Twice this week I watched someone texting while stopped at a red light drive through the intersection when they see the left turn lane arrow turn green in their peripheral vision. Both were near misses with the traffic turning left from the opposite direction.

Oh yeah, I agree; such a niche market is a tough nut to crack, and with the industry just getting back to its feet after the recession most are going to be skittish about such an investment for so little market share. One can still dream however, and we might have to wait and see what the US-market Ranger is going to…

Ditto. The FCA 'quality' gamble on newer JKs and the Its-a-Jeep-Thing premium on older stuff keeps me from seriously considering Wranglers, but I would love to see some actual new options for small 4x4 trucks (No, the Renegade doesn't count).

They had just begun early production in 2008/2009 when the company shit the bed and soon axed Pontiac, so they are very rare.

I can’t answer your specific question in terms of modern day ships, but there has been such thinking. From navweaps.com, I pulled this article about the N-squared Law, which covers post WWI US naval strategy about the quantity of a line of battle as opposed to the 'quality' (e.g. weight of fire and number of mounts)…

Definitely can see touches of early Cherokee genes in the front 3/4 view.

I’ve noticed an attitude on the internet and particularly on Gawker blogs (Jalopnik included) where if you admit favoring domestic manufacturers/brands some people will jump on you for either being a jingoistic nationalist, or an idiot who can’t do math for paying more for a similar product. Semantics aside, I’ll…

Well, duh. 90% of swaps are because someone wants a reliable, higher output powerplant without too much work. Not everything needs to be a SEMA Frankenstein science project. A LSx swap isn't exciting to me either in 80% of cases, but I can appreciate the value in money and time.

Well, duh.

People who bitch about ‘boring’ engine swaps have probably never done one. You know, the usual ‘all bark and no bite’...

I wouldn’t call the Jesus Nut tiny, but helicopters can also glide without power, albeit with a shorter glide ratio than a comparable fixed wing craft. See

Seems to be people like my high-school brother and his friends; they all have part time jobs, their own debit cards, few bills and plenty of free time, so they don’t have a problem dropping probably around a grand between the six of them on microtransactions over several months.

Thanks, forgot to mention that. That carbon has gotta come from somewhere...

Coke is a byproduct of coal or petroleum processing used in foundries due to how hot it burns. There is going to be pits at the plant where they store mounds of it (It looks sort of like gravel or coarse sand but stinkier) before it is conveyed inside the foundry to heat the furnaces and crucibles.

Pretty much every ‘youth’ car from the last ~20 years is like that it seems IMHO. With the exception of the original xB and SRT4 Neon, most other Neons, Kia Souls, Cubes, xAs, xDs, PT Cruisers etc. all seem to be bought and owned by cat ladies and people the other side of 40, no offense to anyone here.

If you showed up in this to Lemons tech inspection I’m pretty sure they would handwave some overspending just for being insane enough to attempt running this. Not to mention one has the time-honored option of bribing the judges with food, beer and shwag.

My thoughts exactly. It's a dated look, along with polished billet anything, and the two-tone blue and silver/ black and silver color scheme that was popular recently (e.g. half the cars on Overhaulin')

I live in a state where the motorcycle helmet law was basically abolished recently with predictable consequences, and I‘ve overheard coworkers wishing they would do the same for seatbelts. It's one thing to bitch about the 'nanny state', but wanting to do as you please and expect the rest of us to pay your hospital…

I'll add that it is probably a good idea to stop every couple hours and stretch your legs. Someone I’ve done some road trips with once went to the hospital due to a blood clot in their leg after deadheading from Detroit to Atlanta. They were in their 30s and not overweight, so it might pay to take a break every once…

I'm curious- why was that RV stopped in the road? Glad you were able to recover from that one, there was a similar accident near me recently that ended up being a fatality (drunk/distracted guy in a Jeep ran into the back of a semi stopped on the shoulder).