I’m convinced the only reason Buick is still here is that what ever clout the brand has in China might be damaged by not even being sold in the US, even if it’s just a bunch of badge-engineered GM global products.

The lazy answer is its both.

You’re effectively just making the argument for PHEV’s as a concept. 50 miles of battery per day is all a lot of people need, but they’re understandably scared that exhausting those 50 miles once in a blue moon leaves them stranded. If you can quell that by having an ICE as a fallback option, but it only actually gets…

I think that’s an issue unique to any big city. I live in Chicago, and I swear, my driving style changes subconsciously when I’m in the city vs. when I’m in the suburbs. The most noticeable drivers are usually ubers and lyfts that are just too timid for the locals.

You could throw out all the generalizations and basically just quote the case study on the GM/Toyota joint venture on manufacturing efficiency in the 80's. A lot of that whole failed experiment could be blamed on the UAW just being the UAW, but that doesn’t make the whole exercise any less telling about the cultural…

Sacrificing the big comfy seats that used to be in *every* American car at the altar of the global market is probably my least favorite thing about the industry today. I grew up in my dad’s ‘87 Beretta, and even that had La-z-boy recliners relative to what gets put in modern cars.

I still like my idea better.

The eBay listing stated that the engine was “not able to fly but perfect to dismantle and repurpose into collectible pieces of furniture or art.”

I love following police scanner accounts here in Chicago, if only to see them call out “he left his car running while he walked into 7/11, and... you already know what happened.”

Not just that, but the performance gains pushed the 488 into that territory where it’s nearly impossible to wrangle without VERY intrusive drive aids. I can live with the V12 models being that stupidly fast on principle, but the smaller mid-engine Ferrari is supposed to be more accessible than that.

My scorching hot take is that it’s because these replaced the land yachts. The people who are blowing 80 grand on these just want to commute to work in their living room, and would spend that money on something like a Deville if they could.

Don’t disagree with any of this. My intent wasn’t to say the police aren’t politicized, but that the current version politicization we have (which I think I can be forgiven for focusing on) makes the job most attractive to the sort of person that perpetuates the things we dislike most about them.

Totally understood. I myself admittedly have a weird stance on all of this that whatever consequences the police get for being bad at their job is totally deserved, but general flogging of the institution isn’t a means to an end that anyone actually wants.

I think the better way to frame this is that being a cop has traditionally been a working class job that’s become so difficult and politicized, it’s now extremely unpopular to anyone other than people who want to do it for the wrong reasons. You’re emphasis is on being a sociopath, but there are other dumb/bad reasons…

It’s probably the best of example of wealth inequality, and why I went from being a skeptic of that problem to buying into it: When cost isn’t a limiting factor to a portion of consumers, supply and demand curves don’t work like they are supposed to. Income from cash cows means there’s no consequence for abandoning…

It probably was, but the point of right-to-repair litigation/discourse is that such language creates a monopoly and should be outlawed. It’s more about just bringing the issue to the government’s attention and hoping they rule against this specific practice. It’s kind of a “safety standards are written in blood” sort…

The mid-engine V8 Ferraris. Maybe it’s snobby elitism (I can’t afford one and probably never will), but you all have to do is look at the depreciation the 458's never underwent to realize this is something absolutely nobody wanted.

To be fair, it technically maintained the tradition of using the biggest motor from an F-150 of the time.

I experienced the exact same thing with my 2016 Mustang making that same drive this past fall. Not only was there not as much pull, but engine braking was definitely less effective too.

The Ford Ecoboosts in particular have always been the absolute *worst* about this. Those engines make great power, but the term “egg under the gas pedal” doesn’t even do justice how much you have to baby those things to get anywhere near advertised mileage.