Nearly all major accidents are a chain of factors leading up to what happened. She stopped in the wrong place, her fault. But then in a panic she possible did the wrong thing with a poorly designed and oddball automatic transmission gear selector, and made the situation much, much worse. As I mentioned, just from…

How did she not know what she was doing? Her foot slipped off the brake onto the gas! When the car accelerated, because she thought her foot was on the brake, so she pushed harder, which is the natural thing to do. Lots of research on this - it's what people do in this situation if you are less skilled than a trained…

Don't be a tool. She did not do it intentionally, most likely. She did it unthinkingly. She did not set out from where she was going thinking "today I am going to stop my car on some train tracks". Again, we who live in glass houses should not throw stones. I've done plenty of stupid, unthinking shit behind the wheel…

She did not do it any more intentionally than my Mom driving my Dad's new car into the pool.

More like Europe showing everyone else how it is done in terms of engine tech back in the day. The Japanese resisted fuel injection and other modern engine management innovations just as long as the Americans did. Longer actually, the last carb'd cars and trucks sold in the US were all Japanese.

I've done just this several times in automatic BMWs. it really is muscle memory - you push the button and pull back, and expect to be in reverse - nope, in a BMW you are in DRIVE at that point. I can totally see this being a major issue in a stressful situation. And as was well shown with the Audi sudden acceleration…

If you structure the stock offerings correctly, you can have a situation where all the publically owned stock is non-voting. In theory, non-voting stock is worth less, because it confers ownership with no control, but people buy it anyway, because it typically pays a higher dividend.

I was just going to post this. It's not at all unusual. Facebook's IPO was similar - no matter how much public stock is out there, Mark Zuckerberg has iron-clad control of the company. The Quandts have a similar arrangement over at BMW, and the Porsche and Piech families at VW/Porsche. Not all stock is created equal.

I daily drive my '74 Spitfire in the summer, and I am really daily driving my 15yo Range Rover this winter due to the appalling weather lately in the NE. I'm currently nearly 300 miles from home in it on a work trip to eastern Maine. I figure the Rover gets about a 2X age factor due to it being a Rover. :-) Both are…

Yeah, I do - I have a fair bit of seat time in one, including autocrossing it. If I could still buy a NEW 1M for what they sold for in 2011, I probably would, I think they were a decent deal. I just can't see paying new car money for one well used. Fantastic car, enjoy it! And don't sell it to CarMax! :-)

Smoking was allowed only in a special smoking room that was sealed off. Smoking and hydrogen do not mix well.

To be fair, the 5 GT is a 5-series in name only. It is much more closely related to the 7-series, and it a larger car than the 5-series sedan or wagon.

An added advantage - in this age of every sedan needing to have stupid swoopy rooflines, access to the back seat in them is awful. The roof and door opening curves down such that if you are over 5' tall you either whack your head getting in or have to fold yourself in half. Wagons generally have nice square door…

Nice! And glad they have entered the 21st century!

The other Germans will build you what you want, though you still have to go through a dealer. That is much less of a hardship with the better brands, they generally know how to do business properly. My BMW dealer is fantastic, and has now given me two great deals on Euro Delivery special order cars.

Is VW actually allowing you to order a car these days? Or is it just telling the dealer what you want and having to wait for VW to bother to build and send one like it? When I last bought a new VW, an '02 Golf GLS TDI, VW did not allow orders, and Golf TDIs were scarcer than hen's teeth at dealers. I had to settle for…

States vary widely and wildly in how difficult this is. For anything 1994 and older, Maine requires nothing but an insurance card and a Bill of Sale for registration. That Bill of Sale can be handwritten on the back of a used napkin. And money, of course. If your car is not in "The Book" that they use to look up…

Hmm, tell that to the folks on the 737s that crashed in Pittsburgh and Colorado Springs due to the rudder "hard over" issue back in the day... Those crashes are a big part of the reason that even the re-designed rudder actuator system on the 737 gets extra scrutiny.

I don't completely disagree, the 1-series probably should have had a cheaper 4cyl option as a differentiator. But I think calling it 1/3 less car is a bit harsh. It had a smaller back seat, and a bit less available equipment, but it was also a lot more fun. Much more in the spirit of the older e30 0r e46 3-series than…

I have a Range Rover that is older and higher mileage than Doug's. And a model that is considered LESS reliable than his - an '01 HSE 4.6 with 144K on it now. I have spent a fraction of what he has in repairs. He is intentionally using the most expensive possible means of repair to prove a point. To the point where he…