Thank you for bringing up the externalities - something very few people consider. It’s those externalities that can even make cars currently seem affordable when they’re actually quite expensive.

In my state, fully half of the cost of road construction and maintenance is paid for via income taxes. Combine that with the…

Saudi Arabia’s government currently needs oil at $106 per barrel to have a balanced budget, per the International Monetary Fund (http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/25/inv…). They’re burning enormous amounts of capital reserves right now.

There is a pretty wide consensus that they might be trying what you state, but I think…

And not drive at 90 mph, weaving through traffic that is flowing 60 mph in a 55 mph zone, cutting off people and swerving across three lanes into the blind spot of merging traffic that half a second ago had a nice big gap to merge into, pushing them into the guardrail in the process...

Yep, that’s what I witnessed on…

There are some good points there, but for those in urban areas, if you can’t afford a bus pass, you certainly can’t afford a non-autonomous car.

Excluding Ferrari (no longer part of FCA), 92.8% of FCA’s profits are coming from North America, nearly all of that being from Chrysler, not the miniscule contribution from Fiat.

Hopefully they’ll reinvest in Chrysler to keep it relevant rather than let it die of neglect while bleeding billions in profits to prop up…

There’s a problem here - with a taxi you’re paying for a driver, as well as covering the costs of that vehicle when it isn’t in use. The higher you drive utilization, the lower the fixed costs become. Then take out one of the major cost factors in the driver, and it isn’t hard to see how it could become just as cheap…

I don’t think they do anything for spotting outliers on the good side - because the hairs they split between excellent and average are simply too small. On the bad, you have a much better point - but that only really applies when you look at system level reliability. Consider the ratings they’ve been giving Fords…

But what value do you get from CR ratings when they split hairs and try to make extremely minor differences in reliability look huge? Or are they just taking YOU for a ride instead of the manufacturer?

Considering JDP has never been caught in any sort of a pay for play type of scandal and their rankings line up pretty…

Note - YMMV based on the dealer. I tried their version of True Car and the dealer immediately agreed to the price. Then he tried to sneak in all sorts of fees in the final bill without itemizing them. Luckily, I can do math and realized immediately that the price was WAY too high for tax and title...

And it probably saved you even more in the long run - taking out (reasonable) loans and paying them back is one of the easy ways to improving your credit score. Without a history of paying back loans or credit cards, your score tends to decline and loans will be harder to get in the long run.

So that history might just…

I got lifetime free oil changes with my Mazda6. According to their definition, that meant every 6 months. I wanted every 4. I told the dealership I’d be happy to pay for every 3rd oil change so they were still on the hook for only 2 per year instead of 3. They said that would be fine and recorded that in their…

I got my old 97 Taurus at well below the dealer’s true invoice price. I had access through friends and coworkers to the true cost Ford charged them to verify their story, and yes, they sold it for less than they paid for it.

Why?

Because Ford cut them deals based on the model mix they sold. By selling a few extra…

Is that not believable to you? Considering their loyalty rates, I’d say they must be satisfying quite a few customers....

26 mpg highway in a Corolla? If that’s true, you need to take that car back. That would be horrid for that size of a car. I get 31 in our 2010 Mazda6, 34 in our 2006 Fusion. I’ve pulled 38 in a 2011 Fusion and 41 in a 2015 Fusion, for comparison. 26 highway is downright horrid for a Corolla.

All JDP’s ratings can be found searching their website. Be prepared for a LOT of hits, though, as there are Initial Quality Studies for many markets, so you won’t just get one hit per year. Be certain to filter based on industry as well.

There are several categories of JD Power awards which can explain this. You could have:

* Initial Quality Study
* Vehicle Dependability Study
* APEAL (most appealing)

And there are also the customer service and sales satisfaction ratings for the makes.

Currently, for example, the IQS and VDS awards for midsize sedans go to…

Unfortunately, the way the state laws are written, it is largely a local issue. The state police are only allowed to help if the drug use / trafficking occurs on state property or if they can spot them on the highways.

And the changes Gov. Kasich has pushed for have largely gutted the funding for many local…

Ohio State Troopers have very limited jurisdiction. They can’t drive into Columbus and start arresting people for dealing meth. They’re limited by state law to enforcing rules of the road and protecting state property.

If you actually look at their stats, you’d find that they let people off with warnings almost half…

I think nearly 100% of these economic figures are pure bullshit.

I’d wager that the overwhelming majority of those who attended the show were local area residents. That means they aren’t getting hotel rooms, probably only getting 1 meal at best, etc. I know every time I went I spent maybe $20 on a meal plus the ticket…

2nd:

The brutal irony here is that apart from *maybe* Tesla, no automaker is talking about this market shift and what they’re doing to prepare for it more than Ford. So if the “analysts” and the markets are truly worried about such a shift, they should be bidding up the price of those making it clear they’re preparing…