Yeah, I had to laugh when it happened (even though the f@#%ing thing left my kids and me stranded off the side of the highway), probably because I've dodged that same bullet so many times with other Brit cars that it was kind of funny when the stereotypical Jag-on-a-flatbed showed up at my house.

This, all day long.

Funny, when my '95 XJR came home on the flatbed the first time, my neighbor came out to see what was wrong and I told him that I was finally having the quintessential Jaguar Owner Experience.

Kind of negates the need for one of those "Land Rover Parking Only" signs, now doesn't it?

Scalia's generally been pretty good on privacy issues, even if he's been wrong on so many other things. It's just the fact that he follows the Republican party line on so many issues that leads many casual observers of the Court to believe that he would side with the "Patriot Act" folks on the right, rather than the…

In a nutshell, I would say it's because historically, the constitutionality of searches under the Fourth Amendment depends on the reasonableness of the search (in other words, if you are challenging a search, you allege that the search was unreasonable and thus violated the Fourth Amendment protections against…

Yeah, I read that too, but I'm not sure I agree with it, at least not entirely. I agree that the government is going to get another crack at this issue, as stated above, with more relevant current technology. But I think what we're looking at now is an either/or: either there's a physical interaction with property,…

Thanks—the Fourth Amendment is one of the areas where I do the most work, so this case is of significant interest to me. That said, my analysis is obviously simplified, and I just lightly skimmed Alito's opinion so I have to go and take a hard look at that. Even though it's not controlling now, it might carry…

That's not really a proper summary of the lead decision—it doesn't turn on how long the tracking goes on, but rather whether the police action constitutes a trespass to property as it would have been understood at the time the Fourth Amendment was enacted. In this case, because police attached a device to the owner's…

This decision is good news as far as it goes, but keep in mind that by its own terms, it only applies to situations where the state tracks you using a GPS unit that they install on your car. It does not apply to situations where the state tracks you using a factory- or owner-installed GPS system in the vehicle, or…

Read the opinion. It does not apply to factory- or owner-installed GPS systems (because that was not an issue in this case) and in any event, it does not apply when the tracking is done with the vehicle owner's consent.

First thing I thought of when I saw this post was the badge on the back of our '77 Accord, proudly proclaiming it to be a 5-speed. As a kid, I thought it made our car pretty cool. As an adult, I realize it was pretty silly. Just like all of the "fuel injection" badges floating around during the '80s.

Yeah, but just think of the rear-engine/rear-drive traction that'll get you *up* the hill (as long as it doesn't involve too much turning).

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Fuck AWD and a functional heater. What you want at the hill is style. What you want is this.

Somehow I missed that on my first look at the ebay ad. While it looks like he got rid of the original rear bulkhead, the "workmanship" is even worse than I thought. And no, the original location of the battery was under the hood. If the quality of the work was high, I'd say that the builder did it in an effort to…

Could be, but it doesn't look like any of these drivers tried to feel out the road conditions and instead kept driving as fast as if it was a summer's day, which is just nuts considering how hard it is snowing. I mean, look at how fast that Dakota goes barreling by. You would think that people would slow down from…

Yeah, that Crown Marquis/Grand Vic near the end was some serious carnage (and I'm quite sure that thing didn't have summer tires on it!!).

I owned a 1990 SHO, and I'll agree that the shifter feel was not very good—but it was pretty much exactly what you'd expect of any front-wheel-drive car that wasn't a Honda (and it's definitely not as bad as some cable-shifted front drivers I've had the displeasure of driving). So yeah, it took a while of daily…

It's not like the "real trucks" were faring any better. Dumb drivers are dumb, no matter what they drive.