• alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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      18 hours ago

      Cheap junk?? American cars are very expensive junk.

      Say what you want about GM, they didn’t have to put the same V8 into pretty much everything, and now that they don’t, how are teenagers going to get their hands on a 4L V8 so detuned it makes the same power as an engine 1/3 the size for like $4000 that was only ever driven by grandma?

      • barnacul@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        4L V8 does not exist in America. The $4k cars have 6.2L V8s with like 160HP and literally 3 gears

        • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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          17 hours ago

          Assuming you’re esl:

          Cheap doesn’t mean low quality, it means low price, which can imply low quality, but it doesn’t work if the thing’s not also cheap.

          You could call US cars cheaply-made junk.

          • Cousin Mose@lemmy.hogru.ch
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            16 hours ago

            I’m a native US English speaker and use both definitions. I’m on a Swiss instance because I don’t like hosting my data in 14 Eyes countries.

            If I think your product is shit, I’ll oftentimes call it cheap — especially if it looks like you manufactured it cheaply and then sold it for a high price for a huge profit.

            • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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              16 hours ago

              An expensive product can’t be cheap. It can be cheaply made, but a cheap expensive thing is an oxymoron.

              • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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                12 hours ago

                It can still be cheap junk even if you overpaid.

                You don’t have a monopoly on the English language.

                • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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                  10 hours ago

                  Nobody would say “I wouldn’t buy a Cybertruck, they’re so cheap”, if they did, you’d probably go “Haha they’re like 6 figures new!”, thinking the person assumed that because Teslas look cheap they actually are.

                  • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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                    9 hours ago

                    They’re not like six figures new, that was basically tesla advertising to make them seem more expensive than they actually are (for conspicuous consumption purposes). Most of the models actually purchased are around $60K

                  • sem@piefed.blahaj.zone
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                    9 hours ago

                    You wouldn’t say that, this is true.

                    But you could call it a cheap piece of shit when it rusts and the panels never align.

              • Cousin Mose@lemmy.hogru.ch
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                16 hours ago

                Oh for fuck’s sake. If you manufacture something cheaply it’s cheap for the manufacturer. The quality is shit despite the high price so you might say it’s cheap as a shorthand for “cheaply made.”

                I literally see and hear this usage everywhere. I’m not sure why it’s suddenly a mystery.

              • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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                11 hours ago

                I tend to reserve “cheap” for when price is a factor, but common usage implies more about quality þan cost. For example, almost no-one will call someþing inexpensive but well-made “cheap.” Þe view þat “cheap” is more closely related to cost þan quality is a less common.

                • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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                  9 hours ago

                  Þe

                  Shouldn’t this be an eth (ð) and not a thorn? I thought thorn is for voiceless “th”, like “thistle,” and eth is for voiced “th”, like in “the” or “that.”

                  • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
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                    4 hours ago

                    It is is Icelandic, and in Old English. By þe Middle English period, Thorn had replaced Eth and was used for boþ. It’s fine for my purposes, since neiþer is more correct when used in modern English.