$3500 for a transmission computer

COTD. Take my damn star.

Budget another $5k or so to convert from the slush-box to a 6MT. Doable at home if you have the time, means, and inclination:

So the Hayabusa is now ‘essence of Squid’ cycling at its purest? Kawasaki is gonna have to up its game to get back the shorts & flip-flops sportbike-riding crowd.

Was it a Mk 6 VW, perchance? The shift mechanism on that generation of VW was a vague, rubbery nightmare.

I’ve owned three E30s, an E36, and (now) an E82. The throw on the E30s was abysmal. A friend of mine had a short-shift kit in his (blown) 318iS, and had I kept my last E30, I probably would have gone that route. The E36 had a perfectly fine shift ratio, on the other hand (but was rather boring in comparison to the…

I’m going to be completely boring and suggest this 11-year-old BMW E60 550i. It’s well under your maximum, it already has an N62 4.8L V8, and it’s not too far from Gig Harbor...well, Auburn...

Not to mention that ‘One Piece at a Time’ was the origin of the phrase ‘Psycho-Billy’ which was later applied to musical acts like Elvis Hitler and The Reverend Horton Heat.

The Man In Black was a true visionary.

“Anything that travels that far ought to have a damn stewardess on it, don’t you think?”

Jesus Christ. With all that money you are making saving other people money, fix your goddamn CSS.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen Hutch & Kathy (and their rotating cast of drummers), enough so I have at least one setlist and a couple of broken drumsticks. They always put on a hell of a show when they’re in town.

Panel gap and leaking was intentional as an homage to British Leyland.

Prior generation, maybe. But the Gen 2 V70 was a hot mess of unreliable and boring (stock V70) and the Gen 2 V70R was not boring but even less reliable.

Euro import BMW E36 Variant (wagon)? 1992 and early 1993 models are officially outside the 25-year-window. Fairly unique and reliable (and chuckable - a rarity for a wagon).

I’ve had no problem in the snow (icy/slushy or deep) with WS80s in a FWD Sportwagen TDI, but I’ve seen many AWD vehicles with all-season radials in the ditch. A big factor, of course, is the driver - less the skill and more the judgement to say, “Fuck it, I’m staying home.”

You forgot the upcoming First Aid Kit album, which promises to be fantastic.

Touchscreen anything in a vehicle (where you are supposed to be paying attention to the road) is not a great experience. I’ve got a summer / fun car (a BMW E82) and a winter / family car (a VW Mk7 TDI Sportwagen), the former with electro-mechanical controls for the entertainment / navigation system, the latter with…

I grew up in Oregon. Not a surprise at all that there are folks freaking out about this because *change*. This is also one of the few states that also allows triple-tractor-trailers, so clearly something is a bit off with regard to the calculus of risk when driving.