There is an inverse to that belief. When I had to move from San Diego to Wichita to work for Cessna Aircraft and we had the first blizzard, I couldn’t believe how many of those mid westerners couldn’t drive in the snow. I was used to driving up in the Sierras for skiing - and those guys would tail gate you guaranteeing…

I would say anything from a C5 on up.

No judgement Bradley other than to say you don’t know boredom until you are driving I-5 south by Buttonwillow at 55 ;-)

I’m trying to think of something “controversial” and the best I can do is to say Hybrids are an incredibly complex bit of engineering for a small increase in fuel efficiency. They aren’t worth it.

For…

Don’t know. Why else would they demand to change the bolts after a period of time? 

Maybe they are stretch bolts, and “get tired” after awhile? 

Still, this is a Toyota compared with an F1. Someone on YouTube went over his expenses for an F1 and it was crazy. As he said a lot of things are not only on a mileage interval but some, like the fuel cell, are on a time interval.

Our local Mercedes dealer is $300/hour.

Seems like very few here are actually addressing the question Logan posited.

OK Logan, I’m game.

The dumbest thing I ever heard about cars was written by a 16 year old female songwriter. Story is, when the Beach Boys heard it, they knew it wasn’t written by a gearhead.

“Hey Little Cobra”, written by Carol Connors.

Have you forgotten about Dan Gurney and his F1 car?

I took a friend there last year - I have been there on and off (live just “down the hill” in Sacramento. It is the strangest thing to see street signs and names about 18" tall - and to drive behind a taxiing airplane! If this site was more hospitable to posting pictures I would show you a few - including a driveway…

I have owned 3 of these - a W124 (for 370,000 miles), currently an R129 (235,000 miles) and a W210. I think the W210 has the least endurinkg style that as Bradley said, looks a bit dated today. But Jaguar copied the front end, and that ridiculous KIA. Thw W124 looks as good today as it did 30 years ago, and I still…

And BTW since we were talking about James May’s Travelogues (I too think his Japan series was excellent) if you can see his “Car’s of the People”, where he goes to Germany (VW), France (Citroen 2CV) and Italy (Fiat 500) and profiles the cars and their history. Fantastic series.

That had - what an old show business term described as “lightning in a bottle” - and their departure ultimately killed the original Top Gear. Nobody really replaced that magic.

I suppose it is time for them to retire but we will miss them. I don’t know if I would describe Clarkson as “a massive knob” - but…

Don’t know if it is still true, but they used to let you join for 6 months without a Porsche, presumable to look for one though their club. 

Mostly good choices - certainly if nothing else the police depts yearn for a new Crown Vic - but no Toyota MR2? Seriously?

I doubt that he “failed to spot” but more likely ignored. Like all these idiots that see a height restriction yet continue forward taking out their bridges and trailers.

Years ago our Mercedes club took a tour of the Daimler facility in Sunnyvale that makes the decisions about which technology goes into their future cars. And they had on display their self driving car that got a lot of publicity at the time. And the guide was talking about this very issue.

Say there is a man standing…

I wanted an S-Class Mercedes until my friend got one. I drove it and to tell you the truth most of those “conveniences” are a nuisance. Like a seat that inflates the bolsters when you turn a courner at...30 mph.

An automatic perfume dispenser.

A steering wheel that fights you if the car thinks you are doing someting…

What were they supposed to do in a 15 minute window? Sometimes Italian law seems a bit weird - like charging race drivers for accidents involving other injuries or fatalities - on a racetrack.

The Mercedes probably can’t pass the CA smog