Obviously, Jalopnik's take on the vote was superficial and failed to accurately address the issues. Of course allotting money to disaster relief would either require either an increase in revenue or spending cuts elsewhere. Dems just disagreed with where the cuts should be made.

I like 2nd-gen Sciroccos. Not as much as the 1st-gen, but enough that I've owned a number of 16-valves over the years. And '85 was my favorite year for the 8-valve: it was the last year that the 8-valve came with sport seats, it had a close-ratio gearbox and the more robust 100-mm CV joints, the larger rear spoiler…

I don't know why they call this stuff hamburger helper. It does just fine by itself, huh? I like it better than tuna helper myself, don't you, Clark?

As a Volvo-wagon-driving attorney, I guess I should take a little comfort from that. Here's hoping that he and his kids (especially) make a full recovery.

Well played...

Yeah, but headroom isn't the only issue. At a relatively puny 6' 4", I can't drive a stock Miata. My left leg wants to occupy the same real estate as part of the steering wheel and part of the door pull, causing some "issues" when it comes time to steer the car. A similar-sized friend of mine bought a first-gen…

For once, the answer is not a Miata.

Oh, you betcha. And speaking of things "on Main Street in Menomonee Falls," where's Peter Venkman when you need him? [menomoneefalls.patch.com]

I'm with you—AMC, fuck yeah! There is a part of me that feels a little sad every time I'm zipping along 696 past their old headquarters. I know the company almost always seemed on the brink of failure, but they took chances that the Big 3 weren't willing to take.

Menomonee Falls, you say? Who do ya know wants to buy a (badly wrecked) car?

The standard way to listen to music while on the go in the second or third worlds is to tow a live band behind one's bicycle while pedaling. There is now a better way, courtesy of an unknown Bulgarian inventor, who has created a ghetto-blaster docking station (inspired by the stark simplicity of the Helvetica font) in…

It should also be noted that the trailer has only been tested on a fixie. No word on whether the hitch is compatible with "suburban" bikes equipped with rear derailleurs.

Yeah, does not appear to be the same car. The Inland Valley car has chromed (or more highly polished) wheels than the crashed car, different seats and different model year.

VW has had a lot of great advertisements, but there was definitely a real "golden age" for them in the late '90s and early '00s. This one was my personal favorite (I was selling VWs back then, and it pretty much hit the nail on the head—I could relate, the customers could relate, and the commercial was just damned…

Yeah, great platitude and all, but the question was what car would you buy (meaning you could actually afford it and not just dream of affording it), but for the maintenance costs. Unless you can actually afford the 458, your answer just misses the question completely.

Or Ferrari FFs and 458s. Seriously, does anybody read the damned question anymore?

So let me get this straight—you actually have $250K (give or take) to drop on a 458, but the only thing holding you back is the cost of maintaining it?

Or we could have discovered that the commentariat is so fabulously wealthy as to make the DuPont Registry readership look positively impoverished.

Yeah, if I could contain myself to driving it only 2000 miles/yr, I might have been able to live with the timing-belt service schedule. But I was figuring on much more driving, and that would have made the belt replacements rather onerous. I still would have done it myself, but I just wasn't in to having to do it so…