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When I bought my ranger I considered getting a Miata. Back 3 years ago, Mazda told me there was 1 car available in the Columbus market in the next three months, and I would take whatever color or options they sent. How times change! I think the era of sporty compacts is passed forever actually. Another thing that has passed...big land yachts. I still love them though. Crappy video, amazing cars. More Moar... Amazing... Still on a drag racing binge...

For those that are into Chemistry, seems Korean researchers have finally figured out how to use Silicon in building Anodes for Lithium-ion batteries that increases storage by a factor of 10. This is a huge breakthrough and one that will find it's way into future Solid-state batteries. Revolutionary Battery Technology to Boost EV Range 10-fold or More » POSTECH The next step is to take this into prototype production and then beta testing of the battery cells. Exciting times for sure in the battery research and development area.

Well...I wrote this in another thread and nobody saw it, but it has come up again in this one. $25 000 dollar cars EXIST. Its just that WE Canadians and Americans want NOTHING to do with these types of cars. We should blame OURSELVES for this... https://www.vw.com.mx/es.html https://www.nissan.com.mx/ https://www.chevrolet.com.mx/ https://www.honda.mx/ https://www.dodge.com/mx/

This was the last of 3 rental at different locations in Portugal and a vehicle I never thought I’d be writing a review about. Again, I rented an automatic vehicle with one of the major agencies and the description indicated a Toyota Corolla Hybrid automatic or similar. Anymore, you go up to a kiosk, as if ordering at McDonald’s, to kick off your rental at major European airports. It’s important to have one’s data for the transaction ready. If there are questions or hiccups, agency personnel are on hand. I was doing this and then, at a certain part of the screen, a car description, including specifics like the license plate, appeared. I asked the agent what this was all about. I was told that a BMW Series 2 Gran Coupe was the car I was being assigned. I almost didn’t want it and asked if they had something else. They didn’t. I started looking at this smallest member of the BMW family in awe. I also sked my phone what its cost might be since insurance might have certain parameters. It appeared to come it at somewhere between 37,000 Euro and 42,000 Euro, depending on how it’s equipped. I could not form an immediate opinion of this car. I was in a stupor that I would be driving this car for 4 days. Also, its controls and settings are not that easily learned. I did learn most, while a few more obscure ones went unlearned. They do not correspond to the settings we know in American domestics, Japanese cars, or even VW-Seat-Skoda. As I got used to the BMW 2 series, what shone was how planted this vehicle was and how nicely weighted the steering was. This car was driven on city streets in or near Porto, on the tolled highways, and on 2-lane roads, with one foray into the twisties into and out of Parque Nacional Peneda-Geres. It fares well everywhere, but it really inspires confidence on the highway where, for its size, it’s sort of a small “bank vault” and on two-lane roads where it corners with agility and remains composed. I had only driven a college friend’s BMW 3 series with a manual transmission from Santa Barbara back to L.A.’s San Fernando Valley and it, too, shone for being nimble and planted, although they were not the most reputable as the years wore on. My friend eventually moved on to a new Ford Mustang with a V8. With this BMW’s good handling, the ride is also very controlled – firm and smooth. Noise suppression is also excellent and the maximum posted highway speeds, or slightly more than that, produced negligible wind or road noise. It’s a car that doesn’t wear on the driver for a long-haul trek. The engine was a twin turbo diesel and, when pushed, it responded very well and the engine produced more of a strong hum rather than the clanging sounds one would except of a diesel. It didn’t really sound like a diesel from inside the cabin. However, if standing outside the car when it was idling, it did sound a little like a diesel, but not quite like the old school Oldsmobile diesels that sounded like they were gargling with metal marbles. The car responded well to quick and defensive merges and prolonged grades on highways, which Portugal’s interior definitely has. The other part of the powertrain equation is the transmission. It was a geared automatic with 8 speeds. The truth is that you could barely feel any of the shifts, making me question if BMW could have sold out and gone the CVT route. That wasn’t the case. If pushed, the first few shifts could barely be felt, with changes into the remaining gears being imperceptible. This outshone the 8-speed automatic in larger Toyotas that I have driven a time or two and which featured excellent shifting. At this point, virtually all foreign manufacturers, and especially the premium ones, are adept at making automatic transmissions. We’re not talking about Smart cars and Opels from right around the New Millennium. There is no doubt that this small BMW is an attractive vehicle. For being a small sedan, it’s billed as a Gran Coupe and the looks are svelte enough. The rapport between the exterior volumes is pleasing to the eye and any sculpting and character lines work well, including the ones carved into the front fascia and the rear taillamp assembly and bumper. One thing that was unexpected and make for a good chuckle is the frameless doors. I haven’t seen that in decades. Hello, GM colonnade coupes of yesteryear. I don’t know if I liked it or not. However, it probably helps give the car a sleeker look. The cabin was comfortable and there is suitable room for the front passengers. The seats are defined with bolsters and adjustable supports for the lumbar and the front edge of the cushion. The only other car with aggressive bolstering in its seats I’ve ever driven is the last Pontiac Grand Prix where the price point didn’t allow for them to spend enough money to thoughtfully design them. It appeared that this small BMW’s rear seat room was decent, though not ample, but the trunk was surprisingly roomy. I’m not giving this car a score of 100 or anything like that. It made for a few annoyances. I’ve already mentioned the slight difficulty with setting up and getting used to the controls. To that, add infotainment and climate controls graphics and operation which weren’t pleasing to the eye or user friendly. Graphics at night have orange/amber backlighting and Pontiac proves that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It, too, leaned toward this color for illumination, not to mention an often similar “twin kidney” grille up front. Unlike other cars, and less expensive cars, the infotainment center Bluetooth did not display my music collection with the additional graphics about the artist as less expensive cars readily have. The adjacent red and blue stripes often seen on the grilles of BMWs make their way into the lower part of the dashboard and extend onto the front door panel. This effect can be seen at dusk. The most irritating thing to me was the automatic transmission lever. It’s a standard lever. It’s not a push button or a round dial that some cars have gone to. It was easy to put it into drive and reverse, but there was a button at the back of the lever that parked the car, or so it seemed. This could lead someone to push the button and think they were free to go. If the lever was not returned to P, the car was not parked and would still be running. The build quality of the console and the levers and buttons appeared to be excellent, but operating it caused some head scratching at times. This BMW 2 series coupe/sedan is expensive to purchase and expensive to maintain, especially for the incomes and purchasing power in some of its markets. As time marches on, major repairs or replacing parts is expected to be expensive. That would require weighing how much one wants to own one of the “ultimate driving machines” vis a vis weighing the costs of ownership. As for one of its costs – fuel – that was surprisingly favorable, with consumption being sparse and diesel fuel being less costly in Europe. This was a serendipitous experience and a pleasant surprise. It was a lot of fun to drive this BMW and sample the confidence it inspired, be it on major highways or on challenging two-lane roads. I also find it humorous that with all the cars I’ve rented and upgrades I’ve been given stateside, I’ve yet to turn the key on a Cadillac and put one in gear. However, I got to drive a car and brand I would have never expected to. The price of the rental for those 4 days was reasonable (read: one helluva upgrade) and presumable priced in line for the anticipated Toyota Corolla Hybrid. I don’t know if I’d want to own a BMW 2 Gran Coupe overseas as its owner would have to contend with a lot of rambunctious drivers in “beaters” and on more challenging roads. However, if money is no object and one can afford the repairs down the line, or is leasing one, this could be a great way to go about motoring. - - - - - PHOTOS FORTHCOMING

