Too much overspray on seals, and too many large, misfitting parts. I like 928s, but this one? Eesh...

I briefly owned an ‘06 Dakota, very similar to the black ‘05 pictured in the article. It was an utterly forgettable vehicle (even with the H.O. 4.7 V8), and I couldn’t get rid of it soon enough.

Between rust, bad second or third drivers/owners, not many escaped the gallows. I was also going to attribute it to Cash 4 Clunkers, but according to the list only one was turned in. Maybe they were too old by that point.

They did sell them in Mexico and in other markets in Central and South America.

No judgement from me. I have a particular fondness fondness for the Beretta. My late dad worked for GM, and when I was newly licensed he brought home a pre-production Beretta that the plant he worked at received from corporate to let employees try out. Newer than the first new car I ever drove.

The Ford Ka. We bombed around southern England on our honeymoon in this one back in 2005. It was just a basic, honest little car that didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t. In that way it reminded me of the original Mini. They’re cheap enough to buy one to drive and one for parts - if there are any old enough to…

Your (late) analogy explains why two things are different. My analogy two weeks ago also explained why two things are different.

Tomorrow’s QOTD: What is the best engine size that contains the last four digits of your Social Security Number?

Not MY car, or IN it for that matter, but...

Tick-tock...

Do you write blog posts about your garbage shoes when you do?

That is correct. The whole thing sat unused for years, but parts of it have opened up. The description of the slide is so poorly researched, that I’m again questioning why I bother with Jalopnik anymore. It isn’t like there isn’t mountains of documentation as to what happened and who held things up for decades.

Ricky Gervais has never been funny, and even within the confines of different strokes for different folk I’ve never understood why people think he is. Cackling at your own douche-chill comments isn’t funny.

I provide an apple to hand grenades comparison in response to someone asking for the difference between two things.

Pretty much. I’m not endorsing or advocating for it. Uber and Lyft don’t exist without VC burn, and these delivery apps are the same thing; the underlying transactions are not profitable.

Downsizing was driven more by fuel economy than emissions, even though they go hand-in-hand. Had there not been a couple OPEC oil embargoes in the 70s, Japanese cars would not have caught on as quickly as they did, and the Big 3 wouldn’t have rushed their responses to market before they were ready.

Unless you literally enter a credit card and a shipping address and place an order, you will have no idea if they are out there or not. Especially for a 30 year-old car like this. I’ve gone through this too many times - particularly since COVID - to just assume those ads are accurate.

There was a great downsizing in the late 70s and early 80s, and the era is referred to by many as the Malaise Era. The end result was the move en masse to crossovers and SUVs, because consumers didn’t want the smaller cars, even when the technology caught up to the emissions and fuel economy requirements and made them…

Good luck with any of those actually existing. When we were actually trying to buy a replacement handle for a Lumina coupe, those ads were divorced from an actual part sitting on a shelf somewhere, available for sale. I just went through a similar experience with a 2017 model vehicle. Just because a website says…

The difference is venture capital. The apps make money even when the underlying service does not. Your local franchisee or small business owner in a low-margin business like pizza doesn’t have such luxuries.