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My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

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Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#411

Post by prmoustache »

salezred wrote: post #143
vladvasiliu wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Europe, fat American-style SUVs are still somewhat rare, especially outside cities (!). People still can't corner worth shit in their "regular" sedans. And I say this as a pretty chill motorbike rider. I've lost count of the number of Golf GTIs and similar behind which I have to wait around when riding on roads that aren't perfectly straight. And these cars should have better cornering ability than my fat bik…

I have a sports car and a Model Y. Whenever I go on a twisty mountain road, without fail, if I will encounter what you said. It does not matter which of the two cars I drive! What's worse is that this happens even in roads where the speed limit is 35 mph and those people may drive 25 mph or even 15 mph! (See the road passing through Cambria in California. It's an epic drivers' road, and yet...)

For some reason people seem to fail to understand that the speed limit is not supposed to be a target to reach.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#413

Post by brailsafe »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #401
brailsafe wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I wonder whether going excessively slow around corners is a symptom of people pushing their steering wheel from the side opposite the direction of the curve instead of pulling it from the same side into the curve. Just a hunch, but doing the latter usually feels like I have more control.

I don't know about that. But what I usually observe is that many people tend to veer off in the next lane in the direction of the turn (even if it's a lane for traffic going the opposite way!) if there is one. But if there isn't (right turn, they're in the rightmost lane), they'll tend to leave quite a lot of space between the car and the shoulder. So I'd say these people have a hard time figuring out the space on th…

Oddly enough I recently accepted an old beat up, but gigantic utility truck from the 90s that I'd never have purchased, and while it's fun to drive, it's also absurd to try and park it anywhere. Even box trucks are comparatively easy to figure out. When it dies, I'm sure as hell not going buy another one, but until then I'll enjoy not knowing how close I am to anything.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#414

Post by alfg »

thepaultran wrote: post #306

Hi everyone, I am the author of this Corolla essay. My friend who works in the tech industry told me it was posted here. Thank you for reading it! I never expected a silly essay about a Toyota Corolla would gain this much traction, but it is what it is. It also made the LA Times, but in an abridged version. Here's the link: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-06-22/fast-furiou... I'm not sure if this is going…

Ignore the haters. I really enjoyed reading your article as a GR Yaris owner. This car is so much fun.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#415

Post by garbagewoman »

vitally3643 wrote: post #79
iamacyborg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subwoofers are really fun though.

There are other people around you who probably don't think they're fun. Hot tip: the other people you see out and about are real, thinking humans just like you who have their own thoughts and emotions and world views. You should consider how your actions impact others.

Have you considered that your overly condescending tone is quite ironic given the content of your comment?

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#416

Post by westmeal »

prmoustache wrote: post #411
salezred wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a sports car and a Model Y. Whenever I go on a twisty mountain road, without fail, if I will encounter what you said. It does not matter which of the two cars I drive! What's worse is that this happens even in roads where the speed limit is 35 mph and those people may drive 25 mph or even 15 mph! (See the road passing through Cambria in California. It's an epic drivers' road, and yet...)

For some reason people seem to fail to understand that the speed limit is not supposed to be a target to reach.

For the love of God speed up

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#417

Post by MikeNotThePope »

brokenodo wrote: post #11

I love cars and driving them. But the modded Corolla/Civic/Accord/Camry (why) people have always driven me crazy because their mods often seem directed to inflicting their cars on everyone else, with loud exhaust, subwoofers, and (subjectively) garish cosmetics, rather than things that make it actually good to drive . I recognize this is judgmental and it's unhealthy to always be annoyed at these people on the road,…

I never appreciated a proper muffler until I didn't have one. I was driving a 27-year-old Honda Civic, and the rusty muffler fell off one day. On the way to go get it fixed, the typically quiet Honda made a ridiculous amount of noise. I had no idea my car could be that loud.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#418

Post by ericyd »

panative wrote: post #315
ericyd wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also dislike loud cars, but I've come to accept that the motivation of loud car owners is probably to gain kudos from other loud car lovers, rather than to inflict pain on us normies. One time I remember being on my bicycle and a kid car revved past me and another cyclist. In my head I though "what an asshole" but the cyclist next to me shouted "Sick!!!" I'm not really defending the loud noise, but I think it's use…

I don’t see how your “shift” makes it any better. Did you really think people did exhaust mods purely to torment everyone around them? The noise and the its effect on listeners is the entire point. The fact that it’s primarily to gain kudos from “other loud car lovers” and especially attention from vapid women doesn’t alter the fact that they know and more likely relish if not most charitably are completely indiffere…

> Did you really think people did exhaust mods purely to torment everyone around them?

I didn't, but the OP wrote:

> So it is about subjecting OTHER people to his car

So my comment was in response to that. I don't think people should ignore the suffering they cause for others, but to me it's different if the motivation is to cause pain vs bringing joy to like-minded people.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#419

Post by b40d-48b2-979e »

slow_typist wrote: post #383
b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm waiting to sell it for an EV minivan to come out. The Mercedes VLE looks interesting. I was hopeful for the VW Bus, but it's just underwhelming.

What's wrong with the VW bus?

Too expensive for a worse vehicle than the Model Y (with incentives, it was a >$20K difference). I take 1-2 trips for 12 hours a year and the Buzz gets >100mi less range, so that's also a consideration. If it wasn't 50% heavier, it would probably get better range.

IIRC the first generation of it also didn't have the right plug to use the supercharger network, didn't have fast charging, or wasn't available >5 seats in the US, so we've kept waiting for future iterations to improve and it hasn't been good enough for the high price.

Re: My midlife crisis Corolla is fast, furious, and modded

#420

Post by b40d-48b2-979e »

hnav wrote: post #320
b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm waiting to sell it for an EV minivan to come out. The Mercedes VLE looks interesting. I was hopeful for the VW Bus, but it's just underwhelming.

the VLE looks great but the pricepoint basically limits it to livery use in cosmopolitan cities. I'm thinking they'll probably sell 1000s of units over the whole run in north america

IDK, it looks pretty comparable at the bottom end to the Buzz. New vehicles in general are so expensive now. I remember buying my first car in the 2000s for $1K (used, granted) and I couldn't imagine buying something that actually drives for that price anymore.

https://www.caranddriver.com/mercedes-benz/vle-class-ev

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