Yeah... those TSI engines have kept many a VW technician gainfully employed making decent money.

If I were in charge of any automaker, I’l think a halt in production was smart as there may turn out to be a drop in demand due to the economic fallout of all this anyway.

Wow, that’s one hell of a project. Very well done and pretty fascinating concept all around. I dig it, and I’m not normally one who’s into big truck stuff.

To put it as succinctly as possible to most people I talk to on the subject:

After driving one of the original 500es, I have to concur. I mean, it wasn’t going to win any races, but it was downright sprightly around town. It’s on the highway where it’s a little underwhelming, especially as you get over 70 MPH, the acceleration drops off precipitously... and the top speed is literally 88 MPH.…

Specially designed studs. Pretty sure the first inch or so of the studs has no threads at all, and then the threads start somewhat gradually to better help guide the nuts get started with minimal chance to cross thread.

It definitely takes them longer than that.... an entire F1 pit stop lasts a mere 2-3 seconds, 4 tires on and off, back on the track. Of course they also can jack the entire car up at once and have 3 people PER TIRE during this operation. One to take the old one off, one to operate the gun to loosen and tighten the…

Yeah, as a VW guy, the eGolf is nothing special. It’s more a compliance car than anything. And honestly, if I were to go for a cheaper, small range EV for an around town runabout, I’d probably get a Fiat 500e instead.

I kind of liked the old 5 lug setup they had going on. At the very least it made for an impression on just how good and highly trained the mechanics are. I suppose being a mechanic makes you appreciate that a little bit more. I kind of appreciated that little bit of extra difficulty those guys had and how awesome they…

Goodyear has a plan for F1? Goodyear... who left F1 in 1998 and hasn’t been back?

All of what you described are things that make it not as nice of a car to drive, but have zero to do with reliability.

CP all day. You can find them for cheaper from an enthusiast type with assurances some of the major items have been addressed. They just aren’t worth much at their age with their reputation.

Isn’t the B5 S4 just the same drivetrain in a smaller car? 2.7TT.

Meh. It’s still a blandmobile underneath. I mean, the MQB is a fine platform for a pavement pounder. The Haldex-based 4Motion is pretty decent.

That’s pure conjecture. It’s something they COULD do, but then you’re also negating any straight line speed gain you could otherwise get. And with the tires being as short lived as they are, I don’t see why you’d want to make that worse. 

Having grown up in the upper Mid West (Meechigan), I definitely ‘get’ what to do in very slippery conditions, especially in a front wheel drive car.

Yeah, I wrote my comment before I watched the full video from Chainbear.

I have my doubts they’re actually toe-ing it in at all. I suspect they make it just about 0 for the straights and toe it out for corners. I also highly doubt it’s going to something absurd like 10 degrees. Even 1 degree of toe is pretty extreme.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something like it goes from -1.0 or maybe…

Clearly being a technician by trade pretty much limits me to only having old shitboxes because I have the tools and facilities to fix them myself and customers sometimes give up on cars that I can obtain for cheap, fix them and drive them myself for awhile.

I’m sure all the staff has at least one operational car... but not all vehicles in their possession may run (here’s looking at you, D.T.).