DoctorNine: “the best way for people to fix this, is to organize grassroots campaigns to pressure the purchasers of these products to demand safe working conditions”

True - and Takata has already said they are moving to guanidine nitrate, the propellant that the other suppliers use. Maybe they have been dragging their feet on making that change, and these press releases are meant as motivation??

A psychology class performs an experiment. They tell a group of students that their previously taken exams burned up in a fire, and hand out ‘new exams’ to be taken without advance notice to study. The exam is much more difficult than the original, beyond what has been taught in the class. Common sense would tell most…

I am watching Peppa Pig, Sesame Street, and Sofia the First.

I am kidding, and you’re right - I want a look at Doug’s stock holdings to see if they include CarMax, if they are a public offering

My uncle bought a Ridgeline in his seventies, too, and loves it, wonder if that is the demographic for them. He was 100% a Dodge man before that too, until repeated failures in the front suspension of his last purchased truck - that Ram sits on the back of his ranch now, only used to plow.

Alarm problem will probably happen sporadically, which will repeatedly drain the battery to some extent. Then... instead of killing the alternator, it’ll destroy some other unique and expensive voltage recharging bits.

I honestly think every spring, we should all invest in a caravan of car haulers to bring some of your sweet Craiglistings back here to Michigan.

Those, my friend, are ancient ninja symbols (on a German car). I am guessing of course, and they aren’t actually ninja symbols but were probably labeled that way on the front of the Pepboys vinyl decal kit.

Test engineering at the automakers includes some benchmarking; they buy a competitor’s vehicle, test various elements - and sometimes cut it up in the examination process to the point that it can be thrown out in a dumpster. I only know about it from the body/chassis side, I don’t know whether they test powertrain…

I’m surprised test engineers from any competitors didn’t come across it in ‘benchmarking’ ...but maybe they did, and said nothing? I’d think at least one automaker in the universe would have been interested in finding out how VW was accomplishing low emissions without urea injection

I know where you are coming from...it seems like Ford tweaks its ECU to perform at the highest MPG possible in the EPA cycle. Someone should look into whether, instead of increasing emissions, there is some sort of electronic power restriction that is programmed to activate - giving Ford owners higher EPA numbers than…

The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good... retaining wall?

...was somebody looking for me?? I’ll work for SAG wage, just say the word!

I think your reasons for suspicion are legitimate. Probably an energy saver mode dims the screen for almost zero backlighting (see below), cripples the graphics and processor

Well, technically you could argue she succeeded in business, just solely to her own benefit. I wonder how her Presidency would go...

Neutral: Diesel in passenger vehicles is just not worth it* if this turns into the shitshow that it sounds to be (where none of the cars being built meet the EPA requirements in the real world tests).

In fairness, Murray did back off on his statement a bit, and riffed off a boring quote of “I love this offense. I love playing with these guys. It’s just how it is.”

Well, all of the components were likely lab and field tested on the current ECU only, so everything emissions related would be of first concern. That said, if there are widespread issues, I believe VW has waaay too much visibility on this, and will have to extend warranty coverage