Oh gees, There is such a thing as a practical DD? My last 5 have been not even close to practical.

It can’t be any worse than the Rubicon it’s based on. My JL Rubicon was not a good handling car at all until there was nothing put dirt around you.

Buy look at the take rate on the Miata. In the last 2 generations, It’s been at least 50/50 autos. Nothing new here.

My roommate had a lifted CJ5 that I drove exactly once. I thought I was going to die at 35 MPH. I was never happier to jump in to my Full Sized Cherokee as I was at the end of that day. 

Really? I went 3 years driving all of the time through Denver with no front plate. I think it’s just an excuse if you are driving like an idiot. 

It’s the same all around the world. SCCA sanctions in the US. Auto Club in Canada, Etc. Australia and England have the best programs overall.

Easy. The Safety Safari is only like 15 folks. They are also not the same 15 folks for all of the races. It’s also very easy because it’s all in the US so no issues with visas, etc.

Most of the lead marshals have multiple years of race experience. I’ve been the lead intervention marshal at USGP and Mexico GP and have over a decade of experience including being employed by Texas Motor Speedway before nascar went to a traveling crew. I usually do at least 2 if not 3 GPs a year. This year I’ve done z…

I guess you haven’t seen how crappy most of the medical plans are even for those of us with a job and health insurance. A family member got it early on and has probably the best medical insurance in my immediate family and still paid close to $20K. Staying in the hospital for over a week is expensive regardless of the…

There is one key piece that not too many people talk about. Tesla is profitable because they sell tax credits. $594M last year and already $782M this year. $428M of that last Q alone (Which bought them into the Black) It just takes one regulation change to put their profitability at risk. 

I usually end up driving them so long that not too many people really care the maintenance. Once a car reaches the under 5K price range, It really doesn’t matter on the resale. People are so use to not seeing maintenance records from buying from dealers that it’s not really questioned much.

That is just not true any more. Look at the E888 VW engine in the Golf. The 1.8L makes max torque by 2100 RPM and it’s basically a plateau till 5K where it starts to fall off because of the small turbo.

I have a pair on the roof of my Xterra. Cheap insurance if you get caught in sandy bits.

The biggest part is the access to do it. When I was in Texas, I would have thought man there is all this land so there has to be good off-roading. NOPE!! just a few adventure parks that after going a couple times with my friends, I was like.....ehhh been there done that.

The funny thing is I bet as many or more of the sports actually go off road VS. the bronco as an image mobile. Granted not the 5-6 rated trails that you’ll see a more wranglers on but the fire roads and basic trails because more will be bought by younger buyers who are active especially here in Colorado. 

Totally agree here. For the average american, Having a roof over their head, a couple of average cars, and toy or good vacation a year will allow them a decent lifestyle and keep them, barring an issue, relatively debt free or a manageable debt load. 

Totally Agree. I love practical trucks. Drool over a just right patina D100 that is in the neighborhood.

They made many great cars but never certified them for the US.

They don’t lease well. If you look at the lease pricing for and XE vs the rest, it’s just not attractive in a space that is dominated by leases. Combine that with a car that just doesn’t have enough over the BMW/Audi crowd and you have a recipe for disaster in a market that is more CUV dominated. 

As the company switches to a WFH model, even if there is a reduction in productivity, the savings in the cost to maintain the physical location will overshadow that lost. My company already had a WFH policy before the pandemic but this only accelerated the process. A friend in the company has been looking at a…