So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Zombie_61]

I fell for the ad and got one.
View attachment 123277
Week later, 2jakes (pit-bull dog) buried it.

I still have mine around here somewhere. I got a laugh out of the little "Care and Training of Your Pet Rock" booklet that came with it, so it was worth whatever I paid for it.

 

[3fingers]

I recall a girl on the school bus bragging to her friends that her pet rock was a real one, not one of those fakes that people were buying.
I knew about PT Barnum from a young age, but I think that may have been the beginning of my education about those who thanks to Lizzie I now know as "the boys from marketing".

 

[Dnewma04]

I can’t think of many things that really get me worked up but I do find some things a little amusing/annoying. My insurance company sends the bill to me with a due date, with a note that they have to receive the payment before the due date or they’ll cancel you. I tried to explain the difference between a due date and cancellation date to no avail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[scottyrocks]

Subaru television ads. . .

suck.

No, love doesn’t make a Subaru a Subaru. But suggesting it does must appeal to something in the target audience, something they wish to feel about themselves.

A Subaru is what the new Beetles shoulda been. Stick those flat-4s in the trunk, driving the rear wheels before slapping those vaguely Beetle-like bods on there.

 

[tonyb]

A Subaru is what the new Beetles shoulda been. Stick those flat-4s in the trunk, driving the rear wheels before slapping those vaguely Beetle-like bods on there.

I kinda like the earlier iterations of the “new” Beetle. But this most recent body style seems designed to kill off the model.

 

[3fingers]

I had not seen a 2018 Beetle. What an abomination.

 

[tonyb]

I had not seen a 2018 Beetle. What an abomination.

Yeah, it’s downright fugly, ain’t it? Viewed from any angle, it’s just a failure.

But, somebody must like it. I see ‘em every now and then.

 

[Zombie_61]

I kinda like the earlier iterations of the “new” Beetle. But this most recent body style seems designed to kill off the model.

I'm one of the few (probably) who prefers the "new" New Beetle over the previous New Beetle. Regardless, I read the new New Beetle is already going out of production because Volkswagen wants to focus their efforts on the New Microbus which will be all electric, ridiculously overpriced, and probably not available in the U.S. because it won't meet the safety standards.

 

[Trenchfriend]

And because of yesterday:

Not a bad thing, for variation!
It seems, that the classic, wonderful and BREATHABLE microfibre-boxer briefs (polyamide/elasthane) got a comeback in Germany. So, I went to department store and grabbed even four of their new launched storebrand microfibre goodies. And I mean not the cheaper quality three pcs-packages and not the decent two pcs-packages, but the real good packages of one, costing money, but of course still fairly priced!

Maybe, the sweaty cotton/elasthane one, which mostly replaced the classic microfibre ones, here in the last five years, are disappearing, now. Would be a really good thing.
The breathabilty was always a big pro of the retroshorts/boxer briefs and they are very popular in Germany, so go finally away with the cotton ones!

 

[scottyrocks]

I'm one of the few (probably) who prefers the "new" New Beetle over the previous New Beetle. Regardless, I read the new New Beetle is already going out of production because Volkswagen wants to focus their efforts on the New Microbus which will be all electric, ridiculously overpriced, and probably not available in the U.S. because it won't meet the safety standards.

Yep. trivial issues, as far as my personal life and the greater world is concerned. Which is why it fits here.

I've been a fan of the original since I was a kid (I have always rooted for the underdog). I would see the print ads for the car and wonder how they could label the car as ugly when I thought it was so gracefully beautiful. My then 8 year old self hated David Tomlinson for the way he treated the car in The Love Bug (1968).

The original car was designed the way it was (1934-1938) due to the times, and what was known about aerodynamics and economy car manufacturing. Air cooled engines hung out the back are what was in vogue in Europe for economy cars in the early 1930s.

It remained fundamentally unchanged through its entire 65 year, 21 million unit late prototype and production run. Up until the late 1960s there was nothing that could compete with it in the economy car market.

VW began to lose ground in the late 1960s due to three main factors - the beginning of government interference regarding safety and pollution controls, the invasion from the Far East, and changing currency rates between the U.S. and Europe (Germany). Toyota and Datsun were finally beginning to make serious inroads with their small, reliable cars. The air cooled VW literally couldn't keep up, and by the time the first fuel crisis hit, Japanese cars were here to stay in hugely increasing numbers.

I wanted so badly to like the new (in 1998) car when I heard that it was going to be reintroduced. But I knew it would be so different, due to just about everything - safety, environmental, and competitive demands.

