Comments by "" (@appelpower1) on "Shmee150"
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Nik Brudar It's nearly four grand for a pre-1993 NA (116 bhp), and both the post-1993 NA (90 bhp) and the NB 1.6 (110 bhp) are just under three grand. More importantly, they aren't as likely to have been ruined by a previous owner. Though I think I'll eliminate the 90 bhp one and simply consider between the older NA and the NB (which might be a better car overall).
She rarely washes it (I did it for her a while ago, and there was green sludge, or moss, or whatever that was, stuck behind everything. She also scraped a pole in our driveway a year ago. We removed the (inconveniently placed) pole, but the scrape damage still hasn't been fixed. It's also filled with rubbish, and I would rather sit barefoot on the sand-filled rubber mats in my dad's V70. Nonetheless, it's a good car.
I can relate, having been stuck behind vans before on my bike. It's extremely annoying, and quite scary somehow. Even then, I will probably learn through advice and experience. Again, that will be the Corolla's task (I daren't drive a 5-metre, as-good-as-new V70, especially since it has an automatic gearbox).
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Nik Brudar That's true, although a friend of mine frequently borrows his mum's Corsa 1.2. With 65 bhp, it's laughably slow, but the torque makes it feel quite rapid. This, however, is why the 116 bhp model is better. The 90 bhp version has roughly the same amount of torque as that Corsa. Also, I do quite like the idea of having a first car with a 0-60 time of less than 10 seconds (the magical barrier).
I'm just under 1,80m, but I'm not convinced I've stopped growing yet. I've sat in an NB and an ND before, and both were a bit of a struggle to get out for someone as stiff and unathletic as me. I think I'll get used to that, however. The driving position seems great.
I wouldn't mind washing my future car every week, yet I don't think I'll ever have a reasonably clean place to live any time soon. And that's my fault.
Well, that's true. It's mostly overtaking that become a terrifying experience, I think. I may have said that wrong: I'm not afraid of auto boxes (the first car I ever drove had flappy paddles and I left the second car I drove in fourth the whole way), but it won't help me become a better driver.
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Nik Brudar Nope, it's a petrol. A 1.2 16V, from the era when having four valves per cylinder was special. But honestly, it feels quite brisk from the passenger seat, same as the 150 bhp Volvo I mentioned earlier.
8 seconds is very quick, I can imagine. The NA does it in 8,8, the slower NA in 10,6 and the NB in 9,7. There's also a 140 bhp one that does it in eight, but it's too expensive. Either way, what are you looking for?
True, although the feeling of opening a low door with no window frames is somehow very satisfying. The NA is probably the smaller car, that might be an issue. Though I could play all day long with the pop-up headlights.
Nobody will be allowed to eat in my car, that's for sure. Or drink. Or do anything that might make a mess.
I can understand that. My driving style (on my bike, that is) is very aggressive, and I'll be the sort of person who speeds up for an orange traffic light. The one thing that's nice about overtaking is probably shifting down and revving :D
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Nik Brudar Ah, that explains part of it. I'll be a student too, so my financial position will not be particularly royal, but I'm not going to use it every day to cut back on petrol costs, by far the biggest type of costs with something as light-weight and maintenance-light as an MX-5.
It is, which is why it bothers me that so many people (and motoring journalists) rate German cars above, say, Jags and Alfas, because the tiny details are better. The plastics and the feel of the buttons, that sort of nonsense. Those nit-picky details are offset by the loveliness of an Alfa, for instance the one in the video.
True, the smell is so persistent, that smokers' cars are genuinely worth less than otherwise similar cars.
That's one of two reasons I don't have a speedometer on my bike, the other being that I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes off it.
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Nik Brudar Fair enough, although a driving obsession is merely unhealthy for one's wallet, not one's lungs and environment.
Ooo, nice! Blasphemy, it's a pretty word. Either way, I am more of a GT driver than anything, but by 'GT' I mean a sporty drive that's comfortable enough to not drive you nuts on a long journey. My favourite example is probably an Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
Well, Car Throttle has near-TV production quality already. Perhaps their car culture approach is too specialist to be fit for TV?
It might very well have been intentional. On one hand, I'm glad they have a bigger budget and no BBC to try and censor their madness, but I'm still a bit sad with the loss of so many Top Gear traditions (the Stig, the 'Top Gear top tip', the Reasonably Priced Car and so on). Nonetheless, the show revolves around the three of them, so that should be enough already to make it brilliant.
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Nik Brudar I'm not a BMW enthusiast, but a 335i is a very nice car. Personally, I'd really like an E39 BMW 523i (or with an even better engine), however. Then again, I'm not a BMW person.
