I had a book as a kid called “Great German Cars” or something like that which included this. I thought it was so fascinatingly visionary and always stuck with me. That designs like this were never picked up by anyone else, even during times of rationing, was early testimony to me that most people are stupid and…

Last night, the coyotes were howling somewhere in the woods around me. Second best neighbors I’ve ever had. Best was a skunk I named Lockheed who lived somewhere behind a more urban apartment I lived in. It would come out around sunset and I’d toss it some food and it would hang out while I talked to it for a few…

Certainly a lack of experience is a danger that is under-appreciated by too many, but discounting the obvious recent damage, nothing about that boat nor their story says properly adequately maintained to me.

Yeah, with all the fairly rave reviews for they drove, I had one as a loaner and expected it to be like a bigger, more comfortable Focus, but it was just a Ford Camry (at best) with less comfortable seats than the Focus.

I just bought a $6k 200k mile 2008 Camry 5-speed to get me by for a few months that was a much better buy than an Ecosport at any price. The $6k is still a fairly high a price, if not for the market, but not absurd and the car is in great shape and runs well, just needs a motor mount. Something like that is a much…

That was the one that got me! Made no sense on so many levels. There were multiple other options there, all of which were better, including (and I can’t believe I’m typing this for an Ecosport) buying a new one as they’re not much more money new, have trouble selling even in this market (they were about the only…

Yeah, my road bike barely gets used, either. I won’t ride on the streets around me as they’re winding roads with no shoulders and the typical idiot drivers. Other people ride in groups around here, but I also had to stop to see if I could help someone who got hit by a car even with being in one of those groups. Plus,…

Name it after a sales bomb, that’ll do it! Although, the original was too far ahead of its time while this one might be behind its competitors, so at least they’re trying a different strategy.

Sounds about right.

And bikes are usable for a long time. I have a 1912 bike. It’s a racing bike, but at some point (I imagine during WW2 fuel rationing or maybe the Great Depression or both), it was put into utility service as the seat stays show evidence of having an old fashioned clamp-on rack put on at one time. I could ride it…

Most prefer easy jobs that don’t require special tools, are simple to diagnose where they can usually beat the book time, and aren’t likely to have the customer back (and angry) when those fixes didn’t work or because they broke something else in the process of fixing the first thing. A lot of independent mechanics…

Get a Power Probe. It’s a test light that can apply power or ground. Also, if the car smells, the electrical issues could be rodent damage.

You already mentioned aircraft. 

Yeah, my car was running perfect until the head cracked suddenly. Now I’m in a 200k mile ‘08 Camry that cost $6k and it was easily the best deal I found on anything with about a month and a half of looking. Probably the manual transmission reduced demand and I has a little luck tied to a bit of ruthlessness (the…

Also, the pollution from billionaire asshole vanity rockets.

Yeah, and for what? It’s not like they spent all that money to make the thing a looker. I don’t get the point.

Trust.

I would imagine the dealer should be responsible for giving the kid the money back as the salesman was working for them at the time. From there, I would think they have to get the money back from him under threat of reporting him for theft and fraud charges (which I would still do even if I got the money back because…

Same here. As impractical as it is and as much as I still haven’t figured out how I’ll haul the kayaks, I just ordered a GR86. For what will likely be my last ICE car, I want something simple, manual, fun to drive at normal speeds, that should be respectably reliable and get around 30 mpg.

If I hadn’t been on one already, it was only because it was pre-9/11. From my writing, search history, and probably people making anonymous phone calls, a jury duty note was the least of it.