One of the concepts that always gets a giggle out of me is the idea of “malicious compliance.” In short, it’s when you deliberately follow a law, rule, or instruction in a spiteful way that ultimately defeats its purpose. One example was allegedly done by Ford. Instead of paying the Chicken Tax on imported Transit Connect vans, it reportedly installed a fake backseat just long enough for the vans to get through Customs as passenger vehicles.
Anyway, Volkswagen recalled the ID.Buzz because the third row is technically too large not to have a third seatbelt. It’s sort of silly because the problem is that Volkswagen is technically giving two people too much room. Angrycat Meowmeow has just the solution:
They should seriously just install one of those AutoZone plastic consoles there. Friction fit between the seats so owners can have the recall “done” then yeet it into the dealership service centers dumpster on the way out.
Brilliant! Someone get Volkswagen of America on the line. Pat Rich really drives home how dumb the recall is:
That is the dumbest car related thing I’ve heard in a while. Explains a lot about 3rd rows have 3 seatbelts even though they really shouldn’t. How dumb is this? Very.
What makes this even more dumb is that it would be LEGAL to sit a 3rd passenger in a 2 seatbelt seat in my state provided all the other seatbelts are taken. At least this was true 15 years ago when a district judge told me this.
Today, contributor James Gilboy wrote about how the famous Volkswagen W10-powered BMW E39 probably wasn’t driven daily by Ferdinand Piëch. Ash78 had a good one:
I think I heard a very similar version of this story on NPR’s W8 W8 Don’t Tell Me.
Here’s the reference:
Meanwhile, Matt wrote about the absurd number of Ford Broncos that were sold last month, as it appears that people might be panic-buying. Spikedlemon:
Hey, times might be tough coming up and prices are rising, let’s quick go out and buy big ticket items.
Finally, we have a piece from Jason on the typography of car badges! Ash78:
This is relevant to my interests, since I’m currently rehabbing an Econoline van for my lexicogra-core band’s tour of the mid-Atlantic. It’s like nerdcore-meets-screamo but with a focus on fonts. You don’t just name your band KëRn and use normal badging.
Have a great evening, everyone!
I love Wait. Wait. Don’t Tell Me.
And I loved Ash78’s comment. As I do most of them. I’d like to be that funny someday.
Re: the Wait Wait clip
We rented a house in Kyoto in the mid-70s whose owner was quite pro-western. Not only did it have a standard western porcelain throne, but also a heated seat thereon.
Dad liked to crank that up whenever we had people over—and wait for the startled yelps from the bathroom. History profs have a bit of a twisted sense of humor
Every 4-6 months at work, one of the toilets will fill with hot water. When you sit down, you feel the heat radiating upward before you take your own steaming dump. It is a strangely unsettling experience.
They manage to fix the problem quickly, but not permanently, since the issue returns often-enough for me to keep noticing and reporting it. I wonder what it is about the water in this building that allows that to happen.
We bought a house where somebody had plumbed the hot water into the toilet, you usually wouldn’t notice unless it was flushed twice and then you sat down- took a while to figure out what happened
I wondered how often that happens in homes. This is a ca 2018 commercial building, and they resolve it quickly, so it must have a valve somewhere.
My question is “Why?” Do they mix hot and cold to avoid freezing in the winter? Or is it mixed to reduce condensation on the piping in the summer?
That’s messed up. I’ve seen some stuff in mechanical rooms that just makes me go ‘uh…wha??’, but it’s mostly heating related. Domestic water >usually< gets better scrutiny
That talk show clip made my day lol.
In the same vein, I’ve always wanted a car company to do malicious compliance with 5mph impact bumpers. Make a great attractive car and don’t worry about it. Then just have some bolt on bumpers that can be removed in 5 minutes.
i mean, when they first came out, the old chrome logs could be pretty easily removed. I think the Matador Coupe is a great example of a car that looks far better without the front bumper. but over time we just found ways to hide them behind plastic and that seems to help with the asthetics.
Lamborghini did that with the Countach. If you’ve seen the ugly front wing, that’s actually the bumper. If you haven’t seen one, that’s because most have been removed. It was apparently an easy thing to do.
Plymouth Prowler?
yeet ??
verb/interjection (etymology – late Millennialist/early Genzese): To eject, toss; eschew; discard with prejudice. ex: “Skyler only chugged half of his Ghost before yeeting it at a passing car, exclaiming ‘yeet!'”
Spot on, except you spelled Skeighlahr wrong.
It is not possible that Volkswagen did not know the rule. This means they chose to ignore the rule.
I’m shocked, simply shocked….
They should have hired Bosch to make the seats change size while the car was moving vs stopped.
So much win in this comment.
I doff my hat.
It’s an EV. You definitely don’t want shock value from one of those.
It seems silly but people will definitely stick a third person in there, sometimes we have to be protected from ourselves
A lot of people that wouldn’t lay out a sleeping bag in the cargo area for their kids to nap during a road trip (as so many people here have said they did as children) will definately shove a couple kids in “non-seats” for a quick ride down the road to the park or some shit.
That said, it’s pretty annoying that we can’t have 3rd row seats wide enough for 2 adults to sit comfortably.
VW could put a little Jerry Falwell doll in the middle of the 3rd row. So that no shenanigans take place back there.
Unless its joined by dolls.of his son, son’s wife and a pool boy doll…
Things like this just reinforce the narrative that Washington is out of touch with the average American. Seats too wide for just two people. Have any of these bureaucrats at NHTSA ever been to a Cracker Barrel after church on Sunday?
You’re implying that the bureaucrats would know where a Cracker Barrel is located.
I’m the last person one would expect to go to a Cracker Barrel. But I’ve had dinner at a Cracker Barrel.
Bureaucrats have extended families with members who aren’t bureaucrats.
the federal regulations I’m sure were written in the 70s when Americans were generally not as…ample. And they’ve NEVER changed.
Other 70s regulations failed to include seat bases short enough that I don’t burn my thighs (still applies to women today). Also, let’s talk about that “GM” tattoo burned on my stomach from the seat belt clasp.
There are many an American who subscribe to Paula Dean’s method of measuring butter in recipes; never less than a whole stick (quarter pound increments, for reference).
Julia Child also used to start almost every recipe by melting at least one full stick of butter. Of course, with her, there was also usually a gallon of wine involved at some point
Whoever does your topshots should get a shoutout for the Beetle point-counterpoint. It’s clearly the same Beetle pic in both, but reversed so that “Adrian’s” is right-hand-drive and “Jason’s” steering wheel is in the place where God, the Devil (or Hitler, same thing) and Ferdinand Porsche intended it to be and where it is on Jason’s personal bug.