Spain’s largest automaker, Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo, or SEAT, is currently most famous for selling spicy cars on Volkswagen platforms. In its past, SEAT used to build Fiats under license, and loved slapping extra doors on those Fiats. SEAT is also sometimes the recipient of humor, and sometimes, it’s Monty Python-themed.
Jason wrote about some fun SEAT history, and in true Jason fashion, he mentioned the Inquisition. TheDrunkenWrench:
And the Spanish have some history with those; anyone who lived through the Inquisition can tell you all about that.
Nobody expects the Spanish Seat Position!
Matt wrote about why Ram can keep selling a V8 truck while Honda has to stop selling a V6 truck. Hotdoughnutsnow got me thinking:
12 MPG of “Premium” gasoline. On the plus side, I heard it comes with the Punisher sticker pre-installed, and a three-month supply of BlueChew™.
Have you seen a BlueChew ad? YouTube bombards me with them!
Matt also wrote about how Volvo can sell cars in America with Chinese-developed software in them. Eggsalad:
Nakamichi was once a Japanese manufacturer of high-end cassette decks. When the CD era came along, they failed to keep up and became insolvent. A Chinese manufacturer bought the branding and now they sell mediocre electronics under the once-hallowed name.
This comment is about Volvo.
Thomas wrote about the ongoing drama surrounding the Ferrari Luce, this time involving journalists and YouTubers. Max Headbolts:
I for one will never reward their behavior by buying one of their products!
Hoser68:
To be fair to Ferrari. They did pull off the impossible with this car.
To make a vehicle that allows people to overlook the size, extra doors lack of cylinders, and not red color takes impressive work from the styling department.
It truly is impressive work.
Impressive as in what happened to me one day at work. I got on an elevator and dropped some papers. As I bent over to pick them up, I had a dual explosion. One was my overly tight cheap pants, the other was my overly cheap lunch. Hidden in the sound and fury of the event, the elevator had stopped on the next floor to admit others.
And even that first impression I had with several coworkers is nothing compared to the impression Ferrari made with the Luce.
Finally, just how much do some Autopians love a unique car? Here’s a great comment from Mark’s showdown of a 1987 Mazda 626 GT versus a 1987 Alfa Romeo Milano. Albert Ferrer:
Just came immediately down to the comment section to say I don’t care about unreliability, lack of parts, ugly boxy design, questionable ergonomics or anything really.
It’s a rear wheel drive, 5 speed transaxle, Alfa Romeo sports saloon with the Busso V6 under the bonnet.
The end.
Reliability? Ah, who cares when you can have an Alfa! Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic images: SEAT; Screenshot:BBC/YouTube
Ferrari ruined their reputation with just one car and in doing so pulled off the impossible.
Please don’t upset my weekend and discuss the fall of Nakamichi but yes, Volvo has pretty much done the same thing. In saving the company, they turned it into Chinesium.
No notes, I will not be answering questions.
Will you be questioning answers, though?
Where were you on July 17th, 1987!!!
I was 6 months away from being conceived!
Damn kids!
Ding! Ding! Ding! First time featured! 😀
Same and of course it’s a fart joke.
Was brillant, made my day
Woohoo! I must be getting good at this!
Did you bring the sandwiches this time?
Send me your email address and I’ll email you a sandwich.
An Eggsalad egg salad sandwich?
Wow, I’m glad I was SEATed for this news! Thanks Mercedes!
I liked the Netflix meme about healthcare, but this Nakamichi comment about Volvo hits twice. It’s brill. It also opened my eyes to the fact that this format has legs. I’ll just put this in the smoker while I dream up some sauce ideas
Ha ha ha ha ha
Bring out your dead!
CUSTOMER: Here’s one.
CART MASTER: Nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
CART MASTER: What?
CUSTOMER: Nothing. Here’s your nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not dead!
CART MASTER: ‘Ere. He says he’s not dead!
CUSTOMER: Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON: I’m not!
CART MASTER: He isn’t?
CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon. He’s very ill.
DEAD PERSON: I’m getting better!
CUSTOMER: No, you’re not. You’ll be stone dead in a moment.
………….*continued*………….
DEAD PERSON: [singing] I feel happy. I feel happy.
[whop]
CUSTOMER: Ah, thanks very much.
CART MASTER: Not at all. See you on Pontiac PThursday.
CUSTOMER: Right. All right.
Ferrari already have planned the distraction from the Luce in the news that they are looking to put a gated manual in the 12Cilindri.
Though you probably have to buy a Luce to get an allocation…
I picked up a cheap Nakamichi soundbar a few years ago. It was one of those “MSRP: $600, SALE PRICE: $120” situations, but I feel bad for anyone who paid MSRP because the description above is accurate. Unfortunately, it is indeed also an accurate description of Volvo.
Is Volvo run by a foreign automaker who bought it thinking that the the prestige of the Volvo name would get people to buy cars who would not otherwise consider buying Fords really that much better that the Chinese running it?
Did Volvo not exist and build said reputation before 1999 when Ford acquired it?
“Nobody Expects Some Sudden Monty Python”
You obviously haven’t worked with some of my coworkers!
*diabolical laughter*
No, no. We said “Monty Python”, not “Monty’s Python”.
unrelated, HR wants to see you.
