The Mark 7 didn’t arrive until what? U.S. model year 2015? That’s not a whole lot of time on the ground to judge longevity and durability.

I’ve heard of factory engineers who, while admiring the power output of these tuned engines, believe that longevity gets fully sacrificed in the process.

The problem is not the power you make, but what else you are compromising when you do it. VW has some pretty talented engineers on board, despite the horrendous pressures from management that gave us Dieselghazi (I refuse to use that other word when it comes to scandal) and some of the shittiest reliability on the…

“She bore a load 26,000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty...”

Well, the R129 comes from the Bruno Sacco era and he was the absolute master at creating timeless designs that age well. Has any Mercedes-Benz of the last 20 years seemed timeless to you? I didn’t think so.

Models from the Sacco era could stay on the market for 10 years, instead of the industry’s five or seven years…

Hah! Right on! Other than for watching breaking news of a seriously impactful nature, I don’t bother with television news either. I think effectiveness to them is how many eyeballs can get they get on the screen to sell to the advertisers. Effectiveness at telling a story or conveying the news is second to that goal.

I don’t know. It seems very appealing to me, but it needs a more honest engine than that plugged V-6 in the eight-cylinder block that Jag and Land Rover have been pushing in recent years. For a company that made its mark with an incredible engine (the twin-cam XK, which was in production for almost 50 years in one…

“Of interest to some potential viewers” seems kind of vague. There are probably just as many people who care about the outcome of sports (college or pro) and who might actually have something riding on it (gambling on sports probably carries the same risks are gambling on the markets for the uninitiated).

Personally,…

Good point. My mistake. You are correct that he did not mention the media.

But the notion stands that stock prices and returns for shareholders seem to matter more than what is the right thing to do versus what is not, whether it is an analyst making that call to clients or a pundit in the media.

I don’t think he’s saying it’s shady. He is alluding to the fact that the news organizations love to watch Wall Street and the stock indexes, as if the rich getting richer is the only economic indicator that matters. Hell, every news channel has at least one index on the bottom-screen crawl at all times during the…

New Englander, former V70 R driver. Also must have the Jag wagon.

Not sure if you’ll be disappointed the first time you get a flat and go looking for the spare, or just happy to wait out the tow truck instead.

Hailing from a town that was once dependent on whaling, I am definitely stealing that shit. Brilliant!

I love that story! I also offer my condolences on the loss of your folks. But keeping that car, what with the history your family has with it, seems the right thing to do. There is no NP/CP value you can place on that. Keeping that car has nothing to do with making or losing any money on it, though the latter is…

Which 124 do you own? I don’t own one, but an E36 coupe (not BMW E36; AMG E36) has always been on my bucket list and they become 25-year-rule eligible next year. I’d even settle for an E36 wagon...or a sedan...or a convertible.

Aslo, 400E, E420, E320, etc.

The W124 might possibly be the best car ever made in terms of longevity and durability. They come from the days when the engineers ran Daimler Benz and not the accountants and bankers.

However, W124s are not maintenance-free cars. You have got to get shit fixed as soon as it breaks. If this car has been maintained and…

98% CP and getting worse by the moment.

Jalops are appropriately predictable.

I have lived in a bunch of different parts of the country and have seen weirdly different attitudes (St Louis people seem to not use their turn signals to change lanes and if they do use them it means they are coming over no matter what’s there; nobody left-lane squats like soccer moms in Indiana and Ohio; Chicago…

Off the highways, Maine and Vermont have virtually no traffic, except a few spots a few times a year. Boston is just nutty. Western Mass seems to have a lower masshole quotient on the roads at least. Connecticut just stinks as a byway between NYC and Boston, though it gets used as that regularly.

Current northern New England resident (in a state that pretty much has no useful Interstates), former Connecticut, former New York resident: I-95 sucks because it was built in one of the most congested parts of the country for levels of traffic that were surpassed within a few years of its opening more than 50 years…

I have owned three different A2 VWs (I still use the A-number scheme; screw those Audi-come-lately people): an ‘86 GTI, an ‘85 GLi (a favorite) and then a 91 GLi 16V 2.0-liter (should have been the best but the previous owner we neglectful; my bad). They are fantastic cars. I still see myself getting a 1985 to 1987…