Yup, this is THE lie that we tell ourselves, not just other people.

I have a prescription for your ailment (or at least some of the symptoms) : Buy a used, slightly wrecked Nissan Leaf. They can be bought very cheap with minor damage on CoPart, and since you don’t care about cosmetics anyway you don’t even need to fix it. There is almost nothing to go wrong with the Leaf, and as long…

I really agree with you on this - diesel technology (and fuel) has come so far in the past 2 decades, and the EU support for diesel fuel for efficiency and low CO2 is a big part of the reason. There were some real challenges with meeting NOx, and the drastic reduction of the standard in the US when we went to Phase 3…

Damn, my real takeaway is that your mortgage payment was only $550...

Nah, this is just how capitalism works - sometimes people really hope that a business is viable, and it turns out that their dreams of profit are faced with the reality that they are being led by a charlatan, and the science and technology needed is not really there. The fact that Waltons and their friends got duped…

Really - reading the list of major investors provides great schadenfreude.

If you are not living there and just renting to travelers, then no - you are not “sharing” anything. You are indeed taking away the potential for a long term rental unit too, as you could choose to still make money off your real estate asset by seeking a local tenant. Just not as much money as you likely would make in…

Fair point, though doing AirBNB for a single room also might allow someone who otherwise would be living in a single or studio apartment to live in a slightly bigger 2 bed apartment, and then use that room part of the time. I know when using AirBNB as a guest, that has been a common situation - a couple who don’t want…

This impact seems true for AirBNBs that are rented as entire units. For those that are a single room in a house/apartment shared with the host, this is not an issue (which was the original model for AirBNB).

There is some rationality to this, but highly dependent on situation, and unlikely to help much.

Your friend sounds like the type of idiot who hears about the fact that rally drivers use left foot braking, so they try and fail miserably everywhere, without learning any technique. Then complain that Subarus are unreliable cars...

It is possible, but takes just the right touch. Definitely not something to try when just learning to drive a stick, though I have done this when the clutch cable broke on my VW Rabbit.

Well, your writeup on here a little while back did inspire me...I was looking for a photo of a 300TD, and yours was the first one I thought of!

Even the very early 1Z TDIs have an ECU, (something I am struggling with as I am doing an engine swap). So to be safe, you would want one of the IDI Volkswagen diesels, preferably the 1.9 TD version called the AAZ that they sold in Canada. Or you could do a “Mechanical TDI” injection pump conversion on a newer TDI…

I too am concerned about the apocalypse cow...

Ha - good luck stopping this car with that device (not my car, but have similar era 190D).

Oh, that Alfa has definitely “been around”, and likes photographs, if you know what I mean.

Leap higher!

I’ve always really liked these vans, and looked into buying one as a Gambler vehicle. They can be picked up pretty cheap on the west coast, but the 4wd ones are hard to find. The potential is definitely there...I like this one especially.

Yeah, my takeaway on watching just the short clip is that she should really just listen to her son!