In Ohio, the worst offenders are in Silverados. Every time I witness the near-death of Amish children at the hands of some Oakley-wearing pole-smoker, there's a Silverado involved.
Doing my best to ~check my bias!~ because some old dude just mansplained to me why I need to do so. But the fact is that when I see a vehicle driven aggressively 8/10 times it’s actually a BOF domestic and the other 1.5/2 times it’s a Nissan.
0.5 times it’s an enthusiast vehicle, and 50% of those times it’s still a stellantis product.
F-150 is the most in a majority of states but many of those have Silverado/Sierra at 2 and 3 so GM probably wins overall in many of those. NC, UT, and FL appear to have Ford in the lead and something else in the remaining top 5 sales places so Ford is likely the winner there. Silverado wins outright in IN, KY, WV, IA, and MN. Also above F-150 in OH.
Which is weird to me--in PA, Silverados are the only ones I *don't* see tailgating the Elise (at least among the half-ton crowd; the 3/4 and larger tend to be better about realizing how long their trucks take to stop) and in fact I'm quite often found yelling at them to achieve the fucking speed limit already....
An Exige is just the Elise with a Camry engine instead of the Matrix engine, almost 2 feet shorter and a thousand pounds lighter than a C8; you'd never think of them as similar in size (particularly if you sat in one, or tried to put luggage in one, hahaha).
If your brain thought it was C8-sized, it was more likely an Emira (which is still like 10 inches shorter than the 'Vette, but closer than an Exige).
I had a Tahoe tailgating me last weekend, crossing a double yellow while 2 ft off my bumper. We get up to a stoplight, I'm like the 5th car in line, he's honking at me while the cars in front are pulling away. Then he crosses a double yellow again and swipes across the nose of my car so I have to brake. 5 min later I'm still right behind him without trying. Had his whole family in the car.
That's nearly an everyday interaction. If you wonder why Americans don't have a lot of feeling toward other Americans, look no further than how people treat other people while in these stereotypical vehicles .
One of the things I miss about driving Volvos is they had a rear fog light. Even though it was only on one side, the tailgating morons always thought it was the brake and would usually back off. Of course that only worked at night.
Ah yes, my favorite. The guy tailgating me as I am 20th in line on a 2 lane road. "I'm trying to pass too asshole" and because you are not tailgating the guy in front of you, they try to zoom around you from the right lane. That's when I speed up.
I fuck with these people a lot more when my kids aren't in the car. If I'm passing in the left lane and someone is on my ass, I will suddenly be going the exact same speed as the car next to me
I let them pass because if I don't they'll invariably try diving 2 lanes to the right and cause a bunch more bullshit on the road overall. I try to think about more than just myself on the highway.
You have no BMW drivers in your part of the world? No truck drivers going 63 in the left lane for miles?
I can't think of a time when a brodozer (of any manufacture) staked claim to the left lane driving 10 under -- but in my part of the world, the Ram guys are doing their part to keep the traffic moving. I can't imagine being upset with their driving.... unless perhaps you're one of the folks who thinks that anybody driving 5 mph faster is a maniac and anybody 5 mph slower is a slowpoke.
Brother, I AM the BMW driver. Actually, that’s part of what pisses me off. Look at my shit, I’ve got 305 rears, quad exhaust, carbon fiber out the wazoo and tints. Nothing about any of my cars says “here to take my time!” And STILL ram drivers insist on being 4 inches from my bumper with their tungsten fuck you headlights in a line of traffic. I’ll go as fast as my nutsack and traffic allows so fuck right off and watch me rip your little hemi a new one at 100% speed differential
I was a BMW driver for a while as well (E39 540i V8 6MT) before I tired of $1500 alternators and whatnot.
If you're exceeding the posted speed limit by at least 20 mph, I welcome you to claim the left lane as your own -- just please don't camp there, and get over if somebody is trying to get around you -- even if it's a brodozer or minivan.
This is my defining characteristic for bad driving. If everybody could just stay out of the left lane, except for passing, or exceeding the posted limit by 20- 30 mph),
If you aren't actively passing and there is nobody in front of you you shouldn't be in the left lane. That said, if I'm actively passing someone, which is usually at at least 5-10mph above whoever I'm passing, and some brodozer or bmw, or aude, starts riding my ass, see my responses above (below). That's when I'll give it the old 14 minute pass. ESPECIALLY, if no one is behind the guy being an asshole.
I couldn't care less if somebody is filling my rearview mirror while I'm passing. I'm going to complete my pass, make no sudden movements, and go to the right.
BMW man can get the big ticket if he wants -- I'm good with 15- 25 over on road trips (last weekend -- 95 mph in western Nebraska, 100 mph in eastern Colorado) and 10- 15 over locally.
If youre riding my bumper at 85 mph while i am actively passing. As in a car next to me not “i will be passing in 200 yards”…. Im not policing speed but im not rewarding being an asshole behind me. And i do mean riding the bumper
And alternatively if you’re stuck in the left I’ll
Pass on the right and be on my way.
I do think some of us drive in less traffic than others so maybe different viewpoints as to leaving space and how much speed to carry.
I can see if you’re stuck in a chain of traffic and someone is dangerously on your ass it’s aggravating.
Also if we’re breezing along and some guy is stuck to
My bumper I’ll do a little brake check to say hey you’re welcome to follow my lace but let’s give it a little space, this is often the case with people who do t wnat to take the lead but are stuck on your bumper.
The worst though is if you’re towing. Let’s say rolling along at 80, so you leave a gap in front allowing you to safely loose speed if necessary, and cars keep
Plunking the selves into that gap.
I’l would like to yell, hey I’m towing I can’t stop on a dime
100% on passing on the right. I'll give the left lane camper a three count, then I'm coming around on the right if it's even close to open. If he's got his adaptive CC on and is shadowing a car in the right (in the blind spot), I'll totally shoot that gap to wake him up.
I think you're right about the daily level of traffic informing guys' opinions. In my part of the world, traffic on the interstate is always moving at least as fast as the posted limit (semis excepted) -- so if somebody is stuck to my bumper, it's because I'm not going fast enough for them in the left lane. I'm generally 100% OK with that -- I'll complete my pass and get over to allow him through. If we're all in a knot in the left lane because some semi decided it was vitally important to pass another semi going .25 mph slower than he was, I can completely understand traffic behind me being pretty close.
It's not an affront to my manhood when somebody wants to go faster -- I'm genuinely happy about that, because I know I can pace him about 1/4 mi. back, and he'll get the ticket when the cop with the POP radar nails him.
In a list of things that irritate me on the road, a guy following closely barely registers. Number one through twenty are all the various ways people misuse the left lane. Number 21 is weaving because you're texting or surfing the web. Number 22 is speeding up when I'm coming around on the left.
Following "too closely" (for my comfort) feels like a "me" problem, and it's probably number 50 or so.
I have been around here since Day One and at Riverside Green before that, and I am honesty mystified by the statement that at ACF “…… there is a distinct hatred for the average American and the ‘unsophisticated’ lifestyle choices that define them.”
I don’t see this here at all and wouldn’t be here if it was true.
I kind of feel what you’re saying, but I also would see jack’s point here if the self-loathing he speaks of is a characterization of the water surrounding the fish, not the fish itself.
This cultural air were breathing isn’t air of course. It’s farts and the farts emanate from the prestige press and social media. And the prestige media wants you disenfranchised and to steal your house !
I get what you’re saying but my point was about ACF only.
You want to see a “distinct hatred for the average American?” Go read the comments at the Autopian.
I’m on another Substack with some pseudo intellectual eggheads and I am not well liked there. I purposely posted after the American pilot was rescued in Iran, “Either you believe in American Exceptionalism or you don’t.” Hoo boy, did it upset the eggheads! It was like a bunch of Greta Thunbergs scowling “How dare you!” at me. I really enjoyed it.
It’s one of my latest thoughts that I’ve been applying to whatever I see in the news, and it dovetails nicely with Jack’s statements about the general culture that you referenced.
Believing in American Exceptionalism was just accepted on its face when I was growing up in the 1960-70’s. It’s just not a thing now, so I love to blast it out when I can.
I believe in american exceptionalism, i think the iran war is stupid, spending 3% of your net worth on a watch or a motorcycle is insane and mt biggest belief is the only reason Americans are in love with europe is they make 150k a year visiting countries with a gdp oer capita of 1/3 of their salary. Of course it’s nice!
Hah! Perfect. When the Autopian started there were actually non-lefty comments after stories, but those commenters all left because of the commie stridency. I guess a normal person car site can never exist again because of all the crazy people out there.
My latest idea would be a site called Ugly Cars, which would have an endless supply of material, and would feed my desire to mock dumb corporations and their dumb decisions. But no rants like Peter DiLorenzo, only fun stuff.
The motto of the site would be a quote attributed to Pininfarina designer Leonardo Fioravanti: “It doesn’t cost anymore to make a beautiful car than an ugly car.”
I didn't like HD because it reminded me of GM: poorly managed idiots who couldn't compete with Suzuki. Much preferred Buell. Add IBM and HP to the list.
The gaping maws on the current BMW front ends is stunningly hideous. Considering what Farago had to say about pudendal Subarus, I wonder what he has to say about today's Beemers.
But isn't the Sollei based on that pricey EV, too? Other than that, I find it quite beautiful. As with the Celestiq, it's a nod at the long gone era of coach built grand cars from Cadillac. It's not entirely out of place if you ask me.
Steve saw one last fall at the regional CLC show in Ft Lauderdale. One of the members there ordered one and drove it to the shows they are an interesting looking car and if they had a 472/500ci EFI V-8 Cadillac would have a winner on its hands, electrons only not so much. It’s like the EV Escalades they look like stylish extra large Equalnox’s. Only seen a few in the wild and that was in Palm Beach/Fr Lauderdale and McLean Va.
