I thought about takng off the spandex too (SFW)

[pecunium]

Via mactavish How to deal with certain types of stupid

On a side note, since it too falls into the category of other people's writing.

As with the gallingly heavy Porsche Cayenne SUV, it takes every chassis dynamics trick in the book to make the X6 handle creditably. Which it does, sort of. And yet you never shake the sense of tremendous, ungoverned mass. The thing feels like a neutron star with a steering wheel.

Really, go and read the rest... the guy spared no effort in sharing his unvarnished opinion of this BMW.

Comments

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

No, sorry, I don't empathise with bike-guy one whit; I've been behind people hauling their bikes around with them, and in narrow and/or crowded aisles they're a menace. Besides, the tires tend to leave tracks on the floors, though I've noticed that the hard-core bike riders near me don't seem to notice that.

-- Steve does think it was foolish of the Wally-marters to not have some sort of vertical object to which a bike could be chained.

PS: I do like the BMW review, though... it provides a very clear picture of exactly how foolish, wasteful, and plain useless it is; seemingly better suited for a "bullet point" for a product line slide in PowerPoint than for the road.

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

The car reviewer did, however seem like he was self-consciously copying Jeremy Clarkson's signature style...

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but I've never seen his style, so this was new; and refreshing.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Jeremy Clarkson is one of the three who front Top Gear on the BBC.

They've just had a head-to-head challenge with a German motoring programme.

Clarkson turned up in a Supermarine Spitfire.

Sometimes, he lays it on a bit thick.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I empathise with her. One, they didn't have any bike racks.

Two, they gave bullshit, and everchanging reasons.

Three... A bike is no more a menace than a stroller. Ill-managed it's a pain in the ass. Well handled it's not.

And I've never seen a Wall-Mart which had narrow aisles.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

One, they didn't have any bike racks.

That's not good, admittedly, but were there no other vertical objects available nearby? No "No Parking" signs or railings by the walk?

Two, they gave bullshit, and everchanging reasons.

Not good handling, again I admit... but at first we're talking about a min-wage greeter who has my sympathy for getting caught between a rock and a hard place. The manager should have done better explaining why and not tried to duck out with easy answers. (And I wonder if either of them is going on "customers_suck" right now with their side of this story?)

Three... A bike is no more a menace than a stroller. Ill-managed it's a pain in the ass. Well handled it's not.

A stroller I'll tolerate, as it's occupied by another party and is closer to a wheelchair than a vehicle in function. In addition a pushed bike occupies space fore-and-aft, in my experience, unless wielded up on its rear tire in which case it's a frickin' head hazard for passers-by, whereas the stroller only occupies forward space under the (obstensable) view of the one handling it.

I'm afraid I've had some rather unpleasant encounters with cyclists locally who seem to think that having two wheels and pedals means everyone else has to get out of his/her unlimited right of way, so my personal reaction as a pedestrian to an angry cyclist stripping in a store lobby because she* can't carry her bike within is to think the fault may lie with the cyclist and not necessarily with the conveniently-evil corpo-rat conspiracy.

-- Steve's been in plenty of Canadian Walmarts with aisles narrowed by merchandice, but hasn't been in too many American ones to compare how much retail space the US ones are willing to sacrifice for customer convenience/mobility.

* how the heck did I miss the reference to "sports bra" the first reading? Skipped right over it in my first read-through. Hunh.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I love that he namechecked the Porsche Cayenne - it, along with the Buick Enclave, ranks among the worst abuses of a brand I have ever seen. It feels like Sega selling an operating system.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

Wally-world is the Zorg of retailers- of course it would not have a bike rack- are you crazy? I mean, how can you get Stuff home on a bike? You need to drive one of those Ford Subdivisions to the place so you can stock up on More Stuff. Heck, a bicyclist might not buy anything at all- they might leave the store empty handed! Having a bike taking up one of those hands is Not Good.

See, you have to think like a Walton to see their point...

I laughed my ass off at the Beemer review. His rating the Camry 'zero-Kelvin' in image and performance was a hoot.