It is essentially a Golf with a different body and interior. The architecture is so completely different that I couldn't even bring myself to call it a Beetle.

When they restyled it again (third picture) I was hoping for something a little closer to the original, which they achieved, but somehow the car is indeed uglier than the one it replaced, which was no beauty, either.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If someone were to build a car along the same lines as the original Beetle today -- simple air-cooled engine, manual transmission, hand-cranked windows, body with bolt-on fenders -- I'd buy it in a minute. The only drawback in the one I owned decades ago was the lack of a viable heater, and you can't tell me that they couldn't find a simple solution for that.

Every modern car I own I hate more than the one that preceded it, as I stand in the drive-thru line at Dunkie's in February hacking at the frozen-up window with a screwdriver.

 

[Fading Fast]

We've talked a lot in this thread about how companies "update" their packaging to mask a price increase - and that is hateful and more than trivia, but sometimes they truly do just "update" their packaging to - I'm guessing - appeal to a broader demographic, look more modern or check a box in some corporate way.

For example, Land O Lakes butter recently changed it packaging - same quantity by weight, same price, same ingredients - but it's still a pain as, for the next few times, I can't just grab what I need with a fraction of a second glance at the box on the shelf. Now I have to stop and make sure it's the right version of the butter. Truly trivial, but come on, the old packaging was fine.

 

[Fading Fast]

If someone were to build a car along the same lines as the original Beetle today -- simple air-cooled engine, manual transmission, hand-cranked windows, body with bolt-on fenders -- I'd buy it in a minute. The only drawback in the one I owned decades ago was the lack of a viable heater, and you can't tell me that they couldn't find a simple solution for that.

Every modern car I own I hate more than the one that preceded it, as I stand in the drive-thru line at Dunkie's in February hacking at the frozen-up window with a screwdriver.

I've often though something similar and wondered if there isn't a marketing/business opportunity here - if not for the big guys as it might undermine their "story -" but for some smaller name to capture an ignored part of the market.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ever notice the deevolution of the American cereal box?

From simple and tasteful to sensory-overload in eight easy decades. And notice Pop now wears his hat turned around backwards like the streetwise skater-punk-rapper that he obviously is.

 

[tonyb]

I owned several air-cooled VWs back in the day — buses, bugs, a Karmann-Ghia. Wish I still had them all. They’d bring a combined six-figure sum today, easily, considering the ‘56 sunroof Beetle in that collection.

Financial circumstances were such that I either fixed my cars myself or I walked. An engine in one of those cars in the morning might be in another come afternoon. (A floor jack was a common weapon in the young VW owner’s arsenal back then.)

However, those cars just weren’t made for the uses they were put to by many American drivers. Good thing it was easy to pull those engines and pop off the cylinder heads, cuz if you got 40K miles between valve jobs, you were doing well. And forget about keeping up with traffic on mountain pass highways. Eighteen wheelers with heavy loads traveling at walking speeds up the far right lane passed 40-horsepower microbuses crawling up the shoulder.

 

[OldStrummer]

"Catspot litter" radio ads. I mean, who thinks having a radio announcer sounding like Goober is a good thing? "W..ell shoot, Ah reckon this here litter is just the thang..."

Also, radio and TV announcers who pronounce Iraq and Iran as "EYE-rack" and "EYE-ran." We learned the proper pronunciation of those countries decades ago.

 

[tonyb]

...

Also, radio and TV announcers who pronounce Iraq and Iran as "EYE-rack" and "EYE-ran." We learned the proper pronunciation of those countries decades ago.

Yeah, it’s a sore point with me, too, and not a trivial one. It’s not just media figures using those mispronunciations. Political leaders and military personnel almost uniformly say “EYE-rack” rather than something more like “ear-ROCK.”

It’s understandable that we non-Arabic speakers might have difficulty with the pronunciation, but if the aim is to win hearts and minds, we might at least make to effort.

 

[scottyrocks]

Yet we are supposed to smile, tolerate, and understand anyone who comes here and butchers our language.

I'm not looking to win any hearts or minds by pronunciation. It's good deeds that count, afaic.

 

[tonyb]

And attempting to pronounce the name of the country in the locals’ preferred way doesn’t count as a good deed, eh?

It ain’t an either/or.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We still order "Eye-talian" sandwiches at deli counters across my state.

The pronunciation that makes me want to lash out violently is "Amurrica," especially when it issues from the mouth of someone trying to shove a flag down my throat.