Racing OT: Is anyone following the NASCAR lawsuit? It appears to be going to trial next week. Some of the information that has come to light has been interesting to say the least.
OT: New song, a little light on lyrics but the mood is perfectly synchronized with the current weather in most of the non-tropical Northern Hemisphere:
A piece sourced originally from kiwifarms (reposted here: https://x.com/wilderbyfar/status/1992771984040612008?s=20 ) was making the rounds on the subject of the Indian culture of 'Izzat', a type of honor system that boiled down means to never accept blame or even admit an error and that any degree of retaliation to avoid this is fair game.
Yeah: when Subcontinentals say that Westerners are "dumb," they are actually correct in that we are clueless about Izzat / Jugaad, which they consider normal.
I was a week and one phone call away from working at “Factory Zero”.
For two years, I spoke quarterly with my uncle’s buddy at Local 22 about job openings. They started at “Fleetwood” together and eventually transferred to Poletown.
At some point, I had given up hope for a job at the plant and decided to finish school. A week after getting accepted into the grad program, that gentleman from the UAW called to offer me a job on second shift.
If there’s one thing that I’m perpetually grateful for, it’s that.
Couple of odd coincidences while im reading this column.
Im watching The Office right now.
I have a coworker in his late 50's who is on his second Altima. He easily clears over $200k a year and will be able to comfortably retire at 60. He is the opposite of a Big Altima Energy owner the internet loves to trach on.
185k trouble free miles out of Altima 1. Currently at 120k trouble free miles on Altima 2, a 2017.
Ive got 2 white trash mopars in the driveway that have also been completely trouble free.
I no longer believe 98% of the autotive bias i read on the internet.
My aunt and uncle bought a new Altima a few years back when they retired, and they were definitely the frugal type who had a good experience with previous Nissans. They had exactly the same plan for their Altima and it's been great to them. I believe it's also a 2017 (or 2018).
Now that we're down here in Nashville part of the time, my wife and I like to play a spotting game with new Altimas - guess if they're Nissan employees or if we should be moving far away from them!
Jack, how can you have more pole start wins (79) than pole starts (43)?
The definitive vocal on 'Turn Out the Lights the Parties Over" forever belongs to Dandy Don Merideth who sang it on Monday Night Football when the game had been won. Oh how we miss him, Frank and even Howard.
"Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio our nation turns its lonely eyes to you woo, woo, woo"?
Love the Lexus rear drive sports sedans, the IS350 I think is a good looking sports sedan, should be near bulletproof and not as complicated as the LS sedans.
I never hated the Nissan Altima, it was decently styled, and yes, it had a reputation that was more about the people who drove them than about how the car was as a car, rather unfortunate, because it was not a Neon or a cobalt, it was nicer than those cars, though they rarely looked cared for.
Really the only demerits for the Altima are the CVT and the stereotypical owners. I had one as a rental last year, and it was solid but the CVT was a bit annoying.
Other than being female, has Mary Barra ever achieved anything, that wasn't given to her based on her sex? I'm honestly curious, because a quick look at her career seems to indicate that she hasn't.
An entire generation of men has witnessed this. “Not all women”
And all that but a lot of us have taken back seat to a less qualified woman so the diversity numbers could go up. Personally i went over the top after watching “im a girl” with “hey dad”
“and you can’t argue against the Sierra and Silverado EV being great for the environment. Nobody buys them and they don’t go anywhere. Environment: saved!”
Lithium, mined.
GX460 is great. If weird looking. They can butched up with an aftermarket off-road front bumper.
The fact that they don’t depreciate convinces you that you should shop the GX550. But then you get an engine issue. I didn’t try very hard to convince a style conscious 30 year old lady to get into an 80k mile 5+ year old Lexus, it would have been far from her first choice.
I did like B58 powered X5s with a sport package. Reliable enough but a little pricy still to get into a newish one.
Like Jobbie nooner, Lake of the ozarks party cove died with the UAW manned plants of Missouri as well. RIP.
Ford has a KC plant. I’m pretty sure the last hold out in STL, dodge, is gone.
I think Jack's comparison with a Land Rover Discovery is spot on. It's organized and upscale in the sense that it's well designed and will last. In person the materials do feel much sturdier than the Toyotas.
We've gotten too used to the opulence of the new G-Wagen in our SUVs, which makes no sense for its purpose. The GX feels right for its purpose in "town & country," and the minor update for the last 3 model years did modernize it a bit.
