I remember that commercial -- and it still makes me laugh. I’ve been on the lookout for a reasonable Karmann Ghia for a while; maybe someday I’ll live that dream.

I have a 2020 Volvo XC90 T8 that I leased a few months ago. Since I’m doing mostly trips around town, I average somewhere between 85-100mpg. The battery management and regen is pretty well done, considering it’s capacity is just slightly larger in capacity than my old 2013 Volt. My overall mpg (total miles/total gas…

My brother bought a 2008 Frontier as it was simple to maintain (he is a ship engine specialist.) 150,000 miles later he still has it. (His previous vehicle was a no-frills 1994 Chevy S-10 that made many trips up and down the east coast and was sold with 325,000 miles on it.)

3rd gear: GM has a -whole- lot of retraining to do as they’ve never gotten it right with EVs. I had a 2013 Volt - great car but my local dealer never knew what to do with it. The first inkling was when I picked it up, got a brief demo then realized that they hadn’t put the L1 (110v) charger back in the car as they had…

As I didn’t own a car, I used to rent these from the Ford dealer in town back when I was getting ready to graduate from college and looking for my first job. They were OK but nothing to write home about — basic transportation in a little bit shinier package. (I didn’t buy one though; my first car after I got a job was…

In New Hampshire there is a yearly inspection where they check lights, tires, wipers, windshield (no cracks), rust (no holes allowed), then they connect the car to do an OBD test to get an OK there. The results are printed out and are supposed to be kept with the car along with the registration. The test is around…

I was amazed at all the vitriol for Rep. Tlaib on Twitter on the run up to the primary; most of it seemed to be people who said she was “so rude” for booing Hillary Clinton. I’m happy she won her primary as we need more people ready to do away with the status quo and let more sunlight and fresh air into Congress.

I’m making less money from TSLA right now as the stock price rose a lot faster than I expected. I’m doing bullish “put spreads” (options rather than stock) every month for 90 days out; I won’t make as much money with the stock at 1500 than I would around 1000, but I will still make money without as much of the…

I really wanted to look at a Telluride for some cross-comparison and it was really nice, but the Kia dealers in my area are one step above “buy-here pay-here” lots. The local Hyundai dealer is a much better-run dealership but they had no Palisades to sell.

For a time, I used to get these as rental cars out in California. They were a lot of fun, especially zooming around the LA area; I remember doing something stupid one night (running the chicane through traffic cones on a deserted construction site on the PCH) and not dying or damaging the car. Definitely a NP.

Wow that is really ugly. I have to admit that BMW’s styling department pretty much lost me after the 3/5/7 team of E46/E39/E38.

The gas heaters were great! We retrofitted one into my friend’s Super Beetle years ago; the only downside was the first winter it got a bit too hot and cracked the windshield. After that he learned how much heat was OK. It was so much better than the heat exchangers (I had a Corvair so I know the pain of little heat…

Four of the best:

NP. I owned a S1 Europa 30 years ago and it was a blast. There was no graceful way in or out of the car and small road bumps could throw the thing out of alignment but on the right roads there wasn’t much outside of a motorcycle that could be as much fun. Sadly mine was stolen and crashed but I would love to own this…

I have a 2017 V60 T6 AWD here in the States (R-Design with the P* tuning.) The lease will be up later this year and as they don’t have a a V60 AWD other than the T8, I may just purchase it — it’s comfy, fun and has had only one issue - the on-call system battery went dead (and the factory warranty paid for that.)

I had a 2002 first-gen Avalanche; I loved that truck. There was nothing better than a run down to Home Depot on a rainy lunchtime, load up bunch of 2x4x8' and drive back to work knowing that everything will be safe and dry in there. Take a second to close the midgate and pop the seats up and the truck was ready for…

A relative is a retired GM employee and always buys GM. She leased a 2017 Equinox for 24 months and hated it so much she turned it in at 18 months to buy a Traverse. The two biggest reasons for dumping it were it being uncomfortable and underpowered. I drove it once with 4 adults in it and the acceleration was…

It’s why I now call BaT Bring a Butler.

Volvo also still sells wagons -- the V60 and V90 are traditional wagons and he V60 and V90 Cross Country models are the slightly raised versions.

IIRC Stefanik originally won that seat even though she didn’t live in the district at the time; she used her parent’s summer house as an address.