Some of you may remember Magic Fingers – and may be wondering what that has to do with cars.
Magic Fingers – if you don’t remember – was a feature found in cheesy hotels back in the ’80s. Basically, a coin-operated vibrating bed. You fed it quarters and it vibrated for a set amount of time. Then it stopped. If you wanted it to continue vibrating – so relaxing! – you had to root around for another handful of quarters.
Cheesy new cars – which happen to be luxury brand cars – are beginning to operate like that.
The 2025 Audi A3, for instance.
If you want the “digital experience” to “function on demand,” you must pay to play. Not just the once – as when you paid for the car – but ongoing, to keep the Magic Fingers working. Only in this case, the Magic Fingers are features that used to be yours to use whenever you wanted, once you’d bought the car. They include the dual-zone climate control system that is common feature in most new cars. The system enables the driver and passengers to tailor the settings to suit their own individual preferences. But in the 2025 Euro-spec A3, if you don’t pay a subscription fee, you just get regular AC. If you don’t subscribe – and pay a monthly fee – you won’t be able to “unlock” the Android Auto or AppleCarPlay, either. Same goes for the Digital Cockpit instrument cluster and the Enhanced Navigation system. 
But first, you must pay – extra – for the optional Audi MMI Navigation System, in order to be able to “browse” Audi’s “app” store right from your car. Then you can tap the app – and pay to play. It’s the virtual equivalent of feeding the coin box by the side of the vibrating bed.
No word as yet whether the A3’s seat heaters will also be Magic Fingered.
But Audi – and it’s not just Audi – is certainly giving buyers the finger. And – don’t worry. It’s coming here, too. Just a little differently. “The U.S. structure for Function on Demand offer does vary from the European-market structure,” an Audi spokesman explained. “For additional clarity, the upcoming new A3 model in the U.S. will leverage the same offer structure for Function on Demand as the previous 2024 model year. This functionality includes the options for (2) specific features that are available specifically in the United States market.” These include the “Enhanced” Navigation and Adaptive Cruise Assist.
Italics added. “Leverage,” indeed.
More to come, of course.
Because inevitably. For essentially the same reason that your taxes will increase once a new tax has been imposed. Because they have leverage.
This is what comes of buying cars you don’t really own. Cars – and it’s not just Audis, with respect to that. It is all new cars – because they’re all invisibly connected to the manufacturer, just like the smartphone you are probably carrying around. You have physical custody but that is illusory because while you may be in possession of the device, the device is under the control of other parties – who have the power to (as Darth Vader put it) alter the deal you thought had been agreed to when you thought you bought (and paid for) the device.
In fact, what you agreed to – at time of “purchase,” in air fingers quote marks to mark the absurdity of the term’s use in this context – was a kind of conditional rental, with the terms unlaterally adjustable by the party you paid for what you thought you just purchased. Read your End User License Agreement. It’s right there in the fine print you probably didn’t read. You are a user who has a license; not an owner who has rights. The distinction is as significant as that between allodial title to property in real estate and having paid off the mortgage – which does not relieve you of having to pay rent, to the government, in perpetuity, in order to be allowed conditional use of what you are encouraged to believe is “your” property.
It’s becoming the same with cars – or will be – if what Audi (and others, including BMW and Tesla) are already doing with a few cars is accepted and so normalized. Just as it is now considered normal to pay – endlessly, literally – to be permitted to use the home you thought you’d paid for.
The enserfment that inheres in this dirty business ought to be obvious – and repellent. The person who bought – and owned – a 1980 Chevette (including everything it came with, no matter how little it may have come with) was more of an owner than the person who buys an ongoing rental car such as the 2025 A3. The Chevette may have been a humble appliance but it belonged to the person who paid for it. He did not have to pay a monthly fee – in addition to his monthly payment – in order to be able to use the heater, say. And once he made his final payment – for the car – it and everything it came with was entirely his, to use as he liked whenever he liked and without being obliged to pay for the “privilege.”
