Here’s today’s puzzler: Wealthy Americans are more than willing to spend upwards of $150k on a fast, practical wagon. Why can’t anybody get them to spend $30k on a kinda fast, practical wagon? Is the venn diagram of “people who can afford and buy ultra luxury cars” and “people who like wagons” just a perfect…

My insurance asked if I had a security system in my car - I said yes, a manual transmission.

Directly from urbandictionary...

I remember it from rap music back when I was a kid, so that was in the 90s. It’s probably outdated!

Also, do we use the term “slush box” anymore for automatics? Aren’t nearly all cars “slush boxes” now, unless they’re dual clutch?

Does anyone call their car a “whip” anymore? That was hot for a second. I really liked that term.

This is very much a Bad Take. Do you think Lewis Hamilton changes his own oil? What about Jay Leno, does he maintain all 286 of his vehicles, himself? Do you think Jerry Seinfeld or Patrick Dempsey rotate their own tires? All of these cars are enthusiast owned.

Great distinction - my Audi has a pretty thick user guide to the vehicle, but it’s not a Hayne’s repair manual. I don’t even think it has a wiring diagram.

You’re not wrong! My parents still both drive a fair amount, so I see them purchasing at least one or two new vehicles before they no longer need to drive. They’re about to trade in their Merc since it’s about to be out of warranty, and I know my father has thought about a Tesla.

Ding ding ding! The value of time. It didn’t really hit me until several years ago when I started taking freelance work and charged by the hour - that really helped me quantify what my time was actually worth, and what people were willing to pay for my time. It helped me create this highly technical algorithm:

I know plenty of people in their late 60s or 70s (like my folks) that just don’t have the appetite to look this up or figure out how to do it. Just because they’re capable of it, like my dad who’s a friggin’ engineer, doesn’t mean they want to spend their time doing it. That’s why dealerships will still be around.

Exactly - so you see my point. I’ve certainly managed to wire together servers or figure out how to set up remote logins so I can access my data while I’m on work travel, but why would I do it myself when I can have my IT department do it for me?

Raise your hand if you are of a certain age and you’ve gotten a call from your parents/grandparents/C-Suite boss asking you to do something simple like, turn a Word doc into a PDF, or reset their WiFi password, or update their iPhone, all things easily Googled. 1..2..3...okay that’s everyone in the crowd, then.

This is filed to “Truck Yeah”...do you know something we don’t about his racing future, Erik?

This car is rare to find up for sale in low-mileage form, but its current state is pretty off-putting.

Exactly. Everything must be a “baby sports car” or a “baby truck” or a “baby off roader”. It’s your entry into the upper middle class - and that’s also why cars are so expensive. Everyone wants to feel rich, so the average price of a new car has gone stratospheric - it’s in the mid $30k’s now. For that much money you…

I work in advertising (commercial production) and I can tell you exactly why: people take themselves too seriously nowadays.

A beefier engine would have made it a real contender, I think! If I’m not mistaken it only had around 155 lb-ft of torque, which means you just have to keep it up in the RPM stratosphere to get any kind of power out of it. I get that it’s a rotary, but it just felt like it didn’t have any grunt. I took it up some…

I never understood the draw of the RX-8. I test-drove an RX-8 when the latest generation came out, and you just had to wring the engine for power if you wanted to go fast. I was coming from a GTI and I expected something...faster.

I’m totally with you, but “banning ICE car production” and doing nothing else (which is exactly what will happen) will not accomplish anything. It’ll be the same thing that has happened with the “legalisation” of marijuana in some places (like DC). It’s technically legal, but there’s no mechanism for establishing…