But a significant portion of the vehicles in Detroit are LEASED by employees of the automakers or suppliers as well, so that makes sense. You don’t modify leased vehicles (unless you are a) dumb or b) loaded with cash).

What vehicle are you talking about here?

If an extra 10-15 MPG (THAT’S A LOT!!!) is only 20-30% of your “normal” mileage, that means your normal mileage is 50 MPGs.

Those MPGs are nice, but you’re saving almost nothing at that point. Fuel costs only $0.053 (of national-average-priced-fuel) per mile at 50 MPG.

At 75MPG,…

Fair enough. I would concur on those points.

I still feel it sucks the soul out of driving. ;)

Hello fellow, engineer. You’ve gone a bit deeper than I wanted to originally, but thanks for mostly agreeing! If I may point out a few of the subtleties:

Yes, by definition, all of those are, in fact, “mods”. If it’s not as it was when it left the factory, it’s “modded.”

Non-stock wheels (even those of the same basic size as the “originals”) and/or tires is 100%, absolutely, most certainly, a “mod.” I’m not certain how you could argue it’s not???

I want to cram as much living and experience into any vacation I take. Sometimes driving is part of that experience, and I do lots of it with great pleasure in such cases. But focusing on my fuel economy is not typically a priority in these situations (unless I need to extend my range to reach some remote…

I could not agree more. I’ve put 192K on my truck in the nine years I’ve owned it. It’s been all over the country, sometimes empty, sometimes loaded. I know plenty of “tricks” to squeeze a few extra MPGs out of the tank, but it’s not worth it. I enjoy driving it as it was intended to be driven and I enjoy all the…

Well, I mean, if you don’t consider NUMEROUS COMMON MODIFICATION to be “mods,” then I can see why you’d say what you did.

If you added a brush guard or bull bar, non-OEM side rails/steps, a tonneau cover or cap, or changed to anything other than the OEM tires (the rubber bit), then you’re “modded”, because you’ve…

Counter points:

Your time is far more valuable than fuel. Later in life, you’ll gladly trade a LOT of money for a bit more time. Why slow down?

Re. 2 cars from the same dealer:

No, probably not; ESPECIALLY NOT WITH A USED CAR.

With a used car, the dealer has ALL the leverage. There is no “used car factory”, and you’ve removed the OEM from the transaction. If you find THE car you want (and any decent dealer will “know what they have”), and you tell them you’re…

Hypermiling the WORST challenge there is. It sucks the soul out of life. If you’re doing it daily, I pity you...

I’ve done it once or twice when I’ve been trying to stretch my fuel range in remote areas, but that’s it. It’s terrible! The “savings” you get at the pump and no where near enough to make up for the…

This must be regional? I can imagine if you live in an area where there aren’t that many trucks, that most are NOT modified. But when everyone has a truck or two, most are in fact modified somewhat.

How many full size trucks do you see everyday? Where I am from (where there are LOTS of trucks), most are modified somewhat (usually wheels and tires are the first thing).

WHITE? On an always-on, never dim-enough screen that you can’t avoid looking at?

These Infotainment guys need to be dragged out the to middle of Montana on a moonless night and forced to discern ANYTHING on the road in front of them with there STUPID, IDIOTIC, HAP-HAZARD infotainment screens and faux-gauge panels…

Driving less ISN’T an option.

Should we expect to see Jalopnik put a halt to all road tests, then? I mean, we must drive less, right?

I understand HOW they get paid, what I am suggesting is that they are not being paid ENOUGH to make the job sound appealing to the masses. There are plenty of people who would start/keep a job in the trucking industry if the pay were higher.

It may in fact be the small operators driving the costs of a given load down,…

Okay, pal, think what you’d like about me, but... You never answered the question. Regardless, you are proving my point:

The driver shortage, as with most other labor-related shortages, is made-up BY MANAGEMENT. Drivers exist and are willing to work, but they don’t want to be paid peanuts.

What salary does your company offer to new drivers???

I think I may have initially misunderstood you, but now I believe we are more in agreement. I too rely heavily on the RMB and would much prefer having it act as a key to all sorts of shortcuts, as opposed to another key on the keyboard.

The more I can do without touching a keyboard, the more efficient I am. And I would…