If they’re the only one with a car his customer wants, you bet your ass he’ll deal with them. It’s literally what his customers are paying him to do.

I think the point is much more on a desire for price consistency than an overall reduction in price to the consumer. It’s why places like CarMax and Carvana do so well. There is a large portion of the market that wants buying a car to be like buying any other consumer good. You walk into the store, the price is the…

There are people for who if they don’t have a car, today, they will lose their job tomorrow, and if they lose their job tomorrow, they will be homeless.

In fairness Tom didn’t ask why that might affect the price, he just asked why that somehow prevented them from sending him said price via email. Which is still a reasonable question. The affront is forcing people to come in to be pressured into overpaying, instead of just stating what your price is, be that high or…

Because Tom actually runs a business as a car shopper, and putting companies directly on blast you might have to deal with in the future isn’t great business sense.

Most certainly. I just meant that right now, it might actually be the one time that line of reasoning isn’t total bullshit.

But that’s the point, the dealer believes that demand so outstrips supply that they are throwing away a larger opportunity to make money by talking to an educated buyer, as they can’t just “get another unit” like they normally could.

“Due to inventory shortages we know we’ll be able to rip _someone_ off, so if that someone isn’t you, pound sand.”

Oh yeah, that shot is super awkward. I just meant the nudity specifically. It’s actually interesting to watch the change in fan-service in that series. Early on there’s a lot more of it, and it kind of drops off to the point of being almost completely gone by 4th stage. Extra Stage is super jarring in that it’s…

I think her point was “This is literally the outfit the company gave me to wear, I didn’t have any creative input here. So who are you to tell the creators of the material that their interpretation is wrong?”

I particularly enjoy they made an even sexier plugsuit for Auska in Rebuild that’s so ridiculous she even comments about its ridiculousness while putting it on.

Extra Stage, or “we no longer have to follow broadcast TV rules!”

I mean legality of the substance in question aside, misrepresenting what’s in your cargo at customs is still illegal, since different items are taxed at different rates. If it had been barrels of whiskey instead of springs, he still would have been charged.

Because having the shipment company create the order themselves avoids:

For sure. I’m just pointing out why that would be a thing that would be useful to do, since the author didn’t seem to get it/explain it.

In case it turns out he was the perpetrator of the fraud. Basically, the judge very reasonably ruled “based on the available evidence, it sure does look like your story checks out, so we’re not going to keep you in jail while we solve this other crime. But we reserve the right to charge you later if it turns out you…

I assume they meant effigy. As in the picture.

That doesn’t really make sense since they’re allowed to change tires. Why is it ok to do some aspects of a pit stop under a red flag, but not others?

Sailboat racing also has to contend with the fact that it’s much harder to mitigate the risk of a collision because, well, you’re in the water. If a crew member gets knocked on the head and winds up face down (not that improbable in a foundering), then they’re dead, full stop. There are also many fewer circumstances…

I mean, it still cost $105-190mil to scrap it in an environmentally conscious way. There was no option that cost Long Beach less than $100mil.