Adding insult to injury, the 2025 A3 is not a Chevette. At least in terms of what it costs. The 2024 version stickers for $35,400 to start and rolls from there to well over $40k. But no matter how much you pay for it you’ll never own some of it.
The best you’ll get is being able to use some of it. So long as your subscription is up to date.
It makes owning a car like an ’80 Chevette seem very much preferable – in that you could even add seat heaters to it and once installed, they’d be yours to use as you like and without having to find another handful of quarters to feed the Magic Fingers.
No charge, of course, for the ice bucket.
. . .
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A mortgage explained….lol
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=f_VjWzkrFf0
The Government Should Know Nothing About Us
https://inv.us.projectsegfau.lt/watch?v=jE3WSAM0EdA
The Credit And Social Credit System They Don’t Want You To Know
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=tw2vwgkb74c
This reminds me of the Sirius subscription fee in my last couple of leases. Sirius is expensive and after trying it I stopped using it simply because it was a total waste of money. I have unlimited data on my phone so listen to music in my car through that. Am guessing a lot of the expensive stuff they want customers to pay an arm and a leg for ultimately backfires on them.
Hi RS,
Yup. I am stocking up on physical, tangible things I own and have control over- such as physical books, DVDs and CDs. I recommend others do the same as these people want to own everything and rent us the conditional use of things – which makes them very happy.
Yeah RS, the Sirius biz model is eroding before our eyes, because of phones.
I will say I used to love it when it first came out cause I traveled a lot across multiple radio markets and some with no reception, and it was nice.
I think they were the first to do a decent ‘traffic’ map too, so I did like it a lot, and still use it in my rural area, but it’s not needed anymore in a metro/suburban area anymore.
“The Chevette may have been a humble appliance but it belonged
to the person who paid for it.”
Then, as now, the Chevette was/is co-owned by the state. A vehicle’s
“birth certificate” is the Manufacture’s Statement of Origin” (MSO).
It is sent to the state, and voila, as the states’ property the vehicle
can be licensed, taxed, etc.
Some have acquired the MSO, but are constantly harassed by
police for not having a “license plate”.
Hi liberty,
I don’t dispute what you’ve said as regards legalities. But, there is an important everyday difference. I may have to get the state’s permission to drive my truck, but I control it. They can’t control it – at least not remotely. It does not mine my data. It goes where I point it. These are not small perks.
Z Plates, Unregulated License Plates
I wouldn’t try this….but…this is very interesting….
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=b43qTmBiCSw
Almost nobody knows about or gets the MSO for their vehicle…
But it would be fun, worthwhile to try to get it….
The EULA has of course become a tool for eviscerating property rights. But it’s actually an old game: the company-store racket garbed in shiny modern technology.
Behold the Magic Fingers ‘motorcycle’:
‘In a patent filed in August of 2023, Zero claims rights to a “Vehicle Control System” that appears to replace a clutch lever’s function. It even has a lever on the left handlebar, just like a traditional clutch.
‘The secret, of course, is electro-trickery, which uses circuits to govern torque delivery. Simple enough, and you’ve gotta wonder why nobody else is doing this.’
https://www.advrider.com/zero-designs-a-virtual-clutch/
Great! Now it just needs a ‘vroom, vroom’ sound chip and an ‘exhaust pipe’ that functions as an acoustic horn. Inflatable ‘supermodel’ passenger doll with ’36D’ upper torso protrusions and a 1,000-word vocabulary is optional, for the suave man about town.
The need:
‘Electric “motorcycles” have torque delivery far different from an internal combustion engine. Like almost all other EV transportation, battery bikes deliver all the torque, all the time. On a paved road, that might not seem like such a big deal. Off-road, it can definitely be a problem.’
Yeah, right! A massive battery-pack is just the ticket for humping over logs and such.
A vote for Trump [or any of the other turds from either major party] is applause for this subscription garbage, because T.Rump “gave” us the 5G that enables it [And virtually all other candidates and politicians support[ed] it and will give us more of the same.