I really like them. They stand out and definitely have road presence. It really frosts me that the commies in China got a second generation and we didn’t. That car did have a needlessly complicated numbers of versions, which was a total fail by their marketing team. There should have only been a base luxury model, then the ultra luxury Brougham.
And for the love of God, STOP trying to be BMW! It’s the whole Euro thing among people with money that Jack pointed out.
Not to mention most new BMWs are now embarrassing looking. Used to be, you bought a BMW or Merc, you got at least a nice looking vehicle. *In Clouseau voice* "NOT ANYMORE!"
I'm starting to think you should run GM, man. That's an EXCELLENT idea. The CT5 becomes the Bonneville V, the CT4 the Tempest V, and give us a real Firebird. Nothing else for Poncho, no SUVs of any kind.
Give Cadillac a real $100K RWD DeVille with an LS and the very best fit/finish/paint you know how, and a killer interior. Give it real rear seats, and make it aggressively beautiful. Keep making the Escalade, but make sure the V8/10 sp doesn't blow up. Prove you're serious about quality with a 100k bumper to bumper warranty on the Caddys, 80K on the Pontiacs, and 60k on the Chevies. GMC can build commercial trucks, and Buick can wither away and die.
Right on! If you remember, Pontiac dealerships were often paired with GMC. They should do that again. Also, if GM brings back the Camaro, they would be fools to not bring back the Trans Am. Free money.
I’m sticking with my premise that consumers hate the auto manufacturers and they have to do unexpected things to get people to at least not hate them.
Gm’s obvious path forward is to leverage their heritage. It’s an unused cache of billions of dollars of brand equity just sitting there being ignored.
Just consider what any smart company would do if they took over GM tomorrow. The first thing they would do is leverage GM’s heritage and reintroduce beloved nameplates and designs to create instant hits. This is how you know how bad current GM management is since they’re not doing it.
Yes April but they don’t recognize us as a target market…. Oh I hope you heard I finely got my holly grail, a 1976 Mirage, now I just need to fine a proper and working manifold temp sensor because mine is not working and the fast idle never cuts off because the CPU thinks the car is still cold. Bendix made a great system 50 years ago but parts ar unobtainable…..
A fuel injected 8.2 litre, awesome! I had a 78 XS with a computer timing controlled 403. The manifold sensor was unobtanium. I used a 2000 era gm sensor with a rheostat hidden in glove box. Could then fine tune the timing from behind the wheel until I found the sweet spot.
Loved the 78 XS that rear window was a piece of art in glass engineering. I just wish they had put some effort in the design of the dash at Olds. IMHO that was the weak spot as Buick and Cadillac dashes were much more appealing. A friend had a 78 Tornado Brougham last year that the dealer had ordered ever option, it only had 25k miles, but it was Silver with Black leather and that is my least favorite color combination, plus black leather in Florida get hot really hot so I passed. I should have got it anyway but glad I didn’t because the Mirage came along….
Just go find the sensor's working parameters (shop manual, you tube, etc.)and then either cheap out and make a fixed resistance bodge or like April said : cobble up a rheostat that only has that desired range of resistance .
There have been some periods of decent management at HD, their biggest failure is designing products that appeal to the younger demographic, Harley survives inspite of itself, mostly because the aftermarket keeps the older machines viable.
Yeah, not cheap, but mostly competitive with Honda, and Yamaha/Star at least with the big touring bikes, where Honda, Yamaha and the others excel is having a larger lineup with very low displacement motor cycles, something that Harley doesn’t do well.
Indians, Gold Wings, BMW, and Harley touring bikes are all very close in price. Yamaha makes no large cruisers or touring bikes anymore. Harley has never done small bikes. It would be very difficult for them to make a better Grom at a competitive price. I would not expect them to try that.
But they did buy buell after he started using their motors and the first Niels were light small tighy bikes, not cheap but not Tourers at all.
The masters at mining heritage and at the same time having a wide lineup in the halo are Triumph
Harley is really a corporation with large institutional investors. They have kept their heritage but been unable to do more despite spending fortunes trying to do so.no inspiration or real
Leadership
I thought the new sortster S looked great and was an appealing bike except that as delivered it had forward co trolls and single fro t disc and near zero suspension compliance.
That bike should have been pure Americana’s but with some Ducati dynamics thrown in. I’d call it a near miss. It’s like they couldn’t help themselves but throw I. Traditions Harley dynamics on an otherwise modern and stylish American bike.
That great American useable quasi sporty bike could also have been the Indian ftr, a bike let down by poor build and cheap switchgear with too visible wiring. If you’re hong to charge the price then don’t cheap out.
It’s like the mustang sc, once you look auntie suspension and interior, well if you’re charging 140k make it right.
The we have the ctsv blackwing, all the right mechanical bits, but they cheapened out on the interior and the basic shape could be a uber.
That all being said when it comes to cars the euros have imo completely lost the plot
IBM, GM and virtually all other large corporations have me thinking the average sizable organization has about the same lifespan as a human being - say, 85-95 years - and can only get so big before they jump the shark and go all Weyland-Yutani.
Out of respect to our hosts' wishes I won't link to the bagel shop, but I did a series on the cars of the world's fairs, starting with St Louis 1904. Studebaker and Oldsmobile were there, so were Daimler and Benz from Germany but most of the biggest automakers of the day like Winton and Duryea didn't even make it to the Chicago exposition of 1933. A couple of new startups from Detroit were there, Ford and Cadillac (showing nearly identical cars because Cadillac was formed out of the reorganized Henry Ford Company).
I just learned last week that Tokyo beat out Detroit for the 1964 Olympics. It would have been spectacular to have had the Olympics in Detroit at its peak.
GM has spent more than half its existence on a downward slide. Delorean talks about the genesis of corporate culture issues that are rampant there today
Jordan Peterson has discussed a theory that there is no such thing as too big to fail. It is a guarantee that an organization will fail once it gets to a certain size. It's possibly a result of the Pareto principle. If you are one of the 300 useful people in a 100k person organization, are you going to be as innovative as you would be in a 10 person company? How long and hard are you going to fight against the 999,700 bureaucrats who are holding you back?
There’s a limit to that, though. Not very long ago there was talk of the domestic automakers being in the “mobility” business. How has that worked out? Yes, PRS, Gibson, and Fender are all in the “MI” (musical instrument) business but that doesn’t mean they should invest in the latest noisemakers and give up guitars. Nobody wants to be a buggy whip manufacturer circa 1903, and you should always sense when the winds of changes shift, but I still think businesses should concentrate on their core competencies.
For what it’s worth, I’d argue that the development of the interstate highway system had as much effect on the passenger railroad business as the airlines, which had been around for decades. Yes, the introduction of the 707 and jet travel had a big impact, but flying was still expensive (coach fares were about 30-40% more than train tickets) and I’d argue that most Americans didn’t fly even once or twice a year in 1960.
I agree there is a limit to going outside core competency We're probably differing more on definition than fact. The Model t was mobility and mobility was the dream it sold then, after that you needed more. Ever since the art and science division at GM, the stylists, cars were selling aspiration dreams style performance etc as well as transport. A very small segment of the market was mere mobility.
Nobody bought a 65 mustang just for mere mobility. Today I'd argue the car market is 2 markets, the mobility folks 50% who like adas would prefer self drive pods, more urban types who'd happily go uber and then the others for whom a car or pickup has a significant emotion and lifestyle aspect. The automakers seem to have lost this emotion or how to address it with product. Going back tot he 60s if you wanted mere mobility there was the beetle(which was also price) and maybe the falcon. Nash certainly bombed with the small car. Even today we see toyota going for the Gr division and pickups, their market for mere mobility is only so large, and turns out as the germans are learning the hard way more screens are not the answer.
You make a good point about the interstate.
still nothing stopped railroads from being in on the airline business as passenger traffic declined, they certainly had the resources, and airlines were mega profitable by the mid 60s like tech is today. Same with the ocean liner companies who owned transatlantic travel. The ocean liner companies didnt even get cruises right and that's ships even though they sorta tried.
Look at IBM today vs Microsoft. Bill gates in the early years had tried to give half of Microsoft to IBM.
not sure how many Americans went long distance by train in 1960 either. To travel coast to coast by train you need what 3 days, so that woudl be a long vacation. Way less possible as an option for business and thats always bene a big chunk of travel. Even FL to Ny which i just did by train, thats 24 hours which cuts in to your 2 week vacation. The airlines though even if 30% more expensive cut travel times by days and that wiped the railroads over any travel time exceeding 2 hours. Also if you look at it, railroads were shrinking while net travel growth in the 60s was exponential for airlines. If you were traveling cheap by the 70s it was the bus. The airlines themselves have missed few changes even in their core competencies. Pan am and the skycoons( term in the 60s for uber wealthy airline owner excecs) totally missed the democratization of long distance travel brought on by the widebody. To Juan trippe the 747 was a stopgap until the supersonic took over and 747s all became freighters.
back to the car companies. If you're American or euro company your main business is not transport pod/mobility. Its selling the auto dream, the more than just transport car be it performance style sound dynamics colors interior passion etc. They got saved by the suv, and picukups and today we see passion in suv land being sold by the offroad look which suddenly every honda mom mobile has. But beyond that there seems zero inspiration.
We can commend BMW form years ago who resurrected Mni, making a premium aspirational car that also was small. Thats was a change from small car =pos transport. Actually we should thank detomaso, he came up with the biturbo which wile poorly executed was premium aspirational small car.
The generation that grew up in minvans wouldn't be caught dead in one, they went for suvs, the kids who grew up in suvs, the aspirational ones what will they want, sedans wagons?. For sure there is vast and underserved aspirational vehicle market for the new generation.
I'm not a rider, but I root for HD because they have a plant a couple miles from here and in my township. If it closed, it would devastate the community.