"Between now and New Year’s Day, all paid subscribers can give a 90 day subscription to someone else"
been waiting for a golden ticket like this so ill choose carefully
"If Max finishes both GPs and the Sprint in first and Lando is right behind him, then Lando still wins the WDC by nine points"
but the orange cars are very slow as of the change arent they? this will be very interesting
"Lewis is basically the Yuki Tsunoda of Ferrari, minus the part where Yuki does all the in-race data collection on behalf of his world champion teammate"
lewis seems like the prime example of "guy who got lucky by signing on to a team with a stupid fast car and wouldnt have been able to win otherwise" and im wondering who else would fit that bill
"new Prelude, which is already strongly priced at nearly $44k including destination"
which is insane money for a slightly different civic
"The day will eventually come when you can get four Scat Packs for the price of one IS500"
but is there a better reliable and fun to drive 4 door sedan than the is500? that was my attraction to the older is300 anyway
"It’s a reversal of xenophobia; you have an irrational love of foreigners and the unknown"
these people deserver all the hate they get and then some
"Elon Musk is totally a Nazi who hates everyone but white people"
ah yes famous wignat and (somehow) h1b enthusiast elon musk
1) the analog cayenne love is hot and fucking HEAVY. i had eyes on a gorgeous 957 GTS with crossovers and cam bolts done which, before i could even come check it out, had a quarter million a year client call and pay for, in full, on his fucking amex. im not a poor-scha guy at all, and i never even considered one, but this particular example demanded my attention - and i was too slow by half. if you have a decent one near you, buy it now and sell it to a jerkoff with a bad colorway submariner in 6 mo.
2) GX460 has negative rizz. basically cant give em away in the face of the GX550s, which is a car that makes even honest women consider an extramarital affair. i can have my pick of the litter at 30-35k and ive forgone them in full knowledge that its a GREAT choice for my wallet. but....
3) the QX80 has negative infiniti rizz. there is positively no reason to buy any other tahoe sized SUV - its reliable, decent looking in 2018+ form, yuge inside, not horrible to insure - and yet checking out three has given my wife the ick so bad that im afraid if i push the issue any more it may infect me too.
4) range rovers inspire insanity. 60% are beat to a pulp within the lease period. 20% are in shitty colorways. 20% are nicely spec'd and are treated well and those cars start at 50k for a facelifted 2018+.
5) running cost and desire to own are inversely correlated. there is no "gotta have it" deal in mid to full size SUV land. everything reliable is not inspiring, and nothing inspiring is reliable. im currently on final model year WK2s or X166 chassis MBs. im profoundly disappointed in this development.
Putting a car* on an amex is easier than waiting three days for the money to clear the brokerage account. I wouldnt recommend this 4 weeks before buying a house cause itll fuck your credit score to the tune of 30 points
2) it double sucks to drive if you are over 6 feet
3) im more interested in an unexplainable chlamydia infection getting passed to my wife than owning one, which puts my interest at between kill myself and change my name and moving to Argentina
I’d argue the GXs lack of rizz can be remedied with a visit to dissent off-road for some beautifully crafted and American made off-road bumpers, mild lift and at least 33 inch ATs. You’ll have all the dudes lined up!
I’ve sadly been in Europe these last five months and Chinese EVs are EVERYWHERE. Nothing good will come of this.
For me, it’s still in the running. I’m working on finding a colorway that might be more acceptable. It’s clearly the right path forward barring some regrettable blowback
Find a Toureg? 90% of the Cayenne with 10% of the crazy?
The GL or a 6 cylinder X5 could be interesting as well, but as you've found it's a challenge to find something that's both good and interesting in that range.
"Unlike me, MDG is not an unemployed derelict of a human being rapidly disappearing from everyone’s notice and respect like Kevin Spacey in “American Beauty”"
I would suggest that Barra and Reuss are also Mamdani voters (or would be). The CEOs spending tens of billions of dollars on EVs, knowing they would fail without a Biden term 2 and an outlawing of ICE engines, should all be tried for fraud. Look at Ford and GMs balance sheets if they hadn’t set $5B or so per year on fire.
Ford isn’t serving the investor at all. That stock has been dead money for years. They were trying to play nice with the left and win big in the (no-longer) era of government handouts for climate compliance.
"I do not think he will be a great team principal."
His personality is also not Netflix-general-audience-friendly.
