One problem is that they might have saved you $20 on gas, but your share of the additional infrastructure failings is going to be $70.

Also, migrants. Our dumbass cousins are still in their native villages.

Sadly, conditions are similar within large corporations (they do, after all, resemble governments in size at least).

Fair enough. Dictators always manage to take advantage of isolation, although I still think the overall effect on Putin is to harm him.

“Torsten Müller-Ötvös” sounds so much like a made-up name of an intellectual foreigner in a book by P.G. Wodehouse; I find it hard to accept this person as the head of Rolls-Royce.

The only car that looks natural on chromed alloys is the 3000GT VR-4 Spyder.

These are often stolen, so clearly they look good in the eyes of scum.

I am all about the body-colored element on the Mercedes wheel, something that they have a long tradition of doing.

It’s hard to have a conversation when one person equates Communism and Stalinism while another one takes your view. Marxism-Leninism, at least, is atheist.

Word. People like to ascribe to Putin whatever ideology they themselves hate or dislike. It would be lazy for me to believe that he is a Robber Capitalist of the Chicago School, but I think it is much simpler than that.

That’s some stream of consciousness stuff right there.

Humans are weird. Why do we find it so satisfying to watch cars crashing? Even when (and for many, especially when) people are getting hurt.

Communism is based on absolute equality, atheism, and internationalism. Putin wants none of those things, and an Atlantic article from 2012 which uses the word “collectivism” also doesn’t make him a lefty. Putin has no ideology (nor morality whatsoever), he just uses whatever words he thinks people want to hear so…

Yes, and in the US you are paying for a dental office being fully lawyered up, a couple of their malpractice suits (deserved or otherwise), and for around 50% of the staff being there only to deal with insurance questions. In Mexico you pay for the hard costs and the wages of the people who are required to do the work.

If this isn’t a boat then I am curious how RVs will be classified.

Not quite. He wants Stalinism but wants to avoid even having to pay lip service to Communism.

If I was in China (not a dream of mine) I would buy an old Loaf of Bread van (license-built Hijet) or one of the locally made Citroën ZXs. Of course, most cities have made them illegal so, I guess you’d have to stick to wrenching rather than drawing.

I usually defend the inclusion of even things thrice removed, but this is very much a stretch. And boring, too.

Yeah, I would love this but the risks seem to outweigh the advantages.

Renault also invented a little lid/hatch at the rear of the roof, so that you can transport extremely tall things. It’s called a giraffon (“giraffe hatch”); this was an available option on the C15 as well.