A5 convertible for $24,000.

They simply wanted to copy the legendary “The Ferrari The Ferrari.”

But that’s where it gets tricky. If they haul a return load, then you’re double paying.

New to jalopnik? :)

Yeah, no argument that risk is usually underestimated, especially in good markets.

I’d prefer to.

Still around (Virgin was purchased). Why?

< and a startup disruptor is basically impossible.>

We deregulated air travel in 1978 and already by the mid-80s people had figured out that we’d end up with cartel-like conditions,

Excellent points.

<If they had planned-ahead, then there wouldn’t be a scarcity.>

<. Nobody except route drivers go out and back on a fixed route. And nobody expects out and back.>

Yeah, as I said elsewhere, I’m wondering if the cloud brokers (e.g., FreightQuote) are the answer. That would seem to lower the value of middlemen and allow the indie truckers to pick routes and loads.

<Just make auto headlights standard.>

Great, because the average SUV has the opposite of adaptive lighting. They apparently use lasers and cameras to focus the high beams strictly on other road users.

When I’m on my motorcycle (Ducati Multistrada), my head is above even where most SUV/CUV drivers would be. And I still get blinded. To be fair, a decent chunk of that involves asshats keeping their brights on, but many are just insanely bright regular bulbs.

True story. A customer of mine in Europe has a $10mm piece of machinery waiting on my machinery subcomponent which is waiting on an injection molded head which is waiting on resin. And that (other than our end customer) is all US production with US inputs.

The price we’re quoted seems consistent by ZIP, whereas if we were paying more depending on return loads, you’d expect big swings. And when we quote the big guys (who one would assume are more likely to have return loads ready given their scale), they are in the same ballpark. That implies no, but I can’t verify that…

The harbor mess *can* create some movement toward reshoring. However, US manufacturers still have foreign components in their goods (sometimes several layers down). My average product is 95% US content (as a percent of COGS, not retail), including steel, but random shortages still hit me hard.