"I guarantee you there are a lot of men out there who see the Prelude not as $61,714 but rather as 0.7 BTC."
100% - that's the audience, not people who would've loved a Yellow 3rd-gen 4WS 2.0 Si (ahem).
As for the IS. People used to stop us for our '02 SportCross, and that was in the late aughts. It's the extra-extra car for my wife's uncle now, barely ticked over 100k mi, and the local dealer is dying to flip it on BAT. Too bad the soft plastic inside does that "melty" thing. All those bits feel like someone left spilled soda.
"Really, it’s nothing but a Land Cruiser Prado with a V-8."
Sir! That's like saying Claudia Schiffer was nothing but Brigitte Bardot with better teeth. It shall not stand.
That said, IDK what year MDG's GX is, but word on the street is the factory trans cooler is a undersized for towing. Someone else here could probably fill in more detail, but GXOR/IH8MUD folks like those B&M SuperCoolers.
Sad about the Altima. It was the Impala for the subprime crowd and the Sportages they squeeze into now won't be as loyal.
Racing OT: Is anyone following the NASCAR lawsuit? It appears to be going to trial next week. Some of the information that has come to light has been interesting to say the least.
whats that about?
Cat Tales: Four Years Of Friends And Ferals should be available for purchase by December 15th
Brian works fast
I confused andrew white, substack commenter and ghost author, for brian, white some bartender i used to know
OT: New song, a little light on lyrics but the mood is perfectly synchronized with the current weather in most of the non-tropical Northern Hemisphere:
♫ https://youtu.be/vydq_9pGmAQ ♫
(I'm still trying to figure out the artist, John Maus, PhD; recently interviewed https://youtu.be/EBql15yptxE)
OT: Case study on the H-1B kickback system and life as non-Indian in a colonized company like Capital One: https://thevisafiles.substack.com/p/capital-one
A piece sourced originally from kiwifarms (reposted here: https://x.com/wilderbyfar/status/1992771984040612008?s=20 ) was making the rounds on the subject of the Indian culture of 'Izzat', a type of honor system that boiled down means to never accept blame or even admit an error and that any degree of retaliation to avoid this is fair game.
Yeah: when Subcontinentals say that Westerners are "dumb," they are actually correct in that we are clueless about Izzat / Jugaad, which they consider normal.
I was a week and one phone call away from working at “Factory Zero”.
For two years, I spoke quarterly with my uncle’s buddy at Local 22 about job openings. They started at “Fleetwood” together and eventually transferred to Poletown.
At some point, I had given up hope for a job at the plant and decided to finish school. A week after getting accepted into the grad program, that gentleman from the UAW called to offer me a job on second shift.
If there’s one thing that I’m perpetually grateful for, it’s that.
Couple of odd coincidences while im reading this column.
Im watching The Office right now.
I have a coworker in his late 50's who is on his second Altima. He easily clears over $200k a year and will be able to comfortably retire at 60. He is the opposite of a Big Altima Energy owner the internet loves to trach on.
185k trouble free miles out of Altima 1. Currently at 120k trouble free miles on Altima 2, a 2017.
Ive got 2 white trash mopars in the driveway that have also been completely trouble free.
I no longer believe 98% of the autotive bias i read on the internet.
My aunt and uncle bought a new Altima a few years back when they retired, and they were definitely the frugal type who had a good experience with previous Nissans. They had exactly the same plan for their Altima and it's been great to them. I believe it's also a 2017 (or 2018).
Now that we're down here in Nashville part of the time, my wife and I like to play a spotting game with new Altimas - guess if they're Nissan employees or if we should be moving far away from them!
Jack, how can you have more pole start wins (79) than pole starts (43)?
The definitive vocal on 'Turn Out the Lights the Parties Over" forever belongs to Dandy Don Merideth who sang it on Monday Night Football when the game had been won. Oh how we miss him, Frank and even Howard.
"Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio our nation turns its lonely eyes to you woo, woo, woo"?
" Verstappen has 69 GP victories from 47 pole positions, while Norris has 11 wins from 16 pole positions."
I should remove "from" here, as it suggests something I don't mean.
Love the Lexus rear drive sports sedans, the IS350 I think is a good looking sports sedan, should be near bulletproof and not as complicated as the LS sedans.
I never hated the Nissan Altima, it was decently styled, and yes, it had a reputation that was more about the people who drove them than about how the car was as a car, rather unfortunate, because it was not a Neon or a cobalt, it was nicer than those cars, though they rarely looked cared for.
