It seems like they actually did pretty well with the hardware. It was the software that was their downfall. Given their cash burn, they couldn’t afford to wait to ship cars until the software was fixed. But this only delayed the reckoning because it caused all of the initial reviews to be terrible. Now, despite one…

This is an “it depends.” Depending on your downpayment, the car you buy, and loan terms, you may never be meaningfully underwater and GAP is a waste. Plus, being underwater is not necessarily a big deal if you always have sufficient liquidity to make up for it should it be necessary. If you do need it, GAP is usually…

The “check engine” light should be renamed “check emissions” because most of the faults are emissions related. A blinking check engine light indicates a misfire, which could be a bigger problem. But a solid check engine light isn’t an emergency. A cheap code reader is always good to have handy.

“In the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Delaware, Fisker estimated its assets to be between $500 million and $1 billion, and it had liabilities between $100 million and $500 million.”

Torque wrenches exist for a reason. I spent the first few years of my wrenching life using the German “gudentite” torque spec. I got religion after replacing the struts on the wife’s car only to under-torque the brake caliper. No disaster ensued, but there was an awful clunk that developed from the loose caliper that…

Sure. But are they actually plating the plastic with real chrome in modern cars? 

What modern cars actually use real chrome these days? I always thought any modern car with “chrome” trim is just shiny plastic.

I now have a mental image of someone dressed as an animal autocrossing.

The E36 is one of my favorites, but this is a questionable example with the wrong transmission. You are far better off paying a bit more for a cleaner example with a third pedal. If you can’t do or don’t want a manual for whatever reason, find a different car to buy. 

I’m comparing to the $35k “low miles” examples, not the 100k mile beat to hell and back ones for $25k. 

A lot of this is the extreme difference between a junior flight attendant and a senior one. The most senior flight attendants working international flights can make $100k. For better or worse, the airline industry is extremely seniority based with pay. 

The problem with faster than light travel is that it implies time travel. The violation of causality created by time travel may mean it’s not a solvable problem.

This is a refinement of the theoretical Alcbuierre drive (named after the physicist who theorized it). As I understand the Alcubierre drive, it basically works by warping space time around the craft rather than the ship itself moving locally though space as a normal rocket would. The paper attempts to show that the…

For me it was the steering column shroud. It hung down and I’d bang my knee on it when trying to turn my foot to heel-toe.

Why not just get an Elantra N? Same price new as a lightly used RS. 

I wanted to like the RS, but the ergonomics were terrible (I couldn’t heel-toe to save my life) and everything about it felt cheap. On top of that, they don’t really do well on track from a cooling standpoint. I’d much rather spend a bit more and get a new GR Corolla if I wanted an AWD turbo hot hatch. 

What? I thought the Fit was the very definition of soft and wallowy. Also the worst manual transmission clutch/shifter feel of anything I’ve driven short of a truck. Nothing about the Fit was anything I’d describe as “sporty.” I used to own a Miata. They aren’t in the same universe. 

You don’t know. I’ve met up with family at vacation destinations and have family who live in places that might be called “vacation destinations.” Plus, it’s not reasonable to expect everyone with small children (which could be a decade of their lives) to cloister themselves away from society until their kids are…

4.5 0-60 is pretty optimistic for a bugeye WRX. C&D tested its 2002 WRX at 5.4.

I think the base is reasonably priced enough, but they charge way too much to option it up like it should be. They are charging about what the STI used to cost (inflation adjusted) for the TR and GT trims (I assume the TS will be there too). They also bizarrely only allowed the top trim GT to be pared with the CVT.…