I did my last car purchase 90% online and it was extremely pleasant- found the car, talked to the sales guy, came to the dealership and did my test drive, did my trade in and loan paperwork, right up until the overly intense roid rager of a finance manager tried to convince me to get the extended warranty. He glared,…

I wonder if Tesla is the modern, much more expensive Saturn- A completely different buying experience, a unique product, extremely loyal buyers.

About 10 years ago, we decided to go to chicago for an overnight. Instead of driving into the city, we drove to one of the suburbs and caught the Metro into downtown. It took longer than driving and we had to wait for the train. But otherwise? It was magnificent.

In my lifetime, the coolest car my dad had was a Mazda RX4 wagon in blue. White vinyl interior. Inspired my love for wagons to this day.

Where I live, we have a crapton of dedicated bike paths, and they actually do a pretty good job of connecting all parts of the city equally, even the low income parts.

Musk really needs to buy Twitter so he can have a shiny new toy to play with and stop ruining Tesla.

The value of your time is what you say it is, not a set cost.

Remember the wheels that VW used on the last generation of the beetle? those would be perfect here.

Figure you’ve got to start somewhere and this is an actual start- that’s worth a lot more than you’re giving it credit for- because right now we’re at the uncoordinated mess level of things. As many have pointed out, 4 different plugs, a app for pretty much every single different charger network, no common “just slide…

I mean, we’ve all done it or close to that at some point. A friend and I hit 55 on a long downhill near Baraboo in Wisconsin. The road was freshly paved and smooth, it was like a 2 mile downhill slope and we both agreed that at that speed our helmets were wearing us for protection.

And Apple could probably make the same case for their proprietary charging ports and cables but that’s not stopping the EU from putting their foot down and saying “look, one standard for everything so we can stop with all the waste”.

It’s OK to make manufacturers uncomfortable and force them to a standard.

No, the real answer is to drive less and have more non-car options for getting around. I know that’s hard to accept. It’s not about changing tire compounds. It’s not about making lighter cars.

We have to rely less on cars. We have to build systems that don’t rely on cars. We have to retrofit our awful city designs to…

OK, it’s 1980 something. Your family of 4 is going on a family vacation to the florida keys. What vehicle do you take? If your answer was a single cab F-150, you get a prize! and that prize is, an aluminum capper on the bed with metal only slightly thicker than a pop can, an outdoor carpet covered homemade platform in…

ohmygod my dad and I drove one of those, towing a car on a full trailer from Seattle to Wisconsin. top speed of 60, maybe. In the mountains it was top speed of maybe 25-30. the worst.

OK, so hear me out... Maybe flying just... sucks? Like, it’s worse than greyhound in everything but speed and some of that speed is pretty well eaten up with having to get to the airport early, and it remains one of the most stress inducing ways to travel for anyone.

When I was in high school and college I did gopher work for my Dad’s roofing company and the truck I used was an early 80s gigantic dual cab dually pick up. Indianapolis has a lot of streets that go from being modern width to older and narrow with no warning and so driving this monster in traffic, usually under a…

Honestly, I want to know all the normal things- how easy is it to haul weird bulky items? Will I feel bad if I take it to home depot and load it up with plants and rocks and dirt and mulch? How’s it for driving in traffic? If I’m driving with 3 friends and our luggage for a camping trip, will we still be friends at…