Not only that, but TG appeals to a broad audience, even people who don't care about cars, whereas CT is more for what they call 'car guys'. It emphasises car culture more, with terms like 'ricers', 'JDM' and so on.
They did :(
Or go across with amphibious cars :D
The video was bloody hilarious, by the way.
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Nik Brudar Audis and VWs, besides their fraud, still has a fairly strong reputation amongst people who don't know anything about cars. Experts know better: somewhat shoddy electrics (with GTE models and their derivatives having appalling reliability), timing belt failures and extreme oil consumption on TSI engines, DSG's that require expensive rebuilds often, it's rather awful. Nonetheless, I do like the new TT (especially the RS), R8 and RS7 too, as well as the S1 and the previous RS6. Oh, and the Q7 V12 TDI for a laugh.
Heh, thanks :)
He is fat, although he genuinely uses his bike. Which makes him an older version of me. I have the genetics to turn bald quickly as well. Hopefully I'll turn into Clarkson, I wouldn't mind :D
Yup, you used it right, judging by what I saw. I've heard Hammond talk about 'gentleman's relish' before, although I don't know exactly what it is.
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Nik Brudar The TT is a very pretty, yet understated car, it's gorgeous. It's hardly an exciting drive, mind you, but it looks the part. Plus, the interior is ingenious.
Thank you for the compliment! I sometimes play out reviews in my head. Such would include a Bentayga review where I praise the engineering prowess, but then demonstrate how all that is useless by drag racing my hypothetical MX-5 against it, while my driving-licence-less friend is driving the Bentayga. He would wipe the floor with the Mazda, but show no excitement, while I shout through the gears. Oh, and I'd film in the Bentley at 120 mph to prove how boring it is to go fast in it, and then try (and fail) to do 120 in the Mazda to prove how exciting it should be.
And I've also got a Giulia review in mind, but I can't be bothered to type it out anymore :)
It's sounds rather dirty, actually. It sounds like 'man juice'.
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Nik Brudar Well, it may be a distant drive (as most Audis), but that doesn't mean it isn't fast and therefore thrilling. The interior is a stroke of brilliance, I especially like the air vents. As far as toys go, it's as fun as pop-up headlights or the Rolls-style umbrella in the back doors of a Superb.
Thank you! Mind you, I learn by imitation and therefore took some of my general inspiration from TG itself, but I might be able to twist it a bit. Automotive journalism is actually my ultimate back-up plan, should my regular career path fail.
In a Giulia review, I'd probably drive about with great enthusiasm, claiming it to be a proper Alfa. However, it has to take on 'ze Germans'. After some explanations on the German dominance, accompanied by low-ground, upward shots of a grey C/3/A4 and the German national anthem, I'd put it through some tests. Some it may succeed in (it can be had in stylish red and blue, but also in the crucial shades of grey), but it has no soft-touch plastics (on account of having pretty much no plastics in the first place), usable rear seats (a 3-Series or A4 don't, so that's a test failed at by the Giulia) and reasonable equipment prices (as opposed to the Germans). Essentially, it would be a cheeky jab at the Germans, by pretending that the Giulia not having their flaws is a mark against it and thereby meaning that it's actually better.
Who knows, maybe it's also a euphemism :)
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Nik Brudar That's a great way to describe the TT, actually, especially since it's now too expensive to be a hairdresser's car.
I've got multiple backup plans, so I think I'll be fine indeed. It's a matter of how fine, of course. The dream is to daily drive a secondhand, manual V8 Vantage. There are more spectacular supercars, but that would be fine. They say that money buys happiness up to a salary of 70.000 euros a year: that's my goal.
Again, thank you! Heck, maybe that'll be the side job I shall use to fund my studies. And, to be frank, you might be quite capable of this stuff as well, judging by your eloquence and ability to describe what your Colt is like to drive.
I love the word 'euphemism', though I'm not actually sure if it's correct. I just translated the Dutch equivalent 'eufemisme', which I had learnt at school in literature classes.
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Nik Brudar And I did :)
Really? I've always viewed Slovenia as the most developed ex-Soviet country, beating the Czech Republic. They're the Denmark of Eastern Europe. But alas, salaries are fairly low. Then again, with your prices, the equivalent would be 35-40k a year anyway. 25 is already plenty then. Moving abroad could be fun, maybe I'll move to the UK at some point. By the way, what is your current study?