"What my cohort eventually wants, although we have trouble articulating it, is a genuine upscale New American art, product, music, and social culture/scene"
I think this is mostly over the target. I don't hate Harley riders but I do hate that Harley doesn't make a class-leading product. And if you can't be world class then at least be Trans Am WS6 dick-out about it. I do connect with H-D but I want them to pull it together.
Jack, you outdid yourself. You might be the only media figure (don't take that label as an insult) who engaged with a counterpoint, actually reflected upon the contrast, and then wrote to your readership just as forcefully about how the counterpoint challenged your initial point. It was thoughtful, eloquent, and sincere.
You often say you appreciate your readers... Jack, we really appreciate you.
"disproportionate cultural and financial influence held by older people."
Im a Xenniel and I laugh at this. Folks who say this forgot about boomers paying 15 percent on a house in the 70s. How about all the boomers who lost retirement either because the company they worked at folded after 25 years or the company got bought and got an "equatable" 401K contribution instead.
I work with a few 25 year old engineers and are accutely aware how poor their boomer grand parents are for all sorts of reason.
Where I live, the housing market price has been disproportionately going up due to Covid and Federal realignment which has been going on for years. These 25 year old engineers are getting 100k a year and can't afford a house but a few of them can't be bothered with giving up their 20 dollar a day food truck lunches and 10 dollar a day Starbucks runs.
I didn't buy my first house untill 33, and that was with paying lender paid PMI and having 10 percent down, which requires bringing lunches to work and waiting on having a nice car.
To be fair to the modern folks forgetting about stagflation-era interest rates...it's quite a bit easier to pay 15% on a house that's probably only 3.5x the median income than it is to pay 6% on a house that's 7x the median income.
I graduated from High-School into that. My dad's business was collapsing, he was building a house with money borrowed against a house he couldn't sell, and I never thought I'd make more than $4/hr in my life.
I'm 71, born in 1954. My first mortgage was in 1982 and was 13.5%. Phone bills, particularly long distance, were stupid expensive. I recently found out that if I bundled it with my internet service, my mobile phone service would be literally free for a year and effectively free afterwards because of what I'm saving.
Edit: Of course, in current year some offshore call center in Bangalore wasted a half hour of my time trying to activate the line on my existing phone and get a new SIM card. I finally gave up and decided to just take care of it tomorrow when I go to the Xfinity store to pick up the new modem.
Yeah, people these days either don’t know or have forgotten how long distance calling was an expensive PITA. Everyone had the AT&T or MCI long distance off peak rate time periods memorized. And using calling cards from pay phones at the airport, ugh.
Before that, people made operated assisted Person-to-Person calls to fictional relatives so as to be able to take advantage of the lower station-to-station direct-dial rates. I remember my father calling his first cousin in New York, with a person-to-person call asking for something like Chaim Yankel (the Yiddish equivalent to Joe Shmoe) and his cousin told the operator, “Oh no, I can’t go disturb them, they just went to bed and I can hear them making love.”
Yawn. That same house today is nowhere near as inexpensive as then even with the higher interest rate. I even had to explain this to my parents. They even tried to see how much the house was in today's dollars and it's 3x more expensive now even converted. So while your interest rate was high, it was still more affordable, so your whining is not tolerated and your generation ruined things for many.
"How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child."
As Jack pointed out, most of the worst damage was done by the "Greatest Generation" who wanted things easier for their kids than they had it. Even the octogenarians in Washington are barely boomers.
It's possible that you live a more luxurious lifestyle, not even including luxuries that didn't even exist 40 years ago, than I did at the same age. How often do you go out to eat? I was 37 when I bought my first new car.
Additionally, I'm a Detroiter and you seem to not know what happened to America's industrial base in the 1970s and 1980s, when many boomers were in their peak earning years. Besides the collapse of the industrial base, the entry of women into the workforce kept wages low.
Look, every generation has its own challenges and in any case I personally had nothing to do with ruining things.
I would have to agree that the "greatest generation" was a major part of that problem, but the boomers really sucked the wealth starting from the 80s and continuing with destroying the housing market in the 90s. Additionally, we have seen the worst run of presidents in Johnson, Carter, Nixon (though highly intelligent and seemingly insightful, stupid when it came to policy) and Reagan, they were the most destructive force than anything else. It is sad that these four presidents have caused so much modern destruction. The 80s were prime boomer years as they were the ones who accelerated the MBA, so yeah, detroit was a victim of that and their hubris.
My sister and I do not have a better life than my parents; in fact, millennials are far worse off which was the start of when generations were worse off than prior ones.
The music isn't better, it was just first. The problem with music is that it's mostly reductive and there are only so many notes to play and the same songs keep being sung. Though less whinging about vietnam war.
You're not gonna nickel-and-dime your way into a house by not buying lunch from the food truck every day. Not when a house costs what it does virtually anywhere in the country with an economy.
I knew guys who spent money like water. The receptionist who spends $30 a day to have uber eats bring her lunch when she makes $20 an hour. I know guys who get 100k bonueses and it’s gona before dinner time
Boomers had the opportunity to start acquiring / owning assets around the end of the gold standard.
This was a tremendous opportunity, although not all of them were able or willing to capitalize.
My father was born in 1954, and he began practicing in the early 80s (he took 5 years to graduate from Georgia Tech, which was normalish at the time, and then a year off before dental school). He has never had a mortgage or any installment debt of any kind. Some of that is his own decision making, and some of that is courtesy of his in-laws (they gifted my parents a house, and he paid out of pocket to remodel it; he still lives in it to this day).
So instead of paying down a mortgage, he bought a lot of MSFT.
That sort of opportunity is hard to come by today.
For centuries, the house was passed down to SOMEONE in the family. Now luxury shacks trade hands every time the breeze blows. The idea of a people connected to a place has been obliviated
My parents didn’t inherit the house, it was just a gift. My mother’s parents moved about 15 miles away, just *barely* into Tennessee after my grandfather retired and lived off of passive income (no state income tax in TN).
I did not mean to speak to your example specifically.
My point was that broadly, pre-1880, European-derived people whether in Europe, the Americas or elsewhere would typically settle a given place, build a household, and live in that place for generations. Attachment to place was a core component of the common folkways of our people.
The contemporary “oh we need a bigger house” and “let’s trade up and move wherever, whenever” folkways are, unless I’m mistaken, new and historically unprecedented approaches to living that would be unheard of in pre-industrial times.
None of this is meant to contradict your frequent assertions about the value of moving for the right opportunity, the benefits of living in a city, etc—ideas that we share even if I theoretically aspire to country life, naturally without ever having done it for an extended period of time.
On that note let me know when you are ready to build your mountain house - the day can’t be far off !
That's not what I hear. The French countryside, e.g., is virtually abandoned. Kids, if there are any, are leaving for the cities. Nothing going on there, except for the occasional "guest" slaughtering a Catholic priest.
That 13% was also on a house that probably cost half of an average new car today and was much closer in price to the average yearly salary of a college grad.
In 1980, the median price for a home was 2.5- 3x the median household income in the US. In 2026, the median price for a home is about 4.5x the median household income. It's more expensive, yes -- but the home is likely 1.5x bigger, and modern codes have made homes at least 30% more expensive to build (making existing housing more expensive in turn).
The regional disparity in pricing and wages is probably what drives perception -- where you choose to live has a huge impact on what housing costs relative to wages. My daughter in Denver has a 4 br, 3-1/2 bath home appraised at about $750k, but my son (who lives in central Illinois, probably one of the least expensive markets in America) has a much larger 6 BR, 4-1/2 bath home he bought last year for $520k. Both make about 2x the national median salary.
Obviously, my son's perception of economic opportunity is different than my daughter's -- but the reality is that their incomes are 100% in line with mine for the cost of housing (and most other durable goods) at a similar age. The cost of a new car (relative to income) continues to go up -- cars were never as cheap for me as they were for my dad, and they're that much worse for my kids.
I just learned that im unique. Im upper middle class, have only owned American brand cars, was not raised anti American and im on the tail end of being Gen-X.
I can say that you're description of who my average friend or pier is is spot on. Right down to purchasing a BMW until they die and turning their nose up at my choice of vehicle.
The interesting part is that i also work with many well to do that drive the lifted F350 or ride the Harley. Ive never looked at them any different, but thats probably just me. I also work with 600+ poor people who don't understand any English and don't own a car. I also don't look at them any different.
Im either messed up in the head or I was just raised differently (not progressive).
somewhat related note: when I was a teenager, my father told me "you can learn just about everything you need to know about someone by how they treat service workers."
40-odd years later, I still haven't seen anything that's proven him wrong.
Well said Jack. The NYT article is but one in a long line of jabs at boomers. They have too much money, their houses are too big, and they simply stand in the way (mostly) of our betters plans for the future. I'm thinking in honor of this drivel I'll air condition the garage this summer so the Mustang GT and F-150 can stay in comfort.
They did take a monetary hit and have mostly slowed it down. I watch the Chicago Bears for a few reasons. I genuinely enjoy watching football games. It's not as good as it used to be but it's still good. It gives me time every week to contact friends and have something to talk about. The City and the Suburbs of Chicago are buzzing when the Bears are competitive. It's fun and everyone talks about it. I'm not a fanatic and attend a game every couple of years but liking "sportsball" is no more stupid than liking 25k watches, motorcycles, or cars we can never afford.
I get it. But the experience of the neighborhoods me and my family lived in and that you lived in are never presented in the media from our perspective. They should be if someone wants the whole picture.
Agreed 100% and this is part of why I keep saying it's clear that there isn't and cannot be any "liberal media" because they only provide a slanted and biased view .
Fear not Jeff H. I proudly consider myself “high class white trash”. I enjoy most things low class American; ‘divorced dad’ rock, bad 80s, cheap thill cars, dive bars and trashy women - even if all I can do is look.
I hate everyone equally unless you are a golden retriever. That’s fun.
