I’ve been puzzled by Wrangler pricing for a while now. It’s a noisy, thirsty, impractical vehicle - that you can’t even sniff at in Canada without hitting $50k.

It feels like something’s broken — like it’s increasingly impossible to do anything other than work, sleep, work, sleep, because there’s simply no money left over to spend on yourself.

2008 Honda Element - paid off

You know what never accidentally turned on when driving? The entirely manual parking brakes in every car I’ve owned up until most recently.  

An awful lot of cyclists only want some of the rules of the road to apply to them, which is a problem.

I’m assuming this is a joke, because no one could legitimately hold such an absurd position.  

As both a driver and a cyclist I’ve found exactly the opposite.  Cyclists are almost never aggressors in any interaction.  I’ve seen far more motorists yell at, and aggressively drive next to, cyclists than the other way around.  

A grain of salt yes - but you can hardly dismiss these initial findings. Particularly in this situation. Modern ships are engineered with an exceptional degree of paranoia respecting fire.  I would be somewhat shocked if they didn’t know about the fire (including where and when it started) right away.  They just…

The Electric Vehicle. The 2010s are when EVs - and particularly Teslas - went from being weird little one off cars driven by eccentric University profs to mainstream vehicles you see every day and that people legitimately live with. I can’t think of a more seismic shift in the automotive landscape - at least in my…

I would love to know the basis for this assumption. Did the crew see something that indicated the fire started with an EV, or was it simply that EV’s were on the ship?

I agree completely with this. The car doesn’t need more power for what it is. It’s one of the most perfectly balanced cars I’ve driven - and that balance is in part maintained by setting the power and power application correctly.  

I don’t disagree that the Honda Fit is amazingly capable at hauling stuff, but in my experience, with one kid, any small car is fully workable. And we’ve certainly rented other compact cars in the past that have born this out.

Babies take up a lot of room - for sure. Rear facing car seats consume a lot of space, and when you factor in a stroller, supplies, toys, books and so on - because babies do need to be engaged when you’re out - it adds up. And quickly.

Wait. We’re including the ‘97 Dodge Caravan but not including anything from Subaru or Jeep? Now the Jeep I can excuse - 4WD isn’t AWD after all. But Subaru? Has this site lost its mind?

We’ll be ... ... increasingly left behind the rest of the world until we are forced to adopt the international standard.

Yeah.  I wasn’t disagreeing that the desire to buy these types of vehicles was largely marketing.  Just that from my perspective the marketing is more about being adventurous than being safe.  Though both are obviously at play.

I agree that marketing plays a huge role in this shift, but I don’t know if I agree that it’s based on perceived safety. Or at least not primarily. My view is the SUVs and the like are desirable because they’re aspirational products. Not aspirational like a Rolex or a Mercedes - but as lifestyle statements. SUVs are…

That’s interesting - it’s that way in Canada right now.  SUVs are selling like hotcakes, but the local Subaru dealer has 4-5 WRXs on the lot that they can’t move.  All at MSRP and I’m sure you could get a deal on them.

That’s an extreme example. But there are cars out there that are still affordable. They’re just smaller, less powerful, and less desirable. People don’t want them and get talked into upgrading at the drop of a hat.

Oh, you’re far too unimportant and I’m far to unbothered by you.  But, I’m assuming you’re the same kind of asshole everywhere on the internet - so this is just a helpful reminder that your actions can have consequences.  Even on here.