Rants and WTF are you talking about and Coronavirus!

[QUOTE=EscapeArtist;2699625]My 2 cents regarding German versus Japanese cars. Having owned BMW, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, and now a Mercedes Van, German cars are superior at the top end. And they are better when you own them in Western Europe with all of the maintenance and inspection laws. However, if you own those German cars in the United States where the laws for car maintenance are much more relaxed, their reliability is no better than any American car. In the US, you only have to pass annual emissions inspections and maintain basic safety like brake lights and headlights. Even if your brakes do not work, there is no one inspecting your car! Without the strict rules that forces you to repair everything on your car or in Germany where you must have the correct tires for winter and summer, the German car breaks down just as fast. But when I had a Toyota 4 Runner or Honda SUV and my family's Camry, I never had any issues. The 4 Runner went to 300,000 miles only having to repair basic suspension and other basic maintenance like brakes. The only reason the suspension wore out was because I would take it off-road in mud and water, keeping up with Jeep wranglers and trucks. We sold the Camry for $3000 after 350,000 miles and 20 years after only changing the water pump. I traded in my Honda after 50,000 miles for a used BMW 5 series which blew a head gasket after less than 2 years of use! And while I love my Volkswagen CC (which uses Audi engine parts,) repairs on it are a pain in the ass! It was made to be repaired by dealerships, requiring special tools and computers to remove many parts and reset the ECB. The Mercedes Sprinter van, well at 225,000 miles, I literally spent $10,000 having the engine rebuilt 3 months ago!

TLDR version:

German cars are great cars if you own them where you have laws that forces you to put money into regular maintenance. In more freedom loving countries, where car maintenance is up to the individual owners, their dependability issues are quite exposed.

Now, I would rather have a Lexus that gives me a happy combination of performance, luxury, dependability with minimal maintenance, and the ability to repair the car using only 3 uniform and universal socket sizes.[/QUOTE]Yes, Japanese cars especially Toyota never break down, it is known for its quality management called Kaizen system and Toyota also have full control of their suppliers to provide best after service for their clients, they do not go for speed, but they mostly cover all corners of car industry catering to each different segments and target market with different cars and for luxury market, Toyota made Lexus as their brand, which to my surprise did very well!

I also like Audi and Mercedez and Porsche, I tend to like RS4, RS6 both only sedanes (Prefer old models not new ones), and also Porsche 911 (Also much prefer old air cool down engine models like 993 and 964, but only owned / own new ones unfortunately, but I drove 964 for a day before, amazing car! And as for Mecedez I love old G class and SL!

But when it comes to quality, they are all in similar range, but Toyota tops it as they break down much less than those car! It is simply built better! Especially Toyota land cruisers, they are not my type of cars to buy, but for quality they are the best! And even ISIS uses only Toyota which was negative marketing for Toyota LOL! All these bandits in harsh desert war conditions buy toyota land cruiser as it goes on forever like a reliable rock LOL! If I have to goto most harsh condition hot or cold and I can only take one car, I will take Toyota land cruiser, but for city life, I stick to any porsche 911 or in beach resort, I stick to Old SL class, I somehow love the 90's kinda 2 pac vibe of SL class! And SL looks good with the roof closed, for porsche 911, I prefer hard top than convertible as it looks horrible when that cloth roof is closed with 911 !

[QUOTE=Turgid;2699524]Why would the West threaten Putin's regime?[/QUOTE]The guy was raised by KGB now called FSB, which is still is KGB, so I guess he himself is the victim of the propaganda and traumatized individual when it comes to West and scary part is that the traumatize guy like that is running a country with his friends which many are former KGB!

China, Russia, North Korea so called red team never change their core! It may look normal on surface, but their core will always remain as they never seems to learn much and what is going on in Ukraine is like; are we really in 21st century? Or we are back in 20th century to 1940's! They never evolved!

[QUOTE=EscapeArtist;2699934]I bet you've never even driven a Tesla or a Corvette. Despite saying you only believe your eyes, you don't even know it for sure by driving them yourself. Laughable. Hypocritical. Every time the rental companies try to give me a Renault, I tell them I don't want that shit car.[/QUOTE]I will also add that it is widely accepted that Genesis, Hyundai's luxury car brand, is producing some high quality luxury vehicles at very favorable prices. Yes, this is a Korean car company that is getting it right. I wonder if our French friend knows that Genesis is part of Hyundai? Renault, Peugeot, and Citroen are all out of the question! What else they got? Nothing I want. I know that much. I want some French girl pussy, and that's it! LOL!

[QUOTE=Sirioja;2699868]Putin was only a small agent, nearly nothing, not Jamesov Bondov, in KGB. But he has big nostalgia about CCCP, even he is very rich now, showing money don't buy happiness nor feeling good. Now he is rich and dirty after 2014 and again now. A dirty dictator. When China is not so far, when North Korea is nothing, but Western world should learn to live without dictators business and China is. We don't need Russia nor China to build strong economy.[/QUOTE]Maybe small player but still KGB training and was raised by a KGB father. He thinks like a spy.

