DRIVING

I'm learning Automatic and I have found that a lot more easier to digest and not be overwhelmed compared to when I was learning on manual. 

DifferentMark said:

I'm learning Automatic and I have found that a lot more easier to digest and not be overwhelmed compared to when I was learning on manual. 

In a few years, all cars will be electric - so automatic.     Manual is only useful for high performance cars

I do hope so. Liberty, here I come! 

I do hope so. Liberty, here I come! 

As you can imagine, I've had a lot of cars....shortest period was only 3-months - I bought a bargain MGBGT on a whim - what a POS - like driving a tractor - made good profit on that.      Similarly with my X1/9 - 4 months.    I've had many multiples of some cars - lots of Astras, Escorts, Vectras, Omegas, Senators, BMWs etc. - easy to buy, easy to sell.

Now the admiration goes the other way... :c)

I'm really into cars - I know exactly what I'm looking at when buying so I tend to buy low, drive for 6-months and then sell for profit -  zero maintenance costs for 30 years -  I've only ever changed 2 sets of brake pads - rarely ever service a car - only fitted one exhaust part and 4 tyres - I let other people pick up those tabs before and after me.  

I had a Ibiza Cupra with an odd fault caused by a dodgy fusebox - tricky to find without my ODB scanner.

The XJ40 was when they finally sorted the rear suspension and braking setup -  miles better than the XJ6-derived systems and worth money on the spares market..

When I bought my first one, an old and wise friend said "Don't do it. Better people than you have been broken by jags". The XJ40 turned out to be a winner for me, however, but unfortunately they are now both too old to get fixed easily at a reasonable price by your local non jaguar approved jaguar specialist, and fast appeciating in value, so you can't get a nice runner carrying a fault for a grand now. Of course, when you buy one it will have something going wrong with it, that's why the owner wants to sell it! (Unless yo are very lucky, of course). The trick is to be able to identify the problem (if it isn't obvious) and accurately estimate how much it will cost to get fixed. The last one I bought (from a used car dealer) looked minty, but during the test drive just as I could hear the diff start to whine he turned the radio on. I was happy then because I knew what the fault was, I knew my local garage would have a decent late model used spare in stock, and I now knew he was going to accept some serious haggling in order to drop it onto me. I also knew that on a thousand quid Jaguar, if you are going to use it as a company vehicle which I used to, you need to budget for about £1300 a year for maintenance, and if you actually have that 1300 to spend they just continually improve from when you buy them. (particularly if you can save that money when nothing goes wrong in that year! Which happened a lot more more often than I expected).

BUT only the XJ40 Jaguars seem to work that way... I was lucky, I chose possibly the best model they've ever built... But yes, rust gets them in the end and whilst it is curable, with a specialist rebuild, that would require, being able to save up the unused part of that 1300 quid budget, for ten years and probably still take an extra 5K on top.. Which I've never managed to do. I always have to change them when the rust becomes an issue.   

The rule I learned is that luxury cars break expensive, but nowhere near as often as consumer cars, unless you buy a "lemon" as the car trade them. (Tip: NEVER buy a car with a new looking lemon scented air freshener from a dealer (whether official or an amateur "wheeler dealer") or at auction... It will not go wel. Seriously, that's a thing!

Wow - you're brave - I admire you - I've always fancied one but a couple of my friends got bitten badly with Jags - mostly rust and electrical problems - one friend's XJS turned into a nightmare of rust in hidden places.

I was looking at the newer S-type - too many expensive faults.

The bravest car I ever bought was a Renault Safrane 3,0 RXE - it was like a fighter jet - air suspension, pneumatic electric memory seats - all in leather - 1st gen with the Concorde dash.    

And that's why my car is a (fairly well maintained) LPG fuelled 1990's Daimler 4.0 Auto... It's been a total bargain! (I've driven old XJ40's for about 20 years, Way underrated in my opinion, and much more durable and fixable than anything Jaguar have made since, from what I can gather from friends who have attempted to go "one-up" on my choice...)  

Aidie was desperately trying to be clever posting the usual 'nothing burgers' everywhere but demonstrated complete ignorance on this thread.

I corrected with facts - but Aidie, so desperate for attention, edited their post to try to hide the error - not understanding they are talking garbage about a completely wrong technology in every way.       Sooooo needy.

LIDAR uses multiple lasers to construct a 3D environment of the street scene - it's more accurate and better suited to the job - it's faster too..  AI is needed to interpret the data..      Truck cams are just dashcams videoing the corners-  usually for insurance purposes - not smart in any way..

The problem with self-drive vehicles is all the random things going on either side of the road - in a cluttered street scene, can the computer work out if a child is going to suddenly cross the road?      Humans are quite good at spotting pattern and we have experience to predict behaviours - computers can't do it fast enough so have to take shortcuts and commit to passing the risk at the same speed as surrounding traffic - and they are bad at it.

The most we really have these days are lane-followers - on a motorway, they can usually follow the lines to keep you in your lane - but get confused in roadworks.

We also have adaptive cruise - it keeps a safe distance to the car in front but speeds up and slows down with the general traffic - but it's dependant on the driver in front - Top Gear showed how fallible it was.

Self-drivers are a good few years away.

Ok. Totally confused. What's a LiDAR? How does this relate?  What's been edited? I edit all the time to get rid of my typos.  Are we still talking about machines that run on programming? Should I go take a lie down in a darkened room now and not worry about it? 

I meant LiDAR  Dawn 

No you didn't;- editing your past again

I meant LiDAR  Dawn 

Us country folk depend on the car, so short-journey Automatics are like hen's teeth here.

No - RADAR doesn't work in an urban environment - too many sources of interference and reflections-  and current AI is incapable of discriminating the cluttered environment at a speed that is above walking pace.

LIDAR is more useful.

that would require LiDAR or high end AI and cameras. Having said that many lorries have cameras now.......  not sure if they are standard or fitted I'll ask my lorry mates

Desmond79 said:

The Automatics for sale here are roughly Twenty Grand.

Depends what you go for - most of my journeys are short / local so I have an auto Astra - whenever I need to do a long journey, it's easier / cheaper to hire a nice big car for the journey - the overall cost and depreciation makes large cars way too expensive.to own - unless you buy them when someone else has paid for the depreciation.  .

The Automatics for sale here are roughly Twenty Grand.

Desmond79 said:

I can't afford an Automatic.

They are no more expensive?   Where do you see the price problem?

Lol. I better had.

Price is a barrier. Can't you get a bit of mobility PIP to help?

Yeah - probably best to wait for a self-driving car 

I can't afford an Automatic.