It was built with the amazing American 90s approach to quality that “it will continually run terrible forever”

I’m “that guy at the dealership”. I work at a VW Dealership in CT, at the service counter.

I didn’t sign up for this shit. It’s not my job to play damage control for VW corporate.

I don’t work for VW. I work for an independently owned and operated franchise dealership that has a contract with VW.

I didn’t do a…

If you are talking about US market, they changed their strategy on their lower end cars to be fight to the bottom. Price first. They took Jetta, Passat and cheapened the cars compared to European counterparts.

Amen. I’ve been in the airline business for 20 years (management) and still cannot believe the fundamental lack of courtesy and patience when people go to the airport. The instant they step onto the curb and into the terminal, IQ goes bye-bye. I’ve been a front line supervisor/mgr in a past life and the stories I have…

We clocked the time with a collapsed air suspension.

What’s the 0-60 to the local European auto repair shop?

Sad story but it’s nice to hear how hard everyone tried.

Not that I disagree with any of that, but then neither would Churchill. People have always known the limits of ‘intelligence’. Every report from every source deserves some level of skepticism. That is why we have redundancy and independent verification whenever possible. The key question is someone has enough…

Any time your plane or helicopter is taking incoming fire.

Remember the Lotus logo of the 80's? No?

Wow. Talk about to step in the wrong direction. There is nothing wrong with logos getting updated over time. But don’t go full retard and throw away a fucking great one for that nonsense. Honestly the only time I think a logo should be just thrown out the windows is if it’s too tainted and far gone to save. Like…

Was this not the very model that Princess Diana was guilted into returning because a Princess of the UK couldn’t drive a German car? And then she bought an Audi cabrio?

Y’all can fight me any day or night of the week over what I am going to say in the next paragraph, but I don’t care. I’ll stand by my words forever and ever and ever:

My guess: taking knockdowns is a fairly rare (though alarming) event, whereas protecting the customer’s cargo against the elements, including the criminal element, is always important, and favors a hard-side trailer.

Now figure the torque forces on that kingpin to twist a semi onto its side.

For every one trailer that hauls non-perishable high mass/low volume cargo exclusively, there are 10 others that don’t meet that criteria.

What you’re describing is adding automatic windows to the trailer. Do you know why you’re not supposed open your house’s windows in a tornado? Because it increases the pressure in the interior even more even if you open windows on opposite sides of the house. What you’re describing will move the problem, not fix it.

Your analogy to skyscrapers is not accurate. Their “venting” is about disrupting vortex shedding, and the resonant forces that can result from that behavior, under sustained winds. It doesn’t help significantly for dealing with static forces. That’s done through other means of drag reduction, and structural…

By profession I’m a physicist but I have an LGV licence and drive occasionally with work.

Mercedes 300 CE-24, and Mercedes 500 E. Nuff Said.