Salt Warning.
This CSR is absolutely, completely, 100% based on my hate for the French way of handling the ton and a half of people driving diesels for 8000km/year while never leaving Paris intra-muros, by penalizing EVERY SINGLE PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY who buys diesels. Take that post with not a grain of salt, but the entire fuggen dead sea.
Here we go.
2018, Diebolsheim, France.
Fernand Müller is just your average 40 years old alsacian guy. Likes soccer, and beer. Runs every week end. Works in a factory as a maintenance technician, somehow earning twice what a youngster would earn with three diplomas in automation.
He likes to make things last. He’s been married for fifteen years with his wife, Christine, and they have two children, Manon aged 10 and Enzo aged 8. One thing he did make last pretty long apart from his marriage is his 2006 FAAL Mesaia 2.0 TDE 115 wagon. 358000km and twelve years later, it is still running and still with the original drivetrain. Fernand and Christine never regretted a single second buying basically the very last French diesel without a DPF. It has never stranded them. It has always sipped on fuel, averaging 5l/100 during its whole life without a single ounce of hypermiling.
The Müllers have then seen passed the generalization of DPFs which then became mandatory. The 2008 crisis which made manufacturers have to review their offers and made shittier cars. And finally, the Dieselgate, which ultimately stopped manufacturers to keep developing diesel engines.
Living in the countryside and averaging about 30000km per year, the Müllers did need a diesel. They still do. But 358000km is a long life for a car on Europe’s twisty roads, and keeping the worn out Mesaia running was becoming more and more expensive with parts breaking one after the other. Fast forward to 2018, when the government’s new batch of attempts at stopping people from buying and driving diesel cars finally made Fernand cave in.
She didn’t pass inspection.
Emissions failed.
She needed a new EGR valve, and a new catalytic converter.
No scrapyard has the right to sell them anymore, so they have to be brand new parts.
No inspector has the right to pass a car who has been fixed without a bill to prove it.
Garages now have to bill the recycling of the cat to the owner.
4500€, with no guarantee of the car passing inspection after that.
This was too much.
After a long deliberation, him and his wife decided to break a lifetime habit both had even in their separate lives before meeting: they had to replace the best investment of their life with a… yuck… Petrol powered car.
After a bit of crying and cussing at the current government, they started prospecting.
GUIDELINES
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After a lifetime of driving diesel engines, they want something with incredible fuel efficiency, and this, on all speeds. Check out the whole fuel efficiency tab. Not to mention the praised diesel reliability.
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They do, though, want something that at least matches the performance of their current Mesaia (which is a0-100km/h in the 10 seconds and around 200km/h top speed. Gotta feel safe and confident when overtaking the slow ass driver that turns out to be an undercover speed control car operated by a third party wanting to make a profit.)
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They have two kids, and need the space for that, and go on vacation with a ton of luggage and beach stuff. Whatever you’re going for has to fit all of that in. For reference their current car is a wagon variant of a C-segment car.
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Living in Europe, they won’t settle for anything but a manual. No limit on that, but expect a long rant about taking the power out of the drivers’ hands and lazy millenials and automated systems being the dawn of our society if you send me an automatic
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Keep in mind that they’re gonna drive the car like a diesel, flooring it a 1500RPM and shifting between 2.5k and 3.5k depending on how much of a hurry they’re in. They’re gonna feel it if you have a turbo that kicks in at 4k.
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There is no hard limit as to body choices, or cargo area. But keep in mind the Müllers are gonna take them in considerations. For the rest, be creative!
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The judging is gonna be done just like a real life buyer would. In the first round, the couple is going to compare all the raw data they can find on car configurators (performance, fuel economy, cargo space, equipment). And only then in the test drive are actual Automation stats going to be taken in consideration.
HARD LIMITS:
- Car has to be a 2018MY both trim and engine
- Budget: 15000. (in the market tab, 0% markup)
- TRIM Emissions: 30. Yes I know it’s stupid low but anything above will mean the Müllers will have to pay an extra tax, and god forbid they give any more money to the government than they have to. By political conviction this is a hard limit.
- Chassis ET: 39
- Engine ET: 38
- Unleaded 95RON mandatory since I’ve literally never seen 91RON in the 25 years I’ve lived in europe.
- Safety 55. They don’t care, the law does.
- Mandatory ESC. Again, they’d rather not have it. But every new european cars have to have it. Even base model Ford Fiestas with plastic door handles and no AC.
- Mandatory catalytic converter. Euro 6 sucks.
THOSE LIMITS ARE SUBJECT TO MODIFICATION UNTIL SUBMISSIONS OPEN. That has been pretty useful in previous CSR rounds, so screw it, imma do it.
Basic ideas:
Miscellaneous and generic info
- Subissions open tomorrow at 11PM central europe. Until then, rules are subject to change. Countdown to submissions opening
- Deadline for submissions is Friday, December 7th at 11PM Central Europe Time. Countdown to Deadline
- Previous CSR round: CSR89 - “Cheri Cheri Lady”
- General CSR rules: The Car Shopping Round Rules and Stats
- Once done, send me your entries by PM with the following naming scheme:
Car name: “CSR90 - username”
Car trim: name of the car
Engine name: “CSR90 - username”
engine variant: name of the engine
[EDIT 01/12/18] Okay I never thought I’d actually have to say this but:
I will only accept cars that at least have a brand name and a model name.
I am supposed to roleplay a guy who goes through car configurators from different brands to find what he needs. Which I can’t do with this:
After the fact:
Judging, Round 1 Part 1: CSR 90 - "Dieselgate Aftermath" [FINAL RESULTS UP] - #127 by Knightophonix
