Maine does it pretty regularly in the summer. 5-6 cop cars on a convenient on-ramp, with a bear in the air calling the shots. It's like a money-printing machine. They also have a white van with a tinted window in the side of it that they shoot laser out of from overpasses. I prefer the van, as there is more of a…

The most fun I have ever had at an autocross was in my '79 Peugeot 504D. 57hp of French fury, with the softest suspension ever made by the hand of man. Yet in true French fashion, it would actually grip like a magnet despite being leaned over on the door handles. Sadly no pictures of this endeavor survive, being from…

A divided highway.

Fear of authority is healthy. I think there is something to be said for a simple "you just wait for your Father to get home" to put the fear of God (or Dad, as the case may be) into a child and adjust behavior. It certainly worked quite well for myself and my brother. Children run wild today because there are no…

Kids don't learn from their mistakes when the parents don't tell them they are making a mistake. I see nothing wrong with a bit of well-deserved corporal punishment to prove a point to a child. Parents have been doing it for millennia. I certainly was not beaten very often, and not in any sort of brutal way, but when…

Either of which has about 2X the ground clearance of this car. I was a big skier in college and drove all sorts of things into the mountains, but here it is not unusual to have a fair bit of snow and slush on the roads up there. Then again, skiing in the Northeast is character building under the best of conditions.

Some children need a good beating. "The beatings will continue until moral improves".

Hope the roads are well plowed where he skies. That looks low enough to get stuck in my driveway AFTER I finish snowblowing it, Quattro or no.

And we Mainuhs would appreciate it if you would just stay home! Feel free to mail us the money though.

I agree completely. Most of their stuff is junk. But there are some gems here and there, and a lot that is "good enough" for careful casual use. You get what you pay for, but sometimes you don't need much.

I'm jealous of you getting on that last DC-9. I was a Platinum on Northwest for more than a decade pre-merger. Soooo many hours spent in those old birds! Did Delta keep the blue brocade seats?

They just drive less powerful and more fuel efficient cars. You don't need 500hp to have fun. My lowly 230hp car will go 150mph.

The diesel would be faster. You would only stop for fuel half as often - probably even less at really high speeds where the M5 would likely get into single-digit fuel economy. The added acceleration of the M5 would not get you anywhere, and the top speed is the same on stock cars, 155mph.

Spinning tires or not is a function of the finesse of your right foot. If I want to destroy tire rubber hustling a two-ton luxobarge around a racetrack, then an M5 is the right weapon for the (wrong)job, but if the job is crossing continents at speed, give me a big euro-diesel every time.

But most of the time it is so cheap that once and done is good enough. Though my $99 sliding compound miter saw is going on 10 years old and still going strong.

Nope - at $10/gal+ the best car for zooming around Europe is a 535D, preferably in wagon form. Not enough slower to make any difference, and 2X+ the fuel mileage.

I don't need a HUGE box, I drive a 3-series wagon (and I have owned 7 Volvo wagons in the past). But I want one that is big enough to be useful, and this car isn't, for what Volvo charges for it. More useful than the sedan, sure, but a Golf is more useful than an S60 too for a whole lot less cash. I test drove the V60…

I might have drifted a 45' Prevost coach in the snow a time or two, but nobody saw it and you can't prove anything. Plus the statute of limitations ran out years ago! Detroit Diesel power for the win!

Instead you get stuck with the ugly old rear suspension. I was very disappointed in the new Mustang when I test drove it, but at least it would go around a bumpy corner properly.

I have no problem with debt (within reason). I just hate paying interest.