With regard to ‘Top Gun’, it is important to remember that the US military (taxpayers) basically subsidized that movie. The DoD only charged $1.8 million for the use of the air-base, aircraft carriers, and planes (flown by navy pilots). So that number is a little skewed.

The stupid thing about this (and this is not just confined to the automotive business) is that these upper management types (CEOs, Presidents, etc) all either explicitly or implicitly say that their ridiculously high pay is deserved because they are so much smarter than everyone else. But the problem is that they…

On days when I’m like “I’m ready to make the electric car switch” I agree with this. Sadly, for me, the answer to the question “What do I need to do to be able to buy one?” would likely need to involve illicit activity.

I didn’t miss that point. In fact I agree with your point. It’s just hypocritical for Telsa fans to ding these numbers (or rather how they are used) when Tesla fans did the same thing not too long ago.

This all sounds reasonable.

Tesla fanboys trying to have it both ways. When Tesla first started, their fanboys would tout their number in similar ways. So now when other manufacturers do the same thing, you suddenly cry foul. It’s hypocrisy.

WTF. Between 60,000 and 2.5 million? That is a huge range (margin of error). Sounds like way, way too small of a sample size to really get any sort of good statistical numbers. They should probably redo that with some better methodology.

As covered in the ‘timeout’ section of my scenario, what are the police to do? Ask ‘Hey which of you guys is the good guy?’ Do I need to post the picture of the 3 Spiderman (men?) pointing at each other. Because I will if needed.

Unclear what your point of view is here. Are you saying even well-trained professionals can’t make an active shooter situation better? If well-trained professionals can’t make the situation better, what chance do completely untrained individuals have? And if you have a bunch of untrained people with guns, doesn’t my…

I have a question for proponents of the ‘good guy with a gun theory’...Say you are the ‘good guy with a gun’. You roll up on some scene with someone shooting. Assuming this is a ‘bad guy’ (which maybe incorrect...see below), you pull out your gun to engage the person, but then another guy shows up with a gun. First,…

I see. So the flimsy-ness is the issue. I remember the one from my 1992 S-10 Blazer feeling like it was made from granite. And the action was so precise/nice feeling. Then my sisters 1996 Lumina less so, but still not terrible. Probably an exponential decay for Chevy...seems about right.

Do SUVs count as cars or light trucks in CAFE calculations? Then it matters.

1) People clearly do. High real estate prices = high demand. If it sucked as bad as you said, no one would want to live there and prices would be low.

I agree with Bongo. But volume/mute is one that might get overlooked. There are situations where you immediately/quickly want to turn the volume down.

While not as good as a foolproof ignition interlock, even just a first step of informing the driver of their BAC could be helpful here. And then possibly just recording it. If you get pulled over or cause an accident, police can check what the car has recorded. If it was a false positive, the police will be able to…

Confused about why the column mounted shifter is so difficult. Is it not like column mounted shifters of yore? But better? Now you aren’t passing through reverse on your way to drive and vice-versa.

I actually don’t disagree with you. I wouldn’t get rid of for-profit car insurance, but let’s see how a public option works. And yes I am disappointed that the public option wasn’t a part of the ACA. People voted against that not because they were afraid it wouldn’t work. They voted against it because they were…

How exactly am I going to bat for the insurance companies? This person clearly doesn’t understand how insurance works.

What percent of the population do you think doesn’t realize the difference between car based SUVs and more dedicated 4x4s? I think it is low. I would wager that nearly all of the non-enthusiast people I know, while not knowing the specific differences, realize that a Subaru Forester (as an example) cannot do what a…

So you agree with #2. All the gnomes think they will lose money. I can see one company being wrong, but all of them? Certainly possible. But is it likely?