California resident here, the only state with any real hydrogen refueling infrastructure and the only place you can buy a Mirai or Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car. They can hardly give away Mirais, even with $15,000 in free fuel included with each new car. Why? Glad you asked!

The whole state only has 43 hydrogen…

Hydrogen for ultra efficient fuel cell cars is a dead end right now, so burning hydrogen in vastly less efficient turbodiesels as a motor fuel is even more of a dead end, practically speaking.

I live in California, the only state with any meaningful hydrogen refueling infrastructure. There are only 43 hydrogen filling…

Not this time, apparently

In Mexico right now, had a fabulous plate of five al pastor tacos last night for Cinco De Mayo after the military parade, took an *epic* plumbing-defying dump this morning before heading out. Can confirm.

Congrats, Bradley! This is an excellent farewell piece. Hope your new gig is awesome, and maybe I’ll see you out on the roads out west in my TourX or on whatever bike I get next. Shiny side up!

Sure thing! I was happy to have an excuse to check out typical rental prices here, vs. what Air BNB is charging in a place that is more financially typical of the country than Mexico City. I also got to discuss things with my local teachers (I’m learning Spanish) and we got in depth about Mexico’s politics, their…

Yep, that tracks. Being down there and seeing the level of total, absolute destruction was mind blowing. I collected around five tons of donations and headed down with a 26' racecar hauler and my then-new ‘05 ram, which I bought in Florida a week earlier and actually drove out through Katrina when it was still a Cat 1…

For comparison’s sake:
I bought a ‘13 Fit Sport 5mt new the same year my folks bought a new ‘13 Sonic 1.4T LTZ automatic hatch, like the one referenced.

The Good:
The taller Fit with the bigger rear hatch opening was miles ahead for interior room for both front and back seat passengers and the cargo capacity with the…

I have been living in Puebla for a month now, and they consider jobs at the VW plant to be good ones, with good working conditions. That said, they still wanted to strike last year for higher wages. Not sure how that went.

From looking at the online ads for a half hour;

Decent but small modern 1/2 BR /1BA apartments…

And I checked some websites for apartments for rent here. There are several modern 2BR/2BA apartments for rent in newer high rise elevator buildings for just under $400/mo USD. Some 3BR/2 BA - 7 rooms total - nice, modern apartments for $500 USD and a modern but small 2BR for $274 USD/mo.

Lots of small 1BR apartments…

I have been in Puebla, Mexico for the last month. The VW plant is here, and has been since 1973 or so, and it’s unionized. According to an article in Freightwaves.com last year, worker pay at the plant starts at $15 US per day and ranges up to $50 per day USD for veteran workers. No mention of how many hours of work a…

If your power grid is down, your gas station won’t be able to pump gas either, without a generator. But if you have rooftop solar and a battery bank, you could run your house and charge your car. And if you have a Ford EV pickup, you could run your house for days off your EV, even without solar.

Not to mention that…

That era of 2.0 TSI motors are cursed with an immense laundry list of expensive, premature fail points: bad intake manifolds, faulty crankcase breather systems, faulty HPFP *and* low pressure fuel pump, faulty timing chain system, injectors, coils, plastic water pump, oil leaks everywhere.

These people really are *just that stupid*.

Some context here is helpful:

The minimum wage in Mexico was raised 23% this year to 172 pesos ($8.48 USD) per work DAY. The minimum wage along the “northern border zone” was raised further, to 260 pesos ($12.82 USD) per DAY. One peso is worth about 5 cents at today’s exchange rate.

The average manufacturing wage in…

They want the cream of the crop: 2-3 year old vehicles with less than about 36k on them that are in great shape, have a clean title history, no crashes, no mods and no damages. They offered me $27500 four months ago for my ‘18 TourX with 29k on it, in great shape, which is just $500 less than I paid for it brand new…

You, sir, get a star

I just can’t get into this car, it seems like a rather half-assed answer to a question few people asked.

The exterior is ugly, the interior is kinda crappy and half assed. You can’t see the instruments, the range is ok but but not even competitive with our Bolt (currently at 300+ miles with the new battery pack), you…

That is a brutal way to learn that lesson. Yikes.

Other than that, it was a truly good city car. On the highway? Terrible. And yeah, Hondas firing spark plugs out of the engine under load is a real thing, and not just on the Fit, 4s and V6s, Civics, Accords, Pilots and Odysseys too, going back at least to 2005 if not earlier. Including original spark plugs that got…