I'm with you. Although I was late to the Top Gear party, being for many years a non-TV-watcher, I was aware of the show and the presenters' (I'm looking at you, Clarkson) use of the word "torques." Even so, once I started watching the show I found myself wincing each time the pseduo-term was used. I mean, it plays…

God help her if she crashes the thing...

Matt,

Matt, I know you're probably required to toe the party line on this, but you're proceeding from a premise that is, as far as I can tell, completely unverified. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only source for the claim that it "probably makes more financial sense to crash it than to either sell it . . . or keep it,"…

If Jalopnik turns out to be right, it won't be because they're on the cutting edge of any kind of *journalism*, which necessarily would require reporting of facts, not speculation, and independent verification of "tips" supplied by readers. No, if Jalopnik turns out to be right, it will be because they guessed…

The Glenn-Beck-just-sayin'-style reporting going on here is more than a little disgusting. Jalopnik has basically accused this guy of committing insurance fraud. The weak disclaimer in the last paragraph ("Is this proof Dopp intentionally crashed the car for the insurance money? No. But it certainly does provide…

The deal is (and has pretty much always been) that the value of a prize is considered income. The winner of a prize is taxed on it as if it is income. Yeah, it sucks when the prize is not cash but has significant value because the recipient may not have available cash to pay the taxes, which obviously means that the…

"According to a Jalopnik tipster . . . Dopp had to put up his house for collateral just to take possession of the car and get insurance for it."

There's no doubt that current owners of up-to-3-year-old Saabs are getting the shaft here. Saab has tried to soften the message by making it sound as if there is at least a possibility that warranty coverage will resume at some point, but I think we all know that's not the case. What's worse, those owners didn't get…

How do you figure that Saab owners will be released from their debt obligations? They're not the ones declaring bankruptcy. Well, not yet, anyway.

Buick Roadmaster (with trailering package): Y/Y/N/N/Y (TRUCK!)

+1. The Transit Connect, for instance, is clearly a truck even though it could not meet three of the five criteria listed. While most "trucks" still use longitudinal engines and body-on-frame construction, to mindlessly adhere to those standards is to deny progress and leads to absurd results.

I wasn't sure what the real motive for the five criteria was until I saw that the new Ford Explorer would not be considered a truck. Now I get it.

You're correct that BMW switched from a 72-degree V10 to a 90-degree V10 in 2002. But you're wrong on everything else. From the P82 onward, BMW went with an even larger bore and shorter stroke in their F1 engine, meaning one of the only tenuous connections between the two engines has become even more tenuous. As I…

Yeah, unfortunately, I don't think I can respond to a comment without simultaneously promoting it. If there is a way to respond without promoting the comment, I'd love to know.

Really? Show me an executive order, agency rule, or any piece of legislation that even mentions V8 engines. But since I assume you're just moaning about CAFE standards acting as a brake on the "free market" demand for large and relatively inefficient engines, think about this: just about everybody can agree that it…

Please explain how the S85B50 is in any way "derived" from BMW's V10 F1 engine. The F1 engine has a 72-degree bank angle, the S85B50 has a 90-degree bank angle. The F1 engine has a 3.0-liter displacement, the S85B50 is 5 liters. The F1 engine has a 94mm bore and 42.3mm stroke, while the S85B50 has a 92.5mm bore and…

I think you're right about the XJR. It has to have bottomed out because they really can't get much cheaper. I picked up my '95 XJR (pictured) this past March for $2100. 144K miles, needed a few odds and ends when I bought it (trunk release fixed, new timing chain tensioner to cure the rattle at startup) and has…

This book is pure genius. I miss my tattered, spiral-bound copy, wherever it disappeared to. The newer ones just don't feel the same.

Thanks for that, put a smile on my face. CARTunes was what got me into drawing when I was a kid!