Love BtB. A coworker turned me onto that recently.

Exactly right. They can be a very large and potentially profitable luxury automaker, but they sure do need to decide what that scale is if they’re not going to completely crash and burn.

I won’t quibble over whether or not Tesla is luxury. But if Tesla wishes to be a luxury automaker, doesn’t that mean that defacto they will never reach any scale like other automakers? And can they every catch up with the profitability of the likes of BMW at a similar scale? Can they remain a viable entity as a luxury…

That’s the correct approach. This is principally a stock price pumping move to make sure he can liquidate enough for his foolhardy Twitter purchase. 

Totally agree. Used GTI and Mazda3 prices have been ridiculous. If they came down enough I’d maybe consider. I am on a few lists to get new vehicles as well. I just turned down taking delivery of an ID.4 (for my wife) due to inability to qualify for tax credits. Also have a reservation for a TN built ID.4 due in…

You mean Cyber-Amphibious vehicle. It’s also a short term boat now.

Right there with you. I’m shopping for something to replace my 2009 Mazda 3, but inventory is tight and dealer mark ups are still hitting for most of what I would want (manual hatchback). So like you I just spent $3k getting work done. The car had started shaking when driving and needed a host of drivetrain fixes as…

Oh yes. When my kids were very little, I think I was paying out about $3k (circa 2010 metro-Boston region) per month on childcare expenses. It was absolutely worth it for a great facility, but the budget opened up quite a bit once both kids started public school.

Or the less old time, but still defunct, Service Merchandise chain. It was a department store of sorts without any clothing. All the merch was for display and you would grab tickets of the it’s you wanted to buy and cash out. Then the backroom staff would push all your stuff out on roller belts for you to take home.…

I’ve never seen a Vons in MA. Stop & Shop and Shaws are by far the biggest players in the state. I would guess number three is a toss up between Market Basket and Big Y. 

If you need a car you need a car. Defining need can be hard of course. There is likely a sort of panic buying effect. Some vehicles are so hard to get that people get worried they’ll never be able to get the car. So you weigh your axis of needs and wants while trying to predict what the car market will look like over…

5th gear: I love how Uber calls it their fleet when a sweeping initiative like this happens. But at the same time they’ll note that the drivers aren’t employees and love the flexibility of earning with their “side hustle”. And yet the flexibility comes with all sorts of requirements, this being the most ridiculous…

I’m actually curious about this. I never rented cars when going from transit hub to metro downtown. However, anything outside of those confines almost always required a car. Having a car in downtown Boston is a pain in the butt. Having a car to visit company offices in Andover or Waltham is almost a necessity. 

I’m having a hard time thinking of a spikey punchline.

Vaporware moves the real product, the stock price.

I had to put in a $500 deposit, but they did finally allow me to do everything over email and the phone. I’ve never done business with this dealer before, but I was happy enough with it. I was trying to work with another dealer that is about 80 miles away, but just didn’t hear back from the sales rep. I assume they…

Amazingly my local dealer did work with me online on the last day hybrid orders were open. I was able to do the whole thing through email after I told the sales rep I just didn’t have time to come on over. Agreed to MSRP, but the only kicker seems to be agreeing to dealer financing.  

Neutral: It’s the time of year when people go apple picking in New England and my favorite concoction at the orchards is the cider slushy. Really anything slushy is great, but something about cider in frozen form is great. Non-alcoholic that I’ve seen, but I’m sure some enterprising orchards and bars are spiking it up.

100% agree. My SIL just got a Chevy Tahoe with some appearance package and the thing is massive. The RI DMV initially told her because of the weight it required commercial plates. That error got corrected, but man her forward visibility has to be extremely limited in that thing. But Americans like big rigs and it’s…

It would be great if Ford would let you do this online, alas one must go to the dealer and provide license  fill in paper work etc. All things that I just don’t have time to do at the moment. Granted, that’s a me problem as clearly Ford is having no problem selling these under those conditions.