More of this, please!

“But that’s their job; automakers are all about adding just enough words to an ad, manipulating those words and throwing in caveats, until the phrase is “technically” true.”

Luckily, S60 Rs are actually below your budget. Here’s one with 62,715 miles for just $12,995. I hope you can drive stick!

This is a good answer. I once dated a girl in high school whose father was an attorney in rural VA. He had 200,000 miles on three year old Grand Cherokee. The commute between courthouses is clearly a thing.

This is good Jalop, David.

We rented one (base model) over the Christmas holidays. It was not as bad as I expected, to be honest. Even the base is WAY nicer than any $15,000 car has any right to be. Comfortable on the highway, not terribly slow, fairly competent handling and the tech is way better than my 2013 Subaru. It’s a steal at that…

Better yet, wait for the V90.

This is the right choice. Or an A6 Wagon if you can get one anymore...

Sure, that’s cheaper than a tank of gas, but it’ll only get you 19 miles. So really it’s about the equivalent of 2/3 of a gallon of gas at your 30mpg average. So... you wasted almost two hours for no net benefit. Your lede had it right - these only make sense if you can charge at home overnight.

You had it better.

It’s not that simple. Our (the United States’) interest in this situation is deterring Putin from invading/annexing/otherwise acquiring territory that we’re pledged by treaty to defend militarily.

Welcome. Glad to have you. Also glad you hit that parallel in worldview — we’re seeing a rise in the influence of those who think geopolitics operates like a grade school playground or contested street corner. We’re going to have to reckon with the impact of that shift in the coming decade.

You’re right, of course. But. Talking about 0-60 times signals to us (people who like cars) that this isn’t another beigemobile/appliance/prius clone. It’s cuing and I think that still matters. If an electric car maker cares about this stuff, it says they care about driving experience and performance. I assume (in the…

Two things.

This...

I marvel at how expensive these are. At drop off at my kid’s school there’s a consistent $500k worth of Odysses (Odyssei?) every morning. For the $45,000 one of these will cost you, you can buy a lot of car. But man are they useful.

This is good torch’, Torchinsky.

Well played, Musk.

The tough part of that is, when you say “brand building” you (rightly) let the ad off the hook when it comes to sales. It’s not designed to move metal. It’s designed to get the marque in the consideration set.

Agreed. VW has made some great work. One could argue, though, that most of that great work was for mediocre cars.