Yeah, the “Super Sammy!” in the header was definitely written in in his style. They sell these cars all the time, if you watch the Roadkill Extras they do a fleet update every once in a while and explain what they still have, what got sold or junked, etc.

A lot of dealers are also playing ball digitally now, too. I bought a new car in December and didn’t go to the dealership until I needed to pick it up. Trade-in, financials, everything done remotely except for the 20 minutes there signing paperwork. I had already test driven this model and trim before the pandemic,…

The Rogue is awful. Granted we’ve been spoiled by having German and Italian cars for a decade, but even curving for that, a long-term rental Rogue (her SQ5 got hit and it took a while to get parts) was an absolute hateful pile of shit. Incredibly vague and light steering, hideously slow, hard plastic everywhere, cheap…

Totally plausible; even in the Peter Jackson movies there was definitely at least an allusion to some sort of machinery down there during the “fly through” scene where he’s birthing (growing?) Uruk-Hai.

Fair. The proto-bomb they used at Helm’s Deep would put them around maybe ~1400, but I agree that most of The Shire does seem to be at a ~1700s level of society. Pre-steam engines, but not by much.

You’re mostly right except they don’t have guns, which is a big one. 

Did you read the article? The whole point was that he didn’t buy it.

Hey, I’ve had my Alfa Romeo for 340 whole miles and nothing has gone wrong yet!

Maybe with that attitude...

I looked into 997 S models pretty thoroughly a few years back until my now-fiancee found out and nixed that idea as a daily.* From everything I read I wouldn’t be concerned at all about IMS on an S; it seems like a vanishingly small percentage of very early 3.8s were impacted and I’d be comfortable playing those odds.

“Anticipating the pearl clutchers’ question about the IMS bearing, the seller notes that were it to have gone south on this car, it would have done so many miles earlier. It’s kind of surprising that it wasn’t upgraded or just replaced along with the clutch at 122,000 miles.”

The 997 Carrera S did not have IMS issues. Only the NA 996 models, and the early (‘05-’06) non-S 997 models.

Same scientific reaction happens with the T-Top Monte Carlo SS I had in high school.

Yeah not including Fuchs is a huge miss here.

The Alfa Romeo Dark Miron aluminum wheels were a must-have on my Giulia. They make the design of the car; no other design looks anywhere near as good.

“Limpin’ along at full speed” was always my dad’s go-to line. Enjoy the time you have, it can disappear a lot more quickly than you’d think. ~2 months from a stage IV cancer diagnosis to gone, in my case. Hopefully you have a lot more time to come.

“banned diesel vehicles with carrying capacities under 2,200 pounds back in the 1970s”

They may just do the violence Disney-style, without blood. I think it’s manageable if they aim it at a ~12 year old audience.

I have the entire series and they’ll be saved for the kids I don’t even have yet. Both my fiancee and I loved the Redwall series when we were growing up.

I think they’re all on YouTube, and they are very faithful to the books. Re-reading as an adult, the books are definitely tamer than they seemed when we (I assume) originally read them as kids.