True story: Adding a thin blue line flag and a punisher skull automatically adds 2000 pounds of towing capacity. That’s why the guys with 5th wheels all have them.

Every truck today is trying way, way too hard.

Heh, reminds me that my old Mercedes 300TD took 8 quarts of oil. The pan was huge, and included a smaller sub-sump for the pickup. It was explained to me that the extra oil capacity was to make sure the blowby soot in the oil stayed dilute enough in between oil changes, otherwise the viscosity would start to go up.

The anal pear, like most of the more extreme “medieval” torture methods, was probably a hoax. Another example is the iron maiden -- the oldest known examples are from the 19th century, built for exhibitions.

I heard after Elon called everyone back to the office and banned remote work, they discovered they didn’t have enough chairs or parking spaces for everyone. Did they just do layoffs musical-chairs style, where anyone not sitting down got fired?

Wood body framing was pretty common on cars in the 30s and 40s. Morgan was always excessively conservative about adopting new tech.

Tesla’s charging infrastructure is a huge selling point, but also a precarious one. It costs them a lot of money to maintain. If it ever goes downhill, a lot of their cars will be left with no fast-charging option, which will seriously hurt their value.

Chinese cargo ships aren’t idling in my neighborhood filling the air around my house with particulates.

It depends on the region and the industry. If you’re in California, say, then yeah, they’re going to be much more impressed by a Porsche or a Maserati. But if you’re in the rust belt, turning up in a foreign car is not always acceptable.

The usual alternative in this price range seems to be Alcantara, which quickly gets grubby around controls and is nearly impossible to clean. I think I prefer this. I suppose a truly high-end car would get leather or wood laminate, but you’re not getting that for $62K.

I suspect it’ll grow on people just like the BMW “Bangle butt.”

Still doesn’t work. If you see the same parts in a non-exclusive car it cheapens the experience.

If you’re an exec buying an expensive car, you have to be able to drive it to places where you’ll be meeting other executives who can be impressed by it. That means you need to be able to drive it to the golf course.

Hoovie had an SSR, which at least was made this way from the factory. And didn’t have plywood as a major structural feature.

I’m OK with some of them but the HHR is one of the worst examples of the trend.

Yeah, agreed. My only other concern is it’s apparently gotten nearly impossible to get parts for HHRs.

The hold is meant to eliminate a race condition. It’s a bit like a database transaction lock. With a simple balance check you could remove the money in between when they checked the balance and when they completed the transaction.

Nah, they use Canadian Tire Money.

The problem comes in when the preauths start to stack. You buy a couple tanks of gas ($175 each) then stop at a hotel, where they preauth the entire stay plus a damage deposit. Now you’ve got $1000 in your account but can’t use any of it. It can take a couple days for them to release the funds.

I almost always use my AmEx when I buy gas. In fact I use it at any merchant I hate, because I know they get dinged for a higher fee than when I use my Visa. ;)
BTW if the pump offers tap-to-pay, it’s a lot harder to skim than a magstripe swipe.