Another Tesla mishap https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/06/tesla-driver-blames-autopilot-for-crash-into-police-car/ ... View more

Self driving cars would take the adventure out of life. I first drove across the country at age 17, in an eight year old '62 Ford Falcon. I felt the distance, because I was always behind the wheel.   When you drive westward in Nebraska, you can feel the almost imperceptible climb, which begins as soon as you've crossed the Missouri River, from Iowa, into Omaha. That first time, I wasn't sure if I was imagining the climb; all these years later I googled the elevations of a few towns along route 80 to see exactly how much I'd been climbing lo those many years ago. I wouldn't have been aware of the climbing in a self driving car.    The next day, it was pouring during the last several hours of Wyoming, and on into Utah. When I got to the last pass before descending into Salt Lake City, I could see the entire Salt Lake Valley through the rain. In the valley there were spots where the sun was shining, and places where it was pouring. What an amazing view!   Imagine simply punching in the address of your destination, and then working on your laptop, or going on social media, or sleeping, instead of feeling the wide open spaces that our forebears crossed in covered wagons, or on horseback.   I hope you're right Jack. I hope you're right.  ... View more

I'm not so worried about Ferrari losing Pininfarina. What's sacrilegious is Mahindra making off with it! ... View more

I was passionate about cars from, I don't quite remember, age 4, 5, or six, maybe. Getting my learner's permit on my 16th birthday, and taking that blissful, first legal drive in the '65 Peugeot 404 wagon, 35 miles from the RMV to the summer house, was everything I'd expected, and more, and then driving across the country the following year.   But I lost my passion for cars after my first bicycle trip, two years after my own first cross-country car trip. It was like I'd done everything in a car, and here was a new way to see the world. I took my first and only cross-country bicycle trip five years after that first legal drive.    Fortunately, that passion for cars came roaring back after I got on an antidepressant that worked. My current car, a Civic with a stick, is my favorite possession. One of these days, I'm going to drive it across the country.  ... View more

What is the car in the first photo, shown with Jeff Pate? That car is gorgeous!  Great article. I note that as Mr. Pate suggests for his business, some high end older businesses, such as Paul Russell in Essex Mass, who restores Ralph Lauren's cars, also concentrates on certain brands. Russell started out restoring Mercedes 300 SLs. http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/11/holzman.htm ... View more

Why isn't piston slap a problem? Seems like if the piston is banging around enough to make a noise, it should be harming the rings and the cylinder walls.  The worst piston slap I ever heard was a 25 year old Golf in Massachusetts that had been driven on a commute of a mile and a half each way for all that time. Belonged to a romance writer of note, who is a friend of some cousins of mine. She subsequently got a Fit, and the Golf was sold to a local with wrenching skills.  ... View more

I'll believe levels 4 and 5 when I see them operating in cars that are free to go where-ever. I don't think that's going to happen during this decade, and maybe not even during the next.  I have somewhat mixed feelings: I'd like for people with disabilities to have an easier time getting around.  But I dislike the hubris of H. sapiens who think that technology can do any **bleep** thing they can think of.   I also think that self driving takes most of the adventure out of road trips. Three cross country trips were formative experiences of my early life--during the late '50s and early '60s. We never knew exactly where we were going to spend the night, unless it was with the cousins in Indianapolis or the cousins in Colorado. And we did a lot of stopping for local scenery or institutions--for example, the Quivira (sp?) specialty shop in Topeka, I think, from which my brother and I had gotten lizards that we kept as pets. I drove myself across the country for the first time when I was 17, in an 8 year old '62 Falcon. We (two riders and I) stopped at one of the rider's parents' house for a couple of days, in Iowa City. We got into Iowa City at about 3 in the morning, haven't left a park in Syracuse at 2AM the previous morning, because I couldn't sleep in the car (and I don't think either of them was having an easy time of it). She--26--had been on her own, and we stopped somewhere to try to get directions to her house, and she said, "You won't believe this, but I don't know where my parents live," or something like that.  None of that stuff would have happened in a self driving car.  ... View more

Call the TourX a station wagon, which it is, and more people would buy it. Station wagons are now cool, and crossovers are totally not. Yes, marketing is all about appealing to the emotions.  Chinese and Korean Buicks and x cars and other nonsense have diluted the brand to meaninglessness.  And that last line, about LaCrosse week, gave me my best laugh of the week so far.  ... View more

