this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Coal rolling is the stupidest shit ever in terms of car modifications. You're spending money to modify a vehicle so it will make less power, pollute more, and have reduced longevity.

There is no upside unless you're a massive asshole who likes to smoke screen bystanders, at which point you should be charged for assault with a deadly weapon.

Not only should eBay work harder to stop these mods being sold on their platform, people that roll coal should have their licenses suspended. And yes, they ought to be charged if they ever pull a stunt next to other road users.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Most car modifications are stupid, at least the ones i hear about

Whenever a car or motorcycle passes by that makes a lot of sound, i'm always unsure of whether i should feel bad because the vehicle is obviously damaged, and the driver can't afford to get it fixed, so they have to live with the embarrassment of driving around in an obnoxiously loud vehicle

Or flip them off because they're an asshole that intentionally fucked up their exhaust because "haha car go vroom"

When a friend of mine said he was planning to do that yo his bike, the rest of us unanimously told him we would pour sugar in his gas tank if he did so

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

One of my parents was (probably still is idk) into motorbikes, and their justification for having an obscenely loud exhaust mod was that "loud pipes save lives".
They had a lot of justifications for a lot of shit though, so I don't know how valid that one is.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Only in an obscenely car-centric society does the vroom vroom have any potential for saving lives. But if you make everything quieter, with more mass transit, slower driving speeds, and more walkability, then most of the safety issues for the rider are handled.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Not totally wrong.

I've lived in Asia where there's only one rule on the road: might is right. Riding a motorcycle is dangerous to start with, but it's literally Russian roulette in that context: you have to take all the precautions you can. I have definitely noticed that cars give more space to loud bikes.

That being said, doing an arms race to keep yourself safe (bigger cars, louder bikes, brighter lights) is really just making everything more dangerous for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

There's an almost-definitely fictional story of a foreign mechanic who fixed all of the imperfections and timing issues with his friend's Harley so it no longer rumbled and shook while running misunderstanding that that's part of the "charm" is the noise and rumble and rattle. The story goes that it was the most powerful harley ever because of it, but the friend still made him put it back to its "broken" state

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Eh, "car go wroom" is something that many drivers find rather enjoyable, me included, but just like with everything in life there are some people who go way overboard with it. It's just that with cars, overboard is also by far the simplest and cheapest way - you do straight pipes, which is exactly what it sounds like, just a direct pipe with absolutely no design or mufflers of any kind. They are ear shatteringly loud.
And for those, you do have the correct reaction.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I also like feeling the low rumble of a powerful car engine. You can’t help but feel the excitement, the power …

Those are rare now. Most mods make the engine scream or rattle of or buzz. If your car sounds like a moped with a missed shift, that is not positive. If your car sounds like a heat shield is rattling g, you should fix that. If your car backfires … crap, how does that even happen since fuel injection and electronic ignition?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

While this is true, diesels often come from the factory with a conservative one size fits all engine tune.

You can usually make the car more fuel efficient and/or add a bit more power if you do it properly. Potentially you can even make it more reliable. One of the things manufacturers caught up in dieselgate did, is recall cars and give the engine a less polluting engine tune.

Obviously, that's not what most people do. They tune it to have as much power as possible (or if they're idiots roal coal) and are then surprised when the transmission or engine gives out prematurely, and the manufacturer no longer feels the need to honour the warranty.

You know how people say that a new car loses depreciates up to 20% just driving it off the car lot? Stuff like engine tuning is one of the reasons that difference exists. You don't know if the previous owner did stupid shit to the car.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's more that the car transitions from "new" status to "used" status. But yes the probability of something getting abused on it goes up

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Honestly Greta is an evil bitch, but she isn't wrong about Palestine or the environment . She does just suck as a person tho

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think I replied to the wrong comment my bad!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

These are the guys that have fuck Greta stickers. I like my environment clean, fuck me right?