Imagine sleazy bloated greaseballs saying to one another as they sip drinks on the Lolita Express: “The public loves this stuff! Look, they keep voting for us!”. (And in fact, they are largely right. If any dared oppose it, 80% of the population would probably whine and moan and have conniptions.
This paradigm must be fought steadfastly and vigorously. Never will I pay ownership prices for a rental license.
Also, I’m assuming you couldn’t let the subscription expire on a car’s “assistance technology”, could you?
A vehicle like anything else you register….when you register it, you don’t own it.
Vehicle certificate of origin CO….Most buyers don’t get it….whoever has it owns the car….maybe it has been securitized……or used as collateral somewhere…
You don’t own a house…you only get fee simple title….not allodial title….the government has allodial title to all land….you sort of rent it through property tax…..
Maybe you don’t own anything….gold or silver?….the government can confiscate it….
Stocks or bonds?….you don’t even get the certificates anymore….it is just an electronic entry in the cloud somewhere….which can be confiscated for a bailin now….in 10 seconds….called getting cyprused…it happened in cyprus ….
and the truckers demonstrating…and their donors….bank accounts seized/frozen….
Stocks or bonds?….you don’t even get the certificates anymore….it is just an electronic entry in the cloud somewhere…just as bad/imaginary as bitcoin?…but less secure….
At least with bitcoin you can store it on a hard drive and bury it somewhere….stocks?…no….
physical gold or silver are far better……
i forgot to mention i will never trust any car company again. ever! not ever! they have violated our trust over and over again. they have become just another tentacle of the federal apparatus that seeks ownership over every person alive or dead. just like doctors, dentists and politicians. they can’t be trusted.
they would sell their own mothers on an auction block if they thought they could get away with it. they sell their clients. their clients name, address, phone, a photo of the driver as these cars have cameras in them that take pictures with or without your consent and sends it to the manufacturer. you have no say over it. they take pictures of the passengers and they sell those pictures. as well as all personal information about the person at the wheel.
if they think your impaired as a driver as eric said. the car will pull to the shoulder and shut off….what if your trying to run from a violent person or a spouse or one of the millions of illegals being let into the country. and your car takes over and shuts off and makes you vulnerable to whatever the person you were running from wants to do to you.
their are still old cars for sale. it would be beneficial to own one that has no technology in it. ours has manual air conditioning….roll down the window….and an am radio. that is the extent of its ‘features’. and a souped up hot rod engine. that runs on gasoline…heaven forbid right?…as long as there is fuel to buy the car stays on the road. can’t be shut off by remote control and it can’t be pulled to the side of the road and shut off. would need an emp pulse to make that happen.
there are a lot of places that have ads for old cars well worth the price for one of those. even if it needs fixed up. still worth more in the long run.
I have two cars, pre 2010 models. I will keep them as long as possible because i dont want a car with all the new tech and spyware.
not only are you being charged for ”services”that used to be free with the car but your car is a spy device. it monitors you 24/7. it reports that data to the manufacturer and in turn ”shares’ that data with insurance companies. with advertising partners. and with the government. BIG BROTHER is watching you!! and your paying for it!!
audi has a policy that says they can and do and will moniter your use of their vehicle. and sell it. or use it for their own gain or for their business partners profit. it is in the open but people won’t read the ‘fine print’.
i wouldn’t buy one i wouldn’t drive one and i wont’ ride in one. period. i have two feet, i have a horse, and i actually have a 68 nova!! which won’t ever be sold…my daily ride. i saw this coming a long time ago and stopped looking for new vehicles to buy when they put the first PCM in the vehicle. i wouldn’t willingly join the hive mind that is monitoring and controlling the world. certainly not going to pay for my own jail cell and my own personal slave master which is what these cars have become…they are your jailer.
Amen, Highlander!
And: That ’68 Nova is worth its weight in precious metals. Because it is.
Check out Doug Demuro’s (car YouTuber) recent video explaining why he hasn’t yet reviewed a Cyber Truck. Apparently many of the “owners” are afraid to resell it due to the risk of Elon “bricking” their vehicles.
