Also really, really tired of people saying car choice is a “personal” choice. No, no it’s not; obviously, you can hurt other people with these things, and of course, they make climate change worse, literally worsening the future prospects of every other person on the planet. There is ZERO justification for not thinking…

3rd Gear: Interesting that Rivian would issue bonds right now. They have a ton of cash on their balance sheet and $1.3-$1.5bn would only add another 10%, so I am not really sure what the aim of this is. No word on interest rate of this bond either, but it just doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense.

When we were looking at first generation Nissan Leafs one of the selling points was free charging and free coffee at the dealer. Sales guy said they had a number of people who took them up on it. We charged out 2020 Leaf at the dealer once while they were ripping up our street and could not get access to the garage.…

Obviously, but if we get to a point where 50 or 100% of new cars are EV’s they are going to need them for service and prior to selling. OEM’s are just forcing the dealers to be ready instead of letting them get ready on their own and then not doing it.

But the V10 is actually fast.

A normal Civic may be ready for another 100k miles.  A Si has a higher likelihood of being beaten on. 

I wonder if its due to the large displacement 4 cylinder they started offering. Because I’ve seen a few youtube videos of contractors and owners with them and they are actually pretty damned good as far as power, torque, and most importantly- fuel economy. Makes sense for fleet use. Not sure how the inline 6 would fit…

Those side window deflectors are always a red flag, for me, since they usually come with that impossible-to-remove smoked-in smell.

I’m willing to bet it was more of a focus-group problem. Truck manufacturers have had a lot of trouble killing off V8s in place of smaller engines that perform better. Why? Insecure men who need the rumble of a V8.

Unpopular opinion, but the original 289 was the only good Cobra. The 427 (and all the subsequent Cobras/replicas/continuations that have copied the 427) are nigh-undrivable disasters of engineering.

I need to bring the joke from the comments made at Autopian, when they make it electric it should be called AC/DC Cobra

I love it. The coolest thing about it aside from actually still being an ICE car though, is the fact that the design translates so well into a little more modernized version, and they didn’t really have to change much of the design to make it legal to produce and sell with all the crash requirements.

Think about it. Nobody does a double take when they see a Porsche SUV because we’re used to it for over 20 years now. People buying this thing want the attention. When I see a Urus, I stare pretty hard. Mostly because I can’t believe Lamborghini made an SUV. I wish they’d make a modern LM002 just for giggles.

You’re missing my point entirely. There’s plenty of faster cars for cheaper. The rich folk want it because it’s a Lamborghini. They’re not going to be putting together a spreadsheet of cost vs performance. They just want it. Bringing up common sense decision making into cars such as this is entirely baseless.

“and this has also made dealers unlikely allies for buyers”

That’s what I figured happened. It wasn’t nearly as much about manuals gaining market share as it was the rest of the market unable to meet demand. 

I’m doing my part - I bought two new manual cars in that time period.

Wondering what the GPM (gallons per mile) rating is?

In fairness to the builder of the car - when this thing was created WW2 surplus stuff was ridiculously common and picking up a boxed Merlin was probably about as expensive as the gas to get to the warehouse and back. It’s only outrageous now because of how many have been lost or destroyed since then.

For those in the showroom? Totally believable. The building is locked, after all. Or, you know, should have been.