I wouldn't say that, the difference isn't very apparent. Of course, I don't know what your accent is like, but then again Sabine Schmitz can make it onto Top Gear and she clearly has a German accent. That shouldn't stop you. To avoid the whole car market issue, you ought to try it out abroad. Does Slovenia have its own automotive media?
That's very similar. It's one of those words that's the same in every language, I assume.
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Nik Brudar Well, the GDP per capita of Slovenia is fairly low, as is the case for most Eastern European countries. Nevertheless, low prices compensate for that somewhat, but apparently there are still some issues. Well, I have some experience with the Czech Republic, and there are still holes in its development, so I can see what you mean.
So you're about to get what I believe is a bachelor's degree? Either way, my future plans are to finish my final exams at school (my final two are tomorrow) and go off to university. If I manage to get in, I'll be studying something on the governing of the public sector, or else I'll be studying a combination of business and consumer studies
Even then, it's very impressive. I too rarely speak English out loud, although I practise grammar using Youtube comments and practice pronunciation in my head. A lot of it comes from watching Top Gear, mind you. Oh, and a German English accent is actually quite pleasant and fluid, contrary to the German language itself. It's actually quite nice.
Ah, that's what foreign media are for then :)
A philanthropist is someone who is very involved in human development of the third world, the environment and other good causes, right?
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Nik Brudar That's quite worrying. It's a shame our media don't talk about this sort of thing here. When are the next elections in Slovenia?
A bachelor's degree is the first step of a university study, the second being a master's degree and the third being a PhD/doctorate. These terms are the same as in Dutch, which is why I know them :) Today was my last exam, I'm very relieved :D
I'll be 17 by the time I attend university. I'm about to turn 17, a mere two weeks from now. The programmes I mentioned are very widely oriented, there are a lot of ways to go from there.
That's impressive. I'm not actually the best in my class. Well, technically, I'm the best in my English class, but there's one girl in our general class who was allowed to skip one year's English and did her final exams on the subject last year. Mind you, she spent several years on an international school in Dubai, so that's not quite the same :)
Haha, you 'cleanse' yourself with them. I like that. I can't wait for The Grand Tour, although the others will definitely do.
I had heard the word quite often, but I confirmed to myself what it meant in a rather unusual way, namely by watching the film Grimsby...
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Nik Brudar True, though I do trust them to explain the basics of Slovenia's political system. The Gini-coefficient is a bit complicated, but I might be able to explain. If you add up all the incomes of a country, from lowest to highest, and make a cumulative line out of this, you will get a curve. This curve is known as the 'Lorenz-curve'. The surface between this Lorenz curve and a straight, diagonal line is the Gini-coefficient. It measures how far apart a country is from completely equal income distribution.
If I wanted to do that, I'd have to repeat classes so many times that I'll be kicked out of school. It's the misfortune of being the second youngest person in class, I'm afraid.
Thank you! I'll hope to be able to end up in one of my preferred choices, because I honestly don't see me enjoying myself in a regular 40-hour workday. Then again, that may be my (teen)age talking.
That does indicate signs of learning by imitation, essentially the mechanism that taught me most of what I know about the English language. That is one of the reasons you could very well be capable of passing a Cambridge exam, at least up to CAE (Certificate of Advanced English). I guess my and the other two people's English skills are derived from a combination of learning by imitation and plentiful exposure to the language.
He is, his reviews are very eloquent and informative, yet engaging. And indeed, the production quality is brilliant. It's one of the lesser-known car channels on Youtube, but it's one of the best. That reminds me of RecombuCars, which is ran by the only one of the new Top Gear presenters who made it in through audition.
I wouldn't call myself that, because there are still flaws in this learning format. My English (and German) is horribly allergic to being tested in a school exam, and I tend to make lots of small and subtle mistakes. I try to overshadow these with fancy sentence constructions, elaborate vocabulary and (vocally) a developed accent, but they're there. Also, I need to be fluent enough to be able to follow media in a language before my learning process can take off. With that, my linguistic capabilities are like the British car industry: brilliant in many ways, but also very flawed.
God above, this is a long comment.
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Nik Brudar I have no idea how to actually measure the variables to put into the Gini formula, but I do know the formula itself :)
It would be fun, especially since some of my former classmates already had to redo a class, but I'd rather not be kicked out of school :)
...cock. I meant work-week. That's another consequence of doing everything in English by feel, I guess :)
True, though I mostly use media for this. I've only been to the UK twice in my life, though I'm convinced it'll be much more eventually.
Alas, it's unfortunately underrated. It too would make a good TV programme, amazingly.
