It’s the new fire response mode. It was trying to drive itself to the fire station. 

I’m also a software engineer and I agree with your point. However, throttle and brake by wire have been a real thing for some time now. So far so good. Things like AutoPilot are the next step up in potential disaster.

I agree. You can technically have “brand ambassadors” at the store to answer specific questions about the car, accompany people on a test drive, and handle all of the interpersonal stuff.  If they have no incentive to make a sale, they will come off more genuine.  

The US savings rate hit unprecedented highs during the pandemic, and people have money burning a hole in their pockets. Beyond that you might not be thinking of leasing, which represents a significant portion of the market. When a lease is up some sort of action must be taken to replace a vehicle that the consumer…

If working at a dealership taught me anything, it’s that we here at this site are the oddballs that care as much as we do about our cars. Most people dgaf.

Well, they are somewhat bullshit livelihoods: you don’t really need car salespeople. The rest of the dealership (service dept, etc), sure, that’s useful. But salespeople who add nothing to the purchase experience?

More HP and more grip than the driveshaft can handle.

3rd Gear: I work at a Hyundai dealer, and I overheard some talk that our incoming inventory hasn’t been affected too much, but our on-the-lot new inventory is low because we’re getting so many buyers coming from the Honda, Chevy, etc. dealers that don’t have inventory.

It probably depends on the model you are looking at, as well as the manufacturer. Ford is actually running a promotion right now that encourages people to place factory orders. This is a way for them to guarantee a sale while their supply is short, and build the order when they are able to.

Which subsidies are you referring to? No snark, just curious.

Buying a new house now also often means paying 20% more than asking AND foregoing an inspection, just to get ahead of other sellers in line.  I wouldn’t buy a $10,000 car without an inspection, and people are skipping it on $500k homes.  The stories I am hearing are crazy right now.

Just FYI, they didn’t try and detonate all 5,000 pounds of fireworks in the containment vessel. They found a bunch of homemade fireworks, and that’s what they detonated.

Their idea of IEDs could be anything from sparklers still in the packaging to actual IEDs, though.

These are the same kind of people that say a bag of skittles are a lethal projectile weapon.

Or, you know, just transport them out as fireworks? Like most other explosives they’re really quite hard to detonate on accident. Here in Phoenix the fireworks vendors store them in metal shipping containers, in the middle of the desert. 

Well, they are somewhat bullshit livelihoods: you don’t really need car salespeople. The rest of the dealership (service dept, etc), sure, that’s useful. But salespeople who add nothing to the purchase experience? Not needed. I can pick my car online, get an online price, make an appointment with the finance guy or…

How did everyone’s mind not go right here. It’s even the LAPD... again

How the heck does a driveshaft fail? This needs it’s own post.

Because they spent taxpayer dollars on a sweet new toy and they really wanted to use it. Sure, it makes more sense to try and neutralize them and then detonate them in a hole in the desert, but that’s a lot less fun.

Suffering? No.

RE: 1st gear: The local Toyota dealership, I swear the building is only three years old, has about 20 new Toyotas on the lot. It has capacity for a couple hundred, it’s the most ridiculous thing. And I cruise past them with my geriatric, rust-holed Toyota pickup...to the Tractor Supply store next door. I can almost…