I also don’t care for professional sports and cheap beer SO, maybe I’m just on a part of the spectrum without encompassing the entire rainbow of low class flavors.
Harleys are cool until people start cosplaying. That’s generally my line in the sand. I like a full fender FatBoy style with chrome wire wheels, thick white walls and a two tone tank / theme with a cream / white inlay. Sort of like driving a 2 wheeled ‘57 Chevy. That’s a pretty low bar I guess.
Anyhow, it’s good to have rivals or a nemesis. Keeps you grounded and your thoughts open; a Yin without a Yang is boring.
If you meet me on the highway have some courtesy, have some taste. If you want to get loud, come correct, or I’ll drop third and lay your shitbox to waste.
...you also just about perfectly described my 2002 Fatboy with chrome spoke wheels and WW's. The only difference is mine's black with a brown Mustang solo seat. I lowered it just an inch, removed the turn signals, and ran the the switch housing wiring internally on the 16-in mini apes to further clean up the look. The white grips are an appealing match with the WW's.
It is a slick little sled and it looks classy sitting outside my favorite local bars...
I've got a 2001 Road King (qualified for antique plates this year) with hard bags, white-walls, and the Badlands saddle. It's low, slow, and good looking. I'm nobody but me when I ride it.
Thomas, I think you pointed out what people like me are thinking. I sometimes complain about these "American" types because I know they are just cosplaying...
I think with any hobby or interest you’ll have a solid 80/20 split of wannabes/weekenders/larpers etc, and then a small percentage (20 might be gracious) of all-in, hardcore crowd. You need the first 80% to cover the investment costs so the big dogs can play.
Most “Americans” will fall to the big number on many things. The latter part are willing to war over it.
Reminder: If you gave money to Grassroots Motorsports in/around 2020, you had a hand in funding this SPLC nonsense.
As for the drywall contractor: I don’t hate him because he drives a Ram (or more likely a K2XX with bubbling tint and a Chinese spacer lift), but because he’s unreliable and shows up on time.
Residential trades are the bottom of the barrel. Few do good work, and even fewer show up on time. It would be easier to replace one of doctors than it would be my plumber.
I remember that exactly. When the subscriber shared that email exchange (wife telling him to die in a fire), the GRM social justice hordes then accused him of being a troll because he didn't have enough posts... it was completely insane.
I forgot that a month before they gave to SPLC, they had their hand out for extra money beyond a subscription for keeping the lights on because of the coof lockdowns.
Everybody who is successful is willing to do something other people don't want to (or can't) do. That's why we get paid for it. The more unwilling or unable people are to do it themselves, the more you can command for the service.
Refrigeration pIpefitter here (Local 353). 62 years old, 5 bad discs, 2 fake knees, a triceps tendon reattachment, countless hand surgeries, and I need 2 hips. I'm on every old man medication known to man (BP, cholesterol, thyroid, TRT).
It's hard on the body. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.
Dad was a plumber. He didn't tell many jokes, but his favorite was:
"Plumber goes to a Dr's house and fixes his toilet. He hands the Dr. his bill and the guy smacks his head and says, 'THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!! I don't make that much'
"The plumber never even looks up and says, 'neither did I when I was a Dr.'"
As other members noted, the magazine had begged for money because of the pandemic restrictions, then donated money once the George Floyd activism swept the country... GRM's response to the very same people who had given money but then questioned the SPLC donation was to basically call them racists.
I had previously competed in the Ultimate Track Car Challenge, with fairly respectable results... I was signed up to compete again when the SPLC fiasco went down. I immediately withdrew my car, and from that moment, GRM never saw another penny from me.
I feel this in my bones. Reliable residential contractors are few and far between. If you simply show up when you say you will and do the work you said you'd do for the price you quoted, you'll have as much work as you can handle.
The ones I really don't get are the ones who come out and spend an hour getting info to quote a job and then ghost me. Why did you waste your time? At least give me the F U price.
What is it about the small residential contractors? I just had some work done at my house. I could have done it myself, but I had more money than time on hand for the job and I like to support small, local guys whenever I can.
He estimated two weeks start to finish, gave me a price, I said go ahead and start ASAP. The whole point was I wanted this job done quick to keep my pregnant wife happy. Seven full weeks later he's wrapping up and gives me a different (~25% higher) price claiming that we never talked about a portion of the work when we most certainly did. That was my fault as much as it was his, I never got a written estimate and took him at his word. He was 30-120 minutes late for his self-declared start time every single time. The most creative excuse he gave for his delayed arrival was that he was moving his boat in his yard before he left using his work van and got both the van and trailer stuck in the mud. At least the work is of decent quality, I guess.
That rant over, when you find a good contractor, they're better than gold. I'm always slightly worried in the back of my mind about the fact that my amazing plumber is in his 60s and I'm in my 30s. I've known him for 10 years or so and I try to lend a hand/pick up a little bit here and there from watching him (which he doesn't mind and actually seems to maybe enjoy), but when he hangs it up, I'm screwed.
The New York media establishment has always had a hatred of America and telling the truth, the denial of the Holocaust while it was happening, they didn’t have to be American, they hated the Jewish society just like they treat the Boomers, part of it is identity politics and part of it is a hatred of free will, the leftist media establishment really wants is a communist society that has no borders, part of this is Fabianism, the slow shifting of the Overton Window , always in the direction of socialism, it is more about control of all lower classes, which would be the vast majority once those in power eliminate those that helped them establish their monolithic societies.
Being Jewish, I'm not a huge fan of European culture, but the notion that "white people have no culture" is patently insane. My dad made us stand in line for over an hour to see La Pieta. Beethoven was fuckin' glorious long before Alex and his droogs.
Apparently the SPLC was opening bank accounts with made up company names and used them to run the informant payments thru. The bank secrecy act is going to scoop them up.
Jeff Childers is a great writer and really funny guy. I love the Happy Warriors. His goal is just to get the truth out and he loves to skewer and mock the powers that be. His Substack is the first thing I read every morning. Mike Rowe just did a great interview with him.
The Feds have them dead to rights. Conspiracy, money laundering, wire fraud. That’s one big uncontestable paper trail. The best part is the Feds freezing their $800 million. It’s hilarious.
That’s why the left is screaming “The Feds have informants, too!!!” As if the SPLC morons have badges and guns.
When I worked for a trading firm, our commitment to following the rules was non negotiable. When I see malfeasance at any financial organization, I can only assume it’s intentional because of all of the internal checks and balances that exist.
Yeah,money laundering laws will getcha if someone is serious about it. All you need is to create a system that masks the real source or destination of money. It's just that simple.
On the subject of Americans of certain social standing being fascinated by Europe the way ravens are fascinated by Bright Shiny Objects:
It is way older than 100 years!!!
Class, I am going to use a pitch pipe to give you the proper pitch, and then we will all sing, very respectfully, "Yankee Doodle."
Yankee Doodle went to town,
A-riding on a pony;
He stuck a feather in his cap,
And called it Macaroni.
OK, Class, that's enough!
The backstory of "Yankee Doodle" is, a non-rich Colonial American is parody-ing a rich young man who has just come back from his Grand Tour of Europe, which was a "Coming-of-Age" ritual for Tory-ish young people whose parents were the kind of people who would not be pleased by the American Revolution.
It might be an Historical Legend, but supposedly, when young rich people came back from their Grand Tours, all they could talk about was how wonderful Italian cuisine was--especially, the Maccherone--Macaroni. So, skeptics called the young rich kids "Macaronis."
Accessorizing one's outfit is something a Macaroni would do.
I've never understood just who gave the SPLC its moral authority to be the exclusive definer of who is and who isn't a hate group. Why is the Klan a hate group but not the Black Panthers? The Aryan Nations but not La Raza?
the federal government considered the Black Panthers of the 1960s a hate group, and if I am not mistaken, the ADL, SPLC (irony!), and the US Commission on Civil Rights considers the New Black Panther Party a hate group.
I don’t hate people who buy Rams because of what Ram represents. I hate people who drive Rams because of how they DRIVE said trucks.
In Ohio, the worst offenders are in Silverados. Every time I witness the near-death of Amish children at the hands of some Oakley-wearing pole-smoker, there's a Silverado involved.
Doing my best to ~check my bias!~ because some old dude just mansplained to me why I need to do so. But the fact is that when I see a vehicle driven aggressively 8/10 times it’s actually a BOF domestic and the other 1.5/2 times it’s a Nissan.
0.5 times it’s an enthusiast vehicle, and 50% of those times it’s still a stellantis product.
The Silverado is the best-selling truck in Ohio; that is surely part of the reason.
I am sure that fuels part of my observation as well
I wonder in which states the F-150 outsells the Silverado/Sierra and vice versa.
F-150 is the most in a majority of states but many of those have Silverado/Sierra at 2 and 3 so GM probably wins overall in many of those. NC, UT, and FL appear to have Ford in the lead and something else in the remaining top 5 sales places so Ford is likely the winner there. Silverado wins outright in IN, KY, WV, IA, and MN. Also above F-150 in OH.
Which is weird to me--in PA, Silverados are the only ones I *don't* see tailgating the Elise (at least among the half-ton crowd; the 3/4 and larger tend to be better about realizing how long their trucks take to stop) and in fact I'm quite often found yelling at them to achieve the fucking speed limit already....
Happened to see a white Exige blast past me in traffic—apparently the latest version of the car. Looked about C8-sized.
An Exige is just the Elise with a Camry engine instead of the Matrix engine, almost 2 feet shorter and a thousand pounds lighter than a C8; you'd never think of them as similar in size (particularly if you sat in one, or tried to put luggage in one, hahaha).
If your brain thought it was C8-sized, it was more likely an Emira (which is still like 10 inches shorter than the 'Vette, but closer than an Exige).
