Glad to hear my mom isn’t the only one who had more natural gas than the Marcellus shales. I swear, she was our answer to energy independence. I honestly worried about having her cremated because of the danger to the public.

My wife’s old Corolla didn’t have them (it was the VE model), and on a 3-hour drive in a light mist/sprinkle, it was worse than the lack of AC or cruise.

Our little podunk town of around 4,000 people managed to draw in 360+ vehicles for the annual car show this past weekend. I only caught the end of it as most cars were leaving, but my friend and co-worker spotted this Bugatti race car. Said it was found locally sitting in the weeds before being restored. I'm not 100%…

Again, the Neon was actually reliable for what it was. Most of the stuff that broke was because I drove it like a 20-year-old college student who’d just saw The Fast & The Furious for the twelfth time, because I was.

Technically, it was only a partial engine transplant (when writing this, I mixed the memory up with…

Agree to disagree. I had a first gen for nearly nine years.

Was it perfect? No. Was it the worst car I ever owned. Heck no. I actually loved my Neon.

Yes, it was basic. That was sort of what made it so endearing. It was cheap and cheerful and roomy as hell. Yes, the dash was made of the stuff they make Harbor Freight…

I own a compact Chevy, and it has gone nearly 100K miles without anything except fluid changes and brake pads.

But, yeah, we had lots of GM stuff from the ‘80s-’90s over the years, and other than my grandpa’s 1984 C10 that manages 300K miles - certainly not trouble free, he just took good care of it - they were all…

I was going to once again mention the ‘93 Dodge Dynasty that I bought for $150 and only drove for a month before the transmission cracked in half and caught fire. However, I knew exactly what I was getting into with this car, and it served it’s purpose well - getting me to and from work while my Neon was getting an…

It.

What is it?

It’s it.

My road snacks of choice have changed over time, and also change depending on what I’m driving. I have more cup holders if I’m driving the van, so I’ll usually have a water bottle and something caffeinated with a straw (iced coffee or Diet Coke). Yes, I pee a lot but whatever.

Back during the winter when I was driving…

The Putt-N-Stuff “Bullit”-level go kart experience off US 30 near Wooster, Ohio, where I showed up all of my wife’s hillbilly extended family of “real” race car drivers (they spend all their money from selling meth and copper wire on a dirt track car). When asked at the end “where I learned how to race”, I just said…

As opposed to coming into Michigan, where your government also yawns at keeping roads repaired. I mean, yeah, I-71 is always under construction, but at least we try.

I see a lot of people complaining about Ohio, and I have to point out that while 2/3 of the state is the combination of flat farmland/urban wasteland that most people associate with the state, the southeastern part is rather nicely wooded, hilly, and has some amazing roads. And if you’re traveling between, say,…

Drove through Richmond to the Bay area a few years ago. I got excited about driving across the bridge-tunnel for the first time and seeing the air craft carriers and Norfolk/Hampton. Then I sat in traffic for two hours. No thanks, I’ll take the southern loop next time to get to OBX. The drive across the Shenandoah was…

Ohio sucks because most of the “through” parts of the state - north/south, east/west - pass through either flat farmland or endless suburban sprawl.

But if you’re taking Route 35 or 33 diagonally across the state - say you’re driving from Michigan/Chicagoland to the Carolinas - you pass through the heavily forested,…

You’re driving through the wrong part of Ohio. I live in the 40% of the state that is basically West Virginia Lite, it’s nothing but winding roads, hills, and trees.

Counterpoint: Driving through the mountains for hours just to get to the beach is just as tiring. Or the 7+ hour drive home in the middle of the night…

I’ve carried AAA for years and considered it non-negotiable given that most of that time was spent driving, uh, less than reliable vehicles. One year, I maxed out my five free tows and had to start using my mom’s separate membership (“Yeah, sure, my mother was with me when my Shadow broke down”). Not to mention the…

More important is clearance for the hair:

Unless you drive a truck, V8s are pretty rare. I’ve never owned an eight-cylinder vehicle, they’ve all been either V6 or I4s. Come to think of it, I’ve only driven two V8 vehicles - a rental Hemi Charger, and our Ford F150 company truck.

Back when I was learning to drive, however, my family went through a slew of…

A while back I suggested that Jeep do a version of the Pacifica and call it the Voyager:

I mentioned on here a while back that the Blazer EV should have been brought back as the Nomad. Market at it as an EV that you can really take places, i.e. free of range anxiety.