Our “classic” used 2013 Model S is the most luxurious car we’ve owned but I’d classify it as a technology car.  It’s about as luxurious as a 20 year old Lexus (not the LS). I like the minimalist design of the interior but a coat hook would be nice. 

Not necessarily any one feature per se, but I’d say a car with a suspension tuned for both comfort and performance, an interior that is a little plush with more stitch counts on the textiles, coat/dry cleaning hooks, adjustable ambient interior lighting, doors and panels with a little more heft that block wind and…

My wife and I follow a completely different system. We have 4 vehicles that each are used for different purposes:

Beware the swoop-n-squat…especially in a construction zone. Sure the guy will claim bodily injuries and get caught on the golf course 2 days after the claim by a PI hired by the insurance company, but they might always not get away with it while the car you’re fixing yourself might take you 3 months and a couple of…

Ah people are wising up to the greater-fool theory The demand has peaked and all this recession talk is a signal that no one should be paying $50K above sticker for a mass produced GM. Give it a year and I’m sure people will be able to walk into their dealership and get their custom trim for no more than 10% mark up.…

Let’s not lump all teenagers together here. Generally we reap what we sow and encouraging kids to never grown up, failure to teach them responsibility, and presenting them with mindless instant gratification is how we got here. I was ready to drive at 13 and wrenched a little bit, part of being the youngest and an…

My mom encouraged me to get a job in my teen years ASAP. She told me that I just needed to earn some money so she could fund a Roth IRA for me and that I could spend or save what I earned. 28 years it’s still sitting in an USAA growth fund and is 4X more than I put in even accounting for the Dotcom and Credit crash.…

Cupholders are pretty much useless for me; I don’t drink while I drive because it takes away from my driving experience and I won’t be able to enjoy by drink.  In my pre-cupholder days, I would wedge the fast-food cup between the handbrake and the passenger seat.

America is well behind high-speed trains compared to Europe and Japan in part because America was reconstructed in the 1800s during post-Civil War era whereas Europe and Japan reconstructed in the 1950s during post-WWII. Secondly, rail in America is privatized by the rail tycoons and commuter rail gets the lowest…

I’m so amazed by the dryer fire danger because I habitually clean out my lint screen after/before each use. After 10 years of use, my dryer control board when kaput. I ended up taking the whole dryer apart (thanks YouTube videos) and started replacing the heater element, thermistor, thermostat, etc before realizing…

Essentially any underpowered vehicle with a crappy automatic transmission or tranny with gearing that was too tall.  I particularly like small EVs for their zippiness and ease of maneuverability…it’s like a street-legal toy. Even better if one was equipped with a Torsen instead of using the ABS system for…

I guess the most stressful situation for me is when visibility is impaired. I was driving in heavy rain down highway 101 from Monterey to Orange County, Ca during the late morning. I had the windshield defroster on, wipers going full speed (only time in my life I felt it necessary), fog lights on, and between the…

I’m not a lawyer (my wife does employer defense), looks like the jury in Oregon did not tolerate racial discrimination, that is a high penalty they agreed was appropriate. Looks like her lawyers will take about $300K for an easy case and Uncle Sam will leave the rest to her since this isn’t a wage settlement. 

I hope you read the article. He lost his job a month later for other poor performance. The company has a FIFO policy that he violated however he company was dinged for deleting voicemails from the plaintiff. Maybe not quite evidence tampering but it sure shows the company purposefully did not try to do the right thing 

Should also be noted that this is not a sustainable strategy and would only work on the final lap or two because it would tear down the sidewalls of the tire, bend the fender and cut the tire, as well as destroy the steering and suspension systems. It was borderline clever and desperate, taking a personality of…

I can see the headlines now: A-hole Truck Driver Stuck in a…Hole

I’ve got 2 used EVs that were a bargain and fit perfectly for my needs though I still have a small TDI and a big ole turbodiesel truck just in case the EVs aren’t up to snuff. Comically you can also consider the Flintstone mobile too:

My wife and I are control-freaks and had zero interest in AP when we bought our used Tesla Model S 85. I’ve exclusively owned manual transmission cars until we started buying EVs. This Tesla is the first car I’ve ever owned without an emergency handbrake...that’s already enough discomfort for me, no way I’d trust an…

My issue with this that these are all anecdotes from a very small self-selecting sample and not if the broader ownership or even small pool of car enthusiasts.  The broader data doesn’t lie and reveals how robust and reliability these models are as a population. But I do take the point of Kia/Hyundai, Jag/LR, making…

Always wanted a Ferrari F355. My friend’s uncle has one and says it costs about $6K a year in maintenance whether it gets driven or not…fortunately for him, he’s a Ferrari mechanic so the costs aren’t as bad. So I decided an 8-cyl Audi R8 would be easier on the wallet and still give you that coveted gated-shifter.