Sadly no manual. And shifting the shiftable 5 speed automatic doesn’t add any fun at all.

Toyota Solara.

My only evidence for gradual break-in is simple: do you prefer to buy an ex-rental car, or not?  Why?

It’s a good question, but ultimately the wrong answer.

Yes, because they divested long ago.

I’ve been gray for many years. If you missed the initial time when posters were being promoted, you’re fucked. Apparently they don't care.

You CAN find an almost new Ford Fusion HYBRID for under $15k and get all the fuel economy of these tiny steel cans with a great deal of comfort and piece of mind to go with it.  And you'll enjoy driving it.

That’s not at all true. I bought two new cars, in 1988 and 1992, when much of my income was from delivering pizza.

Two points:

I usually wash each car once — right before I sell it.

For nearly $17,000 I’m not going out of my way to have a look, much less be tempted to go across the country to buy it.  

The new Rams are actually pretty amazing.

I love it but I would never buy it. Price it cheap enough for me and I wouldn’t respect it enough to keep it clean.

You’ve been extremely lucky, that's all.  Desktop drive failures are far from rare.

Funny, how hard it is to make a living making music while another guy literally pays his bills by writing about the tragedy of losing all the music and movies he stole.

Dignified and legal way to move on?

Don’t be that asshole who steals parts. Pay the five bucks they would ask for the parts down your pants. Or negotiate them down to two bucks. It’s not like they want to put the damned things back on the junked car.

The Cadillac did it best, as in “fully embraced the ugly style”.

This is why I’m on the waiting list for a Cybertruck.

May I ask a favor?