Buying a car in this market

I like to rent Dodge’s sports cars when I get a rental car to fulfill my childhood dream of being one of the Dukes of Hazard and stave off a mid-life crisis, and then go back to driving a boring, dependable Japanese car while driving the speed limit every day.

 

I got pulled over at 2 am, doing about 90 in a rented lime green Charger. I was outside of North Platte NE on my first trip to Sand Hills. I think the speed limit was 80.

Cop saw I was out of country and driving a rental and decided the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze and let me go. I couldn’t drive a car like that on a regular basis.

 

If you ordered a Porsche or Bentley, you might be waiting just a bit longer. They're definitely hot deals right now.

Burning car carrier Felicity Ace could be $500m cargo loss, says Skytek - Reinsurance News

 

I really wanted a Type R Civic, but my wife can’t drive stick and I realized I would end up with my license being taken from me or my body wrapped around a tree.

Having a child really makes early death a much less palatable option.

But I did make it to Hilton Head two hours quicker that Google Maps said it would take in a Challenger a few years ago. At one point I was going 112 in North Carolina and realized I would probably be arrested if I didn’t slow down. At least I had legal representation sitting in the passenger seat.

 

When I bought my Miata with 6MT a couple of years ago wife was silent for a couple of days; she never learned a stick. It was our 4th car so she had her car but it still stung. Of course this is when my kids are out of house not when they were kids in the house. It’s a blast to drive a clutch (but not every day)

I hope you get your shot later.

 

I've had vehicles similar to the Type R for 20 years (had the Type R's predecessor for much of that time). Still with license and not wrapped around a tree. Yet.

And where in North Carolina were you going 112 without getting pulled? Down U.S. 17 near the coast? Or somewhere down in Brunswick County?

 

Offer to teach her. Big parking lots, no concrete stops in parking spots, few if any light poles. Lots of tolerance with the understanding from the learning side that you don’t force the stick or pedal if it‘s not going and that grinding sounds can eventually become expensive.

(And Hermes … hope you do get your shot. Shoot your … shift.)

 

The car I miss the most is a four-door Pontiac Grand Am with a five-speed. It was the only bigger car I had ever seen with a standard. One summer, I drove from Texas to Vegas in that car. It was a great trip.

 

I’ve never driven a stick. I didn’t realize how much of a folly it was until I discovered how much I needed to pay to rent an auto in Ireland.

 

We already have our Porsche, but that ship was headed for the port that delivered our vehicle, and supplies those cars to most New England dealerships. I’m curious how they’re going to handle the loss of inventory. That’s a thousand cars that will need to be rebuilt (many by hand).

It’s hard enough to get a new car as is, nevermind having your special order burn up and/or sink to the bottom of the sea.

 

That's one of the things that cracks me up nowadays with the "Buy American!" crowd. It's always a great idea, but there might be as many or more foreign automakers that have plants in the U.S. now as actual American automakers. Nissan and Toyota both have plants in my state, and there are about a dozen foreign companies with plants scattered around the country. Camrys, Accords and Civics are all built stateside. Even Mercedes has plants in Alabama and Georgia.
You can buy almost any major make of foreign car now and support American workers.

Of course, all of this is coming from the guy whose last three cars were built entirely in Hiroshima.

 

It would be nice if there were pay and work conditions parity with the Detroit manufacturers, though.