I still remember reading David Graeber’s call for UBI in Bullshit Jobs about 3 years ago and thinking that was a step too far. Sweet Jesus, technologies (and perspectives) change a lot in that span of time.

From their inverters to the Octovalve, Tesla has some of the best electrical and mechanical engineering you’ll find in any industry. But man, every Tesla is a rolling reminder that Manufacturing Engineering is an underrated discipline.

Does it count if you see a fairly common car but still don’t believe it exists? That’s the story of my first encounter with a Kia Forte Koup.

The styling definitely makes it seem more expensive than it is. Look at the mess of creases and fakery on something like a CR-V for long enough, and a Tiguan takes on the crispness of a mid-90s Audi in comparison.

Before we go all pitchforks-and-burning-feces on the Niels van Roij people, keep in mind they also do the Jalop-god’s work of turning not-wagons into wagons.

My translation was that the even-worse aero of the Squatch package was going to bring down MPGs more aggressively at highway speeds. 

...if I was well off enough to blow money on an unproven electric roadster, I might opt for one from an automaker with a known track record of building such vehicles.

Depends. What’s definitely abnormal is a lack of alarm if a) the vehicle gets unlocked from the inside, or b) an attempt is made to start the vehicle without it having been unlocked from the outside.

Wrong Mercedes SUV. The guy lives in Texas, so you need to crank up the level of absurdity.

“If you can’t go fast with 90HP, you won’t go fast with 900HP.” -Bob Hall (I think)

There was a dark time (the mid-2000s) when the absolute fastest production Toyota for sale in America was a Rav4.

My head went straight to Boxster after seeing the criteria here. It’s the most joyous automatic convertible you’re going to find, full stop, and $25k is a healthy amount to get one in good shape. Its depreciation shouldn’t be nearly as bad as the Merc or BMW.

This chart maybe answers your question, although the y-axis isn’t really to scale. For reference, torque and HP curves always intersect at 5250 RPM, and you’ll want to add 1/3 to go from kW to HP (10kW = 13.5HP, roughly).

If the wife is planning to flog an EV like a go-kart, maybe consider a carbon fiber toaster-shaped go-kart on bicycle wheels: the BMW i3. And unlike every other suggestion, the i3 has suicide doors for loading your large progeny and dogs.

My Nissan Altima even has a big square in the front bumper that practically says “hey dumbass, pop me open, there’s a place to screw in a recovery hook into here.” Pop it open and, bafflingly, there’s a little circular stamping in the subframe member underneath, but no fucking threads to screw into. The car still came…

I mean, they’ll eventually get to the finish line at the ‘Ring. Problem is, they started like three weeks ago and are still waiting for that to happen. 

At what point in the cycle of powertrain-related recalls do we decide that maybe Kia doesn’t have its shit together?

You’re not wrong. I’ve found that spring, not summer, is the ideal convertible season, and that A/C in a convertible is in fact not redundant. 

That...that was beautiful.

All convertibles are good.