I see a lot of people talking about growing up with their dads’ awesome cars and being inspired by them, so consider yourself lucky if you had a car dad. Those of us who didn’t had to find our own inspiration. My dad was a commercial airline pilot and WWII airplane buff, his only concern with cars was whether they got…

In high school I used to brag that my mom’s 1995 Volvo 850 had a v10 because I checked under the hood and counted 5 spark plugs and 5 fuel injectors...which I thought were more spark plugs at the time. The sad part is most of my gearhead buddies believed me for years because it was a strange european car.

I bought one new in 2011 and, honestly, as long as you don’t care about power or the joy of driving it’s a pretty good car. Extremely reliable, it’s solid as a rock as long as you don’t put too much force on any of the plastic bits in the engine bay, and I got a top-end model with features you couldn’t find in any…

A rusted out 1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88. It was my friend’s first car in high school and it drove like an iceberg.

First, get the car verified as a TT or TTS by a 3rd party. If they tell you it’s not a TTS then see if you can get a copy of the advertisement for the car and anything else that you have in writing from the dealer who sold it to you that states that it is a TTS. Take this to a lawyer and see if you have a case. If…

Speaking of salespeople who can’t tell a V8 from vegetable juice, I once had a salesman tell me a Ralliart Lancer had more power than a typical Lancer because it has a V8 compared to the base model’s 4 cylinder. I typically over look those things in public, but if you’re selling cars you should at least be familiar…

The worst car I’ve ever owned is a 2000 VW Golf 1.8T, the rare 4-door (5-door?) 1.8T GLS that VW produced for a while in 1999 and 2000. I’ve never been more in love with a car that simultaneously frustrated the ever living shit out of me. It was like a puppy who eats your socks any time you think you can trust it…