Which “ring” time was faster: it’s lap time around the Nürburgring, or the time it took to get the Red Ring of Death?

Hang a disco ball from the rearview mirror just above it and you have the ultimate 70's psychedelic shaggin’ wagon.

The Dodge Caliber was by many accounts a questionably built mid-aughts Chrysler product. It did, however, have one really cool feature (dad pun intended): the air-conditioned “Chill Zone” glove compartment. It only worked when the A/C was on, but it was perfect for keeping your Mtn Dew, Surge, or Red Bull cool on…

I at first misread the contractor name, ValveTech, as the fictional and unscrupulous “Vault-Tec”. Which, if the former is anything like the latter, there’s really nothing to worry about. “Revolutionizing safety for an uncertain future!”, they say.

I always thought the Ford GT40 was a stunner, with its purposeful stance and swooping curves. Really, any of the paint combinations looked great on it, but the orange-on-blue livery was my favorite.

Missouri: we are unremarkable enough to even warrant a stereotype, but know for a fact that all Illinois drivers are terrible.

Aldi’s carts and scratch-off lottery tickets: the two remaining use cases for coins in the 2020's

Unfortunately, my dad preferred filling up the ashtray with actual ashes. Hard to believe it used to be normal to smoke in your car (and house) with kids inside.

Cybertruck: worst vehicle or best knife you can buy for $80k+?

Pour one out for the coin holder. I get it, no one uses coins anymore, but I have fond memories of playing around with satisfying spring-loaded action of inserting/removing coins in my dad’s 1990 Mustang 5.0.

It just occurred to me that I’ve been looking at the Cybertruck all wrong. It’s not the world’s worst truck, it’s the world’s greatest idiot castration device!

I didn’t care that they might have had this small tendency to catch fire and were fairly slow, the 80's-tastic Pontiac Fiero was the mid-engine wedge of my pre-pubescent dreams. I knew a Countach would always be just out of my reach, and there’s nothing wrong with settling for second best.

I agree that there are better ways to get the same GM-quality interior with similar looks at a much cheaper price:

After the snow, ice, and road salt of a Midwest winter, come spring I just park it outside for the free rainy carwashes.

Dealing with a flat tire is an inconvenience and not an entirely irrational fear, unless you crank it up to 11 and worry about it constantly like I do. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I check all four tires literally every time I walk by my car and pay rapt attention to the way my car feels for the first five…

We were given only one key. Maybe things have changed, but when I worked in rental, we only gave one key to the renter and kept the other for ourselves for events like these, or if we needed to repo the car, etc.

My ex-wife accidentally flushed the keys to our rental minivan down the toilet at a gas station in the middle of nowhere Alabama. There’s nothing that makes the long slog back from vacation like being stuck in a town that measures its population by the double-digits with 6 kids under the age of eight and your…

I posted that comment, and I agree that young people aren’t the only ones guilty of distracted driving via their phones. The question was asking what should be taught in driver’s ed, and it is typically “the youths” that are enrolled in that class. No harm in creating good habits for new drivers that could potentially…

Great article, thank you. Sometimes it’s refreshing to see a heartwarming story, especially with all the other BS going on right now. I don’t think I can stomach any more Elon today (week? month? year? lifetime???), but this I took the time to read.

You’ve got a point about Boomers and their terrible command of the modern smartphone. Even worse, some don’t or forget to bring them at all when they leave the house. Or, if you’re my Boomer mom, continue to rely on the DVD-based navigation system that only has map data from when they bought the car 15 years ago and…