It is and in some states it’s illegal. For the horror stories you hear about Virginia State Police, at least they pull over cars that drive at or under the speed limit on the interstate if they’re holding up traffic. It’s illegal to “impede the flow of traffic” so if everyone is going 75 in a 65 zone and you go 65,…

Hyundai is sliding into Nissan/Mitsubishi subdprime buyer specialist territory. Kia is suffering from dealers used to dealing with subprime buyers while their products and price points have gone upmarket considerably. The entire company has an identity crisis, too reminiscent of pre-bailout GM with corporate…

It is if you’re willing to pay for it. Hyundais price to get you in the door is for cars with interior quality on par with a 12 Civic. Jump up $6000 or so in price and you get a much nicer interior, but by then you could get something nicer with a few less options.

Prices have started to come down somewhat, that was a year ago and in Chicago. $1400 of that estimate was the labor for the dealer to calibrate the sensors, labor in downtown Chicago can be well over $200 per hour for operations that they have a monopoly on. But still, a grille for a Nissan Rogue is $1800 if it has…

Most of your rate goes towards stacking the bank account for bodily injury claims. Less safety tech in vehicle makes you a higher risk for a bodily injury claim, leading to higher rates.

First generation Hyundai Genesis sedans with radar cruise control feature the sensor in the lower grille. One small rock or piece of debris in the road can crack the lense, leading to the replacement of a $4500 part to make the vehicle driveable again. It’s getting ridiculous in insurance/collision repair now.

Insurance adjuster currently based in Chicago here. From personal experience over the past 3 years, I’ve gone from replacing a camera or sensor in a bumper once or twice a month, to multiple times a week. I had a customer last winter hit a chunk of ice with her A8, the ice hit right where the right fog lamp would…

Well, because I can’t edit, #2 was supposed to read Batman Beyond...

1) I’d love to see a story about Dash Rendar, and really as much of Shadow of the Empire as we can get on screen without Luke and Leia being on screen.

You sir are a saint. I own socks with the correct rhyme on them, they’re DC licensed.

The Corvette was THE car to me growing up. After college I started working at a high end bodyshop because it paid better than anything my degree would get, so I got to drive one finally. I was wrecked when I got to experience it first hand and learn the performance really couldn’t make up for the interior. I did…

I think many people used to shop for new cars every few years out of necessity. Repairs got expensive outside the warranty, the interior started to fall apart, or better yet for $250 a month they could get the new generation with new features. Now cars have risen in price as the quality and the content has increased.…

He’s fixing frame rails so that they look repaired cosmetically, however that BMW will fall apart in another front end collision. Structural components that have kinks or buckles need to be cut out and replaced, at least to perform the same again in a collision.

Each state and insurance company has different standards for what a “total” is. Generally, once a repair reaches 70-80% of the vehicles value they pay out the value instead of the repair. Usually once factors like rental charges and additional repair costs are factored in they save a little bit of money. Also, your…

Exactly, this isn’t a repair you’d get from a BMW certified repair shop. It might not be enough to total this car on the first go, but as soon as any reputable shop put together their repair order the insurance company would most likely write it off.

Working at a busy body shop, I can’t tell you how glad I am when I’m handed the keys to a Forester to move around the tight back lot. The cars no one wants to move are anything with a convertible top, horrible rearward visibility, especially Solstice and Skys (which I see often in Chicago suburbs for some reason).

I’m already trying to calculate costs for solar roof and some small wind turbines. We’re planning to buy within the next year or two and something built prior to WW2 (Or 1900)preferably for me). The only issue is banks don’t want to finance improvements into the mortgage, so we’re saving for renovations instead of a…

I think it would have to be closer to 220. Everyone else in the segment has started to creep away from the low 200s toward 250hp or so. Unless Honda can undercut the Focus St and GTI by a $1500-$2000 right out the door, I can’t see them going under 210.

I believe this car was also delayed because the greenhouse would perform poorly in crash tests. So the tech is old, the electronics are crap, and the engineers don’t know how to make proper crumple zones...

1) 1963 Corvette. This is the car that got me into the car scene. This is slow, Sunday cruising car.