On the upside, maybe the kid will decide to dedicate his life to something actually meaningful.

Humans.

I wondered about this when I read it: if they go with a small, low-boost turbo, the power delivery should be more linear. If they go with a dual turbo - one big, one little - they could start getting more torque further down, and smooth out that throttle response. But they know about 1,000 times more about engines…

None of the above?

Yeah, “budget trophy truck” is kind of a misnomer, isn’t it? :) How about “budget wannabe trophy truck?”

No, not at all. “Lanterns” aren’t “essential,” first of all, and lanterns without a smartphone requirement exist and work well. All this product does is add another battery requirement. You’re better off treating anything electric as a luxury, not an “essential.”

I’d be interested to see the power curves (mostly the torque curve, from my personal perspective), because to my mind a slogger like a stock Wrangler isn’t well-suited to being kept on-boost all the time: I want that power at 1,000RPM, and I want to keep it all the way up. A turbo would be great on a budget trophy…

One day, several years ago now, I was driving my e30 down a country road. It was largely unmodified: racing tires and wheels, a cone intake, that sort of thing. Distracted by the wonder that is driving a well-sorted BMW, I noticed at the last second that I was about to miss my turn. My 90-degree, barely-two-lane-road…

Yes, absolutely, with exactly no doubt in my mind. $18,000 is a LOT of money to do repairs with, particularly since older cars have (generally) much less expensive parts (particularly if you buy smart). Do your own maintenance, and the cost savings are absolutely insane. Add in substantially lower insurance premiums,…

Yeah, that - and the huge price tag - keeps me out of the electric market for the moment, as well. I’m still very interested in electric conversions, and even started one, some time ago, though cost made it prohibitive for me even then, but I’m going to need to wait 20 years, I suspect, before I can have a Tesla of my…

Moderately used is a great choice! I like to recommend to people they shop on features, like ABS and side-impact beams (both available on $2,000 Cherokees, but also obviously on more safe $5,000 Volvos). At the end of the day, it’s about cost/benefit: the $20,000 Cherokee isn’t ten times more likely to kill you on a…

Actually, crash test standards were cared about even then: many model year changes were for things like side impact beams and increased rollover protection, and the addition of items like ABS to prevent incidents in the first place. I have NO DOUBT a 1995 is less safe than a 2015, but I GREATLY doubt that per mile…

Electric, I’m right there with you. Hybrid...I don’t think the technology is worth paying for, but my weighting of these things is probably not the same as everyone else’s. :)

Take care of it, then! :) I think there’s a misguided perspective that a cheap old car has to be wildly unreliable, and it just ain’t so! In the last couple decades, I’ve been stranded a couple times, and that was always because I totally ignored a known issue. [”No, that u-joint will definitely last another—nope,…

Interesting. I’m hauling kids, and getting older, and I’ve never found a feature on a new car that was worth paying tens of thousands of dollars more for. I take care of my used cars - and I drive really awful used cars! - and they last a long, long time. I’ll bet I could keep a $2,300 car going for 20 years for a lot…

Absolutely! Although I’d rush to point out that almost every car I’ve owned has been north of 300,000 miles, and I’ve very rarely had anything like “a ton of maintenance issues,” because I [try to] buy smart [and mostly succeed].

You don’t have to be like me and buy absolute garbage. :) You can buy a very reliable used car for a much better cost/benefit ratio than a new car, and you’ll likely save on maintenance because you can do most of it yourself if you want.

But you don’t need a BRAND NEW car to get those things, either. Maybe a $2000 car isn’t for you: I get that! But your interior, again, isn’t ten times nicer in a new car, and your odds of death or injury aren’t ten times higher in the old car. Well, assuming you pick the right old car, of course!

Here’s my car-buying myth to bust: you deserve, and want, a brand new car. A brand-new Cherokee will set you back at least $20,000 (and a hell of a lot more with interest), but it won’t be ten times more reliable, ten times more fuel efficient, ten times more safe, or ten times more fun than a $2,000 Cherokee.

It’s our own prurience that has created this entire problem. Really hoping that what this will eventually do is make public restrooms all fully private, and unisex, with shared washing facilities. Everyone gets their own private stall, and everything else stops dividing the genders.