They are caught in a doom spiral that is the inevitable result of cost cutting. Cost cutting leads to less R&D and cheaper feeling vehicles, which leads to needing to tap subprime and fleet sales to move metal (upmarket buyers don’t want dated cheap-feeling vehicles). The subprime and fleet sales keep the cash coming…

They can lease and then buy out the lease. 

If it’s too expensive, simply wait 15 years and you can pick one up at your local BHPH lot. 

It wasn’t about a “decent dealer” so much as not wanting a hot ticket vehicle. Trucks also historically have the most room for pricing adjustments, so that $3k under MSRP might have been $7k in 2019 on a similar truck.

The true depreciation of EVs tends to be overstated because it ignores the $7,500 tax credit that most buyers receive. Until this year, it was taken after the fact. So you could finance your Mustang Mach-E for $50,000, but then a few months later get a check from the government making your true cost $42,500. You might…

You aren’t necessarily “fucked.” It’s only a problem if you lack the liquidity to make up the amount you are underwater. The fact that you are underwater does not change your economic loss. The economic loss is simply the delta between what you paid for the car and what it is worth now, which is the same no matter…

I wish we could just nuke the dealer franchise laws from orbit. 

The “street legal” racecar thing is a bit overblown. If you compare it to a GT3 Cup car, you’ll see that there is a lot of racecar stuff that you aren’t going to find (or even want) any OEM street car.

Nothing about a suspension being a “coilover” inherently says anything in particular about the ride. You could have a cloud soft coilover or a board stiff coilover. Only thing a “coilver” does is give you adjustable ride height in an integrated spring/damper setup.

I realize that, but you were commenting in an article about a track-prepped GT3. Who modifies a couchmobile appliance anyways? 

A GT3 as featured in the article was never intended for basic transport.

Yes, but racing also has mods that are more about ensuring fair competition than actually making the car good to drive. 

It’s all a question for what sort of experience you want. You also have to accept that even minor mods don’t make economic sense. It’s almost always MUCH cheaper to buy a highly modified car than to build it yourself (but you are likely buying something ridden hard and put away wet and someone else’s project).

This seems like a lot of work to avoid buying the Miata the OP should be buying. 

Most economy cars won’t advance timing or change the boost maps for higher grade fuel. However, some very high-strung performance cars will struggle on 87. Yes, the ECU will pull timing and reduce boost (as applicable), but there is a limit to how much accommodation it can do. It’s a pretty old school at this point,…

I didn’t say the Model X was a good Minivan, but it’s a 3-row vehicle with a low floor and no offroad ability to speak of. Minivan.

Your plebe car isn’t going to benefit from higher octane gas anyways.

The Model X is already basically a Minivan, but they have to call it an “SUV” because Minivans aren’t cool. The Lucid Gravity is following that model. 

Yes- Houston. Seems to be the crowd that might have otherwise bought a G Wagen or Range Rover but wanted something different and less pretentious.

Sadly, these sorts of stories tend to be common in the restoration world. A shop will do great work and be regarded as one of the best for many years, and then suddenly becomes a basketcase. Sometimes it’s new management, someone aging out, or simply a mistake that snowballs.