so fluffy

Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 783 points – 5 months ago

I'm sure the evil intolerant mechanic guy wanted to remove them for some fake, made-up reasons like "you're gonna die if you ride with these".

I'm guessing the answer is "no, cos freedom" or something, but do you not have to get a road worthiness certification updated periodically in America?

"Why do I have to sign a waver every time I go in for an oil change?"

More like why do they require me to furnish them with a Certificate of Insurance in their name every time I go in for an oil change

No. And thank God. Too many crooked mechanics shops

Everyone should have to pass a basic automotive knowledge course before getting their driver's license.

That's not a thing where you live?

At least where I live, the licensing test covers rules of the road, not automotive knowledge. I think this commenter was referring to some test covering very surface-level knowledge of vehicles, with a focus on ways to tell if a car is unasafe to drive.

I’m in Sweden, we get two big books of just theory stuff. There are entire sections on how deep the patterns must be, when you are allowed to use what type of tyres (summer, friction, studded), etc. along with what consequences there are.

You must have winter tyres between the 1st of December and the 31st of March, so long as there may be snow or ice on the roads. Studded tires are only allowed between the 1st of October through to the 15th of April as they wear down the roads and cause excessive pollution.

There is so much general car knowledge. Warning lights, optimal tyre pressure (which is variable depending on your car and the load), how to drive in an eco-friendly manner, child seats, it never fucking ends.

holy shit, my book was like 50 pages total, mostly about what signs meant.

Oh the signs are in different books.

That's what I was trying to convey but obviously failed at. :/

Everyone should have a universal basic income!

In the long run, some renters wind up paying twice as much for their tires as they would have paid if they'd bought them outright.

Would only do that if you’re desperate. I’d bet 10:1, the tires in OP result from poverty.

PS: you’re not wrong!

Or, alternatively, we should build cities where owning a car isn't a requirement to hold down a job, and keep piloting a two ton death machine as a privilege, not a right

Jesus, at $20/mo you would pay for a full set of the (expensive) OEM tires on my car in less than a year. They're warrantied for 3 years of standard mileage, so even worse than double.

I got my license in Sweden and there are laws for when you must have summer tires and winter tires as well as how deep the pattern needs to be. This is all covered in the writing portion of the test. It's quite possible that someone driving with wheels like that might get their license suspended at the least.

Yes it's illegal to drive on tires with worn out patterns. I thought it was the same everywhere in the civilized world.

TIL America is not civilized anymore.

Never has been. *draws gun*

Hairy isn't a pattern?

it is. you're correct.

us Americans, we seem to like to swerve deftly around many such useful civil universalities.

things you'd assume are vital to a peaceful, comfortable, safe people are often things that seem to baffle us.

i think this repeated swerving should disabuse anyone of any notion of the USA being a civilized nation, but somehow people keep classifying us as better than we are. lived here my whole life... not sure how someone could make that mistake, honestly. not unless they were really rich, I guess.

One big part is because of Hollywood. The entire world image of America comes from movies.

Once you start to look into the prison system, the justice system, the financial system.... Well, nothing actually builds on any feeling of caring about its citizens at all.

For the driver licence in France there is questions like that:

how to recognize a worn tire
where to find the right tire pressure
check the oil level of the engine
check the brake liquid level ...

People can't do this?

Jesus christ I'm losing faith in the average capability of humanity

I lost it during covid, permanently. And I'm not joking. I saw things.

I mean Americans build straight parking lots since they drive sequential/automate

Wow, trick questions on it too? Brakes are a pad, not a liquid

Heat them up enough and they become liquid.

Brakes on cars are a hydraulic system. The check is for the fluid levels of the hydraulics. Without enough fluid, pressing the brake pedal would not depress the pads.

In new Zealand, the only question is what the best Fast an Furious movie was.

This, plus mandatory retesting every 5 years. New traffic signal’s & infrastructure, aging drivers, changing eyesight, refresher learning, etc

It's in the driving course. They just only include two or three questions.

In my province (Manitoba) there is zero basic vehicle knowledge provided in the Driver's Handbook which is where test questions are pulled from.

These are the same people who drive with paper-thin, or even fully rusted off, brake rotors. And then they yell at the mechanics for "upselling them" on brake maintenance.

I firmly believe that brakes should be the absolute last thing to fail on a car. The tires can rupture, the steering shatter, and the car snapped in two, but I must be able to bring the remaining wreckage to a stop.

Sure, whatever you say guy who definitely isn't a shady up-selling mechanic

How can something called a brake, break?

That obviously just makes it more brake

I am both laughing my cock off and wanting to smash the downvote button in sheer rage because I can just see this being an actual conversation.

Meh, the whole thing needs maintenance.

Brakes won't do shit when all the tires are flat and you just lock up the wheels. Or when your tie rod end snaps and the car veers off the freeway faster than anyone can react to press the brakes.

And this is why I am so grateful for the yearly inspections for cars in my country. You still have idiots driving, but at least their vehicles will be somewhat safe.