If I could turn my wife’s ‘17 MINI Clubman into an electric MINI SE without laying out a bunch of cash, I’d do it in a heartbeat. My use case would be exactly as the article shows above because my wife and I each have our small hatches for daily driving and we have an SUV for family trips. The headline really set the…

If my wife’s vehicle needed replaced, I would absolutely replace it with a short range EV. She never drives more than 50-70 miles when running the kid around or running errands in her car. We have a family SUV that she can use when she would need more range. (3 car household) When traveling, we are always in the big fa…

He has not 1 but 2 ICE vehicles to carry the workload of anything that requires more than the Leaf or Livewire. Not exactly a novel way of making the EV life work here. I’d rather hear how my grandparents managed with 7 kids and only owning a VW Beetle and a pickup truck. TBF, it is probably a simple answer: the…

Building up a 24" Scott mountain bike for my daughter. Powdercoating went OK, though it isn’t as consistent in the flake as I’d hoped. Some contamination got into the bottom bracket shell and I had to have the threads chased plus a new square taper BB. The rest of the bike went together really well until it was time…

Yea, this doesn’t pass the smell test. It may be delayed because Toyoda decided, a year ago, that they wanted to make changes. The BRZ starts production in a few months; the suppliers have been tooled up for production parts for the BRZ for months now. They are way beyond recently deciding to make substantial changes.…

There’s nothing wrong with listing the price at whatever the dealer wants. They are free to do as they please regarding that. Lying about why they set the price where they did is the behavior he was talking about. If they said that MSRP was the going rate for that trim or what they were willing to sell the car for, it…

I would love to never see burnt orange on a car ever again.  Nothing against U of Texas.  I just don’t like that color at all.  

Engine specific maintenance items are oil change and air filter these days. It isn’t like we are doing valve jobs or adjusting points anymore. The rest of the stuff is the same, more or less, between EVs and ICE vehicles of what can go wrong and what needs replaced on intervals. ICE vehicles will need brake jobs at…

https://www.toyota.com/rav4prime/

Rav4 Prime.  AWD, over 40 miles electric range, mid 30s mpg after that.  

This car will look great in Lexus’s Atomic Silver.  I love that color so much.  

It depends for me. I just put new wheels on my 4Runner and went with matte gray instead of black (especially since the 4Runner is red). I’m over the moon with the look. Just that right amount of not stock, but not over the top. My wife’s MINI Clubman S is the creamy white with black bonnet stripes and black roof. She…

Same. My house would be a pretty good candidate for one and, before my neighbor spent thousands on a fence for his jack russell terrier, I could have split the cost with my neighbor and had it cover both of our yards. The payback would have been less than 2 years for him since he pays someone to mow his yard. At the…

Do you have kids? This is something that has driven me crazy ever since my daughter got old enough for birthday or school parties. Every parent feels like they have to give out party favors and it is all just clutter at the end of the day. The kid plays with it for a minute or two and then it just becomes trash or…

My company is approaching 25 years this coming summer. HR sent out a survey of what gift we would like to celebrate the occasion. None. I want no gift. Sounds like I’m getting another jacket, though. I literally have 3 jackets in my desk drawer because I have so many. I would really rather have a nice meal to…

Because the real bike makers implement the e-bike systems as assist only and usually have a top speed limit for when they will assist. If your legs aren’t moving, the electric motor can’t accelerate the bike with those designs. The Amazon specials basically are a moped where you can completely control the bicycle…

Yup, she definitely had a charming personality.  

The problem with commuting by bike isn’t the cost of the bike or accessibility to e-bikes. It is the complete lack of bike friendly infrastructure in a vast portion of the country. I live in what is effectively a suburb. I generally have to get in my car to get anywhere. I used to commute by bicycle or motorcycle to…

I’ve commuted by road bicycle, motorcycle, and car. The biggest issue is safety. Dicing it up with 5000lb full size trucks on my 18lb road bike or my 350lb motorcycle is going to leave me as the loser every time. At least my 3000lb hatchback is on the same order of magnitude of the average vehicle I’ll encounter.  I’d…

I loved rally in the early 00s. Lots of manufacturers supporting, still had big names like Tommi, Colin, Burns, Gronholm, and Sainz. 8 different winners over 14 rounds! Look at the number of retirements in 2001 versus 2019.  I want to care about rally now, but it definitely doesn’t feel the same 20 years later.