Or a slight miss alignment of the robot which drilled these. Or tolerance-stacking. Or...

But, what in hell are you doing in the bagel shop during your fun drive time? That’s what Gramps taught me: we ate our donuts dry in his cars: “crumbs blow out-I’m NOT spilling coffee in here!”

Well put. I wouldn’t trash-talk it because it doesn’t have a 3rd pedal, but my fun car must have one.

I'm in: one of the best meals of my life was at a Asian/Latin fusion restaurant >just< outside of Chinatown in DC.   Only item I remember was goat taco with a ginger sauce

GIven past actions of multinationals like BP in Mexico, I’d be surprised if they were targeted in any large operation. Cartels aren’t stupid, and huge energy companies like BP ( or Exon ) employ very definite people who ask very sharp questions about where the money-or inventory-is. There’s some interesting history…

Wasn’t there an article here a few years back about a medical device delivery guy’s Prius finally needing brakes after some insane mileage-I seem to remember it as over 300k?

Beat me too it. Well done.

David Tracy posted that ad, not I. Image search Craigslist, perhaps?

The infuriating thing there is that he said ( two weeks ago? ) that most of the workers getting shafted ( my words, not his ) were democrats so it was NBD. 

I did the same when my daughter went from the ‘05 Stratus I kept alive from 52k to 170ish during undergraduate and her first post-graduate degree to some lifted Honda thing. ‘Honey, love you dearly, but I’m not touching that thing. Here; call Jeff over at Wimmer. He won’t cheat you.’

True for a Stratus. Not at all true for any body-on-frame Toyota in the Mid-Atlantic region. Check CL: it's insane. 

A pre-2004 Saturn, I hope.

David,

What?

Or, maybe we should all grab some trash bags and head to our nearest National Park. I used to pick up trash along the Blue Ridge Parkway to atone for the beer cans I tossed as a dumb drunk kid. It’s mindless busywork that doesn’t >solve< anything-but it does get some trash up and I always felt better afterward.

The odd thing is that I think he is less likely to be able to actually start one now than 2 years ago. Given his craziness the last two years, and what we have heard of how even his own staff regards him, I believe that would push the right people too far.

You said that way better than I could have. The macro indicators economists use point to recovery, but your average middle or lower wage-earner has less real money than their parents did at the same age. 

I quit caring about new cars about a decade ago around the time I pulled up next to a new, sharply-creased sedan. ‘BMW?’ I guessed. Nope: Toyota.

Oh, Bog!

A big point with the ‘80s Japanese cars were that they were designed to be worked on. Fuel pump bad in an ‘80s Sentra? NBD: go get new pump&sock, pop the rear seat cushion, undo the little hatch under there, then you’re right where the lines go into the tank. 2hours it took me-including the parts-store run.