The Scout did indeed die in 1980, most likely primarily because Scouts weren't cheap to buy or fill with fuel and the moderately wealthy were driving 240D Mercedes, 25 mpg 320i BMWs, and getting on waiting list for 30 mpg Honda Accords. Scouts did rust like few vehicles made outside of Italy. I'm old enough to…

$8 a gallon buys 100 octane at my corner gas station. Compared to lousy California oxygenated 91 octane urine, a tank of 100 octane reminds you what you're missing by living in the place so full of solutions that it simultaneously re-elected Brown and Boxer while voting to block all proposed tax increases.

The size of your contact patches has nothing to do with the width of your tires. It is purely a function of the weight of your car divided by the air pressure in your tires. You need your corner weights to determine the size of each individual contact patch, but the dimensions of the tire play no part whatsoever.…

Joseph Vaillancourt used a 1963 Plymouth Fury as a taxi cab for over 35 years, putting 2,609,698 km on it before it was totaled in a crash. It has since been restored by Quebec actor Michel Barette.

@Wipeout: That was my point.

If you have a parts car to support your car, it isn't all that.

@crd22: Autoweek had one as a long term test car when they were new. It came apart like papier mache after a year. I was in the market back in the day and liked what I saw. The reality was that they were frangible garbage.

Number 1 and number 2 are illuminating. They're probably equally competent as cars, but the fact that you've got to have half a million dollars to spend on the Muira actually makes it a more reasonable purchase.

Luis should check his facts, or someone should. There weren't hundreds of thousands of Jaguar XJ-Ss produced. 21 years added up to a lousy 115,413 cars, and I do mean lousy.

Reading the rules of the contest, I'd put my money on a 1985 Honda Accord or a 1985 Toyota Corolla. What do I win?

@zekestone: BMWs prior to 1992 were far more reliable than any other European cars, particalarly Swedish, French, Russian, or British ones.

The Hyundai myth of competence is getting stale, particularly when it comes to the new Sonata. It looks like a 2003 Camry, but it isn't as well engineered. 139,500 2009-2011 Sonatas have been recalled by the NHTSA for STEERING SYSTEM FAILURES. That isn't fun, and cars have had steering for years. The 2011 Sonatas have…

@Josh Clontz: Thanks for the information. Sorry about your manifolds.

@kennyrutledge: What about ME?? What about Machine Gun Joe???

A friend of mine watched an elderly lady back her car into a concrete barrier the other day. Then she rolled down her window and yelled, 'What do you think you're doing?!?!" My friend said he considered yelling something back, just to keep from leaving her hanging.

You can't buy cool. A hipster is someone who lives in denial of this fact.

@MN952: With GM you have to wonder. They're always creating the easiest to boost cars, and they're located in Detroit, dirtball capital of the nation. 30 years ago, when Coupe DeVilles were the cheeseball cars of choice(can you imagine a world full of guido in DeVilles instead of BMWs?), people used to steal the front…

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Good recommendations I've made:

@Josh Clontz: Is your car a 4 cylinder or a V6? I recommended a 2006 Mazda 6 4-cylinder automatic to someone a couple years ago, and she still has it. I'm hoping it isn't effected by the cat in the exhaust manifold failures! I was going to list it here as one of my big successes. So far, the only problem she had with…