They were about the best dealer experience I’ve had.  I’m sure it helped that their asking price was good enough that I just went in and paid it without having to do the negiotiation dance :)

I was living in San Antonio at the time and went to Gillman Subaru in Houston because the car was like $2k less than a similar one in SA. My wife hit the deer on Loop 1604 in SA just before dawn. 

We have one of each. (‘13 CVT Outback from new and a ‘14 6MT Forester that I impulse bought CPO in 2015 for cheap in Houston where nobody wants a Subaru let alone a manual one.) The difference is subtle, but despite having the same ground clearance you do indeed sit a bit higher and more upright in the Forester. Like…

The reason is for it in those days was security. I grew up in a not-so-safe area. My mom’s Rabbit hatch glass got smashed by thieves looking to steal things from the trunk on a regular basis.  The Civic gave an option of a similar body style import with a storage compartment that was at least somewhat harder to break…

So with the Corvette ditching leaf springs does that make the Volvo XC90 and XC60 as the only non-pickups (or pickup-based SUV’s) on the market that still have leaf springs?

Lots of people keep trucks forever. But a lot of fleet operators only keep them a few years so they don’t have to worry about maintenance. Plus there is almost always a strong market for used trucks (contractors, small businesses, homeowners that want a used truck so they don’t have to care if they scratch it with a…

You haven’t come around to the Chevy at all now that they are all over the road? Personally I think it looks the best of all the full-size trucks in person, but doesn’t photograph well. Yeah the hood is still a little high, but other than that I think it looks fantastic.

For two years you could option the Saab 9-7X with the 6.0L V8 from the Trailblazer SS. I don’t know why. Only 554 were made.

VW worked with GE’s industrial inspection division (now part of BakerHughes) to build a massive new X-Ray CT machine called speedscan for inspecting cast cylinder heads. I saw a prototype at GE’s factory in PA a few years back. They feed the parts through conveyor-belt style as opposed to loading one at a time and…

Someone here has one of those RAV4 EVs. No idea how it ended up in a small town in northern NM. There’s an electric B-class in town as well.

Yep. If the seat reclines I don’t mind if the person in front of me uses it. But I wish people would check behind themselves first. I’ve been hit on the head pretty bad more than once when the person in front of me slammed their seat back at full speed while I was reaching into my backpack on the floor to get…

Sometimes I think all of the commenters here must live in huge cities. Out here’s in the sticks we have tons of public trails for off road vehicles and drag strips/tracks for the sports cars and plenty of people use them as intended.   Lots of Raptors here.  One owner down the street DD’s his Corolla and the Raptor…

Maybe in cities. Out here in NM the trails are full of trucks and grocery store parking lot is full of trucks from ancient to brand new covered in mud and dents. The new ZR-2 has been out for maybe a year and I’ve already seen several around town with off-roaring scars like crushed tail pipes and bumpers. Heck…

What does it cost and do you think that markup over the 4-door JKU is worth it?

This has been driving me nuts because I’m actually seriously considering one. I played with the configurator a while then realizes it was pointless because I didn’t have a clue what the options would cost. Latest rumor I heard was the pricing will come out 3/31/19... which is also the rumored on-sale date. Like you…

Currently working on this. Biggest hurdle with her right now is that it is too long to fit on our garage. Otherwise she is in as long as the Sport S with a hardtop and automatic manages to sneak in under $40k US.... so probably in a year or two when the “market adjustments” go away.

Every rental truck I’ve ever driven has had a huge yellow sticker on the left A-pillar letting you know how tall it is.  If you don’t know how tall your rental truck is you are either blind or renting from a sketchy outfit that doesn’t use those stickers. 

Remember a lot of those Focuses are dual clutches. Unfortunately a lot of the automated systems dealers use consider that an “automated manual” and list it as a manual instead of automatic.  It’s wrong and frustrating but not as weird when you consider that factor. 

Here in the mountains of NM, I use the manual mode on my Outback a fair amount because the CVT has a tendency to pick innappropriate ratios on steep grades. Especially when loaded down with 700+ lbs. of 4 people in their camping gear somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 ft elevation. The manual mode certainly isn’t a…

Sedans a cheap to rent. I’ve rented a Camry/Altima for road trips many times just to leave my wagon and crossover at home.