I had a Tahoe tailgating me last weekend, crossing a double yellow while 2 ft off my bumper. We get up to a stoplight, I'm like the 5th car in line, he's honking at me while the cars in front are pulling away. Then he crosses a double yellow again and swipes across the nose of my car so I have to brake. 5 min later I'm still right behind him without trying. Had his whole family in the car.
That's nearly an everyday interaction. If you wonder why Americans don't have a lot of feeling toward other Americans, look no further than how people treat other people while in these stereotypical vehicles .
One of the things I miss about driving Volvos is they had a rear fog light. Even though it was only on one side, the tailgating morons always thought it was the brake and would usually back off. Of course that only worked at night.
Ah yes, my favorite. The guy tailgating me as I am 20th in line on a 2 lane road. "I'm trying to pass too asshole" and because you are not tailgating the guy in front of you, they try to zoom around you from the right lane. That's when I speed up.
I fuck with these people a lot more when my kids aren't in the car. If I'm passing in the left lane and someone is on my ass, I will suddenly be going the exact same speed as the car next to me
I was with you until your final sentence. Just complete the pass and let them by to bother someone else.
If you can't get off my ass, I'm gonna hold you up for a minute.
I let them pass because if I don't they'll invariably try diving 2 lanes to the right and cause a bunch more bullshit on the road overall. I try to think about more than just myself on the highway.
No, they don't get rewarded for being jerks.
Well then neither will you
You have no BMW drivers in your part of the world? No truck drivers going 63 in the left lane for miles?
I can't think of a time when a brodozer (of any manufacture) staked claim to the left lane driving 10 under -- but in my part of the world, the Ram guys are doing their part to keep the traffic moving. I can't imagine being upset with their driving.... unless perhaps you're one of the folks who thinks that anybody driving 5 mph faster is a maniac and anybody 5 mph slower is a slowpoke.
Brother, I AM the BMW driver. Actually, that’s part of what pisses me off. Look at my shit, I’ve got 305 rears, quad exhaust, carbon fiber out the wazoo and tints. Nothing about any of my cars says “here to take my time!” And STILL ram drivers insist on being 4 inches from my bumper with their tungsten fuck you headlights in a line of traffic. I’ll go as fast as my nutsack and traffic allows so fuck right off and watch me rip your little hemi a new one at 100% speed differential
I was a BMW driver for a while as well (E39 540i V8 6MT) before I tired of $1500 alternators and whatnot.
If you're exceeding the posted speed limit by at least 20 mph, I welcome you to claim the left lane as your own -- just please don't camp there, and get over if somebody is trying to get around you -- even if it's a brodozer or minivan.
This is my defining characteristic for bad driving. If everybody could just stay out of the left lane, except for passing, or exceeding the posted limit by 20- 30 mph),
If you aren't actively passing and there is nobody in front of you you shouldn't be in the left lane. That said, if I'm actively passing someone, which is usually at at least 5-10mph above whoever I'm passing, and some brodozer or bmw, or aude, starts riding my ass, see my responses above (below). That's when I'll give it the old 14 minute pass. ESPECIALLY, if no one is behind the guy being an asshole.
I couldn't care less if somebody is filling my rearview mirror while I'm passing. I'm going to complete my pass, make no sudden movements, and go to the right.
BMW man can get the big ticket if he wants -- I'm good with 15- 25 over on road trips (last weekend -- 95 mph in western Nebraska, 100 mph in eastern Colorado) and 10- 15 over locally.
If youre riding my bumper at 85 mph while i am actively passing. As in a car next to me not “i will be passing in 200 yards”…. Im not policing speed but im not rewarding being an asshole behind me. And i do mean riding the bumper
Right on! 👍
Yeah I just brake check them, don’t have the time for a 14 minute pass.
Amen.
And alternatively if you’re stuck in the left I’ll
Pass on the right and be on my way.
I do think some of us drive in less traffic than others so maybe different viewpoints as to leaving space and how much speed to carry.
I can see if you’re stuck in a chain of traffic and someone is dangerously on your ass it’s aggravating.
Also if we’re breezing along and some guy is stuck to
My bumper I’ll do a little brake check to say hey you’re welcome to follow my lace but let’s give it a little space, this is often the case with people who do t wnat to take the lead but are stuck on your bumper.
The worst though is if you’re towing. Let’s say rolling along at 80, so you leave a gap in front allowing you to safely loose speed if necessary, and cars keep
Plunking the selves into that gap.
I’l would like to yell, hey I’m towing I can’t stop on a dime
100% on passing on the right. I'll give the left lane camper a three count, then I'm coming around on the right if it's even close to open. If he's got his adaptive CC on and is shadowing a car in the right (in the blind spot), I'll totally shoot that gap to wake him up.
I think you're right about the daily level of traffic informing guys' opinions. In my part of the world, traffic on the interstate is always moving at least as fast as the posted limit (semis excepted) -- so if somebody is stuck to my bumper, it's because I'm not going fast enough for them in the left lane. I'm generally 100% OK with that -- I'll complete my pass and get over to allow him through. If we're all in a knot in the left lane because some semi decided it was vitally important to pass another semi going .25 mph slower than he was, I can completely understand traffic behind me being pretty close.
It's not an affront to my manhood when somebody wants to go faster -- I'm genuinely happy about that, because I know I can pace him about 1/4 mi. back, and he'll get the ticket when the cop with the POP radar nails him.
In a list of things that irritate me on the road, a guy following closely barely registers. Number one through twenty are all the various ways people misuse the left lane. Number 21 is weaving because you're texting or surfing the web. Number 22 is speeding up when I'm coming around on the left.
Following "too closely" (for my comfort) feels like a "me" problem, and it's probably number 50 or so.
Oh, God, the people who don't understand the stopping distance of a towing truck (or, worse, a legit tractor-trailer) are hopelessly stupid.
That’s a whole lotta people.
I have been around here since Day One and at Riverside Green before that, and I am honesty mystified by the statement that at ACF “…… there is a distinct hatred for the average American and the ‘unsophisticated’ lifestyle choices that define them.”
I don’t see this here at all and wouldn’t be here if it was true.
I like that we can see it both ways.
I kind of feel what you’re saying, but I also would see jack’s point here if the self-loathing he speaks of is a characterization of the water surrounding the fish, not the fish itself.
This cultural air were breathing isn’t air of course. It’s farts and the farts emanate from the prestige press and social media. And the prestige media wants you disenfranchised and to steal your house !
I get what you’re saying but my point was about ACF only.
You want to see a “distinct hatred for the average American?” Go read the comments at the Autopian.
I’m on another Substack with some pseudo intellectual eggheads and I am not well liked there. I purposely posted after the American pilot was rescued in Iran, “Either you believe in American Exceptionalism or you don’t.” Hoo boy, did it upset the eggheads! It was like a bunch of Greta Thunbergs scowling “How dare you!” at me. I really enjoyed it.
That’s a thought-provoking contention.
It’s one of my latest thoughts that I’ve been applying to whatever I see in the news, and it dovetails nicely with Jack’s statements about the general culture that you referenced.
Believing in American Exceptionalism was just accepted on its face when I was growing up in the 1960-70’s. It’s just not a thing now, so I love to blast it out when I can.
Here’s some top shelf American Exceptionalism. This pretty much covers it all. Enjoy! https://xcancel.com/Trav_A_22/status/2045136218438955119#m
America! Fuck yeah!
Isn’t that just the best video?
I’ve been watching it everyday for a boost of American Exceptionalism!
I believe in american exceptionalism, i think the iran war is stupid, spending 3% of your net worth on a watch or a motorcycle is insane and mt biggest belief is the only reason Americans are in love with europe is they make 150k a year visiting countries with a gdp oer capita of 1/3 of their salary. Of course it’s nice!
Europeans are mostky tatds and the others really are real fascists.
What we can admire about Europe is some of their companies make cool shit. The Swiss make cool watches
Their acts were also designed for different roads or sampler and twisty so they engineered in precision.
We on the other han had space and more straight roads so came up with the bent b8 which is the cats ass.
Ironic then is it not that the Cadillac ctsv is the type of cars the euros used to make, but now we’re the horn of attainable performance cars.
Yeah the euros also have some cool food although these days we get all that stuff here
Autopian/Jalopnik.....communists who hate cars
Hah! Perfect. When the Autopian started there were actually non-lefty comments after stories, but those commenters all left because of the commie stridency. I guess a normal person car site can never exist again because of all the crazy people out there.
My latest idea would be a site called Ugly Cars, which would have an endless supply of material, and would feed my desire to mock dumb corporations and their dumb decisions. But no rants like Peter DiLorenzo, only fun stuff.
The motto of the site would be a quote attributed to Pininfarina designer Leonardo Fioravanti: “It doesn’t cost anymore to make a beautiful car than an ugly car.”
Haven’t looked at Peter’s site in ages, didn’t he go all in on the electric BS?
I think so. He just got to far into the weeds for me with his rants.
Curbside Tragics
solid gold
Yeah. Me too on longevity here, and sure don’t see either.
I didn't like HD because it reminded me of GM: poorly managed idiots who couldn't compete with Suzuki. Much preferred Buell. Add IBM and HP to the list.
Exactly. I love Cadillac and that's what makes their instances of self-immolation so shitty to witness.
Half the time they can’t even get the fire started properly.
Cadillac needs to burn it all down and start over. Make all the great V cars Pontiacs and bring back American luxury.
They just need to dust off some of their beautiful concept cars from the past 20 years or so. That is what just infuriates me.
I have yet to see one of their $400k EV abominations on the road.
I saw one at a Saturday morning hypercar event at the Petersen Museum in LA. No one was looking at it. They are weird looking.
Why didn’t they just produce their Sollei concept? Although the front end is horrible as it is on all current Cadillacs. https://news.cadillac.com/newsroom.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2024/jul/0722-sollei.html
The gaping maws on the current BMW front ends is stunningly hideous. Considering what Farago had to say about pudendal Subarus, I wonder what he has to say about today's Beemers.
