How many people has that happened to, vs the number of people who have gotten norovirus or covid on cruise ships?

Because, according to Forbes, 1,939 people got norovirus aboard cruise ships from six different US jurisdiction cruise lines in just the first 7 months of 2023. Cases onboard cruise ships “skyrocketed” in…

Ex Chevy dealer tech from back then. I PDI’d some of these when new, and they were shitty cars even back then. And they haven’t improved any 28 years later. Terrible, cheap, hard, poorly fitted plastic interiors, mushy seats, wheezy engines, sloppy handling and vague brakes. And as noted, not a lot of standard content…

The big, heavy wheels and tires aren’t helping. Nor is the weight, and the aero isn’t exactly leading the competition. Not to mention Tesla’s established track record of... uh... very “optimistic” advertised range figures. Yeah, let’s call it “optimistic”.

Nor cal and past so cal resident here. EV owner. Much of california doesn’t get winter, that’s why EVs work so well here. No snow or freezing temps in much of the state, all year round. And where you do get snow and freezing temps is not where the bulk of the state population lives. You may drive through it…

Come for the onboard rollercoaster, methane emissions, ten thousand people on a ship and the overpriced open bar, stay for the norovirus and covid outbreaks!

How are you spending your vacation week? One way or the other, or another way?
It’s a valid comparison between options, because passenger mile emissions of flying to and from a destination (like, say, Mexico City, including transport to and from the airport) and then walking or riding the bus while you’re there can…

The Chargers came out after I quit that part of the industry, so I couldn’t say. But I was told at the time (circa 2005) by law enforcement upfitters working with various DC/Northern Virginia three letter agencies that the Chrysler takeover by Mercedes/Daimler really fucked things up for a while for upfitters and…

It’s a good thing gas pumps don’t freeze in frigid Illinois winters!

Oh, wait...

Now all Elmo has to do is reinvent the bus, but electric and smaller.

come for the open bar, stay for the norovirus and covid outbreaks

Ex cop car mechanic here. Reliability is one aspect considered by police fleet buyers, but it’s far from the only one, or the most important one.

Low upfront cost per fleet unit is very important - the NJ State Police paid about $14k for each new LT1 9C1 Caprice back in 1995, with power locks and windows, A/C, cruise,…

Jeezus.
Thank you for the detailed comment, it is appreciated.

Side note - the Encore GX is a bit longer and wider than the discontinued Encore, not the other way around.

2022 Encore: 168" L x 70" W x 65" H
2022 Encore GX: 171" L x 71" W x 64" H

Yep, that.
When I owned my shop (late 90s to mid oughts), I would get customers who wanted race-level performance out of full weight street cars that had to pass yearly emissions testing. I did a lot of GM LT-1 B Body cars at the time .

This being well before cheap LS swaps and affordable add on turbos were a thing, I…

To be fair, that looks like Philly - and the Philly potholes are legendary and brutal. If you’re not diving into a pothole or clawing your way out of one, you’re in the wrong town.

We had several generations of GTI, all stick shift, and they all had poor shift feel and action compared to the three generations of Civic Si hatch that I had. I test drove a then-new ‘18 GTI back when new car shopping, and that shifter was still noticeably worse than the Civic, enough so that I didn’t want to put up…

Can confirm, and also, Ram customers in Orange County, California.

Yup. And to be fair to them, at the time (2008-ish) the AMEX Black cards were super exclusive and required (IIRC) some ridiculous annual spend level. I think $600K/year? So this one transaction went a ways towards satisfying that month’s minimum, or they were so wealthy they didn’t care about the extra $800, or both.…

Fiat CEO:

“clearly, our plan for the US is market suicide. See how well it’s been working already?”

Some years back, we let a customer charge two brand new Triumph Bonnevilles and a bunch of accessories to her AMEX Black card, and she paid a 3% or 3.5% surcharge to do that. No way were we going to eat like $800 in card fees out of our margin.