I considered it, once. Then I thought about it. Driving to an airport in the middle of nowhere, an hour further away than my usual airport? Fees for every little tiny thing? Seats at several inches less pitch than everyone else? Only one flight per day so if it’s cancelled you’re stranded? Price only a few dozen bucks…

Carry-on fees. I’m looking at you, Allegiant and Spirit. Every time I’ve considered flying them and then read all the fine print and added up all the fees, they cost within $50 of flying a “real” airline. Not worth the hassle.

Bob Nardelli at Chrysler. Dude raked in the cash while allowing the company to crumble, then announced his resignation the same day news of Chrysler’s bankruptcy broke. He’s been named as one of the worst American CEOs of all time.

Henry Ford II following the Ford Pinto controversy. While never explicitly stated that he left because of the Pinto business, it’s a funny coincidence that he resigned as CEO just after the revelation came to light that Ford decided the monetary “value” of human lives and determined a recall not to be worthwhile. He…

Mk1 GTI.

The Chaparral 2J’s downforce fans that sucked the car down onto the track. The only reason they didn’t get to use it in the end is because McLaren thought they’d end up getting slaughtered if Chapparal could work out the car’s reliability issues. McLaren petitioned the SCCA to outlaw it under the grounds of the fans…

Shortly after I bought my first car I saw these for sale at the store and thought, “Awesome! I can make my car smell like a new one again!”

Smells like sweet, sweet, cancer. Such a nice smell.

New car smell. Not that fruity, flowery “new car smell” that you get when you buy one of the blue trees, but the ACTUAL fresh plasticky new car smell.

A hard clunk when hitting bumps or turning the steering wheel quickly. Your car should not sound like someone is smacking the undercarriage with a hammer every time you hit a speed bump, people. No, “it’s always been like that” does not mean it’s okay.

The Jeep Compass concept.

The Nissan IDx Nismo Concept.

If you want to get technical, we owe the entire space program to the military.

Head-up displays. I guess if you want to get technical they were derived from military jets, which sometimes fly high enough to where they’re blurring the lines between where the sky ends and space begins.

Carbon fiber. Originally developed for the aerospace industry, it’s rapidly making its way into cars... with some now being primarily composed of it.

Jeep Wrangler. It’s a body-on-frame 4x4 with solid axles front and rear and a longitudinal-mount engine and transmission. The engine tech is most definitely 21st-century but the rest of it is as classic as they come.

They couldn’t be bothered to paint this at least?

Definitely not anywhere in the Rust Belt, that’s for damn sure.

It’s the short wheelbase and wobbly handling that results in the low rating, not the capability of the vehicle. The same engine/trans in the Grand Cherokee was rated for 6500lbs.