Counterpoint: I brought my wife’s used CRV to the local CarMax, waited around the showroom for an hour while they did the assessment, and was given a lowball offer. Put a For Sale sign on it, parked it in the front yard, and had it sold within the week for more $. Maybe it depends on the car and/or the area, but I…

I disagree. Picking up random trash is altruistic, yes.  But if you have the chance to give the litterer a ration of shit, and dump it back in his car, then you are giving him some (minor) repurcussion. Enough if that, and he may think twice next time.

Alas, littering is also something that is depressingly common in Russia. Not all Russians litter, of course. But the many who do, do so not just out of laziness, but with an attitude of “I just don’t give a shit that there’s trash everywhere”. Even when they go out of their way to visit some beautiful spot - say, a…

I watched it this year with a 14yo girl and a 10yo boy...

Perfect place for one of my favorite Clarkson quotes, about a Lexus which he was about to destroy with a machine gun:

Exactly. I’m curious to see how that Monorail is holding up after a few more years of racoons, mice, insects, mold, etc.

As someone who had a neighbor who loved to rev his fartcan hatchback and his sportbike down the street at all hours, I agree. Though I also think there should be allowances for stock performance cars. There is a difference in the “quality” of the sound... one makes me happy, the other just pisses me off. But maybe…

Duh

I agree: non-hostile aliens hanging out around earth, in our lifetime, is too good a story not to get excited about. Just really, REALLY unlikely. And, even if it were true, what motivation would the government have in releasing these videos, anyway?

LOL - no, but that might be preferable to the “donking” these poor Impalas got...

K-cars? Ppftth...

Totally, similar thing happened to me when I went back to 2002 to try to stop myself from buying an Acura CL-S. I accidentally prevented myself from meeting my wife, my kids started fading out of my phone wallpaper, and I ended up having to DJ “Get Lucky” at a nightclub. All that because American Honda couldn’t design…

True: modern automatics are superior to manuals in efficiency and performance (possibly also in reliability, but I’ve been burned by both manual and automatic tranny failures). For a “normal” car, I’ll take an auto, hands down. But for a fun car, they’re just not the same. I mean, I know that the 8-speed system in my…

It’s tough these days for someone to get hold of a standard shift to learn on. But if you have a chance to try again, take it. When I was a teenager, it took me more than twice before I got the hang of it. It also took me going out with a co-worker in a company car (an old 80s Civic), and neither of us really gave a…

I do think it depends on the bike. And I haven’t tried any real traffic yet on my current bike - a 70s-era UJM, but I may change my tune when I do (finding neutral on that is also a pita). I used to do a lot more commuting on a 90s Honda VFR, and I don’t recall the clutch being a problem, but then, I also went out of…

It’s a bit easier to deal with a motorcycle’s clutch in traffic. I do miss driving a stick, and perhaps some day I’ll get myself into a Miata or hot hatch as a fun toy. But I doubt I’d ever go back to, say, a Boston commute with a clutch.

I don’t know about their Gators, but there is no way I would buy from John Deere if I were in the market for a tractor. Which is a shame, because they used to be a great brand.

That’s why I refuse to pronounce it like “toupee”. To me, it will always rhyme with “coop”.

Carbs need cleaning

Well, now I feel justified for my comment the last time I stepped foot in a Lexus dealership: