Was my only car for a while, but I ended up getting pretty good at fitting things in the trunk. I still have it 7 years later -- and quite honestly outside of Home Depot runs and maybe snow, I can’t think of anything I would need it to do.

I am generally surprised there isn’t a thin blue line of trim tying the whole eh...”theme” together

I am 6'0 and drive the smaller L300 -- there are low roof and tall roof versions of both I believe. You sit upright, but I havent heard too many complaints on headroom

Inb4 someone makes a 8rotor version that sounds like 2 787Bs in concert

I read (probably here?) some time ago about Ford Escape Hybrid NYC taxis that were still on their original brakes at 150-200k since regen took most of the hard-wearing activity — same deal with the IC engines. Granted that’s a hybrid situation, but it was an angle I hadn’t previously considered. Multiply that over a…

Ha! I do the same (also work in data science and engineering) -- no idea where I’d be without Google and Stack Overflow. I encourage my employees to Google first before anything, 99% of the time there is already a question asked and answered (if even tangentially) that can be applied to the project at hand.

“The biggest value add that we can be as a dealer is to be the experts in knowing all of the functionality and how it interacts with the consumer. More than ever, we’re going to have to be the subject matter experts, because so much of this from a technology side is going to be pretty new to our customers.”

People seem to love these, I find them to be possibly the ugliest Ferraris to have come out of Maranello. “But V12!!!!” is about the closest that one can make for an argument for this car -- and it’s not exactly pristine. Someone will buy it and get their cheap pass into the Ferrari V12 club, for the sake of it. ND

Toss up with an F-body bel air

I don’t think there’s anywhere close to 50k+ of body work there. 

Clearly this was run hard and put away wet, before the fire. Switchgear all faded and dirty, missing radio and trim (and a single DIN unit below? What was that, a CD changer maybe?). A quick google search doesn’t reveal any “aero 2" 996 bodywork that matches these patterns, so I’m going to guess aftermarket. What a…

Oh come on, I am not a fan of Stroll as a person, the politics, money and all that... but he can hold his own on the track. He has had more than 1 podium this season (I think?), which is solid. 

Not gonna say I didnt...this was 15 years ago-ish at a DC-attached store. I did that in HS and college, it was an awesome job and I absolutely loved it. Id go back to a local shop in a heartbeat if I were in a pinch. 

Same, my parents have a TDI and its going on 300k. The interior kinda wore fast and then stopped...I think the surfaces that were going to peel did early on, and the rest is fine. Never really had any mechanical issues with it at all, still on the original clutch even. Just regular oil changes, other maintenance like…

My mom’s TDI has about 300k on it and still running the miles up. Hasn’t missed a beat. At about 50k the interior got kind of annoyingly worn with the peeled soft touch surfaces, but kind of plateaued there. The rest of it looks almost new inside. Paint on the roof is fading and some front fender rust spots, but…

My first w126 diesel I had 210k on it, but the body went. I ended up putting the drivetrain into a clean shell with 310k and put another 30k on it before the transmission went. Sold it to another guy who replaced it, and now has it on the road again. Still looks almost brand new.

Small pickups are amazingly hearty. We had a ranger 4cyl as a delivery truck (I worked at napa) and it was at 345k and counting when I left the store. It was beat to shit but still ran like a top. A couple of our S10s had close to 300k on them too. Considering we would have drifting competitions in the snow and would…

I appreciated the changes on the front end, but that back end is just awful. Shame because as you mentioned, the mechanical upgrades were great.

Umm...

The interior design was also rather boring and kinda blobby. The rear 3/4 has always been my personal judgment of a nice design, and Merc nailed it with all of that gen (maybe aside from the w202). I’d still rock one.