Really the only demerits for the Altima are the CVT and the stereotypical owners. I had one as a rental last year, and it was solid but the CVT was a bit annoying.
Other than being female, has Mary Barra ever achieved anything, that wasn't given to her based on her sex? I'm honestly curious, because a quick look at her career seems to indicate that she hasn't.
An entire generation of men has witnessed this. “Not all women”
And all that but a lot of us have taken back seat to a less qualified woman so the diversity numbers could go up. Personally i went over the top after watching “im a girl” with “hey dad”
she somehow "im just a girl"ed herself into a position of extreme power
how to you remove someone who didnt get hired on merit
I'm afraid to answer that, because we all now how to do it, it's just illegal to say it (or might as well be after you get your 20 minutes of hate).
“and you can’t argue against the Sierra and Silverado EV being great for the environment. Nobody buys them and they don’t go anywhere. Environment: saved!”
Lithium, mined.
GX460 is great. If weird looking. They can butched up with an aftermarket off-road front bumper.
The fact that they don’t depreciate convinces you that you should shop the GX550. But then you get an engine issue. I didn’t try very hard to convince a style conscious 30 year old lady to get into an 80k mile 5+ year old Lexus, it would have been far from her first choice.
I did like B58 powered X5s with a sport package. Reliable enough but a little pricy still to get into a newish one.
Like Jobbie nooner, Lake of the ozarks party cove died with the UAW manned plants of Missouri as well. RIP.
Ford has a KC plant. I’m pretty sure the last hold out in STL, dodge, is gone.
Engine issues aside, the GX interior needs to feel more special. The sensory difference between its interior and a loaded RAV4 is pretty minimal, TBH.
I think Jack's comparison with a Land Rover Discovery is spot on. It's organized and upscale in the sense that it's well designed and will last. In person the materials do feel much sturdier than the Toyotas.
We've gotten too used to the opulence of the new G-Wagen in our SUVs, which makes no sense for its purpose. The GX feels right for its purpose in "town & country," and the minor update for the last 3 model years did modernize it a bit.
"Between now and New Year’s Day, all paid subscribers can give a 90 day subscription to someone else"
been waiting for a golden ticket like this so ill choose carefully
"If Max finishes both GPs and the Sprint in first and Lando is right behind him, then Lando still wins the WDC by nine points"
but the orange cars are very slow as of the change arent they? this will be very interesting
"Lewis is basically the Yuki Tsunoda of Ferrari, minus the part where Yuki does all the in-race data collection on behalf of his world champion teammate"
lewis seems like the prime example of "guy who got lucky by signing on to a team with a stupid fast car and wouldnt have been able to win otherwise" and im wondering who else would fit that bill
"new Prelude, which is already strongly priced at nearly $44k including destination"
which is insane money for a slightly different civic
"The day will eventually come when you can get four Scat Packs for the price of one IS500"
but is there a better reliable and fun to drive 4 door sedan than the is500? that was my attraction to the older is300 anyway
"It’s a reversal of xenophobia; you have an irrational love of foreigners and the unknown"
these people deserver all the hate they get and then some
"Elon Musk is totally a Nazi who hates everyone but white people"
ah yes famous wignat and (somehow) h1b enthusiast elon musk
Ill give lewis this, he won with the fastest car five years in a row? Landos about to fuck up year one. Piastri already did
fair
but those merc were stupid quick
like winning by 30s on 3 tires fast
I cannot stand him and think he is overrated but he still executed. He is also 40 years old now. He isnt the same driver anymore
from a man in search of an SUV:
1) the analog cayenne love is hot and fucking HEAVY. i had eyes on a gorgeous 957 GTS with crossovers and cam bolts done which, before i could even come check it out, had a quarter million a year client call and pay for, in full, on his fucking amex. im not a poor-scha guy at all, and i never even considered one, but this particular example demanded my attention - and i was too slow by half. if you have a decent one near you, buy it now and sell it to a jerkoff with a bad colorway submariner in 6 mo.
2) GX460 has negative rizz. basically cant give em away in the face of the GX550s, which is a car that makes even honest women consider an extramarital affair. i can have my pick of the litter at 30-35k and ive forgone them in full knowledge that its a GREAT choice for my wallet. but....
