Rabbers

Speaking of the U.S. snake oil tradition in automotive lubricants etc., here's an interesting precursor of MMO from 1900 (? - or claimed to have been founded then) with a name exploiting the bestselling Wizard of Oz novel first published in that year accompanied by a graphic depicting the Tin Man character, rather cleverly in that he needed rustproofing and lubrication. If the date is not spurious, the product preceded MMO by two decades (and the movie by nearly four) and maybe was the inspiration for it. It would be interesting to know what the ingredients were. If lard was not among them, maybe whale oil, plentiful at the time, or bear fat were used, or goodness knows what else.

There was a time when I would squirt a bottle of injector cleaner into my tank every three or four refuellings. By so doing I felt I was making my car happier in much the same way as tastier morsels of food elicited a higher level of appreciative purring or woofing from a pet. But I gradually came to believe that it didn’t, at least not in terms of noticeably improved ignition, performance or engine sound. Nevertheless, because I took the absence of negative media reports and expert opinion, as well as STP’s good reputation, to mean that I was doing my car no harm, I continued to use the stuff as much out of habit as anything else. When I finally decided to stop, it was because I felt that I had allowed myself to be unduly influenced by the thought, implicit in the word “cleaner” that my injectors were dirty even though I had no evidence whatsoever of it. And if in fact they might actually have been dirty, I figured that the detergent additives already contained in the petrol were more than good enough to do the job.

Classic snake oil, I would agree, and without the redeeming grace, as far as I know, of a legacy of good advertising art.

I don’t know about the product being interesting from a technical standpoint but it has certainly had a patchy commercial history. The company was for sale for several years until the 1990s but none of the major oil companies to which it was offered wanted it. I don’t know if this was on financial or technical grounds. It was finally acquired by Turtle Wax, which does not seem to have put much promotional money into what was seen as a fading brand.

Thanks for refreshing my memory, John. I see that’s Batistuta wearing the shirt. Another great Argentinian player. Fiorentina were worth watching in those days. Not that I blame Toyota pulling their sponsorship for the club’s somewhat lacklustre performance in more recent years! Might “gentlemanly” perhaps be a better word than “affluent” to describe the sports with which Toyota/Lexus prefers to be associated today? Of course, as target groups go, this is a difficult one to pin down insofar as not all gentlemen are affluent, or affluent people gentlemen.

Right. I’ve never seen or heard of a Japanese football hooligan even though, statistically speaking, there must be a few. As a matter of interest, is anyone aware of Toyota or Lexus having ever sponsored a football team?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Japan getting at least a little bit of support on this site.

When I first had a brief drive in the new NX350h last year the dealer asked what I thought about the run-flats (Bridgestones). The question took me by surprise since tbh I hadn’t noticed what type of tyres they were, and had therefore taken for granted they were normal ones. So, having found the ride more than acceptable - firm yet comfortable in all modes - I could only conclude that I either lack sufficient expertise to offer a viable opinion or that the criticisms of runflats I had frequently heard were unjust. Which does not mean I would risk them as a choice for my RC, since I suspect they would possibly accentuate what is already a firm ride in S and S+ modes.

I have two neighbours with the same metallic white Audi Q3s, both fairly new and well kept. One is ceramically treated and there is no question the shine is deeper and the surfaces reflect contrasts of light and shadow more sharply.

Indeed, though it could be argued the creator showed a bit of restraint by not adding one or two rubies and emeralds by way of colour.

Gold logo? Much too restrained. Try this one!

I recall having had the same problem with the driver seat-belt of an IS200, my first Lexus, MY2004, bought new. Why the dampness developed was a mystery. I pulled the belt out all the way, held it in position with a stick wedged between the seat and door, went over it with a hair dryer, then left it in the direct summer sun for a couple of hours with a satisfactory result. Unfortunately this is not the time of year for the latter option, but if all else fails you could try a sun-lamp.

