One nice thing is that the common motor failures mean that motors are dirt cheap. A new EJ257 short block from Subaru with the improved ringlands can be had for $2,000. Add gaskets and a few “while you are in there” items, and you can get the car back on the road in a weekend for $2,500 or so if you are the handy…

The EJ257s in the STI are mostly fine on head gaskets. It’s the NA EJ motors that had big head gaskset issues. Their main issue is the piston ringlands in pre Type-RA blocks. Other weak points are the unequal length headers and need for a good air-oil separator so excessive blow-by isn’t fed into the combustion…

I drive an STI, but this is mostly true. For the record, I’m a middle-aged attorney who hasn’t gotten so much as pulled over in nearly 20 years. But I’m by far the exception.

Depends on where I’m sitting and where I’m going.

Part of the problem with boarding is that efficiency isn’t the only consideration. The Big 3 (United/Delta/American) also have an interest in a status hierarchy which rewards loyalty and reduces competition (especially for the most lucrative business travelers). On United, for example, there are 7 boarding groups…

I get that, but you don’t fully control how much weight the jack is taking. Just a half pump could make a big difference. 

I’m all for preferencing exotics over someone’s ratty 370z, but if you’ve seen one McLaren 720s or 992 Porsche GT3, you’ve seen them all. Sometimes they will reject actual interesting builds from the show lot in favor of a line of half a dozen GT3s in various colors. I even saw a BMW Z8 way outside the show area…

I’m not sure that’s necessarily safer. If you put too much weight on the jack and it fails suddenly, you put a shock load on the jack stand. Or worse, the less-stable wheeled jack allows the car to shift on the stands and side load them.

TV has taught me that is what flex seal is for.

Sigh... Houston C&C used to be a mile from my house. While the organizers tend to be a bit supercar elitist, at least they tried to run a tight ship by hiring off-duty cops and putting up “no burnout signs”. Of course, no matter where they stationed the off-duty cops, the burnout crowd would go 50 feet past and do…

Born to be mild? 

Range and price kill this thing. With the recent price cuts, the Model Y is $7,500 cheaper and even third-party testing (not Tesla’s inflated claims) has the Model Y performance getting ~70 miles more range. As much as people justifiably hate Tesla, those two items are hard for people to ignore.

Jalopnik prints such garbage articles these days. 

The Goodward festival would disagree. 

Q3 2023 EV sales in the U.S. were up around 50% year-over-year vs Q3 2022. Hardly a “I told you so” moment.

Sure. Making the power isn’t the issue. The issue is that a car like the Challenger is defined by its motor. Without the v8, it’s just a large coupe. If you are going to do artificial engine noise, might as well just make it electric. 

I see no real benefit to an v6 Charger. The only reason a v6 ever existed was so that there would be a base model. If it’s not a rumbling V8, it might as well be an EV. 

I’ve been to the USGP several times now, and I think they’ve done as well as could be expected. It’s a real and permanent motorsport venue. However, the Miami and Las Vegas races seem to nail that “Soundstage” comment. Putting up some fake “yachts” in a parking lot to make it “Miami” and then charging $1,000 for the…

Nah. Most “financial advisors” are scammy salespeople who would tell you to mortgage your mom’s house if they thought it would deliver them more AUMs to collect a 1%+ annual fee on.

I suspect that for most people who usually have enough cash on hand to buy a new car, the decision is not particularly weighty. If your net worth is $2 million and you generally keep $100k in cash at all times, the decision on whether to borrow at 5% and put $50k in an S&P500 index fund for 5 years or pay cash for a…