That automatic transmission is what got you a screamin’ deal. If I have $20,000-ish to spend on a 911, I’m asking myself “is this manual transmission worth $5k of fun?”. My personal answer is yes, but YMMV. 

Analysts’ thinking probably assumes the Global South (plus India) can make “the leap” and circumvent commuter culture entirely. If they develop sustainable distributed energy resources, all those peoples’ first forms of transport will be EVs--if personal transport is even needed at all. 

i3 is the right (enthusiast) pick. What’s not to love about a carbon fiber toaster on bicycle wheels? Get one with the REX and enjoy turning around town.

“Why did your Ram TRX dump 87-octane and motor oil all over this estuary?”

Dimensioned like a crossover, but with the ground clearance of a sedan? My man, that’s a wagon.

And that’s OK! But if you’re also folding fuel economy into the mix, the incentive should stay with EVs. Or, ya know, carbon tax because that’s the inevitable conclusion to all this. 

God forbid we use weight and fuel economy to tax commensurately with a vehicle’s damage to infrastructure and the environment. I, for one, am grateful that the government is finding ways to essentially subsidize my coworkers continuing to commute in their FERD 3500 MASCULINITYWAGONS.

I can only hope you’re also Scandi flicking your way through every turn, because racecar. 

Remember when you could buy a car that was proud to advertise how many valves it had?

It’s fine that the Civic is big now. If you want a small, cheap Honda (like the Civics of yore), you can always just get a Fi...oh, right. 

16-year-old Me didn’t realize how blinky, sometimes-on school zone speed limits worked, and accidentally went 15-over next to an elementary school during his test. 16-year-old Me did not receive a driver’s license that day. 

But turns out most people want a 3 year old Corolla, not a new Yaris. At some point, smaller/lighter reaches its limits.

GUYS I HAVE A BRILLIANT IDEA. So, I’ve heard one of the editors on this site just purchased a vehicle for $5,000-ish with rock-solid Toyota reliability.

I once offered to replace the washer fluid in my mom’s A4. Queue me having to explain why I was gone for 20 minutes, 19 of which were spent trying to find that damn thing. 

Have you met the average American?

The Fit and Vibe are both great for camping! I’m saying that the Fit is specifically bad at getting to the campsite purely from a “comfort on long drives” sense.

The Fit is a subpar choice on the passenger comfort and camping fronts. Especially on longer trips (e.g. to the woods to get away from the SF bay area), you start noticing when a car is loud and kind of uncomfortable, as the Fit is. Usually Fit is the answer, but not quite in this case. 

I’m hoping this helps people realize that, barring endemic design flaws that create repeated failures, it’s pretty much always cheaper (and environmentally friendlier!) to fix what you have than to replace it.

It’s mostly all the junk that needs to get taken off (e.g. nearly everything except the engine core). And the timing belt cover is this three-piece plastic/rubber absurdity that mostly acts as a dirt trap.

If this means no more timing belt jobs on my NA6 Miata, sign me up. It’s like the Mazda engineers’ design brief was “you’re not allowed to face the engine toward the firewall like those monsters at Audi, but otherwise please make timing belt replacement as onerous as possible.”