Reselling…flipping…
Ford used to restrict buyers from flipping their GT 40’s
If you buy a Porsche 911 GT3 RS now….the 1st year is a lease only….to slow down flippers….
With the way things are going, you will have to have a monthly, forever subscription just to have a working heater in the Winter. Or the much-needed A/C for those of you who live with actually hot Summers. Or have to pay monthly (even after you have paid the vehicle off), for the “privilege” of the engine turning on. I suppose I should not give them any ideas. I have read in the past (maybe here?) of needing a subscription for the heated seats! WTF?? When I buy a vehicle and pay for it, the last thing I want to do is pay more every month after the fact. Kind of like when you own a condo. You might have it paid off, but there is always that monthly “condo fee”, that forever reminds you (kind of like property taxes) that you are never really the true owner of anything. Only now, the powers-that-be are deciding this should apply to vehicles, as well.
And at the other end of the spectrum is cable tv ‘packages’. If the x-as-a-service thing were applied to teeeveee, I wouldn’t pay for BET, MSNBC, CNN, QVC, Vice, etc.
If the dealer can talk you into a lease, they can arrange prepaying – and thus financing – the subscription fees into the loan, plus interest of course.
Due to the price of cars, many may only be able to afford a lease as they will not qualify for a mortgage plus a car of $50,000+
Audi sucks
You spend 50 grand to have your driving habits and other behaviors monitored by telemetry. Must be money involved, always go there first.
You’re in a cradle about to become a prison cell if you do something unacceptable.
You might as well be at the airport about to be scanned by TSA’s goons.
No difference, none at all, maybe one. The only difference is the monitoring is on all of the time.
If you’re a Verizon customer, Google knows where you’ve been and sends a report.
Paranoia is a heightened sense of awareness. You’re being followed, get used to it.
In one week, it’ll be Spring! You can get movin’ and keep movin’.
Winter can make everything look dreadfully dreary.
Teams of mammoth tusk hunters will be searching for ten foot long mammoth tusks along river banks in Siberia over the summer months. They’re worth thousands each. All documented and filmed in living color.
Can’t poach, you need permission. Russia has resources from here to there and everywhere. Lake Baikal has fresh water to infinity and beyond, even oil seeps from the lake bottom. Bacteria eat it all, must be like ice cream or something.
All Russia’s resources to the globalists belong. You might die trying, so good luck with that. Ask Ukraine how it’s all working out. Toria got the boot, so it does look grim.
Santa sees you when you’re sleeping, knows when you’re awake, knows if you’ve been bad or good, Santa knows it all.
Don’t need anybody else for that job.
Who do these government-operated car companies think they are? Santa Claus?
Satan Klauss
It’s going to backfire. BMW already tried this a couple of years ago and backed off after customer revolt. For me, this eliminates a car from consideration when I’m buying, no matter how nice it is otherwise.
Tesla started this, and inspired accountants at other automakers.
You know what this will do? It will unleash a raft of hacks, bypasses, and workarounds to get heated seats without subscribing to them. Many will be rip-offs, but many will be legit and work.
Someone needs to make a non-proprietary car. Do they exist, new?
And/or will the aftermarket create work-arounds to make this proprietary stuff work? Hell, possibly even the car itself?
I’ve made a partial living helping design and then sell non-proprietary e-control equipment.
They are more expensive up front, but cost way less to maintain, and can outlast proprietary equipment 3-10x. We have to find the Clients that value these things, but they remain good Clients forever and grow.
We gain clients often that get really pissed when they go to try and fix a proprietary system.
‘non-proprietary e-control equipment.’ –ChrisIN
This is a very important market niche which should grow much larger.
Your competitors are Chinese, I reckon.
Hi Jim. Recently yes, but even 15-20 yrs ago, a lot were trying to make ‘control panels’ cheaper and cheaper and they did it with circuit boards to replace old-school relay logic. Back then, you could still get a burnt out replacement circuit board.
Not know, all from china, and after 3+ yrs, you can’t get them anymore, and you should see what I see with end-users trying to make this junk work. Amazing.