[QUOTE=TheCane;2700192]I will also add that it is widely accepted that Genesis, Hyundai's luxury car brand, is producing some high quality luxury vehicles at very favorable prices. Yes, this is a Korean car company that is getting it right. I wonder if our French friend knows that Genesis is part of Hyundai? Renault, Peugeot, and Citroen are all out of the question! What else they got? Nothing I want. I know that much. I want some French girl pussy, and that's it! LOL![/QUOTE]I remember when Genesis was still Hyundai Genesis and was a car I heavily considered. It was regarded as a "best kept secret" in the luxury market. Unfortunately I went with a BMW 525 instead and regretted it. I believe all Korean cars come with a 10 year 160,000 km warranty.

[QUOTE=Pickley;2699915]German auto is great for attention to detail and precision. Downside is the matter of reliability when a part becomes less precise. Other systems often become affected.[/QUOTE]Let me tell ya, every time one electronic part failed in my Beamer or VW, the dashboard would light up like a pinball machine. Like I mentioned, great cars if you keep up with every little detail to perfection. But just like how I see so many older German guys get easily frustrated when small things don't go according to plan, their cars seem to be built the same way.

Anyone ever drive a Mercedes be series? Or an Audi A2? They're not exactly high performance vehicles.

It's true that BMW and Mercedes scores terribly in terms of maintenance. But Audi scores very well. Far better than Lexus.

And are some of you people trying to write books now?

[QUOTE=PaulInZurich;2699961]I guess it depends on your definition of "many". According to Kraftfahrt Bundesamt (drink the internet a little) in 2021 by sales volume first French car is Renault Zoe at position 29. Ignoring German cars, Fiat, Tesla, Skoda, Hyundai, Seat, Kia have models that sell better than the best selling French car.[/QUOTE]You know only internet when I m driving between Basel, Dortmund and Aachen every week end = 750 kms, and I see so much more French cars, but not many electric Zoe, than Toyota or Tesla or Koreans, when I drive more kilometers in Germany than most Germans. But I agree Toyota, Kia, Hyundai sell many, but because cheap, not because of quality. When Swiss was not able to brake and his Mercedes finished in my back, no damage on strong old lady, when a plastic Toyota or Korean would have been destroyed and I would have missed to discover my superb Swiss, what I call quality with more than 600000 kms most often on high speed, unfortunately not same quality now with bad Asian electronics on new Audi, reason why and also for administration, I prefer to choose one with less electronics and not made in Asia at this time. S5 bought around 20000 € will be prepared for very high speed when great balance, but Megane RS prepared on cup level is exceptional and more sporty than most supercars which couldn't follow in curves.

[QUOTE=EscapeArtist;2699354]My point: Russia's security concerns and the argument that the West bears some responsibility by pushing Russia into a corner carries very marginal merit. Russia was losing the influence and economic wars and there was no legitimate concern of national security outside of Putin's concern that the West's influence in surrounding nations could garner support with the Russian general population. What keeps Putin up most at night is the threat of revolutionary mobs in the streets, not Western militaries.[/QUOTE]Putin is not the only one had security concerns: In 2008, then-USA Ambassador to Russia (and current CIA Director) William Burns wrote in a State Dept. Memo that: "[B]Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin)[/B]. In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players. I have yet to find anyone who view Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests."

Russia has valid security concerns just as Australia has valid security concerns. China is invading their turf by trying to gain a foothold in the Solomons. It does not matter whether the Solomons invited the Chinese or not. Not that I would condone military action, byt the Australian PM's remarks about the Solomons being a "redline" are perfectly reasonable and expected.

While Russians may not be as rich as their counterparts in Western countries, the economic situation and life expectancy of Russians has steadily improved since the mid-1990's. Those factors alone earn Putin some goodwill and makes revolutionary mobs in the street unlikely. If staying in power was Putin's sole interest, then he jeopardized that by invading Ukraine, and incurring the wrath of Western sanctions. Not only that but war is invariably unpredictable. Even militaries that are vastly superior, get bogged down in forever wars.

If the Russian economy collapses and inflation and economic insecurity increases, all bets are off, and the Putin regime will eventually crumble. That said, economic dissatisfaction can endanger Western countries just the same. In many Western countries where working class wages have stagnated, this has fueled populist movements, which most academics identify as a direct threat to liberal democracies.

[QUOTE=EscapeArtist;2700303]Let me tell ya, every time one electronic part failed in my Beamer or VW, the dashboard would light up like a pinball machine. Like I mentioned, great cars if you keep up with every little detail to perfection. But just like how I see so many older German guys get easily frustrated when small things don't go according to plan, their cars seem to be built the same way.[/QUOTE]German electronics sucks! I stick to Japanese for electronics and also US is very good at designing electronics, just not so much their cars, but I like the recent Cadillac escalade designs! US should use their movie industry more to promote their car!

[QUOTE=McAdonis;2700395]Putin is not the only one had security concerns: In 2008, then-USA Ambassador to Russia (and current CIA Director) William Burns wrote in a State Dept. Memo that: "[B]Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin)[/B]. In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players. I have yet to find anyone who view Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests."