Nice, but given the choice I would still go for the McLaren 🤔!

Always fancied a McLaren F1 so I could sit in the middle. Not easy to get in and out, but at least you can choose which side.

In addition to silencing the buzzer, you can choose between “High” or “Standard” (i.e. lower) alert sensitivity, the latter being the setting I personally prefer, albeit marginally except perhaps on hilly stretches of motorway where I sometimes feel I might need a little help with my lane discipline. I am referring to the RC shortcut menu but presume the NX has the same options.

Manufacturers that offer a subscription menu of customisations and performance improvements presumably expect to derive enough economic benefits from simplified production scheduling and faster-moving finished-car inventories to compensate the risk of alienating prospective customers. If this is the case, and I can think of no other, it indicates that their faith in their brands and the quality of their products is extremely strong - which, by and large, comes as no surprise with MB and BMW. However, it is hard to see, let alone quantify, how customers might react to getting no benefit for themselves beyond undemonstrably earlier delivery times of their new cars off simplified production lines.

Not surprised you were happy, Malc! Sounds like a Black Friday deal, but I hope it wasn’t!

Gummi Pflege with the sponge-pad is a great product but temperature-sensitive. Goes on fine in preparation for winter, tends to drip pre-summer, though less annoyingly than it did before it was reformulated not so many years ago when the name was changed from Einszett to Nextzett.

Completely agree. If there are benefits to customers they don’t readily meet the eye. Self-inflicted brand damage seems likely.

Thanks. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Except for one of them, that is!

Chris, when I wrote my post it crossed my mind that LC owners might also have at least as big a problem with internal glass cleaning as RC ones, and it is nice to have a confirmation of it. I have a swivel-head device in what appears to be a similar size to yours and I occasionally use it as an alternative to the Invisible Glass product recommended by Dave, which I have also owned for many years and prefer for the rear window because of its longer reach and triangular shape that enables you to get into the corners. The large cleaning surface of this latter product was clearly originally designed for big American cars, and I imagine the boom in SUV sales worldwide has come as a boon to the company. The trouble with regard to yesterday’s lamentable episode is that I tend to pull out one or other of these devices only when I want to clean the entire area of the glass. Otherwise, I reach for whatever suitable cloth is closest to hand.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to clean the bottom edge of the inside of my windscreen employing a folded damp cloth pressed tight between the glass and the dashboard exactly as I have done many times before. On feeling a slight jolt of pain caused by the ring finger of my right hand rubbing against the glass I loosened my grip before finishing the job without further ado. I thought no more about it until, about an hour later, I noticed that the aforementioned finger was loose at the upper joint. There was no pain, no swelling or visible bruising, but I couldn’t move the finger. I immediately took myself off the ER and was diagnosed with a damaged finger ligament and told to wear a finger splint for the next six weeks with no certainty that the finger will ever be perfectly straight again. I have often cursed the tightness of the angle of the RC’s windscreen (not to mention that of the rear window) but, clearly, this event was my own stupid fault. The likelihood of it ever happening to other RC owners is extremely low but I thought I’d share the experience by way of warning.

No, if I meant dialectics I wouldn’t have said didactics. But thanks for the thought.

Phil, my thoughts on the subject were not as deep and as wide-ranging as yours, and certainly did not extend to the ability of sophisticated marketing people to create discontent, but, were you to judge it fruitful, as it seems you might, I’d suggest you research the possible influence of Socratic thought on post-WW2 American popular rabbinical didactics. Not that I’d have much to contribute to that either.

I suspect that the political and economic climate of the times led Schachtel - and other influential religious thinkers in other faiths - to philosophically lean towards more or less extreme forms of socialism wherein personal ambitions and aspirations needed to be sacrificed for the collective good, and it is easy to see how definitions of happiness, preferably expressed and summarized in the form of pithy sayings, would have been at the forefront of their efforts to teach and communicate.