So we said f-it, our clients deserve better, and invested a lot of time and money designing and making off-the-shelf relay logic ‘control panels’ for 2 to 25HP equipment.
Once an end-user, that knows what they are doing, see’s it, they can’t believe it, and buy it 90% of the time. we are 2-3x the cost, and we stock them in various forms. We make them when we’re not busy. They should practically last forever, with obvious relay replacement here and there. But even if ‘that’ relay becomes un-available, a substitute is easy to get/find.
I’m sure there are others in our niche that have seen it and are attempting to copy our design, it’s not rocket science, but we have a huge manufacturing efficiency advantage that most can’t copy, so they will likely be a lot more expensive than us.
We paid our dues.
‘we have a huge manufacturing efficiency advantage’ — ChrisIN
Sounds like a great biz. Which circles back to your proposal, ‘Someone needs to make a non-proprietary car.’
Probably easier offshore than here. But then the US would block its importation. 🙁
It’s really sad to what our current engines have become, all for a few mpg’s. If we could find an analog engine design, it could be done.
But again, never ‘allowed’ on our roads. But the time may come when ‘enforcement’ isn’t around or doesn’t care.
And why I have been so intrigued with that Roxor jeep. From what I can tell, old-school, but not DOT approved.
[“And once he made his final payment – for the car – it and everything it came with was entirely his, to use as he liked whenever he liked and without being obliged to pay for the “privilege.”] Eric
Seems to me the same as paying off your home. I paid off both of my cars years ago but am still paying for the privilege of putting it on the road. License plates and the insurance mafia. In some states you have to pay a luxury tax as well.
We ‘own’ nothing and it appears most are happy!
“No charge, of course, for the ice bucket.”
Yet.
Cold as ice like “free wifey”
When I spec’ed out my 2011 A3 TDI I considered the navigation system. But it was a very costly add-on. In my research I discovered that it was pretty easy to find nav head unit pulls on eBay from people upgrading the factory stereo. Since I had the premium speakers on the normal head I figured it would be a pretty easy swap.
But the problems come in after you install the head (using the proprietary clips release that get the old one to pop out of the otherwise double DIN hole in the dash). Seems the confuser will detect that something has changed, and someone has to flash it with the new option. Then, if you ever take the vehicle to a dealer for any reason, they will connect up the “diagnostic” computer that will call home to the factory, compare firmware and detect that you made a change. Ziss vill not be tolerated! You vill be punished!
By the time it was delivered I was basically using my phone anyway, so I never bothered.
Fast forward to the Cherokee, which has the nav system because it came with the package. Except that getting upgraded maps cost around $150 or so, in a universe where Apple and Google have always-up-to-date maps for “free.” OK, maybe there’s an advantage to offline maps, but I haven’t really found too many roads that aren’t in the old database, including plenty of Forest Service and BLM roads that I never thought would be on any map, but here we are.
Because the cellular modem in the Jeep is an old Sprint 3G unit, it no longer functions anyway. I wonder what that’s going to mean for these monthly subscriptions when 6G or 7G comes along and AT&T shuts down the old tower radios? Will Audi do what the Navy did with propping up Windows NT for decades to make sure the online systems on aircraft carriers continue to function?
> maybe there’s an advantage to offline maps
One big advantage is that they work when you’re…well, offline, in an area with nonexistent cell service. There are plenty of those out west. I think there are still some spots between Las Vegas and Phoenix (the two largest cities that still aren’t connected by an interstate), for instance, where you lose coverage.
An offline-mapping program also won’t narc you out to Google or Apple or whoever. Maybe they’re only using that information for “targeted advertising.” Maybe they’re not. Even if they are, who’s to say that will last forever?
I have a “in hand” navigation system, it’s called a paper map. Bikers use a thick laminated (near water proof) fold up map.
I will concede the electronic search system helped on the road finding the liquor store in Small Town Oregon.
Of course that’s the obvious answer, and I have several stand-alone GPS units that simply receive the satellite signal. But the number of new roads built are very few and far between, so any map produced in the last decade should be good enough.