Well, fair enough, although my mistakes are probably more frequent. That's not to say I'm not satisfied with how it is now, of course, but there's always room for improvement. I've done the CAE test last year. It tests the C1 level, but I passed it with a score that puts me in the low C2s. I plan to do the final exam next year, the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) exam.
That's actually true. I'd be a good read, I reckon. 'The Youtube Diaries' or something of that nature.
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Nik Brudar I'm not sure. My maths English is rather poor. Heck, my maths in general isn't very good. At school, we had the choice of two types of maths courses: A, the easier one) and B, the more difficult one (there was also C for people with a culture-oriented course profile, but that was ridiculously easy). I aced A-maths, but I would not have made it through B-maths.
In a way, yes, but I've also heard from others, that it can be quite nice. For instance, you don't have to attend some subjects if you passed them the previous year and you can hand in some assignments using the exact same document as last year. Also, you'll have learned everything once already. Still, I wouldn't want to try it.
Heh, that would be a plot twist! But, like I said, I use aesthetically pleasing English to cover up a surprisingly large amount of mistakes. It's a system that works, luckily :)
I haven't. Both times, I visited London: once with school and once with my family. I would love to visit a few more sights, however. Perhaps Dunsfold :)
What, Goy's appearance? He's bald, but I doubt he counts as ugly. No more than the Top Gear presenters would, anyway.
I think the best description would be that one can only notice the difference between a C2 non-native speaker and an actual native speaker if the two are heard right after each other. My teacher, for instance, appears to have a perfect accent, until she plays clips of actual native speakers for listening tests. That's perhaps what I'm at now. I would've likely been able to pass CPE last year already, but I would rather have the monstrous scores I already got on the FCE and CAE, so I decided to wait another two years.
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Nik Brudar I have a decent insight in maths, fair enough, and I'm very good at it while I have a structural grasp of what I'm doing. However, at some point it turns into witchcraft, and I stop having a clue how it works. Luckily, that's why I can be lazy at A-maths and still come out with a brilliant grade.
There is none. The costs won't be so high in my case either, however, since I'm already a year ahead of everybody anyway.
That's good to hear, actually! Mind you, it's been a year since someone properly checked my English for mistakes, so I may have improved since then. I definitely hope so.
It did rain occasionally, but I've also had good weather on both visits. They were spread 50/50. Mind you, both visits took place in April or May, which may have distorted my impression.
I can see 'goofy', and perhaps 'unappealing' in a judging a book by its cover sort of way, but unpleasant? Not that one. Even still, I will agree that he requires a bit of getting used to.
'Enthralled' (I had to look that up :) is quite a perfect word for this, actually. I like that. But yeah, I'm not really in a rush for this. I'd rather have it two years later with a brilliant score, than immediately with a decent score at best.
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Nik Brudar Really? Is it that difficult? Even a B-maths, we've had over-achievers and maths geniuses with highly impressive grades. Apparently, the talent for maths is genetically determined, so I think it's only fair if the school differentiates people based on their competence.
True, once I'm aware of a mistake I correct it, but 'ridicilous' (misspelled on purpose, this time) is a perfect example of the small mistakes that may slip through. This is where I rely on others to correct me, which luckily has happened thanks to several people, including my teacher and indeed you :)
I'm glad I did. It's a pretty country if the sun's out, although the UK is probably the only country where I wouldn't mind the rain, partly because I'd be fighting a losing battle against the weather and partly because I fell in love with the country through images sometimes including rain anyway.
Indeed. The pay-off is well worth it, luckily. Sometimes, the things you need to get used to at first are eventually the things you like the most, because it provokes loyalty and devotion to a type of media.
The word sounds absolutely gorgeous. I think it has something to do with the elegant aura of the 'th' and the 'l + syllable', the latter being derived from French.
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Nik Brudar I dream of storming in there once and giving a speech where I play their morals. 'You're tough on the outside, but you've failed in life. This toughness is a façade to hide your sheer disappointment with life. Everything you ever did failed, and you take it out on these innocent children. Every bully who ever belittled you, every rejection you have ever had, they are all bricks that form the horrible person that you are. Shame on you, for being so hollow!'
I must admit I did not come up with that myself. I read it in... umm... a reading test. Which I now realise is a very unusual source.
I do wonder that too. Do mind, however, that my appreciation for Britain is merely trivial. I steer well clear of anything that reeks of nationalism.
It very much bothers me that Americans feel they are responsible for every conflict in the world. They think no country is capable of solving its own problems, so they invade everywhere, only causing it to escalate. Of course, oil plays apart in this.