See, that’s what happens when you don’t follow the three simple rules of workplace dating:
1) Be Handsome
2) Be Attractive
3) Don’t Be Unattractive
Is that really so hard?
Instructions unclear, ended up married to my old boss’ daughter.
(whom specifically told me to stay away from his daughters. To be fair, I hadn’t worked for him for years when it happened)
This should clear things up:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PxuUkYiaUc8
They forgot the 4th rule that can override the other 3.
-Be funny
My coworkers thought I was funny as hell in that elevator. I didn’t marry any woman that I worked with for some reason.
Maybe that works where you are. Here in San Jose we have had a dating age male to female singles ratio of about 4 males to 3 females (at least as of the last time I looked).
To make things much worse a LOT of those males are tech bros with lots of money. So being funny usually isn’t enough.
Welcome To The Friend Zone
Oh, my God
Whoa
Welcome to the friend zone
It’s just frustration and games
It’t nothing that you want
Dude, I know it’s lame
They are people that ain’t kind
Witholding all you may need
Even if you think your funny, honey
They ain’t gonna please
In the friend zone, welcome to the friend zone
Watch it bring you to your, sha-na-na-na-na-na-na, knees, knees
Ooh, they, they gonna string you along and tease
Welcome to the friend zone
You’ll endure it day by day
You won’t get out, you’re just fade away
That’s the price you pay
Cuz you’re not a sexy guy
Just real easy to tease
You can see the bright light
But you won’t get anything for free
In the friend zone, welcome to the friend zone
You’ll feel so, so, so, so un-serene
In there no-one will hear your screams
Welcome to the friend zone
It gets worse there everyday
You learn to live like a frustrated animal
In the friend zone with no play
You have a hunger for what you see
You’ll never get it eventually
You can’t have anything you want
You don’t really matter to them anyway
In the friend zone, welcome to the friend zone
Watch it bring you to your, sha-na-na-na-na-na-na, knees, knees
Ooh-ah, they’re gonna pretend you have no needs
And when you’re high, you never
Ever wanna come down
So down, so down, so down
Yeah
Aw!
You know where you are?
You’re in the friend zone, baby
You’re gonna cry
In the friend zone, welcome to the friend zone
Watch it bring you to your, sha-na-na-na-na-na-na, knees, knees
In the friend zone, welcome to the friend zone
You’ll feel so, so, so, so un-serene
friend zone, welcome to the friend zone
Watch it bring you to your, sha-na-na-na-na-na-na, knees, knees
In the friend zone, welcome to the friend zone
Watch it bring to your
It’s gonna crush you down, huh
I mean, I’m just an average 5’7″ dude who wooed a 6′ girl. It’s been over a decade an she has yet to realise her mistake.
Well good luck with that here:
“Listener Paul Schindler asked Bay Curious: “Does San Jose really deserve the nickname Man Jose?”
If you look at just the top-level census numbers, there are roughly the same number of men and women living in San Jose.
Break those numbers down further, though, and you’ll find a big difference among single people in their 20s and 30s. According to the 2015 American Community Survey, in this group there were roughly 134 men for every 100 women in San Jose. That’s a big disparity!”
(See! 4 men:3 women!)
“It’s been this way for a while. In 2000, San Jose had more single guys than the entire state of Alaska.”
…
“Because San Jose’s single male population is largely employed and high-earning, it doesn’t receive the same kind of criticism as impoverished areas of China or oil boomtowns. Sometimes the gender disparity in San Jose is even viewed positively. In 2014, the Pew Research Center wrote that San Jose is the best place to go for women looking to marry.
(Conversely the absolute WORST for men!)
Businesses have sprung up to cater to the dating needs of these well-to-do single guys.
Amy Andersen is the founder and CEO of Linx Dating, a matchmaking service in the heart of Silicon Valley. Her beautiful office is in Ansel Adams’ old studio. Anderson got her start as a matchmaker after noticing the gender ratios while living in Palo Alto.
“If you’re looking for good guys, come to Silicon Valley to find them,” says Andersen.”
https://www.kqed.org/news/11231284/does-san-jose-deserve-the-nickname-man-jose
So an absolutely FANTASTIC dating market for straight women, perhaps the best in the whole world which makes it absolutely MISERABLE for straight men. Being funny is usually just a one way ticket to the friend zone here.
OTOH if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
I mean, I was friends with nearly every woman I eventually hooked up with/dated.
We’d be friends, hang out, then one day things would just happen. I never set expectations and was always pleasantly surprised.
I had a lot of friends too. They were always dating someone else though because options.
Being conspicuously not what everyone else is works,
https://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2017/09/09/how-game-theory-improves-heterosexual-dating-apps/
Does it?
“Apps like Bumble and Coffee Meets Bagel have attempted to fix this issue in several ways. Bumble only lets women message first, which solves the tragedy of the commons and shifts the power balance, lowering any possibility of vast amounts of meaningless messages being sent from men, and thus also lowering the likelihood women will lose patience and abandon the app. Coffee Meets Bagel limits matches to a few per day, to ensure quality over quantity–as would happen if the fisherman in the example had a limit on the amount of fish per day. Another solution is only allowing men one match per day, so that the woman can get confirmation that her match actually is interested in pursuing her and willing to make a type of sacrifice for that.”
Sounds to me like the “solution” is to limit the voices of all those men.