One of the biggest complaints about modern cars is that they’re so hard to see out of. Many designs have sky-high beltlines, narrow window openings, and gigantic pillars. A lot of this has helped vehicles become much safer in crashes, but, understandably, some folks feel like they’re driving around in a bunker. Maybe China has the answer.
Autopian contributor and Chinese car export Tycho wrote about all of the cool new cars coming out in China. But one thing stuck out to many of our readers. Autonerdery:
Fun new feature! Looking forward to future installments.
The side windows are huge; that’s a new trend in China, with a low beltline
Can’t wait for this trend to spread to the West. We’ve been trapped in bunkers for too freakin’ long.
Yes, bring back big greenhouses!
Brian wrote about how drivers are afraid to call up their car insurance after an incident out of fear that their high rates will go even higher. Bjorn A. Payne Diaz has an interesting way to put it:
Looks like insurance companies have won. They’re officially mobsters. Pay protection. Scared to use it.
Sadly, Ranwhenparked also makes a good point:
And that’s exactly how the insurance industry likes it
Of course, body shops are increasingly coming under the control of big, national chains or car dealer groups, which often don’t want to take on any work that ISN’T insurance covered, so, if you do want to pay cash, you have to find one of the dwindling number of independent shops that’s also reputable.
Body shops switching to just insurance work is why I’ve found it excruciatingly hard to find rust repair in the Chicago area.
Brian also explained the common vehicle history report scam that’s going around. I love this from Michael Han:
That’s why I only use the most trusted quick vehicle history site: VinFast.
Finally, Jason wrote another Cold Start about his 2CV, and wondered about the condition of the car’s carburetor. here’s a great lesson from A. Barth!
The carb will have three basic types of jets:
idle – these are the smallest and the most easily clogged with schmutz
pilot – this one generally works from just above idle to maybe 25% throttle
main – this one does most the work as the car is being driven
With the choke engaged I believe it’s bypassing the idle jets. Once the car is warm and comes off the choke, it won’t idle because the idle jet is blocked.I recommend disassembling the carb and assiduously cleaning all the jets with carb cleaner; you can get a big can of Berryman’s carb dip at your local auto parts store and use the included basket to give the carb a good soak.
Resist the temptation to poke steel wire through the jets to dislodge crud: steel is harder than the brass jets and can adversely affect the metering holes. Use brass wire if you have it (e.g. from a brass brush) or a nylon bristle from a scrub brush.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Topshot: MIITI
Thanks, Mercedes! 🙂
I love a big greenhouse up until I pull into a gas station 🙁 My Forester has great visibility, achieved by a high roofline and a big frontal area, and drag (and mileage) is atrocious; getting more than 23mpg is really really rare. Just pulled the trigger on a Mazda 6e hybrid (exclusive to China for now), visibility’s obviously worse being a liftback sedan, but I hope the 60mpg makes up for it
60mpg? Is that real? (are Chinese miles shorter?)
If I had to guess, Kevin might be in England. The miles are the same, but the gallons are bigger.
The high beltline issue has not really been covered anywhere. Why doesn’t the Autopian have a go?
Certain things that come with aging are best left unsaid for the sake of preserving what little dignity remains…
Are you talking about old people with their pants pulled up very high?
It’s especially an issue with convertibles. Anyone < 6ft in a Camaro looks like a toddler, with their little head poking out above the beltline.
Precious advice from Mr Barth.
Does that carb have three jets? A lot of old Solex carbs only had two. SU and ZS carbs on British cars only used one.
SU carbs scared the hell out of me when I first encountered them. Dashpot oil seemed like something a wizard would use. Once I learned how they worked, I was amazed by how clever they are.
Seriously. They are amazingly simple and brilliant in their execution. Same with the ZS, as they operate pretty much the same way. People get scared by all the little do-dads they added in later years to deal with emissions and fuel economy requirements. Those bits can certainly be finicky, but they can also usually just be shut off and the carb made to work fine like the earlier ones.
That’s a darn good question, and one to which I do not have an answer.
Given the motorcycle-y nature of the 2CV engine, I leaned in that direction. If it turns out Jason doesn’t have all three jets, he can just clean what he’s got. 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
Forgot about burning incense, hiring a Priest, and a Chicken in getting a carburetor to work properly.
My dad had a friend who had the black magic with carbs. You took the car to him, some sort of voodoo magic would happen, and the car would have a ton more power, get better fuel economy and start in all sorts of weather without problems. Now sometimes it took him time to tune the engine properly. He would have the carbs apart a dozen times trying different jets and tweaking floats and aligning their charkas or whatever. But any car he touched ran perfectly eventually.
Until his hearing started to go. As soon as the guy started to get hard of hearing, he couldn’t tune a carb better than I could, and my method for carb tuning involves a case of Carb Cleaner, and a lot of praying to ask for forgiveness for the words the neighbors a block away have overheard.
I miss my Volvo 245.
Oh, they’re onto something – new ways to copy old Land Rover designs. How long will it take until they build a Land Rover Defender 110 High-Capacity Pickup or Freelander?
https://www.motor1.com/news/747061/baw-212-suv-chinese-defender-copy/
There are more…
I think this one is a reach. The BAW 212’s design is based on the BJ212 military offroader, just like the Jeep Wrangler, Mercedes G Wagen, FJ Cruiser, Mahindra Thar, Tata Scorpio, and LR Defender are based on old General Purpose (GP) off-road military vehicles. Putting simple lighting on a boxy off-roader isn’t really plagiarism.