And then of course there’s a whole ecosystem of readily available credit aimed at those young and immature people, much of it somewhat predatory. Doesn’t excuse poor/shortsighted decision making (although the complete lack of basic financial literacy education in our schools doesn’ make that any better), but explains…

Amen to that; I feel the same way about the rear light bar treatments that are oh so fashionable on EVs (like VW’s light show in the back of the ID.4). It’s not just the tackiness factor: Lights serve a purpose - see and be seen. Having them spaced in predictable distance from each other helps elevate the latter from…

That same switch gear has been in use in Mercedes vehicles for a while. There’ve been issues with that, just like with other non-traditional gear selectors (like those round knobs that FCA uses, for example; or the stuff that Ford’s been using in Lincolns; the selectors Toyota uses in the Prius; etc.), where people…

My wife has a theory about how we’re now on something like the second generation of drivers whose main driver’s ed (other than the worthless few hours with a bored public school instructor) consisted of MarioKart, and that would explain how you see people driving as though they have no actual concept of basic…

Frankly, running of the road at 35-40 mph (which, by the looks of those videos, is roughly what we’re talking about here) into that bit of open ground is probably a lot safer than crashing into a guardrail (and potentially having that turn into a hazard for whoever is in the oncoming lane at that moment). Just people…

Thing is, the hybrid only comes in FWD. Which is asinine - the Escape is built on the same platform and comes as an AWD hybrid (although the PHEV is FWD only). But then again, they are selling every damn Maverick they make, with most of them still, even after all this time, fetching dealer markups to boot. That whole…

In fairness, starting heroin means you can absolutely stop worrying about a whole lot of other things, like saving for your kids’ college or retirement, how to afford a decent place to live, how to pay for healthcare insurance, or in fact how to afford a reliable car to get you to your job...

It was also capacity constrained and expensive for what it is. Once they discounted it, they sold every single one with little delay. 

But buying Fisker means buying a “car manufacturer” that doesn’t actually manufacture cars, but contracts that out to an actual manufacturer (Magna Steyr). And does that in a rather substandard way (Magna Steyr has been contract manufacturing for decades, and the quality issues seen here are unique to Fisker). If…

The other major news item today is that EVs are getting a lot closer to price parity - and that’s only going to accelerate, because all the battery manufacturing that’s coming on line. Battery cost is the main driver of EV cost, and in a couple years, the default choice will be EV. All the talk of range anxiety and…

That’s the sort of thing that, all of Musk’s assholery aside, very much keep me from being interested in a Tesla. Every Tesla owner I talk to tells me that there’s still a ton of half-baked shit that’s really annoying the hell out of them. By now, that should have been sorted.

Heated seats are awesome!

There being a low likelihood of something in the way where he’s riding because nothing is “supposed” to be there doesn’t cut it. That’s like doing 75 through a blind turn over a rise and finding that there’s a stalled car at the exit of the turn - nope, it’s not supposed to be there, but we can’t outrun our visibility…

Sorry, trusting trail maintenance to make trails obstacle free (or at least mark all the obstacles) is not a substitute for picking a safe speed for the amount of visibility you’ve got. Obstacles in the woods appear out of nowhere with not a lot of warning - blowdown, a large animal that just keeled over and died,…

My follow question is how often is any of this shit even breaking? My guess is close to never.

What creates that black market is NOT the crackdown on illegal mods - that was already a black market, just a more visible one. What created that iteration of the black market, and the current (more clandestine) one is the demand from a bunch of people who choose to break the law and fuck with their trucks’ emissions…

Thanks for retro flashback, that was a fun chuckle.

Deletes and tunes fuck up emissions controls. Those emissions controls are needed for the whole system to be in compliance with clean air rules. Yes, it’s nice to save on fuel - but that doesn’t mean it’s OK to spew a bunch of particulates (which is usually the problem that required the performance hit in the first…

The soul of a worktruck? Sorry, that’s a bunch of BS. It was a mediocre SUV with a rather useless bed tacked on for cosplay.

The modern crop of all-weather tires are awesome for people who live in places where winter is not quite cold enough to make full-on winter tires (like Blizzaks, etc.) work. I’m in NW Washington - it’s often 50+ here in the winter, with tons of fain of course. The warmth will make you wear down a pair of Blizzaks down…