Russia has valid security concerns just as Australia has valid security concerns. China is invading their turf by trying to gain a foothold in the Solomons. It does not matter whether the Solomons invited the Chinese or not. Not that I would condone military action, byt the Australian PM's remarks about the Solomons being a "redline" are perfectly reasonable and expected.

While Russians may not be as rich as their counterparts in Western countries, the economic situation and life expectancy of Russians has steadily improved since the mid-1990's. Those factors alone earn Putin some goodwill and makes revolutionary mobs in the street unlikely. If staying in power was Putin's sole interest, then he jeopardized that by invading Ukraine, and incurring the wrath of Western sanctions. Not only that but war is invariably unpredictable. Even militaries that are vastly superior, get bogged down in forever wars..[/QUOTE]I feel that you're being pretty liberal with what you define as actionable security concerns.

The NATO alliance is antagonizing Russia and should stop sending weapons to Ukraine. All that money could be put into helping homeless in the USA and starving people in the USA. Terrible waste of resources. There needs to be a buffer zone between NATO and Russia. Hopeful they can split Ukraine up and end the insanity ASAP.

[QUOTE=McAdonis;2700395]Putin is not the only one had security concerns: In 2008, then-USA Ambassador to Russia (and current CIA Director) William Burns wrote in a State Dept. Memo that: "[B]Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin)[/B]. In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players. I have yet to find anyone who view Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests."

Russia has valid security concerns just as Australia has valid security concerns. China is invading their turf by trying to gain a foothold in the Solomons. It does not matter whether the Solomons invited the Chinese or not. Not that I would condone military action, byt the Australian PM's remarks about the Solomons being a "redline" are perfectly reasonable and expected.

While Russians may not be as rich as their counterparts in Western countries, the economic situation and life expectancy of Russians has steadily improved since the mid-1990's. Those factors alone earn Putin some goodwill and makes revolutionary mobs in the street unlikely. If staying in power was Putin's sole interest, then he jeopardized that by invading Ukraine, and incurring the wrath of Western sanctions. Not only that but war is invariably unpredictable. Even militaries that are vastly superior, get bogged down in forever wars..[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Sirioja;2700365]You know only internet when I m driving between Basel, Dortmund and Aachen every week end = 750 kms, and I see so much more French cars, but not many electric Zoe, than Toyota or Tesla or Koreans, when I drive more kilometers in Germany than most Germans. But I agree Toyota, Kia, Hyundai sell many, but because cheap, not because of quality. When Swiss was not able to brake and his Mercedes finished in my back, no damage on strong old lady, when a plastic Toyota or Korean would have been destroyed and I would have missed to discover my superb Swiss, what I call quality with more than 600000 kms most often on high speed, unfortunately not same quality now with bad Asian electronics on new Audi, reason why and also for administration, I prefer to choose one with less electronics and not made in Asia at this time. S5 bought around 20000 will be prepared for very high speed when great balance, but Megane RS prepared on cup level is exceptional and more sporty than most supercars which couldn't follow in curves.[/QUOTE]Your bias low quality eye data against forbes and google data as I posted links before LOL! And we supposed to believe your bias twisted eyes not just for cars, but also for girls look like your wow woman type chloe paquet LOL!

[URL]https://www.google.com/search?q=chloe[/URL]+paquet&rlz=1 C1 HVJB_enJP908 JP908&sxsrf=ALiCzsb5 y3 THAXGvs3 eghNvpabvGbEtKhA:1653363509673&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2 ahUKEwjhzraFm_f3 AhUJBbkGHSaiASYQ_AUoAXoECAMQAw&biw=1600&bih=755&dpr=1#imgrc=idpUqBAEnFBQJM.

Look, this is old and ugly to my eyes, but you call her wow woman type LOL! Wow vulgar low taste LOL! But each their own LOL! How can you say she is wow woman type is my question mark LOL!

[QUOTE=EscapeArtist;2700304]Anyone ever drive a Mercedes be series? Or an Audi A2? They're not exactly high performance vehicles.[/QUOTE]Same than in brothels, for me quantity and quality are very different. Quality is also not only matter of performances. In US, you are stopped at 60 or 80 miles, so you can just test first gear, you compete with Switzerland and Japan where you are put in jail when overspeed, when my old lady small Audi clean left line on German autobahns weekly since more than 7 years now and still healthy. Ferrari or Lamborghini may be more performing, but in real life, on the track A5, A3, same like in the steep, I don't see them on high speed, or maybe guys who buy Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche are not able to push much above 200 for many kilometers. Like North Nurburgring is the reference to test cars, German autobahns with free speed and violent braking when Audi are amazed I kill front disks in 100000 kms, just because braking on high speed make metal going in very high temperature, are best playfield to test cars, not when cruising almost stopped. US, Japan and Western Europe don t have same standards for quality, US and most of Japanese cars are not ranked on quality for us, more worthing because cheap, or fashion like Prius before and now Tesla, not cars for my use when I sometimes drive 3000 kms on week end, Tesla are not able, not for my quality.