The bottle neck in getting to the ocean from the Great Lakes are the Wellend Canal and the locks in the St Lawrence. You can only fit up to a 740ft ship through the St Lawrence out to the ocean. It’s the main difference between “Lakers” (too big to fit down the Wellend/St Lawrence and therefor stuck in the upper great…

Good luck. Look at the used E63 & CTSV wagon market. While prices do drop with depreciation, they are still a good amount more expensive than their sedan counterpart. They end up still being pretty dang expensive largely because they are very expensive when new and relatively uncommon enough to demand a premium.

Rust repair:

I got my R for $32k in Sept 2013, sold it to Vroom for $28k 3 years later. So yeah, it ended up costing me 2x as much in depreciation per year at the very steepest part of the depreciation curve, but I got essentially a fully decked out GTI with every option, more power, and AWD.

I mean, you do get damn near all of that price difference back when you sell the car; at least I did with my MKVI R. Resale value of my R after 3 years was phenomenal. TCO ends up being very very similar over the life of the car.

It’s a S4, 340xi, C43 competitor; not an RS4, M3, C63 competitor. Mid 300 is about right on par for the class.

So more expensive than an S4? Yeah, I’ll stick with the S4.

I just had a brand new 2021 Yukon rental on a 1000+ mile road trip last week; the cylinder deactivation was almost entirely imperceptible and meant that I averaged just short of 20mpg. It never felt sluggish and I couldn’t really feel any “shudder” that used to be the tell tale sign when the old system would shut down…

I think the biggest problem is the extremely prominent the B & C pillars are as well as to some extent D pillar too. They look weird because of how bold they are. Then, stack on a blacked out A pillar and roof design that is meant to more or less disappear and it only amplifies the awkwardness. To me, they look like a…

I don’t know what compels people to buy trucks these days except for some emotional need.

And what is that Wrangler like to drive? What kind of fuel economy does it get? How safe is it? How comfortable is it? Any product is a set of compromises, this one chooses to value comfort, fuel economy, and daily usability over shear off road capability. The normal Bronco is there if you want more off road capability…

The Grand Wagoneer is a 85k luxo barge. It is already overly expensive and overly complicated. If you wanted simple/reliable because you really do care about cost and complexity, you certainly wouldn’t be looking at a luxury Jeep product; you’d probably be looking at the newest/nicest Land Cruiser that fits your budget…

What website are you using to find those chargers? I’d like to look up my neighborhood and see what pops up. Most online maps I found seem to have different results depending on what one your using.

That’s correct, technically torque will still be sent to the free spinning front wheels. However, it is insignificant compared to the torque sent to the rear in the above scenario. The only torque sent to the front is the powertrain losses from the center diff forward, torque to overcome rotational inertia, and air…

If I had to guess, I think you guys are in agreement with each other, but you’re essentially talking semantics. Yes, a part time 4wd system with a locked center diff has a nominal 50/50 torque split. Assuming all 4 wheels are getting the same traction and have the same loading, 50% of the torque would be sent to each…

The Slingshot is about 1,750 pounds. Miata’s, depending on configuration, are about:

I worked on a project that chartered this thing in order to meet a tight delivery and was SUPER disappointed when I didn’t get to go see it get loaded at the airport. We had to air freight a bunch of drilling equipment with this as it was the only plane capable of carrying the cargo which normally shipped via barges &…

Maybe it’s me, but I’d happily take the additional 500+ pounds and drive a Miata. You get actual crash safety, 4 season usability, a small trunk, windows, HVAC, emissions equipment, and a roof that goes up/down when you get caught in the rain, etc. I can’t imagine the Slingshot driving experience to be that much…

I agree. I never really understood these. You get the bulk & performance of a car, but the usability of a motorcycle. Just get a used Miata/Z4/TT/Mustang/Solstice/convertible of your choice and have something you can drive whenever you want.

You want to maximize interior space and visibility; massive upright windshields are great for that. You also don’t care much about aerodynamics because they are typically used in slow speed environments. There really isn’t a downside beyond probably being kind of expensive if you have to replace it as well as doofy…