Not even remotely unusual for sporting cars in that era. Makes it easier to heel and toe.

I figure if he doesn't get the death penalty he will last about as long in prison as Dahlmer did. Plenty of boys from Southie in the Big House, and I predict they have absolutely no sense of humor about people who kill and maim innocent kids in their hometown.

Some people do not deserve membership in the human race. Take them out with the rest of the garbage. I have no more opposition to the death penalty than I do to putting down a rabid dog.

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…

AFAIK, all of the Embraer E-170 and E-175 regional jets being flown as US Airways Express have WiFi from GoGo - they are Republic Airlines birds. Republic planes being flown as American Eagle have it too, but I think there may be other Eagle operators who do not. The E-190s are considered mainline jets and have it as…

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.