I honestly do hope that AV4+ vehicles show up soon. The boomers are getting into their 70s now and they grew up with the car representing freedom like no generation before. It will be really hard for the boomer generation to give up their cars. It wasn’t just a tool, it was a status symbol and a way to identify…

I am extremely fortunate. Both my parents got to a time when they said “I don’t think I can drive safely any more”. My dad at around 80, my mom around 91. My sisters and I were thinking of talking to mom about not driving when she came to that decision to stop on her own.

I 100% agree with this, and my post wasn’t meant to be a comprehensive view on what happens when you instantly have hundreds of thousands of people no longer able to get groceries, medicine, etc.

Great idea, and this coming from someone approaching 60.

There’s one glaring problem with your plan. Before I say what it is, I too believe we should start mandatory driving tests after a certain age. Bi-yearly, or tri-yearly. With that said, the aforementioned problem is a lack of infrastructure to handle a significant number of elders that can no longer drive. Where I…

Possibly the best post ive ever seen on Jalopnik....take your star sir

Ok, but automakers can’t fix problems with society. What they can do is recognize problems caused by drivers and integrate prevention into the vehicle design.

After a deer totaled my last car, I gave up on a manual transmission after 15 years of driving one for a DSG and I honestly do not miss the manual transmission 99.95% of the time. Not one bit, living in a city like I do. The only time I wish for one is on the handful of days out of the year when I have the car out in…

“I have never been to a shop charging a “fee”.”

This. I’ve spent enough time wrenching on my 99 and 02 Silverado’s to know I’m sick of that shit. Brakes, ball joints, wheel bearings, etc etc. Sick of working in the cold, sick of hard concrete floors. Sick of spending my time doing that bullshit when I can just pay my friend to do it for me and have a beer with him…

Not me, I drive TWO manual cars. My wife drives the auto crossover, err, SUV. I can also change brake fluid and coolant, but likely would not if I lived in a hell hole New York City.

I totally agree with you. Over the holidays my BMW E38 developed a misfire. I changed the spark plugs myself, which were very worn, but it didn’t cure the issue. I suspected the distributor caps and/or plug wires, but had spent my afternoon free time on 2 days already (it’s a V12) and threw up my hands and called AAA…

There are a lot of different aspects to enjoying cars/car culture though. I don’t change my own oil or brakes right now because trying to do anything in my tiny apartment parking spots a pain and well, I’m lazy. I might do more when I move and have access to a bases auto shop bay and their equipment.

$140+ / hr in labor adds up real quick. The job was done in under 3 hours ($420), which leaves $330 for parts / fluids / shop fees and taxes, which isn’t terrible for a 24 hour shop.

Not all of us have a garage, tools, or time to fix all the problems ourselves. Plus when I need to get to work, I cannot spend time futzing with the third failed attempt to fix the issue.

You’d be surprised at how many of these mouth frothing manual elitists are driving automatic crossovers in real life.

You can love a thing, be enthusiastic about it, and write well about it but find it inconvenient or find a lack of desire or ability to do basic things with it, especially if it’s your appliance.

Foodies are enthusiastic about food, but many don’t like dealing with the dishes that come with cooking their own.

I was confused until I got to “the dealer’s service bay is open 24 hours.” That’s pretty sweet. The fact that I don’t know of any 24/7 auto repair shops in Los Angeles makes me feel like it’d be a good business opportunity.