In Seattle, as traffic got more and more congested, the passing lane just went more and more right.

As a Bay Area-er who’s lived on the Central Coast, visited LA a decent amount, and lived in the Seattle area, I can tell you that Angelinos have to have a pretty good amount of spatial awareness to pull the stunts they do in traffic without crashing. The energy level in LA driving is so much higher, even than the…

This is a good point. I’m happy to let someone slightly slower than me make their pass, until it turns into that two-minute not-quite-a-pass where they never actually get their rear bumper in front of the other car’s front bumper...

I thought Speed Limit 60 meant everyone over age 60 gets to go 45 in the fast lane.

You’ve gotten a lot of flak for this, but I think I agree with what you mean. If you’re the fastest driver, behind a middle driver, behind a slower driver, it’s courteous to let the middle driver do their pass and them proceed on their way (hopefully they move right as soon as they complete their pass) before you pass…

I, too, try to lead by example. My commute is frustrating for how ~70% of traffic cruises in the fast lane, and ~30% of traffic is in the slow lane, and the fast lane is a mixture of people who should be there and people who shouldn’t, while the slow lane is a mixture of people who should be there and people who are…

I give a thumbs up to nearly every slower driver who moves over. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Totally this. It seems a ton of people get butthurt over being passed as a point of egotism. I’ve incited road rage against me simply by passing people (not, in my opinion, closely or dangerously), which is insane. I want to ask these people, why do you fucking care?

1st gear: You pay for mechanical quality and robustness.

I personally feel that it was a good time for Clarkson to leave Top Gear and the BBC. He represents an older point of view that is very white-centric, very male-centric, and while he presents that in the most palatable and amusing way you could present those views, the simple fact of the matter is that the times are…

Military spending IS out of control, and one of the big reasons it is so out of control is because over half of our federal budget is the department of defense and yet we are still failing to properly equip our soldiers. It’s all getting wasted in defense contracts and in the upper echelons of the military.

Great review. I will have to disagree on the styling, I have always found the 08+ Lancer to be a sharp, handsome car, but to each their own.

I’ve never been a big power guy, always preferring the chassis-power balance slightly favor the brakes, suspension, and tires...yeah, I think cars have been overpowered for awhile now. You’ve got family sedans running 0-60 sub-6 seconds and you can’t have a sports car taken seriously anymore if it’s not below a 4.5 or…

The thing about design is that it doesn’t matter what the thing is, if it’s well-designed, it’s well-designed. A pencil sharpener can be a beautiful, ever-lasting piece of design even if it’s just a pencil sharpener. I’d argue the same for an Accord.

Sexy is just a bit strong for that car, but it’s a very classy, elegant design that is holding up fantastically well and, from a design perspective, deserves to be considered a modern classic...or, at the very least, one of the greatest mainstream automotive design successes of the 21st century.

Honestly, go drive a Subaru Lineartronic, particularly in a higher performing model (2.0XT, basically). It’s a really great transmission. Among the best two pedal choices on the market for enthusiasts.

My understanding with the VW DSGs, at least, is that the automatic crawl is provided by a planetary gearset and has nothing to do with the clutches engage; the clutches engage when you actually engage the throttle and accelerate.

Great article, appreciate the insight.

Good article with interesting points. I think it boils down to two questions: 1) Are we going to continue to make a substantial differentiation between vehicles for business/utility use and personal use and 2) if so, where do we draw that line and how do we define it so it accurately divides the two uses?

Also, PS, I had to read your comment again to really catch the gigantic error in it...the legislative branch makes laws, the judicial brand adjudicates laws. So your suggestion that the debate be kept in the legislative branch is utterly ridiculous, because if it became law then you have to go to court for it!