I bought my Garmin Nuvi with lifetime maps 10 years ago. So far, “lifetime” is still working and the unit has stayed current. I see that Garmin has discontinued some units because maps are too large for the available memory. I suppose storing speed limit data for every dirt or gravel road is starting to add up.
Part of the decision is that I can move the unit from car to car, and part because if it really does run out of “lifetime” at some date, I can just get the latest-and-greatest for under a couple hundred. I do notice that, like in cars, some of Garmins latest-and-greatest options are not something I want spying on me.
I always have a paper map and sketch out the route ahead of time, immune to electronic mishaps.
Audi’s magic finger is the gloved hand of a proctologist, giving Audi owners a digital rectal exam which they didn’t even ask for.
Must a German thing, like that shelf built into German toilets so people can examine their stool.
Audi is just now figuring out what John Deere had over a decade ago. No sir, you didn’t buy a $750,000 tractor. You bought a software license, hence, you can’t work on it, upgrade it, degrade it, etc without paying us a fee.
What a farce.
The difference with a tractor is that when it’s time to harvest the crop; if the tractor dies and the mechanic can’t fix the software bugs you lose the crop if a storm comes in. Perhaps that’s why the older non computer controlled tractors, harvesters and combines are going up in value.
This is an issue because due to modern car design options can be installed in all cars cheaper than if they were ordered individually. The presence of a touchscreen allows them to be controlled without individual switches and their corresponding wires. That said if an option has been ordered and paid for it is reprehensible that they disable it if you sell it or a couple of years after purchase.
What they are up to reminds me of the free trial of AOL and then got a recurring monthly bill to keep it going. I suspect lawsuits will be fought over this. Of course with over the air updates options could be deactivated at will for various reasons.
Which is a response to the drive to decrease labor cost. Last night the YouTube algos pushed a video blog about the Boeing 727 and how it changed aviation, put together by someone who spent a lot of time on the flight deck. Dry stuff for most, but for an airplane nerd like me, it was fascinating.
https://youtu.be/T7GUf9wDs9U?si=8FPfr43pyIyvnNJ9
One thing that he mentioned was that Boeing management knew they had a highly skilled workforce and looked at the opportunity for building complicated structures (like the flaps) because they knew the production line could do it. As opposed to modern workforce management which seems to be hell bent on turning labor into a cost center to be eliminated. So we get robots and design products that can be built by robots.
Then the government powers that be come along with the one-two punch of payroll taxes and deductions for capital expenditures. Whose side are you on, Joe? Certainly not the working man’s.
After 5 decades aviation.
Profit rules everything. People are grossly exploited, piss tested and generally fd with to cover losses. Helicopters are death traps for idiots. If real white males arent running the damn hangar floor shits gonna be half ass n rig.
Retired whistleblower.
Word.
Put in a quarter
Turn out the light
Magic Fingers makes ya feel alright – Jimmy Buffet, This Hotel Room
Cars are not hotels, you won’t get a Holy Bible and a TV Guide in the thing.
Go rent a hotel room and forget about a car as a bedroom.
Good God Almighty
Ah the Chevette. My favorite car (seriously). I was thinking the other day that if some “automaker” made a car with the bare minimums such as roll down windows, no AC, FM radio only (can’t get AM per the govmint), manual transmission, etc, and then priced it accordingly, it would sell like hotcakes.
Then the automaker could start leasing the other “modern features” such as AC, heated seats, electric windows and locks, nav, social media connectibility bullshit, automatic trans, etc. If someone wants all the other crap they can lease to play. Seems easy to do. By the time people sign up for all the other crap it would cost more than the listed sale price for a comparable vehicle. Nobody ever adds up what they are really paying.
This leasing mentality started with the 3-yr rotating lease of vehicles decades ago. Additional mileage per year not included.
Ditto that, Pug!
I am certain we’ve already passed a kind of Rubicon with regard to new cars; more and more people don’t want them or can’t afford them. They don’t like being (effectively) forced to buy “features” they’d rather not have – such as ASS and “advanced driver assistance technology,” data mining, etc. – and aren’t willing (or able) to spend the close to $50k it now takes to buy the average new vehicle.