3) the QX80 has negative infiniti rizz. there is positively no reason to buy any other tahoe sized SUV - its reliable, decent looking in 2018+ form, yuge inside, not horrible to insure - and yet checking out three has given my wife the ick so bad that im afraid if i push the issue any more it may infect me too.
4) range rovers inspire insanity. 60% are beat to a pulp within the lease period. 20% are in shitty colorways. 20% are nicely spec'd and are treated well and those cars start at 50k for a facelifted 2018+.
5) running cost and desire to own are inversely correlated. there is no "gotta have it" deal in mid to full size SUV land. everything reliable is not inspiring, and nothing inspiring is reliable. im currently on final model year WK2s or X166 chassis MBs. im profoundly disappointed in this development.
Putting a car* on an amex is easier than waiting three days for the money to clear the brokerage account. I wouldnt recommend this 4 weeks before buying a house cause itll fuck your credit score to the tune of 30 points
*or bike
"you're not that guy pal"
Id never buy a cayenne
I reiterate the above
What's wrong with an SR5 4Runner?
1) it sucks to drive
2) it double sucks to drive if you are over 6 feet
3) im more interested in an unexplainable chlamydia infection getting passed to my wife than owning one, which puts my interest at between kill myself and change my name and moving to Argentina
I GOT SUUUUURVED!
There is nothing the fo-runnah does better than a GX460 or at least the 460 can be modified to do
How did i get chlamydia
“It was between this and owning a sr5 4 runner”
I’d argue the GXs lack of rizz can be remedied with a visit to dissent off-road for some beautifully crafted and American made off-road bumpers, mild lift and at least 33 inch ATs. You’ll have all the dudes lined up!
I’ve sadly been in Europe these last five months and Chinese EVs are EVERYWHERE. Nothing good will come of this.
I hate this continent.
"X166 chassis MBs"
These things wear down like cheap polyester. I'm sorry re: the QX. If it fit in my garage, it'd be a finalist - if not winner - for me too.
For me, it’s still in the running. I’m working on finding a colorway that might be more acceptable. It’s clearly the right path forward barring some regrettable blowback
Suburban?
Hasn’t been a truly reliable one since the pre AFM days, and those are now old enough to have “old car problems”
Find a Toureg? 90% of the Cayenne with 10% of the crazy?
The GL or a 6 cylinder X5 could be interesting as well, but as you've found it's a challenge to find something that's both good and interesting in that range.
"Unlike me, MDG is not an unemployed derelict of a human being rapidly disappearing from everyone’s notice and respect like Kevin Spacey in “American Beauty”"
Step on in, Jack! The water is fine!
I would suggest that Barra and Reuss are also Mamdani voters (or would be). The CEOs spending tens of billions of dollars on EVs, knowing they would fail without a Biden term 2 and an outlawing of ICE engines, should all be tried for fraud. Look at Ford and GMs balance sheets if they hadn’t set $5B or so per year on fire.
They'd be Cuomo-sexuals all day long. No one promised to serve the Investor Class harder.
Ford isn’t serving the investor at all. That stock has been dead money for years. They were trying to play nice with the left and win big in the (no-longer) era of government handouts for climate compliance.
GBP not UKP. Can’t help myself. :-/
We really should get rid of the G
And the B
"I do not think he will be a great team principal."
His personality is also not Netflix-general-audience-friendly.
"I guarantee you there are a lot of men out there who see the Prelude not as $61,714 but rather as 0.7 BTC."
100% - that's the audience, not people who would've loved a Yellow 3rd-gen 4WS 2.0 Si (ahem).
As for the IS. People used to stop us for our '02 SportCross, and that was in the late aughts. It's the extra-extra car for my wife's uncle now, barely ticked over 100k mi, and the local dealer is dying to flip it on BAT. Too bad the soft plastic inside does that "melty" thing. All those bits feel like someone left spilled soda.
"Really, it’s nothing but a Land Cruiser Prado with a V-8."
Sir! That's like saying Claudia Schiffer was nothing but Brigitte Bardot with better teeth. It shall not stand.
That said, IDK what year MDG's GX is, but word on the street is the factory trans cooler is a undersized for towing. Someone else here could probably fill in more detail, but GXOR/IH8MUD folks like those B&M SuperCoolers.
Sad about the Altima. It was the Impala for the subprime crowd and the Sportages they squeeze into now won't be as loyal.
She has a 2020.
Keep in mind that the heaviest thing she will ever pull will be a 1300 pound formula car on a 900 pound trailer.