Honestly I prefer a car with as little on it as possible. I care more about how a car drives than gadgets. I drive a car as long as it reliably gets me where I want to go. If there is a one in a million chance of something breaking and there are a million gadgets on your car at some point in the life of the car there…

A manual transmission controlled with a stick and a clutch operated by a pedal.

You wouldn't want your enemies to get you while you're pumping gas do you? You have to make it to your lair/palace/bunker/private island before you run out of fuel. Duh.

It's not illegal. It's a Republican buzz word to make people fear having the government spend money on providing services to its citizens instead of corporate welfare, war mongering and meddling in women's vaginas, which is what the founders intended government to do.

It's not perfect, but this is what I use. Because the vents can't hold the weight of the phone, I can't choose the angle. The bottom of the phone (mounted vertically) rests on the dash below the vent. As someone else said, it's great for rental cars, or when I drive my girlfriend's car. I like it because it's cheap,…

It's not perfect, but this is what I use. Because the vents can't hold the weight of the phone, I can't choose the…

You've asked two questions. One, what tool should every owner have in their car and then what should every owner have on hand for repairs. I keep a tire pressure guage, a flashlight and jumper cables in my car. I always carry a multitool and a smartphone in my pocket. The pressure gauge and flashlight can't repair…

My memory of those things was seeing them rusting into the ground in various driveways in the '80s. Rarely did I see them moving under their own power.

The Fit does both. The seat backs fold forward flat, and the seat bottoms fold up to make a tall space like some trucks do. It's their "Magic Seat" thing.

Hummer/Studebaker could make a Land Rover competitor: A fancy, high-tech off-roader to drive to the mall, the kid's school and the service department at your local dealer. It could work.

Say good bye to sweet tea and a decent biscuit if you are into that sort of thing. The roads are awful. Everybody in the Northeast isn't a hostile ass that would rather see you drowning in the Schuylkill than merging in front of them, but there are enough that are to make it unpleasant. I wish they'd stop moving…

My suggestion is just the mounds of electronic complicated stuff crammed into every new car these days. I can open my car's tailgate. I don't need a little electric motor that is going to break the first time some meathead carrying groceries at a store forces it shut rightly thinking it's supposed to close when you…

He's wearing a tie, you know, for safety.

I had a love/hate relationship with my VW. I had an '07 Passat wagon. It was awesome. Quick, cavernous, comfortable, good on gas and just nice inside. It felt sturdy. When it was running I loved it. Once the warranty was up though I never had everything in it working. I could never afford to fix everything because…

I think if you have your heart set on a VW, or other unreliable car a lease might be a good idea. That way you can be rid of it once the warranty runs out. VW not only has to compete on price, but they'd be more attractive if fixing them wasn't so expensive and frequent.

Right the argument on Jalopnik so far talks mostly about who is responsible if an automated car crashes. I think you could be screwed either way. If you take control when the automated car might have made a faster, "better" decision you could be liable. If the computer screws it up, you are responsible too.

Isn't is possible too that "Luddites" who refuse to use the automated technology (that statistically reacts faster and more often correctly than a human driver) could be sued for endangering their community by controlling their own vehicle in an emergency?

I am not great at working on cars, but I try. I hope the next question is what interesting cars do people enjoy wrenching on most.

The people who don't want to spend as much on fuel are also people who don't want to spend a fortune on maintenance. When the car-as-appliance companies get in on it with simple, reliable commuter cars diesel will spread in the US. I'd buy one.

They need to bring back the old DJ mail jeeps.

I was told that it was to prevent discrimination against the handicapped. Everyone gets their gas pumped for them. No difference in price or service. Seems a bit silly to me, and probably not correct. Gas is generally cheaper in in NJ than it's surrounding states too.