So this is - in essence - exactly what the New Defender could have been if LR had put more thought than well-meant but poorly conceived effort in it.

Yup, I use a spackle/putty knife for the grill, too. It has outperformed every dedicated spatula with ease and it also has that nice “pling”!

I can already see the headline:

If you can live with the shipping rates... Due to being as stupid as clumsy, I wrecked the new balljoint on my ‘05 Suburban right on installation, so I had to order a replacement at Rockauto. It was quick as hell (ordered on Thursday, 19:25, got it on Monday 8:55, even quicker than domestically ordered spare parts),…

I’m not ready to announce it yet, but by the end of this summer, I’ll begin a project that is going to require me to renew my German passport and learn about interior design. More on this, soon (and yes, that was intentionally cryptic).

Finally someone saw the idea behind this! Absolutely correct. European regulations limit the length to 18,75 m for truck-trailer combinations and 16,50 m for fifth wheel combinations - and that includes the cab.

I think, there is a fair share of the market for - as someone here already mentioned - head units designed by adults.

But .. but ... socialism!

Can be fun. I commuted ca. 30 miles to work on a 50cc scooter for two years. While agonizingly slow, it still was hilarious. You can smell the nature, admire the landscape, almost pick some flowers, all without getting unduly stressed. I caught myself giggling several times while wringing the last half mph from the…

Fascinating! There is a similar treat in Germany with a variety of names (in Luebeck they are called “Mutzen” [“moo-tsen”]), that is also not filled. The dough is cut into rhombic pieces, deep-fried in lard und dusted with powdered sugar. Here it is a staple of the traditional christmas markets.

Gemballa is a little bit late to the party:

Well. nobody is “forcing” us to buy new cars (the conspiracy theorists next door would say different), but there are some factors that come into play here:

Fascinating ... it is the same over here in Germany: For some time now, people think they are entitled to more or less running down school children just because they have their hazards on.

You can count on it: When a paper or news site speaks of a “tragic accident”, someone acted very dumb and perished because of it.

Nope ... exactly the opposite. A reasonable person wouldn’t rely on the possibility of a printed warning. A reasonable person would know their allergies/intolerances and the ingredients that trigger them. A reasonable person would think and not just react.

The 4L60E is an automatic transmission. The engines were fine, but the transmissions were shredding flexplates at sustained engine speeds of 6000 rpm, at least according to Opel sources. Sounds a little bit strange to me, since the Corvette had a 4L60E up until 2005. On the other hand: The Vette wasn’t engineered…

Sorry, LS1, not LT1.

They tried that again with the Opel Omega B (the basis for the Cadillac Catera). The engineers successfully shoved a 350 LT1 under the hood, but the 4L60E’s kept dying painful deaths in sustained Autobahn driving. The whole project was shelved mere weeks before the intended release. Brochures and press material were…

• wrote in complete sentences,

Indeed. And I never realized how similar both are.