My wife is the same height and has the same car two years older. We both adore the Mazda 3 hatchback as it fits my 5'9" frame and her 5'3" frame comfortably without much effort. As much fun as it is to drive, I’m sad it’s not working for Bee. The 3 is a lot of bang for the buck.

To be fair, there’s often a fine line between those two.

You’re not kidding. I see no redeeming qualities whatsoever in that design. It’s like they gave a Prowler Lego set to a kid, but they didn’t give them the instructions.

My buddies always give me shit for finding every sizeable rock when we do trail rides. “Hey Bocker, rock coming up in the middle.” Me - “Got it!” as I nail it with my front tire. I’ve gotten better since then, but the joke persists.

Okay, but, to be fair, lots of those are only going to be purchased by the ultra-wealthy, right? I’m not sure how to go about proving this without more effort than I’m willing to put forth, but I have a hunch that America probably makes more affordable gas guzzlers than the Europeans. Schlubs who want power buy Mopar,…

I have no firsthand experience, but my cousin purchased one. Upon delivery, she hated it so much she refused to drive it. It’s to be replaced in her garage by a Volvo C40 Recharge. I’ve not asked her for specific details that led to this decision, but I plan to do so once I’m confident the topic isn’t going to induce…

It’s not bad for the 690 at all. I ride a 500 EXC with a couple buddies on 690 Enduros. My maintenance schedule is probably the one you have in mind. The 690 is much more everyday ride friendly than the 500.

Regarding the roots of the HR-V, is that not the same basic story as the original CRV? They basically took the Civic platform, added AWD, lifted it a bit, made it taller, but saddled it with a gutless engine, appallingly bad transmission, loathsome interior, and printed money like it was going out of style. Subsequent…

As the guy who passes people like you three times in the span of 45 minutes on the interstate, please use your cruise control. It’s less frustrating to drive around other drivers using cruise, and you get the benefit of improved fuel economy. You cannot possibly modulate a throttle as well as a computer. You can still…

Is this...sarcasm? I hope it’s sarcasm. Please tell me it’s sarcasm and the problem is simply that tone doesn’t travel via text.

This is a good point. To me, the most offensive part of his comment was the use of “myself” rather than “me.”

The basic idea was to get more power out of the four stroke engine by having an eight cylinder engine that wasn’t an eight cylinder engine. The rules at the time did not permit more than four cylinders. Since Honda didn’t want to go with a two-stroke, this design would theoretically offer more power without having to…

The girl I dated in high school had one of these. It’s a piece of shit. No way in hell it’s worth this much. I don’t care about its condition or options. The car is a piece of shit. Her parents were dumb enough to buy another one that was slightly newer. Guess what? It, too, was a piece of shit.

I had a rental Impala that had a lot of fancy options and a fairly nice interior. Its handling was trash. The slightest bump seemed to confuse the hell out of the suspension and send it hopping to the outside of a turn. It was comfortable as long as the road never had a bend in it. Once you got into curves, it was…

Don’t forget the rampant incompetence of the administration attempting to make the changes. The combination of the two is pretty potent.

They’ve done studies on the impact of open office environments on collaboration. Seems it does incline a lot of people to do exactly what you describe; they simply put in headphones and block everything out. It essentially has the opposite impact of the designer’s intent. Instead of everyone engaging, most people just…

I scrolled far too long to see someone finally point this out. The nomenclature is confusing for car people. Imagine being someone who just wants a vehicle and isn’t a “car guy.” None of the names make a damn bit of sense.  It’s likely a minor component in a bigger list of reasons why they’re currently failing, but it…

Take your star and get out.

I have zero evidence of this claim, but I wonder if part of that styling choice is the desire to differentiate the idea of sedans from crossovers/SUVs. After all, if what you’re selling shares many of the traits of a comparable SUV but lacks height and AWD, trying to sell it as sportier might carry some weight with…

Except that no, he doesn’t have a clue how the motorcycle actually steers. Whether consciously done or not, a bike is steered through counter-steering. Just because it’s difficult for people to grasp the physics of the behavior doesn’t mean you can make up an explanation and call it fact.