But isn't the Sollei based on that pricey EV, too? Other than that, I find it quite beautiful. As with the Celestiq, it's a nod at the long gone era of coach built grand cars from Cadillac. It's not entirely out of place if you ask me.
Steve saw one last fall at the regional CLC show in Ft Lauderdale. One of the members there ordered one and drove it to the shows they are an interesting looking car and if they had a 472/500ci EFI V-8 Cadillac would have a winner on its hands, electrons only not so much. It’s like the EV Escalades they look like stylish extra large Equalnox’s. Only seen a few in the wild and that was in Palm Beach/Fr Lauderdale and McLean Va.
What color combo did they order? Please not another brown or white one.
There is currently a 53K mile 2017 CT6 AWD at McLaughlin. If I wasn't still in love with my XTS I'd consider it. $26K seems a good price for the condition & miles. https://www.mclaughlincadillac.net/used-McLaughlin+-2017-Cadillac-CT6-Luxury+AWD-1G6KD5RS0HU141625
Cadillac needs a large sedan. The CT5 is growing on me, but it's still too small.
Oh and they need to kill all the EVs. Except the Lyriq--that one is actually distinctive.
I really like them. They stand out and definitely have road presence. It really frosts me that the commies in China got a second generation and we didn’t. That car did have a needlessly complicated numbers of versions, which was a total fail by their marketing team. There should have only been a base luxury model, then the ultra luxury Brougham.
And for the love of God, STOP trying to be BMW! It’s the whole Euro thing among people with money that Jack pointed out.
Not to mention most new BMWs are now embarrassing looking. Used to be, you bought a BMW or Merc, you got at least a nice looking vehicle. *In Clouseau voice* "NOT ANYMORE!"
Seems a tad high for 10 years old.
Good color combo, same as the first gen SRX we had. No adaptive cruise, boo.
I'm starting to think you should run GM, man. That's an EXCELLENT idea. The CT5 becomes the Bonneville V, the CT4 the Tempest V, and give us a real Firebird. Nothing else for Poncho, no SUVs of any kind.
Give Cadillac a real $100K RWD DeVille with an LS and the very best fit/finish/paint you know how, and a killer interior. Give it real rear seats, and make it aggressively beautiful. Keep making the Escalade, but make sure the V8/10 sp doesn't blow up. Prove you're serious about quality with a 100k bumper to bumper warranty on the Caddys, 80K on the Pontiacs, and 60k on the Chevies. GMC can build commercial trucks, and Buick can wither away and die.
Right on! If you remember, Pontiac dealerships were often paired with GMC. They should do that again. Also, if GM brings back the Camaro, they would be fools to not bring back the Trans Am. Free money.
I’m sticking with my premise that consumers hate the auto manufacturers and they have to do unexpected things to get people to at least not hate them.
Gm’s obvious path forward is to leverage their heritage. It’s an unused cache of billions of dollars of brand equity just sitting there being ignored.
Just consider what any smart company would do if they took over GM tomorrow. The first thing they would do is leverage GM’s heritage and reintroduce beloved nameplates and designs to create instant hits. This is how you know how bad current GM management is since they’re not doing it.
I’ve yet to see gm pull off a killer quality interior
They always can’t help themselves cheating out ina few places plus plastic. Jerome’s 0$2 s leather that looks like plastic
On the other had love it or hate it but they sell more vettes than any other sportscar.
IMO when I saw the c7 at the ny auto show next to the Ferrari 812 it was pretty obvious that the c7 was the classy design
They did with the ct6 and then promptly scrapped it
genuine laugh
As a long-term Cadillac fan, they have been disappointing me since 1982. Still, I have four of them.
Yes April but they don’t recognize us as a target market…. Oh I hope you heard I finely got my holly grail, a 1976 Mirage, now I just need to fine a proper and working manifold temp sensor because mine is not working and the fast idle never cuts off because the CPU thinks the car is still cold. Bendix made a great system 50 years ago but parts ar unobtainable…..
A fuel injected 8.2 litre, awesome! I had a 78 XS with a computer timing controlled 403. The manifold sensor was unobtanium. I used a 2000 era gm sensor with a rheostat hidden in glove box. Could then fine tune the timing from behind the wheel until I found the sweet spot.
Loved the 78 XS that rear window was a piece of art in glass engineering. I just wish they had put some effort in the design of the dash at Olds. IMHO that was the weak spot as Buick and Cadillac dashes were much more appealing. A friend had a 78 Tornado Brougham last year that the dealer had ordered ever option, it only had 25k miles, but it was Silver with Black leather and that is my least favorite color combination, plus black leather in Florida get hot really hot so I passed. I should have got it anyway but glad I didn’t because the Mirage came along….
Lynn ;
Just go find the sensor's working parameters (shop manual, you tube, etc.)and then either cheap out and make a fixed resistance bodge or like April said : cobble up a rheostat that only has that desired range of resistance .
-Nate
Wow, congrats, I had completely forgotten about those Mirage things.
There have been some periods of decent management at HD, their biggest failure is designing products that appeal to the younger demographic, Harley survives inspite of itself, mostly because the aftermarket keeps the older machines viable.
I don't think it is appeal so much as cost. Harleys were never inexpensive so that is not a new thing.
Yeah, not cheap, but mostly competitive with Honda, and Yamaha/Star at least with the big touring bikes, where Honda, Yamaha and the others excel is having a larger lineup with very low displacement motor cycles, something that Harley doesn’t do well.
Indians, Gold Wings, BMW, and Harley touring bikes are all very close in price. Yamaha makes no large cruisers or touring bikes anymore. Harley has never done small bikes. It would be very difficult for them to make a better Grom at a competitive price. I would not expect them to try that.
But they did buy buell after he started using their motors and the first Niels were light small tighy bikes, not cheap but not Tourers at all.
The masters at mining heritage and at the same time having a wide lineup in the halo are Triumph
Harley is really a corporation with large institutional investors. They have kept their heritage but been unable to do more despite spending fortunes trying to do so.no inspiration or real
Leadership
I thought the new sortster S looked great and was an appealing bike except that as delivered it had forward co trolls and single fro t disc and near zero suspension compliance.
That bike should have been pure Americana’s but with some Ducati dynamics thrown in. I’d call it a near miss. It’s like they couldn’t help themselves but throw I. Traditions Harley dynamics on an otherwise modern and stylish American bike.
That great American useable quasi sporty bike could also have been the Indian ftr, a bike let down by poor build and cheap switchgear with too visible wiring. If you’re hong to charge the price then don’t cheap out.
It’s like the mustang sc, once you look auntie suspension and interior, well if you’re charging 140k make it right.
The we have the ctsv blackwing, all the right mechanical bits, but they cheapened out on the interior and the basic shape could be a uber.
That all being said when it comes to cars the euros have imo completely lost the plot
What has happened to IBM is a tragedy on a level with the fall of some Western civilizations.
IBM, GM and virtually all other large corporations have me thinking the average sizable organization has about the same lifespan as a human being - say, 85-95 years - and can only get so big before they jump the shark and go all Weyland-Yutani.
Go look at what companies were in the Dow Jones Industrial Average 100 years ago. Few if any are there today.
I just looked that up last week. I think it’s 3 in total. That’s actually a good thing.
Out of respect to our hosts' wishes I won't link to the bagel shop, but I did a series on the cars of the world's fairs, starting with St Louis 1904. Studebaker and Oldsmobile were there, so were Daimler and Benz from Germany but most of the biggest automakers of the day like Winton and Duryea didn't even make it to the Chicago exposition of 1933. A couple of new startups from Detroit were there, Ford and Cadillac (showing nearly identical cars because Cadillac was formed out of the reorganized Henry Ford Company).
I just learned last week that Tokyo beat out Detroit for the 1964 Olympics. It would have been spectacular to have had the Olympics in Detroit at its peak.
GM has spent more than half its existence on a downward slide. Delorean talks about the genesis of corporate culture issues that are rampant there today
In his book? Or where
Yes, on a clear day you can see general motors.
I read it the first time when I was still working there and it is was uncanny
Jordan Peterson has discussed a theory that there is no such thing as too big to fail. It is a guarantee that an organization will fail once it gets to a certain size. It's possibly a result of the Pareto principle. If you are one of the 300 useful people in a 100k person organization, are you going to be as innovative as you would be in a 10 person company? How long and hard are you going to fight against the 999,700 bureaucrats who are holding you back?
If something is too big to fail, it is simply too big.
Is it size or the type of ladder slitherer who comes in after the ones who built it.
Let’s see what happens at Apple.
Kodak too, probably add Burroughs, Western Electric, and Bell Labs to the list.
Kodak had the patent to digital photography, but couldn't see the future. Wild stuff there.
No kidding! I didn’t know what happened there!
It's Bell Labs that hurts the most there.
As with Harley failure of leadership to have vision
Kodak thought it was in the film buisness, it was in the memories buisness.
The railroads through they were in the railroad buisness they actualy were in the transport business and the upstart airlines took over transport.
There’s a limit to that, though. Not very long ago there was talk of the domestic automakers being in the “mobility” business. How has that worked out? Yes, PRS, Gibson, and Fender are all in the “MI” (musical instrument) business but that doesn’t mean they should invest in the latest noisemakers and give up guitars. Nobody wants to be a buggy whip manufacturer circa 1903, and you should always sense when the winds of changes shift, but I still think businesses should concentrate on their core competencies.
For what it’s worth, I’d argue that the development of the interstate highway system had as much effect on the passenger railroad business as the airlines, which had been around for decades. Yes, the introduction of the 707 and jet travel had a big impact, but flying was still expensive (coach fares were about 30-40% more than train tickets) and I’d argue that most Americans didn’t fly even once or twice a year in 1960.
