My first car was a golf cart, courtesy of The Ocean Reef Club. Actually, props to the parental units. They handed me the key to the open-sided electric conveyance, slipped me a charge-worthy room card and gave me the run of the joint. The cart was surprisingly peppy and the freedom it imparted almost got me laid by a startlingly attractive college girl– an astounding piece of happenstance given that the average Club member was older than cuneiform. And as I returned to our bungalow after this almost getting laid experience, Homone-Crazed Endorphin Boy over-cooked it in a corner and crashed. Neither cart nor driver were damaged, but the accident taught me a valuable lesson: avoid vehicles with three wheels. Of course, the new Mitsubishi electric car is likely to have four wheels, reasonable acceleration, respectable range and some airbags. How great is that? Maybe not as great as a gas-sucking AMG monster, but in certain circles, well, you'd be in like Flynn. Life's funny that way.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
Hmm… I think I’ll hold out for the gas-sucking AMG.
Different automobiles work differently in terms of attracting the opposite sex, in different locales. In Seattle, the car to have if you want to get laid, is the Toyota Prius – hands down. And now that the Camry hybrid is starting to hit the streets, this is the new benchwater mark.
If you have a Chevrolet Corvette or Dodge Viper in Seattle, you’re going to look too obvious, and not at all like a “friend of the earth” – which you must, to get something going with any reasonably intelligent woman in the city which made latte espresso a worldwide phenomenon.
As a guy I went to college with told me once, “To succeed with women, especially women you’re interested in, you have to practice studied disinterest.” Having a hybrid is now also part of the game – at least in what is still called “The Jet City.”
Electric cars were going to be the thing in Seattle. But for some reason, they just never got the cache going that hybrids have. Maybe we can thank Al Gore for that.
I almost bought a Mini Cooper S last year. I test drove it and loved it but didn’t want to drive an hour and a half to get the darned thing serviced. So I bought a RSX TypeS instead. Which I also love. But as far as the upcoming baby Volvo being to “old” to compete with the Mini, have you seen the typical Mini driver on the road? Most I have seen are old! Especially in the base version. So it wouldn’t suprise me if the Volvo cut into Mini sale somewhat. Just a thought.
In hub motors also remove all the drivetrain weight. You can mass produce little motors and put them on all sorts of chassis. The downside is that electric motors don’t like being jolted around by suspension action. You can also use in hub motors with batteries, fuel cells, hamsters, gas turbines, capacitors, overhead wires, or any sort of combination of power supplies you can imagine.
I haven’t had a chance to listen to the podcast yet, but what a hilarious introduction. The humble golf-cart playing seductive sports car. The dazzling college girl. The crash! Life IS funny.
Great reference to Philip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I didn’t know that anyone else knew that it was the basis for the far-inferior movie, Bladerunner. It was great as a movie, but it was nothing compared to the novel.
Enough talk about literature. Back to cars. Thanks for the momentary diversion from the unavoidable gloom and doom of Detroit. Evidently, there are many chickenheads running things in that running-on-empty city.
Am I the only one who finds the podcasts tedious? i wish there was a printed version of them, so i can skip all over the nonsense. These two guys have way too much mutual-admiration-society goin on anyway. Are we.. the users… allowed to be bitchy in an attempt to be humorous too? or just the staff?
The “TWEEL” might dampen some of the shock of bumps and such if you’re concerned about for the electric motors at all four corners: http://www.jalopnik.com/search/airless/bydate
I forget, but somebody was blasting electric motors on the wheels because they don’t take kindly to harsh jolts….
Funny how you almost flubbed and said kids send their parents to college. It may be cheaper for kids to send their parents off to college instead of long term in home, or even nursing home care. Kind of like that person who listed cruise ships as an affordable alternative for old folks.