My own out of oil story involves driving to Roebling Road (Savannah, GA) from the DC area with my racing buddy Danny in an absolute sh*theap Dodge cargo van that had no redeeming qualities except a nice stereo. We were bombing down 95 in one of the Carolinas when Danny shouts out “HEY, DO YOU HEAR THAT?” “HEAR WHAT?”…

For sure.

Lutz quote I heard years back: (paraphrasing, probably) “Everyone thinks car manufacturers are stupid until they try to make one themselves”.

While visiting a friend in Cali years ago (from Baltimore), we amused ourselves trying to stay on cheap aluminum folding chairs in the back of my friend’s aggressively driven pedo van. Eventually, they collapse completely.

I get along very well with FWD and a good set (of four) winter tires. Don’t believe the marketing hype.

This is good Kinja. I honestly thought that the original designer left before the S refresh!  

Anecdote: my friend recently bought a 3 Performance to replace their aging S P85+. He likes the smaller 3 better.

Yeah, they don’t look the same (from the front) but he didn’t say people can’t tell them apart. He said a lot of people won’t be able to tell which is the newer model, which I completely believe.

That will keep complaints down.

Very cool. The gearbox was rebuilt but to stock specs. IIRC, the single shaft upgrade wasn’t available yet (or I simply wasn’t aware of it). I did eventually install a limited slip from the S300. I also installed lower control arms from the V8 (which your GT3 may have from the factory) and had the the timing updated…

I loved my S4s. It wasn’t perfect (I bought it with a wrecked 2nd gear at about 50k miles) but it was pretty solid over the 6 years/30k miles I had it. I sold it to ‘Zig’ in Chicago in 2006-7. As far as I can tell, he still has it.

My neighbor has a mint Reatta ‘vert hidden away in his spare garage.  I haven’t seen it in years but he told me a few weeks ago that he still had it.  His daily is a Tesla X and his wife drives a 3.

As an actual 50yo, it doesn’t feel too old to me either. :)

Right? Click on comments with no expectations and BAM.

Our MINI dealer had no problem accepting a personal check for my wife’s car a couple years back. I was a little surprised and assumed they had a way to electronically deposit or at least confirm it before they released the car.

Your test reminded me of a factoid about the 1st gen Volt (not sure if it applies to the 2nd gen). It required premium. In a deep dive, one of the lead engineers said that the efficiency improvement was worth it, even given the price disparity, because (IIRC) the Volt’s engine could be more tightly managed. ICE power…

My old man wouldn’t even get the FM radio. He’d get the base AM, then buy an FM adapter, which he would install by meticulously cutting up the dashboard in his new car.

Pasting it in there probably makes it far easier/cheaper to have the 12 and 15" screen options.

I’ll go against the grain and suggest they shouldn’t buy a car. Does the headache/cost of rentals really exceed the headache of owning a street-parked car in NYC that you only use some weekends? It probably feels like a hassle to secure a rental (especially now, I’m guessing) but in return, you’re not worried about…

A couple years ago, a young Prius C-owning colleague randomly found herself in a 5.0 Mustang rental. She told me “I never understood why people like cars like that until I started it up.  Then I got it”.