Yup, my immediate thought is that it’s a retro-futuristic Volvo wagon. I don’t hate it.

Nobody makes anything I want to buy new anymore, so used it shall be. Plenty of lovely low-mileage creampuffs out there. 

That roofline in the top photo had me thinking “Volvo Estate”, then I read “SUV”, lowering my expectations, and when I saw the photo of the 2021 prototype, I have to admit that I really, really do not like it.

I don’t doubt it at all. The National Labs in particular are insane asylums when it comes to money and funding. With grant money being a special sort of untracked special.

Having seen both the result of the Prophesy Concept with Ioniq 6 (iffy) and the result of the 45 Concept with the Ioniq 5 (great), I’m cautiously optimistic, though heavy on the caution.  

It’s not legalized. It’s decriminalized. The difference being that the cops won’t stop you, but it’s still your fault if you get hit by a car outside of a crosswalk. It’s a small but important difference. They did the same thing here in Hawai’i, and people here were also given the wrong understanding by articles…

I admit to exercising my white male privilege and jaywalk all the time, but my city isn’t quite NYC. I do it mid-block in front of my work, and it’s safer because the traffic volume is low on that block is low, I can see everything coming, and I only have to watch out for 2 directions not 4, and don’t have to trust if…

Or as Tesla FSD calls it, open season.

Pretty much this. If you don’t spend it one year you lose it the next. It’s a shit show.

In Boeing’s defense, they have to do a bunch of safety testing to ensure that the soap dispenser doesn’t fall off the wall and crash to the floor or have its access door pop open!

A 2 door Pajero would be fun...Shoot maybe a good way to reintroduce the Evo name stateside without trampling on the nameplate (looking at you Eclipse Cross!)

In an effort to play along, my answer would be the Mitsubishi Montero/Pajaro. I always liked the look of them and had the chance to take a bone stock first gen off-roading in New Zealand a few years back...it was seriously impressive.

Hardly possible since Isuzu is long gone from the US, but the VehiCross was, and is still, super cool.

The LM002!

NP. Anyone else miss those silly Joe Isuzu commercials?

To be fair, Isuzu is still in the US market. They’ve just shifted their focus to the medium-duty COE truck market (and pretty much own that segment). What that means for Trooper parts, I have no clue, but this example deserves a NP.

But here’s the thing with the Volvo guy: he only owned it for a few months. Even if he had a 2% interest rate on the loan, the balance wouldn’t have been that much lower.

In this case, it’s the rapid depreciation, not the interest rate, that got him.

Math is hard.

A buddy of mine lives in Oregon and routinely goes on week-long trips with one or two other riders where they cover serious ground (think Portland to Las Vegas and back) on nothing but trails and logging roads with just the odd connector on pavement. He does that on a dual sport, because it’s way cheaper to buy/own and…

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”