Actually I’m sure they love the publicity. Doug isn’t exactly badmouthing them and never has, actually most of the things he says are positive.

Maglev. The Shanghai Maglev Train hits 270mph in regular service but has been clocked up to 311mph. Like a train, but it levitates a tiny distance from its “rail” using the power of magnets.

If you want to hear cars mentioned in songs, grab any random rap cd.

The car’s heyday in pop culture featured the Beach Boys and their little old lady from Pasadena and their little deuce coupe;

When someone tells me they need a 7-seater because they have one or two kids, they sometimes go on to explain “Well, what if his/her/their friends want to go somewhere with us?”

Mazda5, dude. Very similar to the Mazda3 platform and not much bigger than a Mazda3. Seats six. Available with a manual.

Casual Jeep Wrangler owners are very guilty of this too. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I thought it’d get good gas mileage because it’s small.” It’s a 4 wheel drive, body on frame SUV with the aerodynamics of a brick and a kind of large engine. What about this screams “good gas mileage?”

Lots and lots of people. Like a surprisingly large amount of people.

People who drive giant SUVs and bitch about their poor gas mileage. What the hell did you expect?

And usually caps the loan amount at 80% of the car’s wholesale value, plus usually requires a down payment.

And guess what? If you return the car to the bank saying “I can’t pay for this anymore” and let them take it back, it’s still a repossession and still counts as a default on the loan.

Not that bad actually, but a lot of that depends on the car. Old Subarus are very simple so it wasn’t a big deal. IIRC we needed:

Engine swap and auto to manual conversion in a ‘92 Subaru Loyale wagon. The engine was on its last legs and I hated the 3-speed auto that was in it, so over the course of the weekend a few buddies and I pulled out both the engine and trans, converted it to manual, and installed a replacement engine. Things went…

The Mary Celeste. Discovered sailing with no crew in December of 1872. The ship was seaworthy, but the lifeboat was missing and the last log entry was dated ten days before she was found. None of her crew was ever heard from again, nor were their bodies discovered. Over 140 years later the mystery is still unsolved.

An emergency beacon that goes off automatically in the event of a crash, or can be manually activated in case of other emergency. Maybe have it transmit on the same frequency emergency responders use.

An “infotainment” system that actually doesn’t create a horrible distraction for the driver. Maybe something paired up with a heads up display, with some very basic controls that can be operated without taking your eyes off the road. And keep it focused on car-related things only... there is no reason why we need an…

Fun fact about that video... the tunnel (there’s actually two of them) is on an abandoned stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and you can totally visit it.

The DeTomaso Mangusta in the video for Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”

Miata is always the answer.

MIA’s “Bad Girls.” Kinda beaten up older BMW’s and an Alfa, just having the ever-loving shit hooned out of them.