget and a few methods of code. Good lord, how long are you idling with your heater on?
I have a non-hybrid Fusion, and the heat seems to come up pretty quickly. Actually, one thing I like about the heater is that it doesn't start blasting cold air, but waits until stuff is warm enough to actually feel warm. Then it goes crazy getting the temperature up.
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I would love to have an electric heater on my truck. A diesel engine with an oversized radiator and tow package, even with the winter grill cover on, doesn't warm up in time for the heater to work by the time I'm at the office. It's even worse if I don't take it on the highway, the engine will cool enough at stoplights to make the heater impractical.
(But at least I have heated seats.)
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Actually, one thing I like about the heater is that it doesn't start blasting cold air, but waits until stuff is warm enough to actually feel warm. Then it goes crazy getting the temperature up.
Well it's definitely an improvement over like the heater in your 1986 Cordia.
But the heater in my 2014 Fusion isn't as good as the heater in my friend's 1997 Kia Rio.
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But the heater in my 2014 Fusion isn't as good as the heater in my friend's 1997 Kia Rio.
Probably because you got suckered into the hybrid version.
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Pfft. What kind of mutant freak would buy a Fusion and not buy the Hybrid? It's by far the best hybrid on the market right now, all-around.
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It's by far the best hybrid on the market right now, all-around.
Best shit sandwich on the market!
There are better holes for me to throw money at.
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Oh right, you're the guy who thinks Reagan was a radical.
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Oh right, you're the guy who thinks Reagan was a radical.
What? I'm not sure how that figured into cost benefit calculations, but why not? What sort of radical do I think Reagan was, again?
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Navajo Nation President Watches Redskins Game with Dan Snyder
Dan Snyder watched his Redskins play the Cardinals on Sunday alongside Ben Shelly, president of the Navajo Nation, and his wife Martha. Snyder's team lost |
Love the hat...
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Jeeps are awesome. Had an accident with some black ice one winter. Almost hit a truck that had plowed into the side of the mountain, but I managed to get my Jeep to go up the mountain and around the truck instead.
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This service gets a higly recomended null from me on null social networks.
No problem, glad I could help!
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When you get a notification because someone replied to a 3 month old post you no longer care about.
http://i.imgur.com/v6DGjdO.gifFiled under: where is The Cute Stuff Thread?
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I would love to have an electric heater on my truck. A diesel engine with an oversized radiator and tow package, even with the winter grill cover on, doesn't warm up in time for the heater to work by the time I'm at the office. It's even worse if I don't take it on the highway, the engine will cool enough at stoplights to make the heater impractical.
Where do you live? Nome, AK? I drove diesel trucks for many years and never really had that issue. I always let them idle for quite a while in the mornings though, and usually plugged them in overnight. I had an F-350 SRW with the 6.0 Powerstroke and it was usually toasty with a 15 minute warmup in the AM.
But the heated seats were definitely nice. I am pretty sure that heavy trucks have seat heaters meant to work through coveralls because they get HOT. I will never again have a vehicle without heated seats or climate control. In the winter it is nice that climate control lets the engine warm up before the fan even comes on. No blasting you with cold air until the engine is up to temperature.
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Used to live in the northwest Missouri area, moved to Omaha, NE last year. Mine's a Duramax, and it could idle all day long if it's below 20 degrees and not reach operating temperature. I normally don't plug it in though, as long as I have good fuel it'll start even at around -5 and we don't have too many days that get colder than that.
I did just figure out it's had bad fuel injectors ever since I bought it so maybe the heater will be better this winter. Judging from the ones I pulled out, I think it had two dead cylinders
, but the FI system is smart enough to overfire the other cylinders and you don't really know anything's wrong without having the computer plugged in to tell you. (Really wish it would throw a "Check Engine" light or something when there are dead cylinders, but I guess that makes too much sense.)
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@Intercourse said:
But the heated seats were definitely nice. I am pretty sure that heavy trucks have seat heaters meant to work through coveralls because they get HOT. I will never again have a vehicle without heated seats or climate control. In the winter it is nice that climate control lets the engine warm up before the fan even comes on. No blasting you with cold air until the engine is up to temperature.
Definitely. Mine even has independent control over the back and bottom of the seat, which is really nice because I have a bad back. I use it like a heating pad lol.
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Really wish it would throw a "Check Engine" light or something when there are dead cylinders, but I guess that makes too much sense.
QFT
"I have 83 ways to say 'you probably need a new $1,000 catalytic converter but I can't tell you you have two dead spark plugs'"
Huh. Oh, goody, this may be good news for me.
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My stupid car started throwing OBD codes about one cat--and of course it's the hard to get one--at 55K miles (only 2K after I bought it.) It took two tries, but the dealer managed to fix the problem, from their perspective: it didn't come back until about 104K miles. For people who don't know, if the cat fails in the first 100K miles, the dealer has to fix it on his own dime.
Since then, it's been throwing a code. The nice thing is in the spring and fall when the weather's mild, I can pull the battery cable and then drive until the ECU decides to talk to the sensors again, and the light stays out until summer. That's let me pass inspection three years running, without having to spend a mint replacing parts. The fact that the check engine light stays off for so long, coupled with my link, now makes me think maybe I won't actually have to spend $800 on the part and several hundred dollars more on labor.
Modern cars, gotta love 'em, right? Replacing the converter on my car, the instructions start with "get out your blowtorch and cut off the bolts."
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I'm glad mine is the last year (2004) before all the EPA stuff started hitting diesels. I don't even have a catalytic converter! Exhaust header
turbo muffler tailpipe. And even without all that stuff I don't get any smoke! Well-tuned diesels are very clean.One of my coworkers has a much newer Duramax, 2009 I think, and his has all the EPA stuff. Mine gets 5 - 10 mpg better than his. When his DPF is doing a regen it drops to something like 5 mpg for the duration of the regen, which tends to be around 150 miles I think.
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James Taranto (WSJ, Best of the Web) had a limerick contest regarding the Democratic candidate for Senate in Kentucky after she refused to answer a question from a newspaper editorial board about whether she previously voted for Obama. Winning entry (composite of two separate entries, apparently):
Alison Lundergan Grimes
Attended the College of Mimes
Which is why, as we’ve noted
When asked how she voted
She kept silent four or five times
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This is pretty cool, although earlier versions could perhaps have gone into the evil ideas thread:
Talking parrot missing for 4 years found, now speaks Spanish
When Nigel vanished four years ago, he spoke with a cultivated British accent.Little is known about where the African grey parrot went, what he did — or who he was with — in those mis…
Little is known about where the African grey parrot went, what he did — or who he was with — in those missing years. But when he was reunited with his owner, Darren Chick, in Torrance last week, the British accent was gone and the bird was chattering in Spanish, often mentioning the name “Larry.”
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When his DPF is doing a regen it drops to something like 5 mpg for the duration of the regen, which tends to be around 150 miles I think.
DPF regen should take nothing like that long - it should happen for a few minutes max.
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Too bad it doesn't contain any IT related topics or we could propose him as TDWTF writer.
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I've seen that ages ago, except it ended with a guy squatting behind his car and asking on a car forum what to do about rust on his rims.
