There is a collection of mud bogs in rural West Virginia (Really, are you surprised?) that are exceptionally off-road. One has to drive through a creek (that is actually the same size as many rivers), go through many deep mud pits that can flood most lifted off road trucks, and pass along a path that is cut along the…

Jeebus H. Tap-dancing Christ in a hula skirt! These things are more dangerous than a nitroglycerine delivery man with epilepsy.

When I was in high school, I had dated this girl (call her Anna for the sake of this convo) for almost a year. Anna cheated on me, told me about it, and broke it off. Whatever. A few weeks later I hooked up with one of her best friends, who happened to be her neighbour (call her Bonnie for the sake of this convo).…

Absolutely. You have hardened metal balls and races riding against each other with the same lubricant that was there when it was put together. And there is no “slop”; they have a certain amount of preload to make them last longer. Yeah, normal maintenance.

I had made reference to this in a previous comment, but the father of a very good friend wrote a spectacular book about it. Worth a read.

The Goldsboro Broken Arrow.

Ever since I was made into a Wolverine/Six Hundred Dollar Man hybrid, I have driven many different types of vehicles. Full size trucks, compact cars, sport luxury vehicles, and even work trucks with bargain bin bench seats. Some are less comfortable than others, but the Elantras were just so much worse than others.

Having worked for Hyundai, I had a few opportunities to take some Elantras to drive. 2015, 2016, and new 2017 models. They are so uncomfortable.

As I have very little plans to get rid of my manual transmission AWD TL anytime soon, I am keeping a watchful eye on the new models.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Where the vast majority of roads are two lane. But then, at some intersections, they will go to four lanes for a brief spell, usually about a quarter mile. People jam up the lane with the least amount of traffic then try to force their way past you.

Ugh, Catera. I remember years ago having to work on them.

I’ll just leave this here. Sums up valets for me.

I have a hilariously awful story about why I refuse to valet.

Ponder this:

I’m a diesel lover. I’m a hatch lover. I’m a three pedal lover. Now I would just need to be a GM lover.

Yep. Probably.

No kidding.

I knew a guy by that name in school. Not too terribly common name. He grew up outside of Wheeling, WV. Just wondering...

Unrelated to the Ford, but did you grow up in the Ohio Valley?

Your exact point reminds me of an interesting factoid from a few years ago. Bear with me; the finer details are fuzzy.