Thank you for that. It’s incredible that we know touchscreen use kills and manufacturers continue replacing tactile controls with software. (Mazda’s dial/button control is excellent.)

2012 is great though.

Wonder what % of people actually run snow tires every winter (or all year). I’m guessing close to single digits. Cars as appliances rules.

not enough people know how big their damn car truck is

With you 100% except for the 3x house ratio. Outside the boonies the ratio is more like 10 on the median, and buying “down” to 3x means you’re going to have to support a dire private rental market and homeless population. Those cities aren’t going back to a 3:1 median ratio in my lifetime.

It’ll hit, but it’s likely not as bad as what we saw in 2008.

By exhaust “note” we mean obnoxiously rough and juiced with fuel pops to excite the impotent baby boomers who are the target market, yes? See, it’s a question.

.. if your definition of better is acceleration and fuel consumption above all.

Is that acceleration for real? 90-180 in ~2 seconds?

My second car was a green 5-speed ‘86 accord hatch. I rather fancy owning a 9th gen coupe one day - ~30 years apart.

People who stop before the light turns red are the real problem is a spicy jalop take.

It’s not bluetooth and power windows making cars expensive, it’s everyone demanding SUVs, trucks and crossovers now; perceiving bigger = better = more expensive and being prepared to pay for it. So the manufacturers put a snub nose on that hatchback, lift it 3 inches on 19" wheels and the sticker price goes up $6k.

It’s bonkers. Distracted driving is a serious problem and manufacturers seem hell bent on cramming these low angle interfaces into the car and even moving common controls into software. It’s going to take some bad collisions to get them to knock it off.

Huge, attention diverting, no feedback screens are the worst trend in cars bar none. For the love of god, stop it.

Forester with Hakkapeliittas here. Complete overkill for Colorado and I’ll probably replace it with a FWD hatchback later this year.

There’s almost a generation of people who have only lived through an upwardly moving stock market. The idea that it can go down consistently over a decent time period is completely foreign to them.

That’s a big as-long-as. Both CUs I’m a member of are advertising rates of 4.5%+ and the SPX was negative in 2018.

JFC I just learned 40 year mortgages are a thing.

America is the only country I’ve visited that goes crazy for the flu vaccine. UK only recommends it for vulnerable or elderly, never even heard of it elsewhere.

Easy to say at the highest point yet in the longest bull run in history. Hindsight is 20/20.