I agree there is a limit to going outside core competency We're probably differing more on definition than fact. The Model t was mobility and mobility was the dream it sold then, after that you needed more. Ever since the art and science division at GM, the stylists, cars were selling aspiration dreams style performance etc as well as transport. A very small segment of the market was mere mobility.
Nobody bought a 65 mustang just for mere mobility. Today I'd argue the car market is 2 markets, the mobility folks 50% who like adas would prefer self drive pods, more urban types who'd happily go uber and then the others for whom a car or pickup has a significant emotion and lifestyle aspect. The automakers seem to have lost this emotion or how to address it with product. Going back tot he 60s if you wanted mere mobility there was the beetle(which was also price) and maybe the falcon. Nash certainly bombed with the small car. Even today we see toyota going for the Gr division and pickups, their market for mere mobility is only so large, and turns out as the germans are learning the hard way more screens are not the answer.
You make a good point about the interstate.
still nothing stopped railroads from being in on the airline business as passenger traffic declined, they certainly had the resources, and airlines were mega profitable by the mid 60s like tech is today. Same with the ocean liner companies who owned transatlantic travel. The ocean liner companies didnt even get cruises right and that's ships even though they sorta tried.
Look at IBM today vs Microsoft. Bill gates in the early years had tried to give half of Microsoft to IBM.
not sure how many Americans went long distance by train in 1960 either. To travel coast to coast by train you need what 3 days, so that woudl be a long vacation. Way less possible as an option for business and thats always bene a big chunk of travel. Even FL to Ny which i just did by train, thats 24 hours which cuts in to your 2 week vacation. The airlines though even if 30% more expensive cut travel times by days and that wiped the railroads over any travel time exceeding 2 hours. Also if you look at it, railroads were shrinking while net travel growth in the 60s was exponential for airlines. If you were traveling cheap by the 70s it was the bus. The airlines themselves have missed few changes even in their core competencies. Pan am and the skycoons( term in the 60s for uber wealthy airline owner excecs) totally missed the democratization of long distance travel brought on by the widebody. To Juan trippe the 747 was a stopgap until the supersonic took over and 747s all became freighters.
back to the car companies. If you're American or euro company your main business is not transport pod/mobility. Its selling the auto dream, the more than just transport car be it performance style sound dynamics colors interior passion etc. They got saved by the suv, and picukups and today we see passion in suv land being sold by the offroad look which suddenly every honda mom mobile has. But beyond that there seems zero inspiration.
We can commend BMW form years ago who resurrected Mni, making a premium aspirational car that also was small. Thats was a change from small car =pos transport. Actually we should thank detomaso, he came up with the biturbo which wile poorly executed was premium aspirational small car.
The generation that grew up in minvans wouldn't be caught dead in one, they went for suvs, the kids who grew up in suvs, the aspirational ones what will they want, sedans wagons?. For sure there is vast and underserved aspirational vehicle market for the new generation.
IBM happened to IBM.
This sounds like victim blame until I realized sometimes the “I” changes meaning
Boeing after McDonnell got their grubby paws on it.
Many will counter “the stock is higher now sir”
I think there are whole swathes of people immune to qualitative difference discernment, like it is not possible or does not register for them
The same people who have no internal monologue, or at least some of them.
And Xerox (Parc).
I'm not a rider, but I root for HD because they have a plant a couple miles from here and in my township. If it closed, it would devastate the community.
That's more or less how I feel about Ford, GM, and Chrysler. I'm a Detroiter and it's better here when those companies are doing well.
Harleys never appealed to me. I was always a sportbike guy.
I was always a sport bike guy too. It's possible to be two things at once, Mr. Age.
Sure it is. But Harleys just never did it for me.
"What my cohort eventually wants, although we have trouble articulating it, is a genuine upscale New American art, product, music, and social culture/scene"
I think this is mostly over the target. I don't hate Harley riders but I do hate that Harley doesn't make a class-leading product. And if you can't be world class then at least be Trans Am WS6 dick-out about it. I do connect with H-D but I want them to pull it together.
I think if you mixed a Honda Goldwing with a WS-6 Trans Am, you get exactly the Harley that Jack just wrote about yesterday...
Possibly. However, I'd argue that you can't really do that kind of mix and be "dick out" anymore. You're just making a Torrent GXP in that case.
GET OFF MY LAWN thoughts come to mind after this one.
Jack, you outdid yourself. You might be the only media figure (don't take that label as an insult) who engaged with a counterpoint, actually reflected upon the contrast, and then wrote to your readership just as forcefully about how the counterpoint challenged your initial point. It was thoughtful, eloquent, and sincere.
You often say you appreciate your readers... Jack, we really appreciate you.
100%. That may have been the most confessional piece I've ever read. OUTSTANDING writing (and thinking), Jack.
... and thank you, Jeff, for giving voice to something I dance around the edges of. Blue collar America salutes you.
"disproportionate cultural and financial influence held by older people."
Im a Xenniel and I laugh at this. Folks who say this forgot about boomers paying 15 percent on a house in the 70s. How about all the boomers who lost retirement either because the company they worked at folded after 25 years or the company got bought and got an "equatable" 401K contribution instead.
I work with a few 25 year old engineers and are accutely aware how poor their boomer grand parents are for all sorts of reason.
Where I live, the housing market price has been disproportionately going up due to Covid and Federal realignment which has been going on for years. These 25 year old engineers are getting 100k a year and can't afford a house but a few of them can't be bothered with giving up their 20 dollar a day food truck lunches and 10 dollar a day Starbucks runs.
I didn't buy my first house untill 33, and that was with paying lender paid PMI and having 10 percent down, which requires bringing lunches to work and waiting on having a nice car.
To be fair to the modern folks forgetting about stagflation-era interest rates...it's quite a bit easier to pay 15% on a house that's probably only 3.5x the median income than it is to pay 6% on a house that's 7x the median income.
https://www.longtermtrends.com/home-price-median-annual-income-ratio/
Maybe. But those 15% interest days were brutal.
Back then, twenty grand a year was a good middle-class income.
Look up what 20 grand worth of 1978 dollars buys you in ounces of silver,
Then look at what that amount of ounces of silver is worth in 2026 dollars.
I graduated from High-School into that. My dad's business was collapsing, he was building a house with money borrowed against a house he couldn't sell, and I never thought I'd make more than $4/hr in my life.
Cry me a river, man.
I'm 71, born in 1954. My first mortgage was in 1982 and was 13.5%. Phone bills, particularly long distance, were stupid expensive. I recently found out that if I bundled it with my internet service, my mobile phone service would be literally free for a year and effectively free afterwards because of what I'm saving.
Edit: Of course, in current year some offshore call center in Bangalore wasted a half hour of my time trying to activate the line on my existing phone and get a new SIM card. I finally gave up and decided to just take care of it tomorrow when I go to the Xfinity store to pick up the new modem.
Yeah, people these days either don’t know or have forgotten how long distance calling was an expensive PITA. Everyone had the AT&T or MCI long distance off peak rate time periods memorized. And using calling cards from pay phones at the airport, ugh.
Before that, people made operated assisted Person-to-Person calls to fictional relatives so as to be able to take advantage of the lower station-to-station direct-dial rates. I remember my father calling his first cousin in New York, with a person-to-person call asking for something like Chaim Yankel (the Yiddish equivalent to Joe Shmoe) and his cousin told the operator, “Oh no, I can’t go disturb them, they just went to bed and I can hear them making love.”
Yawn. That same house today is nowhere near as inexpensive as then even with the higher interest rate. I even had to explain this to my parents. They even tried to see how much the house was in today's dollars and it's 3x more expensive now even converted. So while your interest rate was high, it was still more affordable, so your whining is not tolerated and your generation ruined things for many.
"How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child."
As Jack pointed out, most of the worst damage was done by the "Greatest Generation" who wanted things easier for their kids than they had it. Even the octogenarians in Washington are barely boomers.
It's possible that you live a more luxurious lifestyle, not even including luxuries that didn't even exist 40 years ago, than I did at the same age. How often do you go out to eat? I was 37 when I bought my first new car.
Additionally, I'm a Detroiter and you seem to not know what happened to America's industrial base in the 1970s and 1980s, when many boomers were in their peak earning years. Besides the collapse of the industrial base, the entry of women into the workforce kept wages low.
Look, every generation has its own challenges and in any case I personally had nothing to do with ruining things.
We also had a lot better music.
I would have to agree that the "greatest generation" was a major part of that problem, but the boomers really sucked the wealth starting from the 80s and continuing with destroying the housing market in the 90s. Additionally, we have seen the worst run of presidents in Johnson, Carter, Nixon (though highly intelligent and seemingly insightful, stupid when it came to policy) and Reagan, they were the most destructive force than anything else. It is sad that these four presidents have caused so much modern destruction. The 80s were prime boomer years as they were the ones who accelerated the MBA, so yeah, detroit was a victim of that and their hubris.
My sister and I do not have a better life than my parents; in fact, millennials are far worse off which was the start of when generations were worse off than prior ones.
The music isn't better, it was just first. The problem with music is that it's mostly reductive and there are only so many notes to play and the same songs keep being sung. Though less whinging about vietnam war.
You're not gonna nickel-and-dime your way into a house by not buying lunch from the food truck every day. Not when a house costs what it does virtually anywhere in the country with an economy.
I knew guys who spent money like water. The receptionist who spends $30 a day to have uber eats bring her lunch when she makes $20 an hour. I know guys who get 100k bonueses and it’s gona before dinner time
"There are guys at the firm who make, like, a million a year and they can't get a car loan for a Honda cause their credit's so bad."
I did.
Boomers had the opportunity to start acquiring / owning assets around the end of the gold standard.
This was a tremendous opportunity, although not all of them were able or willing to capitalize.
My father was born in 1954, and he began practicing in the early 80s (he took 5 years to graduate from Georgia Tech, which was normalish at the time, and then a year off before dental school). He has never had a mortgage or any installment debt of any kind. Some of that is his own decision making, and some of that is courtesy of his in-laws (they gifted my parents a house, and he paid out of pocket to remodel it; he still lives in it to this day).
