I wondered the same thing. That’s as bad for treadlife and traction as the stanced crew. The recommendation from the factory is to get close to an even contact patch based on the tire size, weight rating, and weight of the vehicle

Did not know that about Toyota’s acceleration, I blamed it on drivers just like Audi

18k miles? 18,000 miles??!! Theres missing an oil change long and then theres insane. And you’re deeply into the second. And the Germans recommend longer? I've pulled 5w-30 out of vehicles that went 10K and it was water thin. 

In most automatics, the pawl that holds the car in “park” is pretty small, and they do wear out over time. You ever put a car in park on a hill, let off the brake, and feel the car roll back? Then, when you put it in drive, there’s a noticable “clunk”? That’s wear. Use the parking brake.

The myth that higher octane fuel has more power.  Higher octane fuel resists detonation more than lower octane fuel, but doesn’t contain more power.

I don’t care what anyone says.

“lifetime” fluids. No, your transmission is not service free...it just means they don’t want you checking the levels yourself and making sure its serviced at the dealer. Every single dealer will recommend a replacement interval for that fluid.

I mean it depends on if it was a one-off or typical of their relationship. If she was indeed a toxic parent, I can understand him not wanting to have anything to do with her (the usual caveats about Tarantino being a Weinstein enabler who puts his actresses in unecessary danger aside)

I am doing Valve stem seals on my BMW 850. Took me a couple hours for the first valve. Half that for the second. 22 valves Left to go. You do get better at it. Going to knock a bunch of them out this weekend. 

My rule of thumb when doing a particular job the first time is to take whatever time estimate is given in the DIY article/Youtube video and double it.

This would literally take me a month, and I still wouldn’t have fixed the FACE-DIRECTED SAFETY EXPLOSIVE.

A couple takeaways:

David Tracy’s track record on fixing friend’s cars: https://jalopnik.com/i-tried-fixing-my-friends-mini-cooper-s-but-i-screwed-u-1841575009

Some people need to get together to make an app-based ride hailing company that runs itself as a driver-owned cooperative. Seriously, it could work.

“They aren’t glamorous jobs, but neither is driving around drunk randos in a beat up Sonic.”

I have a couple of friends who ride share and the main reason they do it is because of the flexibility of work hours and they get to “work for themselves”. I always tell them if this is what they plan on doing quit being lazy and get your CDL already.

I really must disagree. I work in a construction-adjacent field, and there is SO much need for decent labor. Not only am I talking about actual construction labor, but reps and supervisors and office staff. Suppliers need clean-cut people who don’t stink like smoke, can answer a phone, and can show up to meetings on…

“Also, despite what the internet fanboys will tell you, every car on the market has its little nasty quirks, the Sonic included.”

Yeah, I read this climactic paragraph several times trying to make sense of it:

This is great advice for when I buy my Lamborghini later this year.