I share the love of the '59 Caddy. Your photos capture what I love about this car. In my living room I have two poster-sized photos of the '59, one a fin shot, and the other, the front, with that magnificent bumper, grill and headlights.  Incidentally, that $7,401 for the '59 Eldorado Seville inflation adjusted is $65k and change.  ... View more

My father learned to drive on a Jeep on one of the two US bases in the USSR, where he served as a radar mechanic for the shuttle bombing (photo below). His teacher was a race car driver, who said, "the trouble with these Jeeps is you can get 'em up on two wheels, but you're never sure if you can get them back down again," scaring the piss out of my father.   ... View more

The brakes can be seized in a minor, but still important way, that you don't necessarily notice right away. In 1985, I bought a '77 Corolla with 90k on the clock, for $450 ($1,075 inflation-adjusted), the first car I ever bought. It had been driven occasionally for the two years before I bought it. I even had a mechanic go over it before I paid for it. I don't remember what prompted me to feel the wheels, beginning after I'd had it for at least a few days, maybe a week, but they would be hot to the touch after driving. The brakes weren't fully releasing. The brake job cost me more than the car. ... View more

This is quite the impressive story--a woman who has done a lot of car restoration, and who has two '58s (the '58 is one of my three favorite years for Chevys), one that she got in '61, and in impeccable condition. I would have liked to hear more about her wrenching, as well as the love story that began over one of the '58s! ... View more

 a thrust bearing makes a good pendant ... View more

 A '58 Edsel with its owner in front of the Somerville, Mass building where it was manufactured  ... View more

My girlfriend of the late '70s and early '80s had a '76 Mustang, with a stick. It was a very unmemorable car.  ... View more

I totally concur with the DeLorean from Back to the Future and the T'bird from Thelma and Louise. And while Wayne's World wasn't a perfect movie, the Pacer was absolutely the perfect car for that movie. ... View more

Marion should get more travel. (Is she the one who took the trip in the 2CV with you?) With her terrific comments, she could help you make more budget.    ... View more

The XC90 was a great snow car--very secure in a blizzard. My sister and her family drove from Pittsburgh to their home in northern Virginia in one from around 2000 during Snowmagedon. But repairs started costing a lot when the car had maybe 120k on it, and they traded it.  Maybe they should have kept it--based on the 400k example?  ... View more

Wonderful story. Drive fun, Seamus! ... View more

    I haven't seen one of these since the '90s or the early '00s. Here's one for anyone who wants to remember what they looked like.  ... View more

I love the '59 Imperial, as I do many of Exner's creations. The Speedster does it justice.  ... View more

The Citroen is definitely my favorite. Such simple elegance! ... View more

**bleep**! It works! Drive fun Djjankus! ... View more

I don't know if I'd even call this synthwave stuff music. I had to turn off the sound. Even the video without the sound on didn't do much for me. Nonetheless, if it really helps gen Z and millennials appreciate cars, I'm all for it. (I wish it would make them want a third pedal.) ... View more

That was lovely. And it was lovely the way you didn't talk down to your kid. You'll be proud of her some day. I also love your description of the geography. And the joy of driving.    One thing: you're a bit young to be talking about fudging less with age. I'm... well lets just say I was born early in the Eisenhower Administration. My foot remained heavy on the gas until about eight years ago. It's amazing how much lighter it's gotten. And only a little by design. But I still love driving almost as much as my six year old self expected I would.  ... View more

I think caution, or lack thereof, is partly genetic. Much as I love cars, I never would have raced them under circumstances where people die, and I never drove dangerously. But I did ride a bicycle across the country, in 1975, because in my estimation, it was not a very risky thing to do. But before I set off, I bought Bell hard-shelled bicycle helmet serial #7022. After riding across the country, as someone who expected to put tens of thousands of miles on bicycles--much of that in the city (and did), I wrote an article on bicycle safety, figuring that knowledge would help keep me safe.    People in my family did not run risks, either. My parents put seat belts in the '57 Chevy in '60 or '61, and we had the first shoulder belts in the back seat of a Peugeot station wagon in France, in '65, after my father, an academic economist, solved the topological problem of how to install them for the guys at the factory, when we picked up the car. Neither my brother's nor my sister's kids engaged in risky behavior.  ... View more

In one sense, this is depressing. I've driven a Tesla model S, and while it is incredibly competent, I found it to be soulless. Mechanical things have soul--electronic things don't.   As for the cars people buy these days, I think part of the problem is people just don't care as much about cars as they used to. Compared even to the '90s, cars look like the appliances they are. Where in the '50s and '60s automotive styling was the height of commercial art, the teens has been the worst decade ever.  ... View more