People do literally hundreds of millions of transactions via Craigslist every year. Once in a great while, bad stuff happens. Just like with every other type of activity where people meet up for whatever reason.

Which is why you have them with you at the bank when you have the bank create the draft. Though in the case of the last vehicle I bought privately, my Range Rover, both the seller and I used the same bank, so we simply went to the closest branch to his office and had them transfer the money from my account to his.

I doubt very much there would be any difference in per capita kid kidnapping if this was common in the US.

This is why all parents should have a small cage on wheels to keep the child in. Preferably until it is off to college. :-)

You bet - nothing like a screaming 100km/hr trailing that nice blue haze! I kind of liked the smell.

You realize it has been more than 35 years since the numbers on the back of the car had more than accidental relationship to the displacement of the engine, right?

I thought about getting OBRUT for the license plate on my (on order) M235i as an homage to that car, but I think the airplane geek in me is going to make me get RAPTOR instead.

Effectively every BMW is built to order.

See, "grounded to the ground" means it handles like a go kart.

Having owned a Trabant, "handling" is a strong word when used in conjunction with that particular car. They don't really have any.

Feels like about 10K of those 11K are in and around Portland, Maine. Never see 9-4Xs though. And enough 9-2Xs that I am pretty sure they are more common than the Subaru version. And lots and lots of Trollblazers.

And about as exciting as a wood-burning stove too. I appreciate that Honda made a semi-exotic that is relatively reliable, but they also managed to make it the Honda of semi-exotics at the same time. Snooooze. A Ferrari may catch on fire at any moment, and cost the GDP of Venezuela to maintain, but every second of…

They were honest, that is just what they charged. They charged flat rate for scheduled maintenance, not by the hour. A license to print money, since the average driver has not a clue what is involved in a 60K service. A year or two later the local Volvo dealer bought them out, the prices became much more reasonable.

My most recent annoying shop story. I had an '02 Jeep Grand Cherokee as my winter beater. Sold it and bought an '01 Range Rover. But I kept the snow tires I had for the JGC, as they were close enough to what the Rover called for. So I buy a used set of alloys for the Rover, and take Jeep wheels and tires Rover wheels…

Best deal like this I ever encountered was the local Saab dealership wanting $1200 to do the 60K service on my '00 9-5 Wagon, not including the timing belt. Change plugs, change oil, change coolant, change cabin and air filters, inspect this and that. I did it in two leisurely hours plus <$200 in OEM filters, plugs,…

It's a de Dion tube suspension. The diff is mounted to the body, the axle is a beam that curves around behind it. The brakes are inboard (and kind of a PITA). The idea is to minimize unsprung weight, while retaining the advantages of a beam axle. I used to have an '86 GTV-6.

911s have a back seat, complete with seatbelts. I spent a good chunk of my childhood in the back of one - My Mom had a late 60's 911 for eons. Never wore the belt, of course, it was the 70s/80s. And much past the 5th grade I had to sit sideways. Exceptions being the super-hot ones like the GT3 and maybe the early…

Cramming a perp into the back seat of a 911 would probably be considered "cruel and unusual punishment" in the US.

And every piece of a Golf Wagon R (or GTI for that matter) is also already certified and sold in the US. Just not that drivetrain in that body. Just like the Cadillac. Nothing new at all. So if Cadillac could do it and make a profit on a handful of cars, VW should only need a slightly larger handful, given the margins…

Having driven one during a Susan Komen drive when they first came out, I find the 5GT to drive pretty much just like the 7-series with which it shares a platform. An e30 M3 it is not, but it isn't exactly an old American barge either. My Mother's old '83 528e was not exactly "the ultimate driving machine" either...