If you live in a jurisdiction where the vendor can print out a form with a price and get you to sign it, then the vendor later says “lol nope, we increased the cost, and since the new costs aren’t on the form you signed, you don’t have any consumer rights”, then maybe that jurisdiction needs better consumer-protection…

Lots of people are assuming that the parking security people are working with a criminal conspiracy, but it could simply be incompetence. “Airport parking security” means people who couldn’t get into the TSA. That’s a pretty low bar. Not just people, but processes and technology too.

The UK nationalised its railways post-war and then privatised them in the mid 1990s.

I live in a semi-rural town. There are lots of farmers that legitimately need their pickups to tow trailers, haul hay, carry supplies, etc. Sure, there are brodozers, but for every dudebro in their jacked up “DirtyMax”, there are 10 farmers in their dented ‘92 F-250 picking up cattle feed from the farm store.

Alas, the great circle from Tijuna to Nagpur passes over Alaska and Siberia; Hawaii would be a huge detour.

Volts aren’t power. Volts x Amps are power.

Alas! I owned an XJ for a few weeks of light offroading (with a different engine; the VM Motori diesel), and it felt as though everything broke in those weeks. Glowplugs failed; the cooling system was beyond hope even before the head cracked; fuel lines leaked; cracked cabin heater matrix; broken trim; electric window…

Jut look at this beauty, with a much lower estimate:

Maybe you’re not familiar with the many militaries which already use Mercedes vehicles, including G-wagens? FFS even France (with notoriously nationalist procurement, and a strong local car industry) uses them, albeit with Peugeot badges glued on.

Great work!

Just look at this stack! I just had a little Jalop orgasm. Is that a Tissier conversion of a Citroën CX? I have no idea what the blue-cabbed truck is, something 1970s Hino?

fridgefreezer is wise.

So many people like the idea of a huge 4x4 camper truck thing. Not many have actually tried living with one. If you want to see the great outdoors, do you really need three bedrooms, jacuzzi, maid service, and a walk-in humidor?

When I was very small, I had a die-cast XJS. I thought the flying buttresses were the coolest thing ever, until I got a Tonka truck. It survived years of abuse without needing maintenance, far better than a *real* XKS.

BMW is reaping the benefits of tight supplies, further backing up the worrying claim that even after the chip shortage lifts, car companies may never resume pre-pandemic production capacity again. This is great for them and great for their dealers. It sucks and will continue to suck for you and I.

It looks like a nice car, and good for the environment, but all that himalayan balsam in the photos is heartbreaking. (Himalayan balsam is an invasive plant which is gradually taking over various parts of the world, including my hometown. It should be easy to stop it, by uprooting it, but most people don’t bother)

That is a beautiful Volvo.

The fuel shortage is 90% due to panic, 10% due to driver shortage. If people weren’t panicking, there wouldn’t be queues and everybody would get the fuel they need.

This design is almost 40 years old - the first ones appeared when Reagan was in the White House - but it’s a unibody 4x4 which has far better road manners than the agricultural machines which proceeded it, and the styling is still fresh.

All its life this car has been meticulously and rigorously maintained. If something wore out or broke, it was replaced. It was almost treated like how you’d expect a military fleet vehicle might be maintained