The problem is that, while you and a few others might want one, nobody else does. You are only an individual. And the fact is, they used to offer manuals as a bona fide option on higher-end trims. Fewer and fewer people bought them over time. Why? Because automatics got better and better. Cars are appliances for the…

The carmakers have tried, but you guys never buy new, “enthusiast”-facing cars.

No ones cares.

No, you fuck off. You’re the one mis/not-reading others’ actual points before responding to them. You so want me to be a neoliberal caricature that you can’t see I’m making the precisely opposite case. We SHOULD be oriented toward socialism, but we aren’t.

And you apparently haven’t read anything I’ve written. I WANT us to be oriented toward socialism. I WANT our social programs to be insulated against attacks from capital, regardless of how useful they are to capital. But that’s not the reality we live in. We are oriented towards capitalism. To argue otherwise is to…

I am having this discussion honestly. My suggestion is that, since you would be a net taker under this scheme as well, perhaps you should spend more time worrying about how you live your own life, and less worrying about how others live theirs, as though you occupy any sort of position to turn up your nose at others.…

This is why we can’t have nice things kids. I’m hoping that there will be fines, restitution, jail and court martials all around.

You are kvetching about a minuscule slice of the public. And what I fear is that people who echo your attitude would hold an entire idea hostage just to spite that group of people. There is nothing worse than people who are against social programs because they can’t stand the idea of there existing an “undeserving”…

The new game car enthusiasts play is to compliment every other type of transmission in order to boost their credibility when they trash CVTs. It just doesn’t hold up. The best CVTs in normal-person cars are not significantly worse (and are often reported to be virtually indistinguishable from or better than)…

You’d be happy with that payment, I bet, if you ever fell on hard times, say by losing your job.

The reality is that you, as a recipient of UBI, will also certainly be contributing less than you get back. In other words, you won’t be untainted by “freeloader” status, either, as a net “taker.” Are you going to sit there and tell me that working literally any job (like, say, part time bagger at a grocery store)…

But the idea of paying for the maintenance of some goofball who just doesn’t wantto work rubs me the wrong way. If I had my ‘druthers, I’d sit at home working on my shitty novel, playing video games, and dropping my brilliance into the comments here in the GMG-verse, rather than actually working—but that’s not how…

Okay.

Methinks the problem is largely due to a fulfilling prophecy.

Yeah, this is pretty much it. They have the ground clearance and AWD to deal with low-speed driving in suboptimal post-snowfall conditions. I’m thinking specifically of how the plows will often create inconvenient snowbanks on street corners in town. If you’re forced to come to a complete stop before turning because…

I put my money where my mouth is ...

The transmission is actually pretty good.

Agreed. I think it only catches shit because enthusiasts can’t understand the presence of a “manual” mode that you aren’t meant/expected to use full time. It’s for downhill engine braking and perhaps downshifting to pass someone on the highway. Otherwise, keep it in drive and save fuel.

Agreed. Subarus were never cool. Enthusiasts just started digging wagon-like vehicles right as they were dying out, and thus possess false memories of what the Subaru brand was back in the ‘90s. Where I lived, the Outback was just an alternative to the Volvo 240DL. It was a parent-mobile that eventually got handed…

Then just create an abbreviated “Enthusiast Lineup” for the rest of us. Which doesn’t include that infernal CVT.