Re: I found a Suzuki rarer than the Kizashi...
Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2021 6:59 pm
I see it all as a "damned if you do, damned if you don't". I personally don't want a vehicle to cost too much with a bunch of unnecessary automated technology. I actually believe automated braking and lane assist literally only exist as an industry acknowledgment that drivers no longer pay attention while driving. The engineers are vindicated because I can't drive any given stretch of road and not find someone distracted while driving. While I don't want this stuff in my car thus I'm totally satisfied with my "old and primitive" Kizashi with 3 pedals from 10 years ago, I'd be lying if I said I don't think other people benefit from it. If a car's tech is going to keep a distracted driver's car from plowing into me, I can't see how that's a bad thing.
The other side of the coin to this is the cost of newer vehicles that are ever-rising due to this tech becoming standard and now, a chip shortage. Cars are becoming less as driving machines and more as transportation appliances. While manual transmissions are largely fading into oblivion due to a lack of consumer demand, some companies are actually phasing them out for the sake of automated technology. For example, Subaru will no longer offer a manual transmission in the next gen Impreza and Crosstrek because they want to make EyeSight standard: which is incompatible with a manual transmission. Their pursuit for safer cars to compensate for unsafe drivers will make cars less about driving or driver engagement. It's a trend consumers can't escape easily unless they want to buy older cars, a small niche of performance vehicles, or my point below.
I've come to realize in the last several years that cars are no longer ideal machines for a pure and raw experience on wheels. Too expensive, too automated, and more sedate than ever. The "cool" cars these days, apparently, are the ones that drive themselves or just go fast in a straight line requiring no driver skill. This includes vehicles from a Tesla to a Dodge muscle car. While I'm not here to judge the preferences of other people, I've come to realize a motorcycle is almost a protest on wheels to what is happening to cars. MCs are 99% manual, cheap, demands engagement and attention, and absolutely visceral. No automated bullshit and operator assumes risk.
While you might be right Suzuki Automotive couldn't justify sticking around with low sales meanwhile facing stricter standards to meet on safety and emissions, they absolutely still deliver on the motorcycle front here.
The other side of the coin to this is the cost of newer vehicles that are ever-rising due to this tech becoming standard and now, a chip shortage. Cars are becoming less as driving machines and more as transportation appliances. While manual transmissions are largely fading into oblivion due to a lack of consumer demand, some companies are actually phasing them out for the sake of automated technology. For example, Subaru will no longer offer a manual transmission in the next gen Impreza and Crosstrek because they want to make EyeSight standard: which is incompatible with a manual transmission. Their pursuit for safer cars to compensate for unsafe drivers will make cars less about driving or driver engagement. It's a trend consumers can't escape easily unless they want to buy older cars, a small niche of performance vehicles, or my point below.
I've come to realize in the last several years that cars are no longer ideal machines for a pure and raw experience on wheels. Too expensive, too automated, and more sedate than ever. The "cool" cars these days, apparently, are the ones that drive themselves or just go fast in a straight line requiring no driver skill. This includes vehicles from a Tesla to a Dodge muscle car. While I'm not here to judge the preferences of other people, I've come to realize a motorcycle is almost a protest on wheels to what is happening to cars. MCs are 99% manual, cheap, demands engagement and attention, and absolutely visceral. No automated bullshit and operator assumes risk.
While you might be right Suzuki Automotive couldn't justify sticking around with low sales meanwhile facing stricter standards to meet on safety and emissions, they absolutely still deliver on the motorcycle front here.