Been a reader of Jalopnik for a long time, but the way some people feel about horsepower still confounds me. 152 hp isn’t a lot, but it’s also completely adequate for the task of the Impreza - to take up to five adult humans and a bit of cargo to a different place at highway speeds and to do so safely and more…

Subaru is the one manufacturer that I think has a good-looking line across the board, though it’s a small lineup. They’ve maintained utility and fuel economy in their vehicles without trending toward a “unicar” look like a lot of manufactures share. Perhaps that’s due to their sales of hatches/wagons, but I like that…

My buddy sent me this pic this morning. The man Kushner is talking to is a Special Forces colonel. That is, a Green Beret. Likely surrounded by lots of other Green Berets. Wearing Kevlar. In a safe zone.

Thanks for doing an article on the USCG, Terrell. I was Navy, but a couple of my best friends went Coast Guard. They’re an undervalued service. Hope to continue seeing more about them and the especially important question of ice breakers we desperately need.

Absolutely correct. It’s confounding to me why most people buy anything other than a compact or a wagon. They’re just plain cheaper to buy, insure and operate.

Yes, I’m South Iranian and was in the Iranian Revolutionary People’s Party Navy...

I’ve been reading Jalopnik for years because I’m interested in the auto industry and am in no way a “gear-head.” I’m also from the South where almost everyone drives a truck or SUV and parking is bountiful. Futher, I’m also a former naval officer, where it was almost de rigeur for junior officers to buy Wranglers or…

The way the one I see regularly is brazenly parked in a loading zone makes me suspect it might be owned by my university here in SoCal, but there are no obvious markings. I know our fleet yard has all manner of fueling/recharging stations. CNG Civics are the most unconventional fuel I’ve seen so far, but we have CNG…

Over Thanksgiving, some friends and I rented a 4Runner to drive way out into Death Valley over hill and...well, not dale. Dune? These were trails that existed in lore and desert-hippie message boards, but not on most maps and barely to the naked eye at all.

Wow, only 2,800 Mirais? I see one just about daily - always parked illegally on my hospital’s campus. Looks like reading up on fuel cells is gonna be one of my activities today. That sort of technology always reminds me of that old show Beyond 2000. “Use hydrogen to fuel...a car? Big things are in store for the…

I scrolled down to see how long it would take for someone to beat this dead horse. Not long at all.

Keeping it until close to September 2018 was my initial thought, too, but my SoCal commute can be pretty hairy. No matter how conservatively I drive, there’s always a white-knuckle, lay-on-the-horn-please-don’t-merge-into-me moment about once a week or so. Decimated insurable value plus the failure-prone expensive…

Definitely expensive repairs. But I found the interior of my 2012 SportWagen to be very nice. I really liked the seats and leatherette - very comfortable on my longish commutes and no backache. I wish my new Subaru had seats of the same caliber.

Yeah. I first got my TDIs when I lived in the South - lots of highway travel. When I got stationed in SoCal, it was less advantageous because of the traffic. I’d usually have about 33mpg in mixed driving. Not bad, but not really making a dent in the premium paid for the engine in the first place.

I’ve had two TDIs as daily drivers over the past 14 years. Turned in my 2012 on Monday evening.

I think it’ll be very interesting to see what these unused TDIs sell for. I’ve wondered what it’d take for me to get into a new one after it sat for a couple years. Presumably it gets that super-extended warranty on all the drive and emissions components like those who opted for the fix did. That’d sweeten the deal,…

Tom, a thought: I was able to cancel the balance of my extended warranty very easily on my TDI, and I got back about $1,100 of the $2k-ish I paid. There seems to be a small admin fee to do it - $25 in the case of California.

My mom bought an ‘88 Accord 4-door to replace her two-door Datsun. I still remember going on the test drive with her when I was 5. I was mesmerized by the power locks and windows. The salesman put the child lock on them so I’d stop fooling around with them. It was her daily driver until about the time I started…

So, it’s both boring and a blast to drive? My household now has two Subarus with CVTs, and I find the trope of hating on them somewhat tiresome. Before you discredit me for liking CVTs, consider my old war injury to my left knee and city commute for forgoing a third pedal. But back to the point - I don’t see what’s…

Nice story, Terrell. Question: does the USCG refer to a ship of this class as a “boat”? In the Navy, submarines are “boats,” but all other warships are, well, “ships.” I noticed the skipper was quoted as calling it a “boat,” too.