My coworker lives in a downtown apartment with a cramped parking garage and bought a full size pickup to drive 1.5 miles to the parking garage at our workplace to write code. I'm embarrassed for them and keep telling them to buy a bicycle
Jesus. And I felt guilty for my commute only taking about 10 minutes down a highway. However, I didn't have a choice because the only access to the industrial park where I worked was from that highway. I still felt bad about it.
I wouldn't know, riding a bike around here would be a death sentence. Roadrage can often end in a drive-by in Oklahoma if the news is to be believed and drunk driving is a pretty common sight in the area I live. There's also no bike lane, usually no sidewalks and long stretches of road without a crosswalk in sight.
As long as you're in Europe. Those things could be useful in North America but I can't see how they will ever get approved in Canada or in the US. I don't know about micro cars in Mexico and their laws but in Canada, everything between a full fledged car and an e-bike is considered "too dangerous, unsafe, not serious, toy-like" and is generally forbidden to go on roads and/or bike paths.
For example, in Quebec, it's illegal to use an e-bike under 18 years old without a scooter licence. So the Ami has no chance at all here, unfortunately.
They are very different "vehicles". The class which allows Ami to operate in most European countries does not exist in most North American jurisdictions. A Smart is classified as a car and is road legal but an Ami is considered a quadricycle and as such is usually not considered road legal in most of North America.
Where I live it's not considered as any type of valid vehicle. If it sticks to quadricycle, the law is going to require pedals, limit it to 25 kph and a helmet for the passengers.
There are places in the US that have some "neighbourhood EV" laws that make these legal on local roads, but it's far from being common.
So if you are successful in importing one, you will most likely only be able to use it on private land.
Also, no insurance company is going to want to insure it.
And, to top ot all, the dealer, Stellantis, is apparently much more interested in selling pick-ups to North Americans.
...don’t expect to get one through Canadian or USA Stellantis dealer networks. They are 100% obsessed on moving EV versions of Jeeps, RAM pick-ups, the new Airflow crossover and their ProMaster truck offerings.
I used to own an HR-V. They're good cars, but slow as stink. They took something with the wind profile of the CR-V and put the same engine in it as the '06 Civic. Still did like high 30s/low 40s on gas most of the time. So that was cool. Plus, it's pretty spacious. It just needed like 40 more hp. Or a manual. Or both.
It was built on the same platform as the Fit so it's got the neat rear seats that flip up. Seriously useful small car. I once hauled a whole ass 60" countertop halfway across the state in it. I guess they just decided the American market wants to go upsize. The Fit is probably one of the best suburban cars ever.
Driving 1.5miles twice a day everyday is a sure way to drain the car battery and multiply the wear and tear on the engine. Short trips are fine occasionally, but sooner rather than later the check engine light will pop up.
It depends. The battery issue is a nonissue, but the short trip can absolutely have an effect. It takes longer for your engine to reach true operating temperature than the oil/water coolant to get to temp. There's videos out there that can explain the equations for larger engines, but if the drive is less than 15 minutes, it's likely he's building up carboxylic acids from nonvaporized water in the pistons. That ain't a good thing.
Look at the owners manual in your car, and it will say trips less than a couple of miles are considered severe duty, and the oil needs to be changed more often. Your can get condensation in the engine that can break down the oil faster.
Cold starts are where most of the wear and tear occurs.
I believe it comes from a saying that most wear is in the first ten minutes of driving.
Which I also believe assumes you don't "wait for the car to warm up"
That saying. I still find some truth to it. While modern cars can adjust fuel mixture to different conditions. There still is an unavoidable few minutes where the engine runs in an open loop and wear is greater.
That said, in my vehicle when I listen for the engine to "close" it happens in less than 5 minutes.
Having a vehicle that emits more pollution, does more damage to roads, and is more likely to kill pedestrians is pretty fucking selfish and deserving of hate.
The responsibility of pollution is not on individuals. The pollution from mega corps compared to the every day man is a staggering exponential difference.
More likely to kill pedestrians? All vehicles can kill pedestrians. How is this even a talking point you idiots parrot back and forth.
It's also on individuals, our purchasing choices shape what corporations decide to make. if people only bought fuel efficient vehicles companies wouldn't build these idiotic mega polluting trucks.
And trucks are vastly more dangerous for pedestrians than other vehicles. they have massive blind spots, and weight a shitton more. As trucks have kept getting bigger, pedestrian deaths have gone up, that's why we bring it up.
It's way more likely to kill pedestrians. Trucks and SUVs have terrible sight lines for pedestrians, especially children, and especially in front of the vehicle. They also are more damaging to pedestrians in an collision, and have much higher rates of injury and fatality than sedans, station wagons, and coupes. The X factor here is that a higher percentage of the less secure, less capable drivers buy larger vehicles to insulate themselves from other vehicles on the road, and they drive with that same mentality around pedestrian-rich areas.
Trucks and SUVs are terrible, and you should only buy one if you need one, otherwise you look like a fucking jackass.
Make sure you grab some "I did that" Biden stickers to slap on gas pumps. Really lean in to that "I make poor decisions and blame the wrong person for the consequences" energy.
Because I disagree with you about vehicles you think I'm a MAGA dude? Get a grip.
Trucks are available for purchase in America. Americans love them. It is what it is. If you don't like it, move or push for legislative change.
Truck owners sure as shit don't care about your talking points and will buy another, and another, and another. Nobody's going to be convinced by pedestrian safety statistics or mpg concerns.
Trucks are so deeply woven into America's culture I think guns would be banned sooner.
Why are you using a leaf blower? They literally do nothing except make your mess someone else's problem. Stop being a dick and rake up your leaves like a regular human.