A smart car company might try offering a “Chevette” updated for our era. It would have a fuel injected engine, a manual transmission and AC. Power windows and locks optional. Pre-wired for a stereo of your choosing. No got-damned LCD touchscreen. No “assistance” technology. Even better – no got-damned air bags. Get rid of these and you could build and sell such a car for around $10k and make a profit on it.
I imagine you could start up a reverse Revology type company, call it Eric Peters Auto Group, and manufacture up to 500 Chevette type clones and sell them cheaply but make enough profit to at least keep the company going. Maybe assemble a group of people, each one starting a new company able to make 500. Concoct some sort of agreement whereby the same factory/employees/equipment is used by each distinct owner.
I wish. I would actually buy one. I would even delete the AC as it has limited usefulness for me if you can properly flow air through it like they did in the old days. My old car did just that. The ventilation was first class. I had a 1981 Toyota Starlet (KP61) with a 1.3L engine, 5 speed trans. No AC, and with a rear window defogger (that was considered upscale). With a bit of sound deadening and maybe some thicker window glass, this type of car would fit the bill for today’s higher speed environment. At the time my car was built, Car and Driver tested the car and stated that the Starlet would out Chevette the Chevette. My car had a top speed of 87 mph and would turn 3000 rpm at 70 mph. With a bit more power, you would have a top end of 100 mph plus and be able to cruise on today’s roads at 80 mph.
Selling that kind of car to today’s spoiled generations might be tough, but plenty of us oldsters would buy it. I think all you have to really think about is figuring a decent bracket for the phone. Not too many car makers have that figured out, but when that is figured in, it just might sell.
There has to be some irony here that I am posting Toyota Starlets in the Magic Fingers column. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1981-toyota-starlet-a-or-b-list/
Best car for a changed world
Chevette. Cessna 172 before Garmin changed it to chinese subscription vector.
Ditto times 2, Pug. I would LOVE a standard trans again. It is so much easier to use with the snowy, slippery roads we have up here. And maybe custom order other things that a person may want, without the “saaaafety” crap on it? Aaah, now that would be really refreshing, but alas, if it is something we want, the government will say “no”. As though we were five year old’s trying to get a cookie out of the cookie jar.
Too bad can’t demand to have these type of items removed from vehicle before purchased since you are not buying it.
Might as well remove some weight. Although it may not make much different in total weight, it will remove things that could go wrong later
Hi Mithrandir. Options are now preinstalled when they are built as it is cheaper for the automaker. In the case of the aforementioned dual-zone climate control system my guess is that the computer just has to control an extra damper or two for it to work. You paid for it’s install but they reap the profit when you “purchase” the option.
Based on current car prices and assuming somehow it could meet all those conflicting demands of the Feral Regulators I wonder if the ’80 Chevette assuming a $10,000 price tag would become a run away best seller?
I’m sure it would, but it would probably be closer to 15k. And, it would absolutely have to have more power than the original Chevette. A car today has to be able to cruise at 80 mph all day all night.
That requires at least 120 hp in a 2000 lb car
What a practical vehicle?
Hmm sounds like a perfect app for heavy duty 1.975L normally aspirated 4cyl laser printing projects.
Wonder how much AI will charge us for endless patents and blueprints.
for that to be possible, individual states have to create a new category of vehicle to register. You can’t call it a “motor vehicle” since “motor vehicles” need to meet all the FMVSS and emissions requirements in effect on the date of manufacture (with very small carve outs for those replica restomod cars like the updated 1966 Mustangs..)
Allow them to be registered to operate as ATVs, removing the speed restrictions on them…. Then you have something.
One state does it and you will have at least 25 more red states considering the same. It’s a pretty big market.
You’re on to something. Maybe more side-by-sides will be made that more resemble a plain 1980s 2-door hatchback (and priced cheaply, of course), which you could use just like any other car in a red state such as mine (WV), except not on the interstates (for now)