“Lul look at that minivan with the stupid wheels.”

Outside of the cities, there are still plenty of people who haven’t yet adjusted their expectations to the new state of the used car market, not just buyers, but also private sellers. Most people have no real idea what their vehicle is worth, especially if it’s just a mundane, dozen-year-old Kia Optima or Pontiac G6.…

Here come the men in black.

Be prepared.

This was easy math for me when doing the rocker arms on my van last weekend. The job was easily $2000+ anywhere locally. It took me 12 hours, $150 in parts and $150 in tools (I replaced my HF torque wrenches with a better set of Tekton wrenches - still cheap, but more accurate). I mean, sure I lost a weekend, but…

I think it’s just the “guilty by association” stigmas that people try to avoid. Cars are such a very obvious - and expensive - extension of most people’s personalities, even if they don’t necessarily see it that way. And so many folks choose a vehicle because of how they want to be perceived, not how they actually…

Minivans FTW.

Same. They were the first car that I “got into” back in the day, and I dreamed of one day owning one. I did make it to the museum when I was 18, but I haven’t been back.

Over time, they’ve just sort of been in the orbit of “cool cars I like”, even though a lot of people think they aren’t cool. And I get it. Back during…

And conversely, Opels were being sold here as Buicks, which is the “next step up” from Chevrolet for us. Because in America, European = premium, even if it’s just an Opel Insignia.

Not sure where the European-market versions were built, but the US-market Chevrolet Cruze and Aveo (sold here as the Sonic) were built stateside (though some were built in Mexico). So they seemed fairly "all-American" to us.

Much like how the fastest car is a rental car, the funnest car to drive in the snow is your Friend’s Car.

Nothing will put a smile on your face like going sideways around an icy two-lane curve like turning the wheel on your Friend’s Car. Doesn’t matter what it is. It was always more fun doing donuts in a snowy parking…

Most will offer up a crappy car sold as a premium one (Cimarron), or foreign car passed off as a domestic one, whether here in the states or abroad via various “partnerships”.

But one that doesn’t get talked about much, is when an automaker rebadges a vehicle from a brand that it just killed off. The Plymouth Prowler…

I grew up somewhat poor, and it was made clear that if I were to own a vehicle, I’d have to take some responsibility for its maintenance and upkeep. My grandpa never really showed me how to do much - he had a double-hip replacement the year I was born and never had much in the way of patience. But he did have a garage…

A few years back I towed a trailer for the first time. It was a 16-foot enclosed trailer behind my boss’ 2003 F-150. So right at the length of a school bus. I got to drive it around downtown Columbus, Ohio, during rush hour, in a thunderstorm. That was an eye-opening (and sphincter-tightening) experience.

I’ve driven close to 100 vehicles, at least for a short time, in the last 20 years. None of them have been terribly exciting by “enthusiast” standards, but it does give you more insight than if you’ve only ever driven, say, big trucks or small sports cars. There’s much to love - and hate - about every class and era of…

I’ll tell yah what ones are not the best...

It’s not the 4.3L in my old Blazer. Yes, sure, it’s basically a 5.3 with two cylinders lopped off, blah-blah, but it had LIM gasket issues, remote oil lines that always leaked, fuel system issues, and made no power.

It’s not the 3.5L J-series Honda engine in my old Saturn Vue…

The odds were stacked against me being a car guy. Apparently, my father was an amazing mechanic - I wouldn’t know. My other male family members were too impatient or drunk to teach me anything. Which didn’t matter to me, I only cared about dinosaurs and weather and collecting rocks and Legos.

One of my coworkers when I worked at McDs was one of those annoying types of “car guys”, who was always buying some crap heap and then trying to convince everyone it was cool. He ended up with an OZ Rally, and was all like, “it’s like an Evo!”. So I offered to pit him against my Neon.

know I’ve already posted, but then during lunch I saw one of the retro-boomer Thunderbirds and remembered there was a Neiman Marcus version of those back in 2001:

Since I know that everyone will be here for the NASCAR-themed Monte Carlos and outdoor clothing-branded Explorers and Jeeps, I’m going to to throw in a very obscure one that I doubt anyone here except a certain Chrysler minivan-loving contributor might now about - the 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT 30th Anniversary…