What we value is having cars that meet out safety standards. Are all of them reasonable? Maybe, maybe not, but you'd have a hard time convincing anyone that a 2000 model-year Mini is even as remotely safe as just about anything officially on the American market in 2000.

What gets my beef—and to your point—is that…

And you might not have spent a weekend in jail in Virginia if you didn't break the law there, either.

Both might be insane laws (though I'd call the DOT restrictions arbitrary more than insane; jail for speeding is definitely insane), but breaking them is still breaking them.

Let me ask you this: Would you want to buy…

I do think the 25-year rule is wrong, albeit not so far as to call it draconian. But if you start swapping VINs, you are absolutely asking for trouble.

She can't afford NOT to maintain it. Agreed. You should get her a bus schedule and a few tokens for her birthday next time.

Maybe us poor bastards in Vermont keep our shitboxes longer. Lord knows, the people up here wring every last drop of rusty utility out of their Subarus, the existence of quarter panels merely optional.

I do see some blue hairs with big, RWD cars of the era and some hard core beater American stuff, but the Accords and…

Hmm...I guess we have to give the Latinos credit then for having respect for quality. Living up here in the Northeast (about as north as you can get, but not quite entirely east, though close), 95 Camrys continue to thrive. (And Accords) Not so much anything with four doors from the General. Viva los Camrys!

To quote, er, paraphrase Bob Lutz: The CTS* has one of the most expensive interiors on the market. It just doesn't feel like it.

Not at all an anarchist nor a libertarian—not by a long shot. Flaming liberal in many ways these days, really.

But, there is a saying that you get what you pay for. If good, decent brand-name oil sells for $4 a quart, AutoZone/Advance brand for $3 and U.S. Economy has a six pack for $7.50, you gotta' wonder why it's so…

Not exactly a libertarian here, but if you put freaking "U.S. Economy" branded oil in perhaps the second most expensive and highest maintenance thing you ever own or buy, you sort of deserve what you get. Caveat emptor and whatnot.

It is almost impossible to run a modern F1 engine without a ton of track side support and the proper computer, oil pre-heated to the proper temperature, exotic fuel (maybe, possibly, allegedly), etc. God, I hate to say, but just wedge some sort of LS in there and be done with it. It would certainly be far more…

I've met the guy. He was (always will be?) an engineer. He brought home his first one in boxes from someone's basement in the early Sixties and rebuilt it himself in his garage over several years. As recently as few years ago, he would use it buy groceries or go to the post office. Quite a guy.

Jim Press was an asshole who hated customers. His rant, in '02, I think it was, at the NADA conference basically blamed "informed" customers as being detrimental to dealerships. It's good to know that he wanted idiots to buy Toyotas.

When he hit the rice ceiling, he bolted to the Cerberus-headed Chrysler. Not that it…

Despite your out-of-time sequence, and despite the mutantness of the V8 Zagato (and that fucked up hood because carburetors—fuel injection had to wait for the Zagato Volante the next year), it is one hell of a great car to drive. Adding lightness and shrinking the massive wheelbase will do that every time.

It doesn't take a Fusion to scuttle the value of an Aston Martin. Those things drop like bricks the moment you leave the dealership. Worse, they all look alike, anyway, even before the conFusion.

Nine-year olds? I'd say more like 13 or 14-year olds, given the subject matter.

I so much more prefer this use of military choppers than killing brown people for oil. They should not be punished—they should get freaking medals!

What, no C'etait un Rendezvous?

Seriously?

The tipping point for BJs/Costco/Sams for diapers was the first kid. Condiments, the second, and any and all food, save for some highly perishable fruit, was three.

We save ridiculous amounts of money on the food, milks, veggies, cereal (the cereal!!), bread, eggs, chips, crackers, cheese, paper goods, etc. About the…

Print the receipt, snap a photo of it and log the data in the fuel-tracking app and then chuck the receipt. A little more work, but still less clutter.

I mainly use the fuel-tracking app to see if my mileage has changed dramatically, indicating some fuel problem, and to see how much I am spending on gas...followed by…

Recovering ex-Reaganite here. RR gets a lot of shit for packing up in Lebanon (don't forget we invaded Grenada two days later, which is sort of like attacking Iraq after 15 Saudis, two Emiratis, an Egyptian and a Lebanese use your own planes as missiles against you, but I digress).

Despite the "nuke Russia" swagger he…