I learned on heavy, old things (197-something Chevy dump truck, among other things), then made an ugly transition to sometimes driving an early-90s Accord or a Tacoma.

I get that, but there’s a disconnect between the headline (SURVIVING) and the first paragraph (tossing a Xmas tree in the back). And the conversation down here turned immediately to tires, AWD, and safe driving. It doesn’t change the fact that this supposes an initial investment of a couple grand, a couple hundred a…

Buying a winter beater is a much greater obstacle (in the significant initial purchase, maintenance, registration, and having a place to park it) to  safer winter driving than is spending $500-700 on some tires if you drive a 2wd car already.

My dad drives a Ridgeline (1st gen, over 250k, no issues) which is about as “sensible” as you can go to get a little bit of bed and a reasonable backseat. But I know he eyes my Fit for day to day communiting. It’s no Prius, but 40 on the highway and not having to pick up an aging dog to get him in the back is a treat.

I think the issue is that they’re all driving on the wrong side of the road.

But sometimes it just totally works...

Who the fuck is eating at an AW?

When I lived in NE our Corolla on snow tires did better than our Outback (wife at the time drove that more) without. I’m team snow tires.

I’m heading to NJ now to buy the Element then driving it to Saugerties to buy that sweet, sweet beaded seat cover from the guy with the Eagle.

oops

No no no. This is the Priceline Negotiator.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe is the Sally Beauty of restaurant chains: there’s one in every shitty strip small.

People don’t necessarily behave rationally in *MOST* situations.

With any personal wrenching, you have to weigh the obvious value of your time versus DIY savings. The sense of pride and accomplishment and joy you can get from working on things yourself can often be enough to tip the scales quite a bit.

Keep making bets like this, but do it a bit less nervously.

I bet my left nut that his parents make voting choices based on “law and order” and who’s “tough on crime”.

Lightning strikes at the exact instant that one of these wrecks into a Tesla running on ‘autopilot’, and I think we’re there.

And yet people with marginally better jobs wonder why people with lower-paid, customer-facing jobs we’ve trained ourselves to treat like crap wonder why people in those jobs are either demanding more money or fucking off to do something else.

If you regularly read Jalopnik, you could be forgiven for taking this as a positive headline.