Saw this Crosley Hotshot that belonged to Frank Lloyd Wright at the Hagen Museum in Erie, PA today. So tiny it makes a Miata look Corvette sized.

There was dialogue about the Malibu rental and then some dialogue about a Malibu in general and then some whining about car prices. The same type of whining that I responded to in this thread. So I had to react to both... In this thread @trinacriabob has blessed us with yet story with another car rental from his famous trips. This is what he said. In bold. I laughed at that. Why? Because it reminded of Greece. His story resides in Portugal but he has ALSO seen this in Italy. Because in these places, especially in little villages or towns, they buy a car, a cheap car, well, cars are hella expensive to begin with, but they usually buy a no frills model and drive the hell out of it. These cars have all kinds of dents on them. Dusty... parked on the side of mountainous cliff sides carrying all knds of stuff in them. The windows are ALWAYS dusty. The tires. the interiors. Its a thing you have to experience. BTW...in the bigger cities, you will continue to see that as well.. Way different than what our North American rednecks do. Almost the same. But different. Point being: We Canadians and Americans have become spoiled brats. We whine and whine and cry and stomp our feet especially when we cant have nice things anymore without making ANY compromises. Its like we are OWED something... Yet...as we know...NOBODY owes us NOTHIN'!!! But we do NOTHIN' to change our ways. We CONTINUE to buy on credit...yada yada yada... Like I said...in other parts of the world...THEY MAKE DO with what they got.

Self-winding, $160 000 US Bentley Bentayga Breitling optional clock

Very interesting story and some interesting name plates on the top 20 list like the S class car and the Miata. Domestic Vehicles Among The Slowest-Selling In America, Whether They’re New Or Used | Carscoops

Except today we have a MAJOR advantage over that time period. We not only have seen the car of tomorrow several times in our history through literature or movies that we could use that imagination to foretell the future of the automobile accurately, we literally have the future of the car...TODAY. PLUS, all the other technologies we use daily. Wifi and bluetooth and internet and all the crazy shyte we pull off with that when we combine them with the other gadgets and toys and appliances and cars we like to consume. And I think we could glimpse where the majority of the car hating illuminati want to push towards to: Driverless, autonomous pods. And we have seen that future too, in movies. But as concepts as well. But also in the airplane world. We see it NOW especially with the Ukraine war: DRONES. But we've also seen that too waaaaay before the Ukraine war. MOVIES. The Terminator comes to mind here. And we could take an educated guess where this battery technology will lead us to other than cars and war. In our commercial and residential buildings. And we have seen that too. Elon Musk has taekn the time to demostrate to us how the Powerwall system works. And we have that today. But I do agree with you, the future of an electric car seems exciting. I wonder though, those lament the loss of engine noises. Do they still feel like someone punched them to the gut? Like Jay Leno said on his last Audrain Museum podcast: Automakers could record sweet sweet engine noises on cassette and play it back in the cabin for those that still want to live by that experience.