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Nik Brudar I think I simply watched too much telly :) But seriously, this sort of speech could work very well on several occasions, including Trump rallies. It combines the aesthetic flair and loudness that most populists are attracted to like honey, while still offering the possibility of providing counterarguments.
True. Sometimes, I find myself so engaged with and fascinated by the text that I forget to look for the answer. This occurs especially (here we go again :) at English tests.
If anything, I try to calm people down by being reasonable ('yes, you have things to be proud of, but no, you're not perfect'), but that doesn't work very often.
This is an exact mirror of my thoughts on Americans, albeit a very expensive and well-made mirror. That was a serious bit of vocabulary training!
Good luck with your exam, then, I see you've practised :)
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Nik Brudar I think part of the reason behind his rise is simply the attention the news pays to him. If only they hadn't. Alas, we've got to live with the possibility of his presidency now.
I somehow manage to be interested in those texts. This particularly goes for English, in the same way that I can pay great attention to narratives with a British accent. However, that doesn't mean my attention span is brilliant. Occasionally, I read a paragraph and suddenly realise I have no idea what I just read.
True, but I'm not going to be dishonest and kiss their arse. Part of being reasonable, in my opinion, is always providing some kind of counter-argument or perspective. Perhaps that undermines the power of my arguments, but it definitely increases my credibility, which is key on the internet.
You did! The bits and pieces themselves were of brilliant quality too, but the whole construction was good.
Ahaha, lazy teachers showing films to kill time. Gives me deja vu's of religion classes. I'm glad to have helped, then. These comments are a training for me as well, actually.
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Nik Brudar You're right! His wife is Slovenian. For one, that completely undermines his credibility on the subject of immigration, but she is insane, if only because she thinks the money is worth being married to a bellend. Alas, at least his daughter seems like a reasonable-ish lady, but she has to suffer from her dad's unhealthy sexual remarks. It really is a distorted family. My condolences for sharing a nationality with Mrs Trump.
Exactly like that, yes. It doesn't help that I'm fairly easily distracted by something, as I quickly start thinking about something else. That's because I refuse to amuse myself with a phone while waiting, so I resort to thinking instead.
Well, some people are only triggered (hate that word, but I can't think of something else) by shouting and insults, but I refuse to lower myself to that.
I like the sarcasm :) But yeah, my vocabulary for negative descriptions is a bit wider than it should be. I know plenty of ways to praise something as well, however.
That's why I insist these comments (as well as watching Top Gear) are a productive way of spending time.
The tenses! I have no idea what they're called and what the rules surrounding their usage are, but while I used to have trouble with the tenses, I now find them very easy to use. Of course, I could be oblivious to my mistakes, as I was with 'ridicilous', but time will tell whether that's the case.
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Nik Brudar She's the queen of the gold-diggers, that's for sure. Not that she should be proud of that. Though, to be fair, gold-diggers are indeed clever (not necessarily intelligent). Maybe they should allow Obama to sit for another term?
Phone addictions are extremely frustrating and ruin social interactions between people. That's why I never use my phone (and am therefore never available for phone contact.
I very rarely resort to anger on the internet, and if I do, I merely use words like 'bloody' in between my sentences. Perhaps an occasional exclamation mark. I refuse to resort to all-caps shouting. The downside is, that I do have some repressed anger because of that at times, but that's another reason to be glad Microsoft released a (limited) version of Forza 6 for PC.
To be honest, it would also be a review full of snarky sarcasm towards the Germans, but the first segment would be enthusiastic praises.
Depends on what they're about, of course.
I've mastered them, then. I'm quite glad about that.
Good luck with your exam! :)
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Nik Brudar I'm not sure it's the skin colour that does it (for most people, that is), but rather him being a reasonable and intelligent person who doesn't use his primal instincts to determine his foreign policy. Americans tend to feel the need to show how tough they are, which makes them look pathetic and hateful instead.
Almost everyone does it to some degree, and it's acceptable if only done occasionally, but some are outright addicts. Heck, it causes traffic deaths. If I'm ever crashed into by someone distracted by their phone, I will ignore my 'don't sue people over everything' rule for once and pluck their every possession off them. Whew, that was some unreleased anger :)
I do sometimes, actually, but only for satirical purposes. Alas, I can restrain my anger very well, but sometimes I really need to release it (as you saw in the previous paragraph).
I'd love to be able to do it eventually :D
That depends on how you look at it. It trains both your English and your sense of journalism.
Perhaps you're not a bulletproof source, but your corrections (or the lack thereof) are a good indication nonetheless.
That's good to hear!
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