This just crossed my timeline (courtesy @oregonrolleda20.bsky.social):

I don’t exactly miss it, but for about a 3 month stretch I commuted from almost-PA to NYC via rail.  I would get on, put my bag down and nap for 90 minutes before switching trains at Newark-Penn Station.  If I had to drive the roughly 70mi each day instead of taking the train in to Manhattan my mental health would…

It is ok to think of your automobile as an appliance.  For most of the general driving public your car is a way to get from point A to point B.  We don’t all have to be enthusiasts.

• PHEVs are better than EVs

Hard agree. Which is a bit painful for me. I grew up in Lower Saxony, VW’s home state. They were always the home team (as in, lots of people in that region work for them or their suppliers, they’re a huge part of the economic and social fabric, etc.). I’ve been somewhat disillusioned with them for a while (the Piech…

Well now, it’s a good thing VW and it’s subsidiaries don’t have any historical cases of forced labor.  For example people being forced into work camps by an authoritarian government.

As a homeowner with one kid, as minivan would be better than our SUV, but not a necessity. But for a lot of other homeowner reasons a minivan would be much better I borrow my mother-in-law’s sienna all the time. 

My little hellraiser is only 20 months so there’s a whole bunch of perspective I don’t have yet, but I gotta call bullshit. You’ve never allowed your kids to eat in the car?! Seriously? No Cheerios? Berries? Those fruit and veg squeezey things? No disrespect, but there’s no way your kids have never eaten in the car.…

Agreed. Buying an SUV instead of a minivan when you have 2+ young kids is just plain stupid.
Do you know what is cool AF? Buying a car that perfectly fits your needs.
Do you know what else is extra cool AF? Owning a vehicle that can easily fit a sheet of 4x8 drywall or plywood inside it with no need for roof racks or…

“. If you aren’t hauling a kayak and climbing gear why pretend?.”

Yeah, my first exposure to that was “architecting”.

Don’t forget that they also want to go after divorce. 

Man this dude has a very punch-able face.

What kind of business makes money buying products for the same price they could probably sell it for? Carmax isn’t in the speculation or collector car business.

In their defense, there’s only so many people with the self esteem low enough to want this vehicle. 

There are lots of reasons: racism, the GI bill, letting the automotive industry have input into public policy, racism, minimum parking requirements...

Yeah. I got to an age where I just didn’t want to deal with the headaches of trying to DD enthusiast vehicles. My 2022 Crosstrek is perfect. I’m not holding a clutch when I have to drive through traffic in the city. I’m not worrying about valve trains, weird mainseal bearings, bizarre electrical mishaps or any of the…

My automotive biases are the opposite of internet car enthusiasts biases.

I used to live in Nevada where 85 MPH speed limits exist. The extra danger and fuel consumption isn’t worth it. I’ve been noticing semi trucks are increasingly getting much faster as well, which is a huge issue. 

I live in Western Canada and even if the plow has gone across the road you often have accumulations of snow and have no option but to drive on it. This however seems a complicated and expensive solution.