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Voltswagen of America

media.vw.com

611–620 of 632 posts

Re: Voltswagen of America

#611
post #469
post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My truck (24 years and change) will smoke a bit if I stand on it and the fuel flow outruns boost coming up, but it's also entirely emissions compliant and passes the tests cleanly - it's just something older diesels do under certain conditions I always thought that banning old diesels from centers of European cities was just silly (they passed their emissions after all so they can't be billowing smoke, right?), tha…

Emissions standards change over time. You could get some really polluting cars in the old days, and you can't anymore. Why should we be breathing in the smoke from these old cars from an era where emissions and pollution weren't taken as seriously as now?

The proportion of old vehicles on the road is small. And the last thing most of the people who drive them need is additional expensive compliance hoops to drive through.

For every hipster yuppie driving "muh classic Hilux just like daddy owned in 1993" there a few dozen people living out of the back of a Caprice Classic wagon because they have no better option.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole thing was an elaborate joke: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/30/volkswagens-name-change-of-u...

Kinda sums up their efforts so far on electrical vehicles.

How so? The Taycan (and eTron GT) is an excellent car; the ID4 is receiving okay reviews despite choosing a different space in the compromise space than other makers, and they have a large slate of upcoming cars that seem decent to great. I think that within 5 years, VW AG will be selling more electric cars than Tesla.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#613
post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm referring to a very different Speedwagon.

Guess who the Baby Boomer is who did not know there was a third option for "Speedwagon"? (First two options are the rock band, and the proto-truck from the early 20th century which the band was named after.)

To that I raise you option number 4, who is part of a wider cultural phenomenon among the Gen Z:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-aZBwOj94w

Re: Voltswagen of America

#614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the VW ID4 is a great family car, imo its worth the wait.

Europe here. I have been driving an ID3 nearly every day since a month or so (don't own it) and I absolutely adore the car. It's both simple and full-fledged at the same time. Voice-control is hot garbage but other than that it's fine. Disclaimer: I never drove a Tesla Model 3 before, but a few other EVs like the BMW i3. The VW ID3 feels like a genuine high quality car - as if the Golf simply reached a new era. BMW's…

> the Renault Zoes I drove where just an electric replacement for Smarts which are now electric too

The Zoe has nothing to do with a Smart. It's the same size as a Golf.

Also, I have driven a Zoe on the motorway and it's perfectly fine. I don't understand your problem with that car. It's the most sold EV in many countries, for good reason.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...they bore the brunt of media attention for something that nearly every auto manufacturer was later found to be doing... Car manufacturers any company really tries to get away with whatever they can until until caught. Here in Canada the latest news is Honda vehicles without any heat. People are driving in -20C or lower with no heater. It's the terribly outdated laws we have in Canada some laws haven't been update…

> Here in Canada we get "Hey your engine's gonna blow. Sorry" It seems that there isn't even the 'sorry' part. I wonder what the design is like: generic light? icon? a "do not check engine" light?

It's a blinking check engine light. Ours came on steady shortly after we got the firmware update applied when the recall went out and I hadn't been told what to watch for, so I pulled over immediately and called the dealer. Then they told me...

Re: Voltswagen of America

#616
post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typically the capital city has an English name, which is often not just pronounced differently but also spelt differently from the local name. But for almost every other town English speakers use the same spelling, or a transcription of it, and aim for something like the local pronunciation. So for France, there's "Paris" and "Strasbourg" and that's about it. For Germany, there's "Berlin" and "Munich" and that's abou…

Whilst it's interesting to think about your points, they feel somewhat orthogonal to my point about the word being adopted into English (so it can have a pronunciation the way native speakers feel comfortable with, which can vary to a degree from the original unadopted word). Was it meant as some kind of rebuttal or merely an interesting observation? (eg with the Italian names)

Not a rebuttal: just musing.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#617
post #552
post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typically the capital city has an English name, which is often not just pronounced differently but also spelt differently from the local name. But for almost every other town English speakers use the same spelling, or a transcription of it, and aim for something like the local pronunciation. So for France, there's "Paris" and "Strasbourg" and that's about it. For Germany, there's "Berlin" and "Munich" and that's abou…

Strasbourg? Note as well that Turin and Milan are the names in the local (regional) language. Edit: And Munich is almost identical to Munichen which is the old form of München. Cologne could have been a better example (but it also comes directly from French, like Rome, Florence or Naples).

Standard French pronunciation of "Strasbourg" has an /r/ but no /g/. Of course it's a German name, really, but the Germans spell it a bit differently, and neither French nor Germans pronounce the second vowel in the way it is normally, I think, pronounced in English.

Good point about regional languages in Italy.

"Cologne" is a good example, though some people, including me, usually say "Köln" in English, though I wouldn't say "München", except in the name of the football team "Bayern München", which for some reason is usually called thus in English.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#618
post #289

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>emoji pronounced like いmoji (where the e rhymes with tea) instead of えmoji (where the e rhymes with meh) I understand your pain(and also have very similar pain when English words were put into katakana) but for that example, it does make sense as for native English speakers, my assumption was that the emo- part of the word came from emote. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emote https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

Mate, that’s why I stated forthright that this is a me problem and made no bones about it. The “e” is from 「絵」and “moji” from 「文字」, transliterated as 「えもじ」, “e” + “moji” gets you “picture message”. It was a stroke of luck that it was similar enough to emoticon to neatly fit into our existing lexicon and be understood at a glance by an English speaker, at least the gist of it. A picture message is a little bit differe…

Sorry, I was not trying to come off as pushy. Your comment made me think about why I pronounce it the way I do and I thought I would share :)

Re: Voltswagen of America

#619
post #617
post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strasbourg? Note as well that Turin and Milan are the names in the local (regional) language. Edit: And Munich is almost identical to Munichen which is the old form of München. Cologne could have been a better example (but it also comes directly from French, like Rome, Florence or Naples).

Standard French pronunciation of "Strasbourg" has an /r/ but no /g/. Of course it's a German name, really, but the Germans spell it a bit differently, and neither French nor Germans pronounce the second vowel in the way it is normally, I think, pronounced in English. Good point about regional languages in Italy. "Cologne" is a good example, though some people, including me, usually say "Köln" in English, though I wou…

Do you mean then that English speakers write the name of every French city, including Paris and Strasbourg, as French speakers do and also pronounce them as French speakers would except for Paris and Strasbourg?

Edit: I had never thought about Strasbourg, really. I see now that the adoption of the French spelling in English is relatively recent and also Marseilles and Lyons used to be written differently.

Edit2: Dunkirk seems to be the main (only?) example where the French name is not used.

Re: Voltswagen of America

#620
post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you claimed that Americans are pronouncing it "perfectly correctly," and Germans might disagree. It's a German word which has been Americanized. The company mostly doesn't care, but there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language. Insisting you are correct mispronouncing a foreign word because the letters look a certain way is just hubris.

> there is a single correct pronunciation in their native language But see, that's the point. We're not speaking German when we use a borrowed word in English. It's no longer a purely German word, despite its origins, just as "xylophone" isn't a mispronounced Greek word, nor "Handy" a misused and miscapitalized English word. That's not hubris, it's just descriptivism.

It's not just a word, it's a name. Names have a single correct pronunciation, they're not supposed to be translated.
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