I’ve used them for a while too. Sometimes they’ll have weird keys super cheap. Like I was able to grab Dark Souls 3 + both DLC’s for like $16 or something way back when.

Like the other commenter said, you can get some pretty good deals due to the recent issues.

Just don’t bother with a 13th/14th gen intel right now. Either go 12th gen intel, or straight up AMD which is what I’d recommend.

Source

If you’re looking for strictly mileage, the hybrid will do better. The turbo motor would be in boost and consuming more fuel.

Coming from VW/Audi it’s easier to just grab a factory unit and have it programmed. Yea it’s expensive, but the German cars aren’t super easy to tinker with.

I never thought about a sudden change in brake compound affecting the AEB system and its calibrations. I’ve always tried to stay OEM or comparable aftermarket pads. For example, I swapped my pads on my GTI for some EBC’s mostly because of brake dust. They performed very well, but I also had sticky tires. I have noticed I was able to find parts much more easily with that car than I have my Mazda. And with how many parts revisions I’ve seen for that one car I’d believe that they demand a lot in parts manufacturing. I guess it comes with the territory when they do something like the global MQB platform where parts are so easily shared.

In 6 years and 150,000 miles I only had one incident of a false positive where the car braked for whatever the system saw as an obstacle. Fortunately, no one was behind me but it was a route I traveled every day and it happened early on (~40,000 miles). My newer Mazda has the whole camera setup etc and definitely triggers if with the adaptive cruise if someone in the lane next to me brakes or slows down so I can see the overly sensitive reactions making people angry.

For the headlights, I don’t think factory cars are much of an issue. Now that matrix style lights are making their way here we should be able to learn a lot from Europe.

Thanks for the insightful reply! It’s cool to see stuff like this.

Gotcha. I figured AEB was pretty much getting to the point of being standard. Didn’t know it was decreed at this point.

I guess I was thinking more if third party targets were missed if it was possible to recalibrate or if new hardware was needed. In my experience, VW specifically, they used different radar units just about every year. And my Mazda is very different in comparison.

I welcome standard AEB. Maybe people will stop totaling my cars.

Serious question, how much does the IIHS tests affect your job?

A lot of the tests I’ve seen are 1-3 mph from making no contact and mitigating the whole incident when it comes to parallel/perpendicular tests for pedestrian systems.

Does anything other than a acceptable or good rating send you back to the drawing board?

IIHS lists a rotating list of safest used cars for teens.

This may be better for some folk.

I had a 2015 golf and 2018 GTI. The gti was hands down my favorite vehicle I ever owned. That being said I did not get a MK8 when it got totaled.

I went with a Mazda3 awd turbo. Reason being physical buttons. I could not comfortably use the controls on all the test drives I did and the infotainment was terrible. Mazda has the superior infotainment of the two.

The golf r is literally just a budget Audi. All the parts are stamped Audi because it’s an MQB Evo platform. They’re all the same.

I wouldn’t say Vw isn’t quality, but I could not justify the expense. I paid less for a 2024 turbo premium plus awd Mazda than the dealer was asking for an SE GTI.

Yea that was Jeremy Clarksons advert.

This isn’t really up for debate. It’s legal to import anything 25 years or older under Federal law. They don’t have to comply with regulations outside of maybe smog. And even then if you import anything 1974 and older you don’t even have to smog that in California.

I could maybe see an argument where they shouldn’t be allowed on roads above 70mph since most kei cars aren’t capable of that, and those that are run such high rpm’s it’s just not practical.

Yea their whole argument is baseless. They’re essentially saying that they have pedestrian safety figured out and not the countries that have the most walkable cities? Wild.

The DMV has zero bearing on vehicle safety. They’re only denying and trying to revoke legally issued registrations. So your makeshift argument is moot. You’re trying to say the registrable F150 is more pedestrian safe than a Daihatsu Hi-Jet………which is definitely not the case. It’s quite the opposite.

Not to mention they’re making golf carts road legal which don’t even have seat belts or any other crash verified safety equipment.

These reports have been around for years.

If that argument held any water they’d ban motorcycles too.

This is pretty spot on. And in order to get the summer tire rated performance, you’ll need to have the tire properly warmed up. You get close to advertised with UHP All seasons from cold or hot and everything in between. Once it gets below freezing it’s not such a high performing category, but unless you’re dealing with ice and snowfall it’ll outperform winter tires on asphalt or any paved surface really. Not to mention they’ll generally wear much better and be way quieter.

According to my iPhones privacy viewer it’s almost worse than Facebook.

I used to routinely use 100gb of data on my jailbroken sprint iPhone. Did that for almost 3 years. Never heard a peep from them. But this was forever ago.

That, and there are way less console exclusives.

That FX-8350 is the problem.