Isn’t their job also to protect the innocent? I’m not saying that if someone runs, the best way to do that is to shrug and let them go. I’m saying that calling in a squadron of other cars to also drive triple-digit speeds on public roads is not *always* the best way to do that, either. None of us (including the…

This is undoubtedly true for some. But where I live, minimum wage is $8.70/hr, which means a full-time worker makes just over $1,000/mo after taxes. The most careful and responsible of those folks simply aren’t able to make any headway unless they have outside resources. 

People who are living paycheck to paycheck can’t get to work to get that paycheck if they don’t have a car in most of the country. So they have a job. And $50 in the bank. And then the car they have breaks. There’s no way out of that situation without borrowing money. 

The short answer is that Russia needs $40 oil to sustain its budget, and Saudi Arabia needs $83 oil to do the same thing. Both have decent cash reserves, but Saudi Arabia is and has been burning through its pile very quickly.  Russia is also a more diversified economy, so it doesn’t depend on petrodollars to the…

It’s not the cars. It’s the 7.5 billion people. I don’t think you grasp how many that is. A million seconds is 11.5 days. A billion seconds is 31.5 *years.* Covering the earth with enough electric trains (or whatever it is you think farmers in rural places should be using) for that many people would create enormous…

Er, no. It isn’t all the car people *want.* A small set of people regularly carry more volume, weight, or passengers than the Fit will safely hold. Most don’t. It’s their money, and they can spend it how they like with absolutely no judgment from me or anyone else who isn’t a controlling jerk. But pointing out that it…

If my math is right, and it’s a probably not, because physics was a long time ago, the force of the block is about 56,000 lbs. The thin layer of steel and glass between those blocks and you in a truck is not going to stop it. It’s better than getting rear-ended by a semi, but your frame and crumple zones are not…

Maybe it’s different where you live, but there are lots of reliable-transportation cars available for less than $3k in my area. Friends and acquaintances ask me to help them find one all the time. But it turns out that large American sedans, minivans, and small hatchbacks aren’t what they mean when they say there’s…

Eh. Maybe they should have notified the HOA beforehand. But because having rules is easier than having thoughts, I imagine the outcome would have been the same, especially if the HOA is composed of the officious, nosy kind of folks who think “Shelter in Place” means “wander the neighborhood leaving nastygrams for…

While what you’re advocating is basic financial responsibility, let me offer a couple of counterpoints:

In many parts of the world, when you come around a bend or over a hill and see that traffic has come to a halt in front of you, requiring heavy/emergency braking, you’re supposed to put on your flashers, so that the traffic behind you starts braking, thereby avoiding a many-car pileup. In lots of (especially European)…

I didn’t read *all* of the comments, so maybe somebody else pointed this out. But if adding the kids’ knees to the crash-absorbing properties of the rear crumple zone sounds like a good idea, it’s rear-facing FTW...

Except it doesn’t. Printing money to fund new government activities would do what you’re saying, because it creates new money in the system. Printing money to pay back debt replaces something of value (i.e., treasury notes) with something else of value (money, which will most likely be invested, since if whomever…

To add to your statement: if we ever run out of money to pay the debt, the government can just. create. more. money. That’s how a part of the bailouts worked back in 2008-9, specifically quantitative easing. The fed made an account, and put money into it that they’d created out of thin air. Then they used that money…

Except that in 25 years, only one button will still work, and it probably won’t be the one that starts the car. 

Nobody want wagons for the same reason nobody wants minivans: Mommies used to drive them, and for whatever reason, we figure that we can’t possibly tolerate anyone mistaking us for a super-not-cool parent. So console yourself with this: In 20 years, nobody will want SUVs, because that’s what mommy drove. What will…

Mkay, tax policy discussions aside, Americans are terrible savers. Apparently something like half of American households can’t cover a $1,000 emergency. So when the tax system keeps, then distributes, a few thousand dollars out of paychecks each year, it’s a boon for people who otherwise couldn’t scrape together a…

Toyota: We need to make more exciting cars. Here, have the GT86.

When the CTS-V wagon was released some years back, it was widely reported that the number they needed to sell to break even on the development costs was 7. No idea whether that was accurate, but the development costs for the CLA are surely quite small, and nobody buys either of these cars because they make sense. So…

Yeah, no. Tell me, please, the salient distinction between the 3-series and the Lexus IS in terms of the driving experience. Other than the obvious, which is that you’ll know the first and last name of your BMW service advisor. Is it better balanced? Does it have more steering feel? Are the engines more responsive? Do…