As per usual, you guys are trying too hard to score Kooky Points. $15k is a lot for this scenario, so there are tons of good options, including Subies. Personally I’d go with a 4Runner or Pathfinder (one of the good ones).

I think it’s quite revealing. Before this video, I would have never known that a world without cars looks like a seizure in a blender!

1st Gear - do they have any way to tell if their drivers are asleep behind the wheel...?

Don’t you mean exponential?

I saw another article on this that had four cars in it: A newish Mustang, a late 60s Camaro, and a 3rd gen Prelude. I think the article writers like to play up the supercar aspect, but the reality is likely more mundane. 

Listen, I love the FJ Cruiser as much as the next bloke, but...

Neutral:

First Gear: Good! Shit’s too expensive.

The last time I bought a car from a dealer, my wife’s Odyssey, we had the car picked out, secured our own financing, and had the price negotiated. It still took four hours at the dealer, with two small children in tow. It doesn’t matter how friendly and accommodating they were, it was still miserable.

Re Ford and “They include a new loyalty rewards program; redesigned call centers; and pilot programs for a mobile service network, easier lease renewal and new types of showrooms.”

When you remove entire segments of vehicles from an automakers lineup, those sales go with it. Whether or not those sales were profitable they still go away. Falling sales by losing models is fine as long as the rest of the lineup is profitable and the company as a whole is more profitable for it 

It’s funny too, because the end goal doesn’t seem that crazy when it comes to the dealer experience.

I bought my daughter’s Kia Soul a few months ago. It was a solidly “fine” experience, which is as high as my dealer-o-meter goes. It was fast and they gave me the deal they quoted. But anything to improve the experience would be welcome.

The problem with trying to improve the dealer experience is that at the end of the day it is still a dealer experience. The weakest link in the customer service experience is the bit that directly interacts with the customer. If Ford can somehow change that...

“Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist for Cox Automotive, told AutoNews that he has a working hypothesis. Mainly, it costs more to buy a car these days, and it’s tough to borrow the money to do it. It’s pretty tough to sell to a market that doesn’t have the means to buy.”

On a steep enough hill gravity will overcome the resistance from compression. The motor will overspeed and downshifts will become impossible.

Not the same ramp. The above is westbound I-70 coming down from the tunnel to Silverthorne. The ramp associated with the accident last week is on eastbound I-70 in Mt. Vernon Canyon.

Even in adverse conditions. Most of the winter chains are required on cabbage hill.

Holy freaking crap...he went way further up that ramp than I was expecting.