As a Raptor owner, I’m not really interested in any of the “off road” appearance package “innovations” that the other manufacturers have came up with. The Tacoma is vaguely interesting, but for the price, I’d still rather have a Wrangler than that even.

Well technically the combo of turbos and direct injection; the latter of which was relatively new technology for gas engines when they coined that trademark, especially in US domestic vehicles. Nobody was really putting (gas) turbo-direct injected engines in everything from econoboxes to pickups before that. In the…

This. Barely enough heat trickles out of the vents of my old TDI from a cold idle. I’ll start it beforehand so the heated seats, rear defroster and mirror defrosters have a chance to do their thing, but 10 minutes later when I get in, the air coming out of the vents might be 65ºF (hah not defrosting anything). Such is…

I typically do this whenever I expect ice to form. Last week when my truck was sitting at home in the driveway accumulating a sheet of ice underneath a layer of snow, my wipers were not up. As I pulled them up in preparation to chisel the thick layer of ice away the next morning, the driver’s side wiper made crunching…

I’ve seen people I grew up with who seemed to absolutely kick my ass at math all through grade school, who went on to get degrees; strangely pull out a calculator on their iPhone when they go to figure out a tip at a restaurant. Guess I wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Same here, I’ve always been really bad at math, especially abstract math concepts; but I answered all of these confidently and correctly.

At least it insulates you somewhat, holds body heat and shields you from wind chill.

How exactly does a 2-liter “Compact Sedan Diesel” consume more fuel idling than an equivalent gas engine? This makes no sense as diesels have almost 0 pumping loss efficiencies at idle, as opposed to gas engines that have lots with the throttle body closed. They also make very little waste heat at idle though, so…

Yeah, go back and watch some of the first season of Top Gear BBC and you will quickly realize that all 3 of those guys had very limited understandings of how cars even worked at the beginning, they didn’t even appear to really be long term enthusiasts to me. That said, the show quickly got better as they all settled…

I’m more interested in the off-road range, getting lost or stuck way out with dead batteries in a national forest or desert would be a bit more complicated than the same situation with an ICE. I know the Rubicon trail is about 22 miles, but did you do the whole thing from beginning to end with decent juice left to get…

I’d say an offroad, autonomous 2-wheeler would be REALLY far off. I don’t know if you’ve ever ridden a dirt bike on technical trails, but there is so much quick environmental processing that you have to constantly do to not end up wiping out left, right, over the bars or on your ass. Even if you did get the tech…

LOL... the dude with cargo shorts, street bike helmet and wayfarers...

Meh, if you’re under 35-40 (depending on how much you make and save), you’ll have plenty of time to make it back in a 401k. When the markets are low, you buy and increase your momentum on the upswing.

My Mom & Dad had one of these, apparently my mom drove it with the low oil pressure light on until it seized, she thought it meant something to the effect of: Get an oil change at your earliest convenience.

Ok you’re right, but there are other states that are struggling to even pay pensions right now:

I wouldn’t do that, lots of lotteries have failed to pay out annuities in the past.

Pretty likely from what I’m gathering, its happened before: http://fortune.com/2015/10/16/ill…

Regardless, I’m sure you wouldn’t have any issues getting extremely low interest rate loans from banks at that point. Some past lottery winners have done this in excess and effectively overextended themselves into financial ruin somehow. That said, I’d never go for the annuity, too many of these funds have defaulted…

This precisely; what if the fund that pays out the annuities goes tits up and suddenly isn’t solvent anymore?

PT Cruiser Hellcat!!!