We’ll get right on caring about all 18 full time residents of the UP. Any minute now...

Sounds more like you’re saying neverspeakawordagain isn’t correct, and that it’s the suburbs that are terrible - which is actually far closer to the truth. I work elbows deep in the data that’s helping get Detroit to a better position, and I can say empirically that it’s far better than that guy thinks. Hell, it’s far…

Honestly, even the revised response is a little saccharine sweet to me, but that could come down to just clumsy wording. Saying they won’t be representing you “indefinitely”, versus saying they won’t be representing you “moving forward” leaves the door open for them to be forgiven. It makes it seem like you’re acting…

I’ve had the dumbest person I’ve ever met (is it redundant to say they were the manager of the marketing team?) manage to order the right marketing products. Unavailability of competence for something like this would require a corpse or a coma. Chinese companies that sell cheap, custom, canvas bags are a dime a dozen.

Unavailability of materials? I wasn’t aware we were in the midst of a global canvas shortage...

I replaced them myself, because they were totally seized, and I didn’t have the tools or knowledge to rebuild them. Can’t say I noticed the pins were different, but wasn’t really looking for that. Never seen a car that used different pins for top and bottom...

Any chance that runs off the same hydraulic pressure as the rear brakes? That thing went through rear brake pads and calipers like they were made of styrofoam, and three different Honda dealers just said, “Yeah, the Element does that”. The entire time my ex had the thing, it needed new rear pads every oil change, at…

If only some of their problems didn’t require you to empty the whole engine bay.... But that’s why we invented MLS head gaskets :)

Those are the Subarus I prefer (EJ series). I like the gas mileage the FA and FB get, but they definitely tech’ed up the AWD system in them, and not in fun ways. I get it, the average person doesn’t want to do donuts and drive around half sideways in the winter like I do from time to time, but I’m definitely more the…

I love the 03-08 Subarus. My ideal ones would be an 06-07 Impreza, or a 06 Outback (05 had weaker side impact crash supports in the doors). I’ve owned an 03 and an 06 Impreza, and they’re just such great cars in bad weather. I had Continental DWS all-seasons on my 06, and they had so much grip it was actually kind of…

It’s possible the Element was broken, but I can’t think of anything mechanically that would’ve caused it never to use the rear wheels, that wouldn’t also affect its ability to move. There are enough videos out there of Hondas with AWD, with their front wheels on rollers and the back wheels doing nothing, that I just…

That’s the traction control. Subaru’s system is great if you don’t have it. It wasn’t designed for it. I think in the later models have started adapting more, but that’s a 2012/2013 and onward thing, with the newer platforms and engines.

Part-time AWD gets to decide when the rear wheels get power, and a lot of them just....don’t. 4motion is worse than Quattro, and they’re both better than most. Honda’s system is straight up garbage. I drove a “AWD” Element for a while that never once put power to the rear wheels, even when I turned off traction…

4motion (really, any part-time AWD system) is so disappointing after driving a Subaru...

Compact car size, full-time all wheel drive, a manual transmission, heated seats, and ideally the ability to completely turn off traction control without shutting off other systems (ie- fuse-defeat switch, like you do on Subarus, that also cuts out ABS).

Took me a while to vote on this. I had to clean the vomit off my keyboard first.

I love how the politicians are all frothing at the mouth, as if there’s any way they can force a private sector corporation to move production around. They knew full-well what the tax breaks would get spent on, they were just more concerned about brownie points with donors and voters, than with the economic fallout.…

The US really is that bad when it comes to trains, but the Acela line is advertised as if it’s 120mph along the whole stretch, outside of the corridor that it runs. I’ve traveled to Vancouver a few times by train (I’m with you on it being better than flying, but that trip is.... a little longer than flying, by train),…

Weird. The people on the Empire Builder (I’ve taken Amtrak to Vancouver a few times) talk about it like it’s high speed rail (as “high speed” as the US gets, anyway...). I suppose it makes sense the way you describe, but still...I’m disappoint.

OK that’s even more nuts. Right outside the yard, it should’ve been towed back to the station in less than an hour. They did that just fine at Union Station when we had problems on a Wolverine I was running back from Chicago. They wouldn’t have even needed an Amtrak engine for it, they have the ones from the rail…