The Terradyne is definitely not anodyne.

Yeah, that’s exactly my point. It’s been a while since that was routinely the case.

Excellent write-up. Yes, a car breaking down at a crucial life moment, when you’re really depending on it, can sour a relationship. I’ve bought enough troublesome cars to know that.

Active headrests are something. When I got in a frontal collision with my 2014 Lincoln MKS, it was interesting to see the headrests shunted forward post-crash. For what it’s worth, I didn’t have any whiplash.

My G90 did that, as did my S 550 Coupe. I figured that was why.

It’s the squiggly-wiggly side mirrors on the HD GM models, for me. How on earth did that make it past the design studio?

I think the K2xx trucks (2014-2018 for the half-ton) will age well, especially the pre-facelift ones (2014-2015). This, to me, is handsome and enduring:

Ironically, the SSR would have looked alright if GM had stuck to the original size. The concept was based around the S10 and chassis, but when it came to production, that was being phased out. So GM based it instead on the much larger contemporary Colorado/GMT3XX platform, and I think a lot of the goodness of the…

As with the prior one, the new Passport is clearly a sawn-off Pilot, body-wise. I think that’s a bit lazy—if not as much as the Mazda CX-70, which is entirely the CX-90 with no third row and light changes—and would have liked to see it have unique side stampings.

I agree with those who suspect money laundering.

Saturn never made a dime.

Considering that Ford’s own Fusion—assembled in Hermosillo, Mexico—frequently came with drugs smuggled somewhere in the factory-to-retail pipeline...this doesn’t surprise me.

I think the FWD Cougar was what they needed at the time...but it probably should have been a Ford.

The founder of Buick himself had a similar trajectory. David Dunbar Buick, who was Scotch, not French, was ousted from the Buick Motor Company in 1906, receiving a single share worth $100,000 at the time (equivalent to roughly $3.4MM today), by William C. Durant himself. Contemporary sources paint him as every bit the…

It definitely seems like Honda has swapped with Volkswagen for “most elegant, easy-to-use interiors in the industry.”

My neighbor behind me seems to be doing reasonably well. She’s had a late-model “Mary Kay” Equinox for all the time I’ve lived here, in black. Come to think of it, she’s due a new one.

Then those customers are SOL, unless they can collect some other way. It’s kind of the same as having someone hit you who has state-minimum liability insurance coverage, which where I live is $25K /$50K.

In most states, a dealership has to maintain a surety bond in order to get their license. I’ve never seen it be less than $25,000. It’s meant to pay out in the event that they do something that violates state dealer regulations. Assuming they did, perhaps she can find out who held their surety bond (it should be on…

True, although a lot of gap policies have a cap on what they’ll cover, as a percentage of the vehicle’s value. It might be something like 150% LTV, which would still leave him about $40K in the hole.

Right you are. My mistake. That’s even worse.