The upscale areas in California are, in fact, not full of tract homes.

I’m with Torch on this one.

The R33 has always been my favorite, and I think it’s the best-looking of the bunch. Its lines are more graceful than either the angular R32 or the blocky R34.

I would’ve expected a deeper discount, even without the cheating scandal. A 2-year-old VW that originally sold for $27k? I’d guess a fair price would be around $14k, diesel or not.

It reminds me of the seatbelt chime that won’t shut off until you buckle up. I don’t know how the fuck people can tune that stuff out. Is it really that awful just to wear a seatbelt? Like, more awful than that grating, maddening goddamned noise?

I get into kind of a mental zone that allows me to appreciate the drive itself. Feeling the car respond through the controls, taking in the scenery, appreciating the freedom of being able to hop in a car and just go somewhere. There’s something sublime about it.

It’s not just manual transmissions. It seems like everything I want in a car is being phased out of new ones. Double-wishbone suspension, normally aspirated engines, low hoodlines, outward visibility, light weight. It’s pretty much impossible to find a new car with all of those attributes on any end of the price or…

That has a lot to do with why I joined.

I completely condone this, and hope the charge against her is dropped. Fuck that guy. Don’t want to get killed or injured by a pissed off person? Don’t steal other people’s property.

The only thing that kept me from getting a DC2-R was the certainty that it would be destroyed by thieves. It would be the most perfectly practical all-arounder if only you could park it somewhere without an armed guard.

Eh, I’d rather spend the money resto-modding a nice Karmann Ghia.

I want an all-or-nothing approach. Either I am in complete control of the car at all times, or the computer does all the driving while I sit back and read the paper. This “assistance” stuff would drive me batshit.

Yup, I see it now.

Sentra? I thought it was a ‘90s C-class.

Man, that K5 sounded great until I got to the part about the 305. The 305 is a, uh, dog of an engine. Why oh why couldn’t have had a 350?

Meh. I hate turbocharging even more than I hate automatic transmissions.

For the first time ever, my preference has shifted from Accords to Camrys, thanks to Honda’s stupid-ass move to an all-turbo lineup for the Accord. Glad to hear both of the Camry’s engines will remain normally aspirated.

Winter 1995/96, Dallas. My friend Will and I went straight from work to go see Doosu play at Trees in Deep Ellum. We’d scored a 9-gram sack of some pretty good skunkweed at lunch that day. For some reason we decided to make the drive downtown in my 1974 Karmann Ghia instead of Will’s new Escort.

For some reason, I am totally comfortable wearing shirts with motorcycle brands and brands of aftermarket car parts (there’s a Dell’Orto shirt I want really, really bad). I’ll even wear certain car-themed shirts, like the one emblazoned with nothing but the screaming chicken from the hood of a ‘70s Trans Am.

My dad had an ‘87 Fifth Avenue (built on the same platform) as a company car when I was a kid. He hated it, but I had brougham fever even back then, and loved it.