Peace out and culture adventure ahead

While out on my long summer road trip a couple of weeks ago, I saw a bona fide unicorn (in the form of a brown Porsche station wagon [or is it shooting brake since it's German]). I ran into the owner at another charging stop further down I-5. Turns out Walmart is the great equalizer after all.

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Somehow I’m not surprised. We Filipinos are nothing if not preternatural label whores. Yet there’s no satisfaction to be gained owning a Tesla in the Philippines, when no one knows what a Tesla is. At least, they didn’t when I last visited in January 2020.

Here in Southern California Filipino-Americans were still coveting Mercedes Benz and BMW SUVs (oh, and Toyota Siennas!), as the ultimate status symbol, when Tesla Model Ss and Xs first hit the market. Now, less than a decade hence, every Filipino-American family of middle class means is now striving for a Model Y. They’re ubiquitous now in my heavily Filipino-American neighbourhood. Give them another five years, they’ll be graduating to coveting the Lucid. Which I already have. Now that’s label-whore bragging rights for you!
Ditto this for Indians(as in the country of india). Here in Edison, its all mercedes, bmw, and tesla. Anything else, and you are frowned upon unless its a good brand.

Weird how prominent brand affinity is, when many other brands have really good things.(eg:somebody brought a yukon and rebadged it as a cadillac. why?)
 
While out on my long summer road trip a couple of weeks ago, I saw a bona fide unicorn (in the form of a brown Porsche station wagon [or is it shooting brake since it's German]). I ran into the owner at another charging stop further down I-5. Turns out Walmart is the great equalizer after all.

View attachment 13860
Those rims and "off-roady" trim are not doing it any favor.. I dont know why but in this picture it looks really small and the shoulder lines remind me of the bmw clownshoe!
 
Those rims and "off-roady" trim are not doing it any favor.. I dont know why but in this picture it looks really small and the shoulder lines remind me of the bmw clownshoe!
Yeah, I was backed up against the power supplies for the chargers and had to use the wide angle lens. Definitely doesn’t do it any favors. Almost looks like a Macan from that shot. 🫤
 
Isn't that just the Taycan Cross Tourismo???

I saw a green one in Edinburgh last summer that looked quite good.
 
Isn't that just the Taycan Cross Tourismo???

I saw a green one in Edinburgh last summer that looked quite good.

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The Venn diagram of brown and station wagon and Porsche has an infinitesimal overlap that I thought was funny. I personally love the body style and would have seriously considered one if it had more range.
 
While out on my long summer road trip a couple of weeks ago, I saw a bona fide unicorn (in the form of a brown Porsche station wagon [or is it shooting brake since it's German]). I ran into the owner at another charging stop further down I-5. Turns out Walmart is the great equalizer after all.

View attachment 13860
Nobody can ever say that the Gravity is out of proportion!

In fairness, I sat in one of these and they are a lot better looking in person.
 
Hah... thanks for the tip. Headed there this fall (wife just retired: now I have to do the river cruse thing...getting old is hard). Good part is we fly back from Amsterdam so no problem getting medicine for the flight.
"Move over captain. Cosmo will be flying this thing home. "
 
Sport wagons are cool. I checked them all, and this is the clear winner:
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A shooting brake, occasionally spelled shooting break, [2] is a car body style that is a station wagon (estate) version of a coupé car, instead of being sedan -based. [3] Its historic origin in the 1890s was as a horse-drawn wagon used to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game. (from Wikipedia)
The taking the kids to the beach for a week option:
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Hah... thanks for the tip. Headed there this fall (wife just retired: now I have to do the river cruse thing...getting old is hard). Good part is we fly back from Amsterdam so no problem getting medicine for the flight.
"Move over captain. Cosmo will be flying this thing home. "

Me too!
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Went to Jelmodi today, but they are closed for the day after Christmas, so no Lucid Design Studio for me. Only an afternoon of window shopping this afternoon. Daytime is quite short here as sunset is at 4:40PM.

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Ok, I found a Tesla Model-Y here waiting in Taxi zone. Other interesting sighting is that I have never seen so many BMW in my life in one day until I came to Zurich.
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I see Polestar3 poster in Zurich nonstop.
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I see Polestar3 poster in Zurich nonstop.
I'll be carefully considering the Polestar 3 next year if Google Maps, or at least Android Auto, does not come to Gravity. After using GM for a while in a car, you get used to really functional navigation and an accurate voice assistant. For us range makes the difference several times per year. Competent navigation much more often. In any event, I'll hold off deciding until I've driven both.
 
definitely not worth its price.
That statement is relative. For $80kish, I thought it was nice when I checked it out in San Diego. Very roomy in the 1st and 2nd rows, comfortable Nappa leather seats, etc. However, there's no 3rd row and not *that* much storage behind the 2nd row, which is the price paid for a ton of leg space for the backseat passengers. The expected range is meh, but roughly on par with most competitors in the price range.

However, when you compare it to Gravity, it seems like a bad deal given the increased range and storage in Gravity when compared to the 3. The 3 is not a bad SUV by any means, and I think it looks sporty, but the Gravity should blow it out of the water.
 
The Lidar-versioned Polestar 3 is slated for late 2024 at about $100K, so it'll be contemporaneous with, and priced similarly to, the Gravity.
The Polestar salesman asked me which other cars I was considering, I said Gravity and he became very quiet after that.
 
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