I jokingly referred to this as “Project Yard Art” on David’s post, but.... holy crap. (Or is that holey and full of crap?) This thing is toast. Time to let it go and find a more viable project.

These things always remind me of those recumbent bicycles: you see one, go “hmm, that’s interesting,” and then get on with your life. You don’t actually consider owning one.

Sam & Max: Freelance Police. Also a series of Lucas Arts video games.

There are plenty of cars that I like that other people think are ugly, but they’re all obvious: Pontiac Aztek, Mustang II, etc. And there are some that I think are hideous and can’t stand that other people seem to like: any and all Hummers, SN95 Mustangs, any Mercedes after about 1983.

I dunno. The idea has promise, but I’m not sure it would really... deliver.

Kinda makes you wish you owned a bulldozer, doesn’t it? “Are you gonna move these cars, or am I?”

It’s a little safer, maybe, but still a terrible idea. Three kids from my high school were killed in a Camaro on a country road when the one driving crested a hill at 100 mph and the car went under a hay wagon... or at least everything from the hood down went under it...

1979 was a good year. The first album was a smash, spawning hit after hit. A world tour followed, and for a couple of years, it seemed you could do no wrong. All the trappings of the rock-star life followed: the houses, the cars, the women. It was glorious.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for updates on this project. I love the idea of converting classics to EVs, and I think it’s going to be a great way to keep them on the road in the future.

Nope. Making a boring car fast and loud doesn’t make it less boring. Just harder to live with.

Not to mention that there always needs to be a human-operated, purely mechanical way to slow or stop the car. The only acceptable redundancy for an automated system is a fully manual one. I will never own (or willingly drive for long) any vehicle that doesn’t have a mechanical e-brake.

Admittedly irrational Nice Price from me. Had an ‘84 Laser XE in chocolate brown for a while, loved it, was too broke to keep up with its needs. But I’ve always liked this early Laser/Daytona style, and if I had the money, I would be interested.

That would really have made it a shitty day.

Now, to be fair, I have also bought two cars (including the Protege) from Morrie’s Mazda in Wayzata, MN, and been treated very well both times. Trading in a Ford Escort I had bought from them used on a brand-new Protege went smooth as silk, took about a hour, they didn’t try any hard-sales bullshit or after-the-fact…

In practice, it’s a 4 speed with an overdrive lever, and once or twice “hey check it out, I have 2 speeds in reverse!” in a parking lot.

Mine was in 2006, at a Ford dealership in either Burbank or North Hollywood (I forget which). I was tired of dealing with my manual Mazda Protege in LA traffic, and wanted to trade it in on an automatic Focus. They had the car I wanted (ZX3 SE, in black) so we sat down to figure out the deal. I handed the Mazda keys…

Oh you poor thing. What have they done to you?

Hey, at least you’re ALLOWED to pump your own damn gas... (grumbles in non-native Oregonian)

Only once, when I was 16, a couple months after I got my license. And of course, I was on a country road in the middle of nowhere. Total dumbass kid move. Luckily a friendly farmer gave me a gallon to get back into town.

I like it a lot, and it’s definitely in that “just drive it and don’t worry about value” condition, but I can’t help feeling like it would be a lot cheaper if it were a four-door. In fact, I’ve seen 4 doors for sale in the $6000-7000 range in this condition not long ago. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, but…