Honestly, the quality on the 1998 and 1999 e39s I’ve owned wasn’t great either... The moment they started adding ‘luxury’ crap in, it went downhill. May have earlier, but I can’t speak to that since I haven’t worked with them.

Fair points, for sure! What I should have said was ‘a recent $20k 911', because it’s pretty clear those are in their own category. When you get back enough years, yeah, the prices don’t differ *that* much once you get past the initial purchase price, but I think we can all agree that pretty much any year Miata or 944…

Exactly. Also, going out on a limb here, but I’d bet you actually drive your Miata, unlike most of the 911 etc crowd that just run them a couple thousand miles a year at most, then go back to their Cayennes and Macans the rest of the time. Ugh.

Because you still can’t even begin to act like cost of ownership on a 996 is anywhere close to a normal amount of money. A $20k Porsche still needs far more expensive parts, oil, and tires than a Miata. They’re just not even remotely comparable at this point.

1999 BMW 528iT (wagon), with a 5-speed! One color shade (and a diesel) away from ticking all the Jalop boxes, this was my compromise kid-hauler that replaced a 1998 528i (sedan) after it became abundantly clear that the twin stroller took up virtually the entirety of the trunk space.

Yup. Only reason I was exposed to one at all was because my dad had an e39 with a stick. Let me just say that the e39 was a miserable car to learn to drive stick in- BMW and their stupid clutch delay valve bullshit... Eventually I ended up with that same car, and one of the first things I did was to pull that…

Interesting- I’d never heard of that as an emergency strategy! Now we’ll just have to see if that ever occurs to me if I do find myself stranded on a train track or something.

I’d have to have functioning cruise control to test that...

Aha! That makes sense. Every manual I’ve owned has had reverse below 5th, at which point you don’t really accidentally get there. But next to 1st, I can see.

I don’t understand why the BRZ/FRS isn’t a hatchback, like nature intended. That’s honestly my only real complaint about them! Make it a proper hatchback and you’ve mitigated virtually all of the practicality issues that the current car has.

Eh, who needs the reverse lockout anyhow? Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t think of a time I came anywhere close to accidentally putting my car in reverse by accident.

I’m going to hope that there’s something choking your fuel economy, then, because my 84 944 gets 24-26 in mixed driving, and I’m pretty sure I have a dead or dying O2 sensor that’s dragging that number down. I would have thought that a BMW of similar vintage with pretty comparable power/torque (similar but not…

Man, yeah, Tonto through-hike would be pretty sweet too... Not sure I enjoy endless contouring around enough for that one as a single trip, but I’d love to cover all the segments over time. I’ve been meaning to pick up a map and mark off all the trails I’ve covered so I can keep track.

Those are probably the two things I love most about the Canyon- the sheer challenge of the terrain (once you get off the corridor trails) and the isolation amongst some of the most dynamic and breathtaking terrain you can imagine. Some of my favorite spots in the canyon thus far are probably Utah Flats (so close to…

Bright Angel Campground may have fewer people than the rim of Grand Canyon, but it’s pretty far from hidden or secret. It’s by far the most-used campground below the rim, and got almost 23,000 visitors in 2015 (the latest year that stats are available). There’s a reason that’s the middle of what are termed ‘corridor’…

Dammit, Stef! I thought we could count on you to recommend a 944!

Nope, we buy 944s.

Anyone who doesn’t love French onion soup is not to be trusted. Period.

And of all things, they went with the NAV SYSTEM? Man, if I were to pilfer a BMW parts bin, that’d be the first thing I dumped out of the bin and into the dumpster...

Crazy! I would have sworn that was going to be an e39 BMW- I had a 1998 with the ‘upgraded’ stereo (including the nav system that always thought you were in the middle of a lake in Wisconsin) that had that exact display. Guess they got them from the same supplier?