While those engines are soul sucking, it’s worth noting they have something that most other VWs lacked, being simple and reliable. They were simple port fuel injected single overhead cam engines making 50-60 hp/liter.

If you ever find yourself near Elkhart, Indiana, it’s the number you hear. It’s a joke, and it’s optimistic at best.

This. An RV is built for 40 trips, 4o trips that are definitely not uneventful. The frame likely has cracks, and most walls likely shifted and with the screws pulling out of the wall for the cabinets. 

The 350 Oldsmobile Diesel. It was unreliable, unrefined, dirty, and it was terrible to drive. The 0-60 was around the same as the quarter mile time. Words cannot describe what it’s like driving an underpowered slow turning diesel in a land yacht with a 3 speed. This is the original reason diesel became a bad word…

I’m glad you had a trouble free experience so far. One of my friends busted the rear main on their Passat at 60k. Another ate a valve in their 2018 Audi and had timing chain issues. Dealership cost for the work was around 10 grand. One of my buddies works as a VW tech and still hasn’t upgraded from the TDI yet out of…

The EA888 gen 3 is bulletproof if keeping them for less than 60k miles. Much beyond 100k miles and they start to become money pits. 

You’d be surprised. Successful electricians, plumbers, heavy equipment technicians, oil field workers, etc. There’s plenty of blue collar jobs where the top ones in the field in their local areas are bringing in 6 figures. 

I wonder if part of it is because more people are willing to run their tires until they’re racing slicks. Nobody wants to buy tires, but in areas with snow, you’re forced to when there’s not enough tread to get out of the driveway.

The TRD will get around 16-18 mpg, 20 mpg hypermiling on back country roads.

The Lexus with the 2GR based 3.5 engine meets the reliability reputation. Most of them share the platforms with the Toyotas. My sister has 225k miles on her RX350 with the 2Gr and I have no doubt it’ll make it to 300k with minimal issues.

This. Usually changes in ride height(unless if it’s the Carolina Squat) don’t result in much of a measurable change in fuel economy. But the tire and wheel size changes that normally added with the mod results in decent difference in fuel economy.

Do you have a diesel truck? Have you been on the trucker side of the island at night? When you fill up on the trucker side of the island on the regular, you’ll understand why a place that’s trying to be a tourist attraction and advertise clean bathrooms doesn’t want to deal with pee bottles.

It’s not comparable. Sheetz is comparable to QuikTrip, it’s nice to stop at if you need fuel and a quick break. However, if there’s a Bucc-ees nearby, you’re going there.

That’s a good find. I’m curious how much involvement was there.

The Titan is rated...

There’s a few farms with wheat. I usually see them in the higher elevation side of the Piedmont, but there’s a few out by Goldsboro. The field off Big Daddy’s Road that was nuked in the ‘60s was a wheat field.

I’m curious to hear how well it handles a rough forest service road. It can make it over it, that’s not the issue. But how smooth is it? Can you maintain a decent pace without getting coffee stains on the headliner? Or does it have to crawl on a bumpy road and struggle to keep up with the other Subaru Crosstreks?

Correct. But the impacts of a hurricane can last a lot longer than a few days, and the effects of the hurricane can cause further issues several days or even a week down the road that’ll spark more evacuations.

That’s a good question. I only noticed it once and was when listening to a faint signal of a station half way across the country, so I’m really not sure how bad it is. I’d need to experience it again while listening to a station with stronger signal to see if it’s much of an issue.

While the FM band is more local, the downside of the FM band in some emergency situations is that it’s more local.