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cars AND stuff
I like a good car. I don't particularly subscribe to the idea that newer cars are better, but the cars I drive aren't technically in the old car category either. They're middle aged workers that just know their way around town. New cars I feel like are more computers on wheels, than cars with computers aiding them. And yes, there is a difference. Drove my dad's new fancy electric car one time (though I think any new car does this) and I kept getting beeps and boops and sensor noises and all that. How do you not get distracted driving in a new car? I swear all this safety technology is making it less safe for drivers. And then you got the big fat touchscreen and the mobile phone connected to it. More distraction! And I can't even feel for the buttons so I've got to take my eyes off the road. Just great. I'm particularly fond of the old Mercedes-Benz C-Class (series 204) so much that we have two of them. 2012 C250 2013 C220 CDI For me these were probably the last 'good old' Mercedes-Benzes. The new ones are too uptight with technology and being cool and being sporty. A Mercedes-Benz shouldn't be sporty. It should be a safe car. It should be a nice executive car. If I wanted a sporty car I would get a 3-Series. Other cars we got because guess what? we got other cars too.
* 2011 Toyota Fortuner, and not just any Fortuner but the tip-top spec'd TRD Sportivo'd 3.0L Diesel. This thing is a crazy workhorse and at 330,000 km it's only done through one timing chain and one turbo. Ok, you could probably tell by now that we like lower spec'd cars anyway, we didn't mean to get the TRDSport but that was all they had, and the 2011 flood was impending so whatever. Still, a great buy. Click to see Fortuner's page. The new age of electric In late 2020 we (my Dad) got a new car, a plug in hybird, to replace his Subaru XV (which he claimed was too expensive to maintain because they had to import all the parts or something), and he settled on a MG HS PHEV Plug-in hybird. So far it has done us pretty well. We are at roughly 90,000 km and no issues yet other than that the included free services has now run out. The only problems we ever had was with an issue with the onboard charger / charging system that broke down once just randomly and once because ants were trying to fuck it up. But it was still in warranty then, and that was pretty early on. Since then not many issues with the car. We had an air-con blower replaced just last year and according to the tech it will be a recurring thing which ugh, fine. My only real complaint with this car is that the air-con control is a part of the infotainment system, which only once decided to not turn on for us (unlike the Benz there is no ON/OFF button on the infotainment), and we had to drive to work in the sweaty hot car. Air-con, a not-negotiable thing in Thailand, should not rely on a touch-screen. Period! Other than that it is just the 'safety features' that bug me (which I already explained at the top). Return to startpage. |
This one is an Avantgarde trim and has all the bells and whistles. Very nice. 
This car is a diesel and a little lower spec with the Elegance trim. It misses some nice-to-have features like xenon projector headlamps (this one has old-skool halogen reflectors), electric blinds, triple zone air-con (this car only has two zones), and a lower-trim radio called Audio20. But other than that, it is a perfectly good car, and what you lose in features are only nice-to-have, they do not affect the driving or the safety of the car.
* 2005 VW Caravelle, that is the 3.2L V6 version, because we were crazy back in 2005 and now it is hella expensive to fuel up. But other than that, it is a very solid van. Better than your little Toyota Alfards or Vellfires by miles.
* 2009 Mercedes-Benz S320 CDI L, the queen of cars (or king of cars, depending on how you see it). I get that this isn't the S500 but who gives a damn? What can an S500 do that this can't? Go faster? It's an S-Class, you supposed to glide in it!