Or just sign up for the services like Avis Preferred or Hertz Club Gold or National Emerald Club, which are all free and then rent ahead of time and go straight to your car. I’ve not had to deal with a rental counter in years. 

Fancy Kristen shall blog from the Gulag. 

I can’t wait for the Democratic People’s Blog of Jalopnik under Ballaban.

Is there any reason to do this instead of doing a manual swap into a ZJ that isn’t a nightmare? (Besides those being rarish too)

Yeah, their idea of neglect is maintaining the transmission in a way that would be fine for pretty much any other car. 

Meh, the tuner cars are loud mostly because they choose to be, wanting your AMG to be loud and just paying AMG instead of a second shop doesn’t seem to be a big deal. And as I stated elsewhere, at least this is a feature that needs to be activated, whereas most tuner setups are just always loud. 

M/AMG both started as racing/tuner shops as well, it seems like this is part of their heritage.

Sure, but whether the effect is incidental or meaningful, it’s still a very arbitrary distinction. The people who do it on purpose are still more likely to use it all the time.

“Love to be annoyed by a middle aged dentist who wants to make up for his inadequacies”

Tradition and also long haul trucks in the US driving much faster over the interstates. Fair point about displacement though. 

Europe’s reliance on passenger trains for transportation, along with actual shipping over water, is actually why they don’t heavily use trains for freight.

The greater use of shipping and ports is an important addendum for Europe as a lot of long hauls can better be done via ship. 

The US is better about using trains for freight than most other places in the world. We just also use trucks. Europe is far worse than we are. 

Not really necessary. They make packaging more difficult, and I imagine US semis have larger engines on average. 

The Olive Garden is significantly nicer than Little Caesars! And costs a ton more. The two things aren’t direct substitutes. Your comparisons are horrible at helping your case

More of an honorary title I’d think. 

That generation of Sonnett came out in 1970. 

Kim Jong-il is already dead. 

I don’t think highways should own giant anteaters. 

That’s 40% more expensive, that’s a whole separate class! That’s a ton more for someone who is shopping for a Camry.