So the Toyota Classic is basically the PT Cruiser of Toyota—except for having much better quality, I’m sure. But those rims:

In my line of work, I’ve seen many many many severance agreements. And exactly 100% of them contain similar clauses along the lines of “If you accept this severance, you can’t turn around and sue us”. Tesla is shitty, but this is not a shitty Tesla move, it’s an “every employer in the country” type of move. 

So it was obviously a balloon to me.  But chef’s kiss for the rolling shutter explanation for why it looks a bit weird in shape for a regular balloon.  

You hit the nail on the head.  In this day of irresponsibly and inexperiencedly-run tech companies, I could never in good faith base my investments on market cap values. Remember when VinFast had a market cap of $80B and now it’s at $6B which is still overvalued by at least $5.5B.

you are on point
1) quarterly numbers for stockholders
2) Execs get a golden parachute when they fail; and then they go to a different company.

This is a first rate comment.  Well done.

The government didn’t mandate that Ford kill off all of its affordable offerings. Ford was simply following the cynical “build less, charge more” pricing model that a number of car manufacturers thought they could get away with in the wake of pandemic supply chain issues.

Well, you’re the second person to confidently suggest balloon, so I’m going to go with balloon.

Agreed but it’s a touch out of the 60k price range. I did a quick check, and in my area at least they begin in the low 80s.

Great news! I grew up near the Alabama state line and would often drive to Birmingham for work which would take me right past the Mercedes plant on the way. I hope the UAW set their sights on the Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi next, I’ve known lots of people who worked at that site and their benefits and raises…

My issue with this selection is that the actual design of the car influenced absolutely no one. No car company has ever tried to copy the design, or use any big design elements from it.

Niche and low volume cars aer every market specific. I see tons of Fiats and Alfas (and Minis) in So Cal, especially in LA County, but hardly any in the Boston burbs where I have family.

I think there’s just like one guy at Mini who fell absolutely in love with the short-lived “GTR Face” styling fad of the early 2010s and has forced the designers to apply it to every single car until its become this unrecognizable monstrosity that resembles a mouse swallowing an egg. 

I think the loss of “luxury perception” plays a big part. Tesla’s were once pretty rare, but now a day does not go by that I don’t see multiple 3's and Y’s rolling around. To me, they are now the gold Camry of the late 90's. They are still good cars, just very common.

Add to that in some areas Teslas are rented by UBER drivers so driving a Tesla places someone as a moderately successful person in tech or a ride share driver just scraping by.  It’s pretty hard to sell a car as a status symbol when a reasonable fraction of drivers in them are living month to month.

so they are no longer exclusive.

I hate to say this.. but as a car.. the Tesla Model Y isn’t a bad.

Schadenfreude: it is the best emotion.

Most of our cities aren’t designed for efficient public transport. Our ancestors decided living in the suburbs and driving to work everyday was the American dream. Compared to say Asia.  I’d say our ancestors chose poorly and there’s no turning back now.  At least not in my generation.   So robo taxis it is.