I just drove ten hours in the wife’s automatic from Vermont to home. Takes longer than it should because of the kids, but the feeling of not quite sure what gear the thing is going to choose in traffic, not quite sure when it will shift when I stomp on it, how much power will the torque converter decided to actually…

Meh. A mere baguetelle of a traffic jam horror story.

I wish the writers on this site would learn something about cars. The ‘55 Bel Air was a revolution in design from its 12 voly electrical system, wrap around winshield, small block V8 better handling, less chrome. The ‘55 would go on to define and effect car design for decades to come. The day it rolled onto the show…

Backed it up with the door open ... twice in my life. Once at 16 and once at 49. I have no excuse for either moronic act. 

At 100,000 miles my 1993 Maxima SE with 5 speed was just broken in. It ran to 320,000 miles before it got T boned on the right side finishing it off. It still had all its original upholstery without rips, and the only thing that didn’t work was the cruise control. This is a good price for a car that has many miles…

Yes. Exactly. It gets an adjustment because there is a car with higher mileage supporting the CAFE requirement. To meet 54.5 MPG you have to use electric, either plug in or EV. Of course one thing that Tesla tried to get but failed was an EV credit that it could sell similar to a carbon offset credit for smoke stacks.…

Good point. Gas taxes do hit everyone dollar for dollar the same and therefor take a larger chunk of the household budget from the poor than the rich. 

??? Dude, it is a Corporate AVERAGE Fuel Economy standard. No model alone meets the standard. The whole fleet has to average out to the standard. Yes, companies meet today’s standard, but to reach the 54.5 MPG goal that would be very hard without electric cars to bring up the fleet average. 

Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards that high could only be met by selling electric cars no one wants at a loss, hence Marchionne’s plea for people not to buy his FIAT 500e because he lost $20,000 on each one. The Bolt sells for a loss, the Volt sells for a loss, Leaf sells for a loss, and that is with subsidies…

I don’t think it is working. 

Lauda has been on borrowed time since he got burned. It is amazing that he has lived this long with his compromised lungs. I wish him the best of recoveries. 

You say hard ... I say time well spent. 

How hard is it to drive a metro train into the Chesapeake? Asking for a friend.

Thanks for this. 

Yes. 

I had a very enjoyable day hanging around with him, Brock Yates, Kenn Gross, and Denise MacCluggage having breakfast and going through a major car collection. They were interesting folks writing back then. 

That is very cool! I liked Jean’s writing, and I am glad that she is still out there. 

Well, I am entirely annoyed. There aren’t a lot of places in the automotive world that get gossipy about car culture any more, and C&D is pretty much it. I also realize that my subscription ran out a couple of months ago, and I should resubscribe, but isn’t that on the publisher? They never sent me a renewal notice. 

Dave Davis worked for C&D when he penned my all time favorite car review panning the radio in a BMW 2002. Of course they also fired him for writing it. They also published it. Then they rehired him. That pretty much sums up all automotive journalism that wasn’t written by LJK Setright

Yup, Jean went the wrong way when she sided with the publisher over Dave. Sure Dave was half way to the cemetery and technically they were her bosses not Dave, but he was right. Side with the bean counters, and they will choose the ever diminishing beans over staff every time. Jean went from every talk show’s favorite…