Whatever you do, don’t just use the transmission/engine as a parking brake. When I was in college I was walking past a dorm that had a service drive going up an incline to the building. A car parked up the drive started moving backwards and I didn’t take much notice until it continued to accelerate and I noticed there…

Stop concentrating nice cars in one location. I remember when Reggie Jackson’s warehouse burned with all his cars, I thought that it is better for everyone if the nice cars stayed distributed amongst all of us, and not hoarded where they could all be damaged in one fell swoop.

Occasionally the circumstances are right though. I bought my last car on Ebay. It was a local small-time dealer and I happened to notice the car was local when I was searching for cars with a manual transmission. He had it listed on CL also for $5500. I called him, went to look at the car and test drove it and just…

Orloved!

Interest only loans on a depreciating asset?  That is criminal in itself.

I don’t buy it. If you put your property in the care of someone else, in the law its called a bailment, the bailee is required to exercise a minimum amount of care at the very least. Driving the car in a manor that violates the law would seem to violate the duty of minimum care. But then again, I don’t know if the…

I love this thing. It’s really well done. At first glance I didn’t even notice that it was a 6-door, at least from the photo angles it proportions fine. I’d take the stupid roof box off. I mean it might contain a satellite antenna for the TV, but that’s all obsolete anyway.  If I didn’t live on the other side of the…

Put a proximity sensor in each car so it knows when its near the home charger. If it gets near the charger and is not plugged in, it keeps track of time. For each hour its not plugged in after the first 3, prevent the car from starting for 1 minute for each hour it was not charged. Then people will get their lazy…

So Subaru built the Toyota 86, and BMW is building the Toyota Supra.  Who is building this Toyota?  Suzuki?

Did Ted Cruz lose to Beto and have to go to work on the docks?

Yeah. At this point it is just someone’s overly customized vehicle. You can’t readily see the customizing, but its still about as stupid as a 10-year old Pimp-My-Ride.

10 or 15 years ago, I was nearly Jeopardy material. I could easily answer 70% of the questions on the board. I went to a Jeopardy local event, passed the exam, but was cut during the live head-to-head round. I have a bit of a social anxiety problem and choked on a question I should have known. Now I’m past 50, my…

Back when I had cable, I got sucked into the vortex of “My 600 Pound Life”. One episode featured a woman (of 600lb size of course) who was rocking a 5-speed Dodge Caravan.

I can see this.  To a dealer a car seeker looking for that just right car, and want it independently inspected is just going to a problem.  They are less likely to buy the car anyway, so there is zero compensation.  They’d rather sell ten Cruzes to questionable credit single parents than mess with some persnickety SS…

I’m an old dude, so sound effects on my old PA were limited to sounds you could make by tapping on the mic or making funny mouth sounds.

The train horn is so fucking stupid. I think I have the right to say that because when I was 17, I put a Heathkit police siren with PA in my Trans Am. I only occasionally set off the siren...I didn’t have a light package of course, but I and my friends loved dicking around with the public address. Want to talk to the…

This cannot be reversed, simply because screens are mandatory in all new cars because of the ridiculous mandate for back-up cameras. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve not known such driving joy in years now that I picked up an older 5-spd Corolla for commuting. The A/C controls consist of 3 large knobs (Temp, Fan…

You discover that stuff from the hardware store is cheaper than stuff you find at the auto parts store.

It becomes an old car when you start making repairs with non-automotive products.  Spackle, tar, Gorilla glue, picture hanging wire, twine, tape, wood screws, etc.

Corolla’s for less than $5000 are out there.  You just have to jump on them when they come up.  The one I got this year was a ‘06 Corolla CE (low trim) with a 5-spd stick and $130K.  The clutch and battery had just been replaced, and while I bought it on Ebay, it was a dealer local to me.  I gave a little less than…