balthazar

Not to make light of DD's situation too much but, I've tried to lay myself off numerous times, to no avail. I keep showing up like nothing happened. - - - - - Original owner '75 Toronado 'Air Cushion' car (air bag) :

Looked at an online calculator. $75,000 salary, filing single, deduction of $22,000 ($12K personal, $10K property tax) = taxable income of $53,000. Tax on those numbers would be $7,518. Not sure a person with a home getting taxed at at least $10K and taking home $53K should be buying a $50+K Model 3, but I know people do it.

I recently posted 'how the EV tax credit works', but I had it wrong. Want to correct the gist of it here. I was under the incorrect impression that the credit offset the amount you owed when you FILED. My wife [who was an economics major, has worked for a major investment house for a few decades, does our taxes and is one smart cookie] explained to me the credit goes against the TOTAL fiscal tax liability. This would include any check you write at filing time AND your taxes paid during the year, most of which came out of your salary. The bottom line as explained to me by this smart cookie is, anyone who is remotely fiscally sane (income high enough to get financing I guess) and buys an EV is likely to get the tax credit. A single filer who's Adjusted Gross Income is $100K pays $18,713 according to Google, which is comfortably in excess of $7500. I formally retract my accusation that advertising a EV with the tax credit modifying the MSRP is "borderline criminal".

Concrete sidewalks, dirt roads. Wash DC, 1925 ~

My prediction is that it will do well* due to being an SUV, having strong name association and being from a volume brand. Also, it isn't priced at $70K (Rivian) or $110K (Tesla) or $125K (Bollinger). I can see it in the top 5 sales-wise in year 2 as long as it doesn't have glaring shortfalls. [* for an EV]

Bolt : 4th place in sales on a chart of nearly 40 EVs & plug ins. Excellent acceptance... among electric car buyers.

^ The first comment at the link summed it up perfectly.

Someone was questioning the value on it from a CL ad. AACA consensus was it was worthless in that condition; more people want the I8 and there are a decent supply of better I6s out there. This engine was stuck, and (an earlier version of the) ad stated no specific price, but that 'it's worth thousands so no low-ballers'. I would be game to get an old inline flathead, disassemble it & clean it all up, then offer it as just that to the antique market (not rebuilt/running, just a complete engine cleaned up, derusted, threads chased, etc). About 20 years ago I looked at a private collection of parts cars, and one was a late 40s Packard. When I looked under the hood, I was besmitten by the I8 flathead under there. Couldn't tell you why.

There was a '73 mercedes SL there too (seen next to the Caddy). I always take a minute to look at older mercedes to check their build quality/engineering. Time & time again, as personally viewed on '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s versions, they're no better engineered or constructed than a Plymouth or Rambler. The hood springs are anchored to the inner fender sheetmetal. There's thousands of screws & panels & fasteners to bolt them together, just encouraging rattles and corrosion. The '73 was a little better than the '59 I looked at a few years ago, but not by much. Front bumper is still in 2 halves and bolted together in the center. There was a dicey welded patch at the lower corner of the grille opening, and there was no evidence the car was ever repainted that I saw. TONS of marketing went into the illusion that it's a top-notch quality piece, but reality really shatters that myth hard. It's a plebian, plain little car loaded with cheap bits and mediocre construction.

Bunch of stuff at a local garage auction : '55 Coupe deVille was last registered in '77, was showing 40K miles (correct by my eye).

Ford has always made the Lightning a very attractive package. - - - - - Barn-find '20s Pierce-Arrow straight 6 engine on CL. Interesting to see the free-flowing, tubular exhaust and 4 valves/cylinder :

GXP - the best iteration of the last Bonne. Still a great looking car. Now we have to look at disjointed shit like this:

Some folk like flat asses tho. ?

That cladding doesn't outrage me, after all don't forget where it came from: mercedes. Even up to the early '00s GPs were still very nicely/aggressively styled : This, tho I was internally upset the GP had started offering a 4-dr. The Rageous was jarring in a not-good way, stylistically.

The aspect many are copying Cadillac is linear light piping trailing out of the headlight/tailight cluster. Very distinctive and like USA-1 stated, goes back over a decade now.

The Rageous was the first Pontiac concept that made me think the brand was losing their mojo. Never liked the execution there.

It's not a 'short term trend', folks; it's a market shift. And it's been the better part of 50 years in the making. Trucks/SUVs are 72% of the USDM and still rising. Sedans WILL continue to bleed marketshare. GM & Ford are simply conceding their portion of the 'whip socket segment' to the japanese (who are already madly SUV/CUV heavy, too). Recall when an SUV in the U.S. only meant the BOF / V8 Explorer or Tahoe?? Once CUVs met sedans in pricing, size & MPG, all the while providing better interior room/capacity, it was game over for sedans. Jeep went from 63K sales in 1982 to 973K in 2018. The oh-so-desireable honda accord has lost 42% of it's volume in only 5 years. I don't know what more telling/damning evidence anyone would require than that. GM & Ford are absolutely doing long-term thinking here.

^ True dat; opening was quite decent. But the prior car was a K- Body, not X.

It's on Craigslist for $37,500. https://frederick.craigslist.org/cto/d/poolesville-1957-cadillac-eldorado/7017642465.html

digital sound processor, cabin microphones, sensors, software, wiring, all to go from 66 db to 63 db. Maybe. Any everyone is puzzled why cars are $35K on average.

Ridiculously complicated nonsense.

With the propensity for Teslas to catch fire all by themselves, perhaps waiting for an investigative report is warranted before assuming arson.