Counterpoint: A Miata, especially a basic trim of this generation, is a very finite money pit that people of ordinary means and reasonable DIY skills can hope to successfully fill. And neglected but not thrashed or “upgraded”... you can do worse as a Before picture for either a restoration or a racing project. In…

This SFGate (kinda San Francisco Chronicle lite) article estimates that there are 3,000 cars that the city would be legally entitled to tow, and that some 11,000 requests for towing (for all reasons, not just abandonment) were received in the second half of calendar 2023. I would interpret the difference as multiple…

I confess to spilling jelly on the ND button because I didn’t have the wit to buy one back in the day. But this one’s mileage and ageage don’t add up to this ask. A search for comps turned up one with literally a fourth that mileage at this price... and that’s from a dealer.   

So, where’s the first place you’re going when you pick up your new house on wheels?

it’s as meh as styling can get—the beige of aesthetics

There’s alightly older sistership to this one in my driveway (the second example to have been in the family) as my daughter-in-law pays a visit. These are terrific, overlooked cars (and that color presents a lot better in person, at least to my tastes). It’s built like a bank vault, and the generous flow of smooth…

A big old Olds wagon

It does all help, synergistically, but there is a lot more weather at 0-20,000 feet AGL than at 30,000-35,000 feet and upwards.

I’m pretty sure the whole 737 line, including the MAX, actually has old-school hydraulically boosted mechanical connections between (most of) the controls and the surfaces that they adjust.

They seemed to be more common in the prop plane days, maybe because of the slower speeds, maybe because of weather radar or climate change or route changes.

I would withhold praise for the comment system, but the group of people who persevered through it was impressive and so was the writing staff.

a manmade pond would have a shallow entry, no?

because I’ve always wanted one.

If I didn’t live most of the way across a big country and already have more cars than spare time, garage space, and disposable income, the apparent condition and basic nature of this one would test my determination to be done with Jaguars. Just (a) calibrate your expectations to a 30+ year old example of an evolution…

Quite possibly the pilots didn’t even know anything was amiss at the time. (That makes sense. A tire and wheel that big may be Final Destination stuff to a human, but it’s but a tiny percentage of that sky whale, a long way from them, and fell away cleanly in midair...)

My (mis)understanding is that United Tech Ops is a maintenance outsource for other operators, and has a big maintenance base at SFO.

I think of gun safety as a set of concentric circles. (You can use the Swiss cheese metaphor that became well known during the pandemic if you prefer.)

Possible ND contingent on a very close inspection to tell whether its California origins did indeed spare it from rust (as well as other potential Achilles heels). Even by the standards of an era when rustproofing was not what it is today, it infested these lovely cars easily.

Even in corner cases from the bridge-out jumps and semi-trailer-convertible-making slopes of Olympus, you have to ask whether somebody handed him a Sharpie at a meet-n-greet or it was actually a car used by him or featured in the movie or something... and, again, some proof that it is just that and not a forgery.