I never listen to AM now, but when I was a kid, one of my fond memories is my dad driving us home from a visit to Grandma’s (either one) at night through the mountains, and he’s trying to dial in the Grand Ole Opry on the AM-only radio (mid-1960's), and listening to the music coming in between the bouts of static. One…

Entertainment arguments aside, were there a truly large-scale infrastructure destruction incident somewhere, AM transmissions are going to be the only way to reliably penetrate 50+ miles into the affected zone. If there are special instructions for those who are now trying a one-way trip to safety in their electric…

Just use a smartphone, grandpa. Mine goes batshit with alerts anytime we have even the possibility of upcoming bad weather, and doesn’t stop until we get the all-clear.

That’s an interesting perspective on DJ’s. The one thing I hate about Sirius/XM is that the DJ’s talk too much and talk over the music, just like AM radio DJ’s. I guess it’s all a matter of taste. 

Only 16 or 17 calls to save a customer’s life? Hell, Lucid will call 14 times just to save a sale!!

Terrestrial radio is still the best means we have for getting information out to a lot of people without relying on highly integrated networks. AM in particular is great because the frequencies and modulation allows for very long distance transmission and over the horizon signal propagation. In an emergency, people…

Look into the Surron X. It’s about $4500 and does ~45mph for 15-20mph after you cut a single wire. It comes restricted to 20mph to satisfy state regulations about ebikes, but takes 30 seconds to unlock. Most cops won’t hassle you over this, and there are some workarounds to quickly re-lock the bike if pulled over or…

Get a BBSHD motor and DIY your own ebike. The motor is good for 35mph and you will get about 30 miles range with a 17.5ah battery. It looks legal and as long as you obey the traffic laws then cops will not notice.

I didn’t watch either, also prefer to read.  Based on the picture though, I recommend the hell out of a Pacifica Hybrid for long-distance stuff.  I spent a week for work driving one around Maine and it was killer.  My DD is a GTI, but I loved that minivan for the jobs I needed it for.

Dark horse candidate here but I am going with the Chrysler 318 (LA), later to become the 5.2. This engine was a literal workhorse that went into anything Chrysler could stuff it into. It was never a high horsepower engine, but it was smooth, torquey and reliable. It started life as carbureted engine and ended with…

Since I am first, I’ll take the obvious winner.

A treadwear comparison is great and all, but how about the age of the compound? A 4-5 season old winter tire’s rubber is going to be significantly harder than a brand new tire, even if the tread has not worn town a ton. I would think that the performance gap would be more significant than this test indicates since we…

Toyota Tacoma. Wheezy engine, indecisive transmission, awkward seating position.  For some reason people pretend it’s not as outdated as the Frontier.  It coasts along on the Tacoma = Good fanboys, and the ease of making it look ‘overland chic’ sure isn’t hurting.

Quality is still job 0 after all these years. Aren’t they still trying to diagnose why Navigators catch fire? Get in line with your on fire Ford please.

That personalized plate is sweet.

Ariel Nomad. It’s an Arial Atom in hiking boots:

A Garage. No scraping ice and brushing off snow, frozen wipers, waiting for warmup, slipping when getting in or out, etc. 

For the same reason people wear North Face jackets and Under Armour athletic wear to the grocery store - it says, “I have an active lifestyle that I spend money on”.

Well when the Toyota Sienna went hybrid, the curb weight went up by a whole 20lbs... whoop dee doo...

People often drive their cars to do common chores, it’s true.