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I Bought A Firetruck

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Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#91

Post by Swizec »

sliverstorm wrote: post #57
Swizec wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European I don't understand the american fascination with impractically fhuge cars for every day commuting. Okay I get it, you want a big car for that roadtrip or vacation. Understandable, I do too. But for everyday stuff? My hatchback does perfectly fine around town ... hell, it does perfectly well on most vacations and long drives too.

There's no complicated fascination . It is simple. People like big cars because they are spacious, feel safer, provide a higher vantage point, and a host of other reasons. Your hatchback is perfectly fine around town, but it can't tow a boat, and most people don't like to have multiple cars. So, what winds up happening is people buy the most car they think they will need. It's totally overkill driving to work, and pl…

"but it can't tow a boat"

It probably could and where the hell would I even put a boat. Silly americans :D

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#92

Post by Swizec »

byroot wrote: post #73
sliverstorm wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no complicated fascination . It is simple. People like big cars because they are spacious, feel safer, provide a higher vantage point, and a host of other reasons. Your hatchback is perfectly fine around town, but it can't tow a boat, and most people don't like to have multiple cars. So, what winds up happening is people buy the most car they think they will need. It's totally overkill driving to work, and pl…

> With the possible exception of people living in old cities whose roads are just too small. It's more the rule than the exception. European car makers have a specific car category named "City cars", big enough to host 4 to 5 people but as small as possible to be easy to park etc. Driving, and worse parking, an american sized SUV in europe is very painful. This is why he don't understand. American cities are modern a…

> Driving, and worse parking, an american sized SUV in europe is very painful.

This is a very important distinction! What a European considers a huge SUV is a small town car in the US. At least judging from what I've seen on my visits.

Some of those cars are just uncomfortably big.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#93

Post by timthorn »

smoyer wrote: post #80
ChuckMcM wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did this http://wplives.org/ral.html with our kids, yes they let you actually drive the locomotive around, it was freakin' awesome!

Wow! ... I live in central PA and we're blessed with quite a few "steam excursions" and there's a local historical rail society too. Unfortunately, none of them allow you to "drive the train".

Come to England. Steam train driving sessions are a common way for the restored branch lines to raise funds.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#94

Post by pizza »

carlob wrote: post #21

Is there some sort of crazy game of one-upmanship in the USA as to who can drive the most impractical gas guzzler? First it was stretch limos, then Hummers, then Hummer stretch limos. I wonder if we're gonna see stretch limo fire trucks… Edit (since I'm being downvoted): The story is cool, I just find the fact that he's driving it daily to work completely retarded. What the hell I consider driving a car to work to be…

> Is there some sort of crazy game of one-upmanship in the USA as to who can drive the most impractical gas guzzler?

No, this is just one person, don't think it's representative of Americans.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#95

Post by mhartl »

carlob wrote: post #74
druiid wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, it is a single firetruck, not a fleet of firetrucks being driven around to pick up groceries. If he were starting a trend, then yes perhaps this would be a-bad-thing. Instead, it's one guy fulfilling a lifelong dream. The gas mileage is going to be terrible and the emissions bad, but it's one firetruck.

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_imperative

Kant was wrong.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#97

Post by jedberg »

alan_cx wrote: post #72
Swizec wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a European I don't understand the american fascination with impractically fhuge cars for every day commuting. Okay I get it, you want a big car for that roadtrip or vacation. Understandable, I do too. But for everyday stuff? My hatchback does perfectly fine around town ... hell, it does perfectly well on most vacations and long drives too.

Im a European, well British anyway.... Something occurred to me today regarding Americans and big huge stupid cars... I was watching the NASCAR earlier and there was a throwaway comment about some driver's sponsors being "local". By local they mean 60 miles away. Now to a Brit, maybe other Europeans, 60 miles feels like anything but "local". So, I get the impression that we don't understand the sort of scale of trave…

I think you've hit a nail on the head here. I grew up Los Angeles, and for us, driving 60 miles round trip for dinner was totally normal.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#98

Post by fzzzy »

jonknee wrote: post #83
fzzzy wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one thing that bugs me about complaints about the carbon emissions of cars. Planes cause far more carbon emissions, and they do it way up in the atmosphere where it seems plausible that it actually does more damage. It's a giant elephant in the room.

You can take steps to reduce carbon emissions in cars (smaller car, drive more efficiently, etc), but you can't with planes other than not flying. Luckily, it's in the best interest of airlines to reduce emissions since that means less jet fuel and more profits.

Indeed, this is true. Thanks for this. The realization that it is also in the best interest of an airline to reduce emissions, especially as the price of oil increases, really helps make me feel better.

Not flying doesn't really reduce emissions though... Those planes are going to fly whether or not you are on it.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#99

Post by whalesalad »

This is so awesome. I used to make my mom drag me around town to various fire stations so that I could look at their goodies. I was obsessed with that stuff as a kid.

Congrats on doing it! I myself have a bucket list item to grab an old Crown bus (the ones that look like twinkies) and drive that beast all around the US.

Re: I Bought A Firetruck

#100

Post by RyJones »

shawn-butler wrote: post #76
RyJones wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

flatbed semi

That must have cost more than the actual vehicle? The "sustainable" part of my mind is competing with the "cool project" part. I'm not sure which is going to win out yet. I wonder how competitive it would have been to send it by rail?

He does say it was more to ship than to purchase.
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