If you consider it a ‘car’:

Umm... Ross Perot polled much higher than that; he was IN the debates with Clinton and Bush, at one point was in the lead in the polls, and received 19% of the popular vote. That was as recent as 1992; Johnson is nowhere close to the “best shot of any third psrty candidate in his life time”.

Agreed... it’s a downright dumb classification in the CARB bureaucracy’s alphabet soup! The only thing the PZEV tag could logically pertain to is a hybrid which operates in electric only mode... so part of the time, it’s a zero emissions vehicle. Calling a vehicle that’s always emitting something while it’s…

My point exactly! Going underwater on a loan is only safe if you keep enough cash on hand to cover the negative equity.  

That argument is valid if one is diligent about putting the extra cash into savings and keeping it liquid to cover the equity gap if needed. Unfortunately, it seems the majority of people who go for greater than 60 month loan do so to get a car priced above their means with a lower payment that fits their budget. If…

But that ignores the risk of being underwater on the loan. If there’s a life-changing event that requires the car to be sold, or it’s totaled in an accident, then you better have the liquid assets to make up the difference. If not, there’s gap insurance, but then that’s an added cost that needs to be considered, and…

It’s NOT a false equivalence; people can be passionate about any kind of vehicle, four wheeled or two, motorized or human powered.

Why in the world would somebody spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car???? Like, I can get it if you’re running in Formula One or something, but... come on.

Yes, that’s basically what I told what wife, whose 2013 135i is subject to the recall... the deadly explosions have been much older vehicles in warm/humid climates. Her 3 year old BMW that’s lived in SoCal it’s entire life is not a concern (yet).

“Who abuses vanilla cars on a business trip?”

The comparison to a house is not really a good analogy because the probability of major damage or total loss during normal use is so much greater for a vehicle than a structure, let alone accounting for simple depreciation. I pay much more for car insurance than home owners insurance, despite my home being valued more…

“Traveling at highway speeds of around 70 to 75 mph, I was following a Range Rover at a good distance of about 100 feet.”

Yup, that’s exactly what I thought when Newt referred to the Little Trump and the Big Trump:

No, diffraction around the pinna (outer ear) is an important aspect to sound localization. Time delay can only provide spatial cues along the axis of separation (left/right). Pinna shape is critical to localization in other directions, and a proper binaural recording includes pinna on the dummy head.

“As soon as a heavy-duty player like BMW gets into this business, I think we’ll have one in short order.”

Don’t be offended... I thought it was clear that it was Andrew’s comment, not yours that I was contradicting. I responded to your post because you beat me to quoting the exact line I was about to. Just trying to keep the discussion about “other types of car shows” in one place, rather than scattered.

Only “two types” of car shows? How about MotorWeek? It’s been around a lot longer than Top Gear, and has has none of the “boy’s trip” aspect.

No, you don’t need to... but it’s a rewarding part of driving a stick. A properly executed HnT makes the brake/corner/accelerate sequence smoother, even at street speeds. Without it, you have to insert some ‘down-time’ in there to d/s where the car is simply coasting. Making seamless transitions between braking,…

No; a properly executed HnT downshift is smooth, and the technique can be used when not driving “all out”. It simply allows a properly rev-matched downshift while braking, which is more gentle than trying to downshift without rev-matching.

It’s not about miles per gallon... it’s smiles per gallon that matters.