Your car can be sporty, it can be practical, it can be new or used, but whatever it is – if you’re driving it to The Diner – it has to have style.
Subscribe to James Lileks' The Diner in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
You kept me laughing, as with the whale comparison. I still think we need a company to build custom cars.
I was going to work the other day, and the car ahead of me – a Honda Odyessy, for the record. Was driving me absolutely nuts – slowly accelerating like they had a pot of scalding hot water in their lap… I was so happy when we got to my corner, and I could turn left onto 50th ave and leave this jerk behind… Then his left hand blinker went on…
I was so aggravated, I noticed that the merge lane was vacant … So I blew past him on the right, winding the car up to 70, so that I could be past him before the merge lane abruptly ends…
My car’s digital dashboard is set to display my mileage – its the modern mood ring – rank my aggravation by gas usage… It maybe the reason big cities are so polluted – everyone is so aggravated driving in the big city that they’re using 3 times the gas they should be. I got to work with a rating of 7l/100km… I should normally get around a 6.5. My high score is a 29.5 – when I think back to that day, I am still surprised that I didnt kill anyone. (mostly me)
On my way.
Drove another car today. Will drive another car on Monday. Dealerships aren’t open on Sunday, because I mean c’mon who would want to shop for a car on Sunday.
OK, I’ll be that guy. We drove a ’22 Hyundai Tucson, very nice interior exterior compact SUV, a successor to our 2014 Honda CR-V. Both were nice, practical vehicles but the four-cylinder engines are geared to save gas so their acceleration is mild and when turning slowly through an intersection, the gearing could mean pressing the gas resulted in a panic-inducing lack of response. And these cars with small engines for gas savings could mean premature wearing out. So, a friend kept pestering me to consider a Tesla, specifically model Y. We know the arguments against and dislike the governmental incentives disrupting free markets. But I finally decide to test
Tesla Model Y arrived in our driveway.
drive one, and the acceleration is exhilarating (0-60 under 5 seconds)–it will give you the Eclipse experience again, and more, with much more space. To quote an old car ad, “Ask the man who owns one.” And yes, paying around $15,000 after Federal, new EV buyer, and Colorado rebates, and Tucson trade-in was in fact, awesome.