Hi Patrick -

Is there going to be a podcast format for this series? Seems interesting.

A lot of the cars that I wanted in middle and high school are now getting priced out of a reasonable “project car” budget for a middle income guy. Namely the E36 M3, MR2 turbo, Celica AllTrac, and other “rad” cars. I get that it’s to be expected as the generation that loved those cars as kids grows up.

Thank you for the drastic increase in image quality. Great pics.

I just revisited this review after seeing one on the street in Austin, and everything about it is really well written. This is a nice piece and it’s a shame it’s for such a niche car.

cool thanks, my attention span is short too

Anything on wheels can be fun as fuck until you crash, what’s your point?

I work in downtown Austin and my buddies and I will go and out ride Birds at ANY given opportunity. It’s absolutely fun as fuck, and a better mood changer than morning coffee. I feel absolutely no shame and am so excited to have something introduced into my life that I had no idea I needed.

A Nixon? I was excited to learn about stuff with heritage. Or at least see some pretty pictures of Autodromos. Where are those??

This was my first thought too, but it looks like it doesn’t have a B pillar. Not sure.

When my mom lived in San Francisco after college she had an 82-84 Celica (the exact year escapes me, but it wasn’t a Celica Supra). It was the only 5-speed car she ever owned and she said one of her scariest experiences was rolling backwards on the absurd Bay Area hills.

The context of that quote really sounds like Ebell was saying the automakers have Stockholm Syndrome with Obama, because he was the one who ‘kidnapped’ them and locked them into standards that Trump is now saying are unnecessary. Right?

You must really be living your best life right now. That sounds awesome.

That Big Oil killed the EV1.

I really, really, really disagree. I owned a RARE one - 2002 (sedan), stock, low mileage, manual transmission, with the LSD. I hated it. It drank gas, had no power, and the transmission felt like it’d been pulled out of a Tacoma. Lame, un-precise action with a dumpy clutch.

Is it possible that a confounding variable of increasing AMG sales is that they have either widely expanded their product line? Or, in slightly different terms, they’ve lumped in their AMG-Sport (or whatever) badging into those sales numbers to artificially inflate that growth?

I didn’t realize you’d relocated! That really puts a damper on my 3-year plan to get out of tech, track you down somewhere on East Sixth, and start my journalism career. But thanks for the response!

This is more a question for Patrick, because he’s local to Austin. What are some of your favorite roads to test/review cars on? I’ve been driving 2222 and City Park Road for sportier cars, where do you like to go?

I really like this new series. I don’t care if it’s under/over-powered or under/over-weight. I care about the price tag.

I drove a couple Fusion Energi’s because it would have been a wonderful all-electric commute. It was just too boring. Everything about it. I couldn’t get over it.