So instead of paying down a mortgage, he bought a lot of MSFT.
That sort of opportunity is hard to come by today.
Someone giving you a house? Yes that’s hard to come by.
Today it is. Homes passed along for generations was the norm forever.
^this is correct and if anything understated.
For centuries, the house was passed down to SOMEONE in the family. Now luxury shacks trade hands every time the breeze blows. The idea of a people connected to a place has been obliviated
My parents didn’t inherit the house, it was just a gift. My mother’s parents moved about 15 miles away, just *barely* into Tennessee after my grandfather retired and lived off of passive income (no state income tax in TN).
I did not mean to speak to your example specifically.
My point was that broadly, pre-1880, European-derived people whether in Europe, the Americas or elsewhere would typically settle a given place, build a household, and live in that place for generations. Attachment to place was a core component of the common folkways of our people.
The contemporary “oh we need a bigger house” and “let’s trade up and move wherever, whenever” folkways are, unless I’m mistaken, new and historically unprecedented approaches to living that would be unheard of in pre-industrial times.
None of this is meant to contradict your frequent assertions about the value of moving for the right opportunity, the benefits of living in a city, etc—ideas that we share even if I theoretically aspire to country life, naturally without ever having done it for an extended period of time.
On that note let me know when you are ready to build your mountain house - the day can’t be far off !
And still is in Europe
That's not what I hear. The French countryside, e.g., is virtually abandoned. Kids, if there are any, are leaving for the cities. Nothing going on there, except for the occasional "guest" slaughtering a Catholic priest.
Urban housing in France et al is primarily rental, owned by families for generations
something something burning your oak door for firewood
My son doesn't want my house......
-Nate
That 13% was also on a house that probably cost half of an average new car today and was much closer in price to the average yearly salary of a college grad.
In 1980, the median price for a home was 2.5- 3x the median household income in the US. In 2026, the median price for a home is about 4.5x the median household income. It's more expensive, yes -- but the home is likely 1.5x bigger, and modern codes have made homes at least 30% more expensive to build (making existing housing more expensive in turn).
The regional disparity in pricing and wages is probably what drives perception -- where you choose to live has a huge impact on what housing costs relative to wages. My daughter in Denver has a 4 br, 3-1/2 bath home appraised at about $750k, but my son (who lives in central Illinois, probably one of the least expensive markets in America) has a much larger 6 BR, 4-1/2 bath home he bought last year for $520k. Both make about 2x the national median salary.
Obviously, my son's perception of economic opportunity is different than my daughter's -- but the reality is that their incomes are 100% in line with mine for the cost of housing (and most other durable goods) at a similar age. The cost of a new car (relative to income) continues to go up -- cars were never as cheap for me as they were for my dad, and they're that much worse for my kids.
The cost of all services is far lower now.
I just learned that im unique. Im upper middle class, have only owned American brand cars, was not raised anti American and im on the tail end of being Gen-X.
I can say that you're description of who my average friend or pier is is spot on. Right down to purchasing a BMW until they die and turning their nose up at my choice of vehicle.
The interesting part is that i also work with many well to do that drive the lifted F350 or ride the Harley. Ive never looked at them any different, but thats probably just me. I also work with 600+ poor people who don't understand any English and don't own a car. I also don't look at them any different.
Im either messed up in the head or I was just raised differently (not progressive).
You were raised well.
Thanks for this. I think this is mostly my perspective as well...
somewhat related note: when I was a teenager, my father told me "you can learn just about everything you need to know about someone by how they treat service workers."
40-odd years later, I still haven't seen anything that's proven him wrong.
A lot of those people are mechanical geniuses with what they do!
Well said Jack. The NYT article is but one in a long line of jabs at boomers. They have too much money, their houses are too big, and they simply stand in the way (mostly) of our betters plans for the future. I'm thinking in honor of this drivel I'll air condition the garage this summer so the Mustang GT and F-150 can stay in comfort.
The subtext of the NYT is that their jabs at Boomers are just a way to express their hate for old white people with money.
The term Boomer just obfuscates what they really want to say.
You will never see an article about poor old white people stuck in crime ridden neighborhoods with a bunch of people that don’t look like them.
All of this is sad but true.
Exactly!
The NYT doesn't hate you because you are a racist, they hate you because you are white.
When the NFL paints "End Racism" in the end zone, who are the racists?
Oh, white people.
They are literally writing, "End Our Fans".
and the tards will cheer it on because for some religion has been displaced by sportsball
They’ll keep doing it until they take a monetary hit.
They did take a monetary hit and have mostly slowed it down. I watch the Chicago Bears for a few reasons. I genuinely enjoy watching football games. It's not as good as it used to be but it's still good. It gives me time every week to contact friends and have something to talk about. The City and the Suburbs of Chicago are buzzing when the Bears are competitive. It's fun and everyone talks about it. I'm not a fanatic and attend a game every couple of years but liking "sportsball" is no more stupid than liking 25k watches, motorcycles, or cars we can never afford.
I haven’t watched a football game in decades. If they hate me, I hate them. It’s really simple.
Really Ataraxis ;
No one cares about those of us who fit your description .
During my working years few friends ever wanted to visit the "high crime" neighborhoods I lived in then and now .
My point is : who gives a fuck what someone who doesn't pay your bills thinks ?.
-Nate
I get it. But the experience of the neighborhoods me and my family lived in and that you lived in are never presented in the media from our perspective. They should be if someone wants the whole picture.
Agreed 100% and this is part of why I keep saying it's clear that there isn't and cannot be any "liberal media" because they only provide a slanted and biased view .
-Nate
Fear not Jeff H. I proudly consider myself “high class white trash”. I enjoy most things low class American; ‘divorced dad’ rock, bad 80s, cheap thill cars, dive bars and trashy women - even if all I can do is look.
I hate everyone equally unless you are a golden retriever. That’s fun.
I also don’t care for professional sports and cheap beer SO, maybe I’m just on a part of the spectrum without encompassing the entire rainbow of low class flavors.
Harleys are cool until people start cosplaying. That’s generally my line in the sand. I like a full fender FatBoy style with chrome wire wheels, thick white walls and a two tone tank / theme with a cream / white inlay. Sort of like driving a 2 wheeled ‘57 Chevy. That’s a pretty low bar I guess.
Anyhow, it’s good to have rivals or a nemesis. Keeps you grounded and your thoughts open; a Yin without a Yang is boring.
"I enjoy most things low class American; ‘divorced dad’ rock, bad 80s, cheap thill cars, dive bars and trashy women"
Why did the opening of "Sympathy for the Devil" come to mind?
please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste...
If you meet me on the highway have some courtesy, have some taste. If you want to get loud, come correct, or I’ll drop third and lay your shitbox to waste.
I applaud you, sir
I got nasty habits, I take tea at three
And the meat I eat for dinner must be hung up for a week
Well then we're something like kindred spirits...
...you also just about perfectly described my 2002 Fatboy with chrome spoke wheels and WW's. The only difference is mine's black with a brown Mustang solo seat. I lowered it just an inch, removed the turn signals, and ran the the switch housing wiring internally on the 16-in mini apes to further clean up the look. The white grips are an appealing match with the WW's.
It is a slick little sled and it looks classy sitting outside my favorite local bars...
Sounds like a great looking scooter.
Excellent.
I've got a 2001 Road King (qualified for antique plates this year) with hard bags, white-walls, and the Badlands saddle. It's low, slow, and good looking. I'm nobody but me when I ride it.
Good to meet you, sir.
Hell yea
"Sorry babe, can't go to Disney this year. I need a trans am to prove I'm not classist" You think that will work?
“…and in black to prove I’m not racist.”
I will be supporting our Native or Asian American friends by getting one in red or yellow
I guess my wallet voted for traditional racism instead. Pushing for the yellow. CETA car would be neat or a de-striped one.
Sadly, my prudence is going to win and I won't get one. I will just envy from afar
Somethign likes this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzr1-Q8gGzM
Screaming chickens and everything
4k miles is wild. Mine just rolled 18k.
https://1drv.ms/f/c/2c3031bcede5d54b/IgBe6d5mKIcETbyoQuvpDHfeAbf9FjlkPv4a6ZeSG5K8-D0
(Wouldn’t let me link an individual image)
Yellow with red graphics and a black interior. All bases covered.
Thomas, I think you pointed out what people like me are thinking. I sometimes complain about these "American" types because I know they are just cosplaying...
I think with any hobby or interest you’ll have a solid 80/20 split of wannabes/weekenders/larpers etc, and then a small percentage (20 might be gracious) of all-in, hardcore crowd. You need the first 80% to cover the investment costs so the big dogs can play.
Most “Americans” will fall to the big number on many things. The latter part are willing to war over it.
Reminder: If you gave money to Grassroots Motorsports in/around 2020, you had a hand in funding this SPLC nonsense.
As for the drywall contractor: I don’t hate him because he drives a Ram (or more likely a K2XX with bubbling tint and a Chinese spacer lift), but because he’s unreliable and shows up on time.
Residential trades are the bottom of the barrel. Few do good work, and even fewer show up on time. It would be easier to replace one of doctors than it would be my plumber.
And when a GRM subscriber questioned the SPLC donation on a GRM forum, the publisher’s wife told the subscriber to die in a fire.
Great, classy people. They make me glad I race a Radical SR8 and not whatever they consider "grassroots".
I remember that exactly. When the subscriber shared that email exchange (wife telling him to die in a fire), the GRM social justice hordes then accused him of being a troll because he didn't have enough posts... it was completely insane.
'Reminder: If you gave money to Grassroots Motorsports in/around 2020, you had a hand in funding this SPLC nonsense.'
That cannot be over emphasized. The Suddards can suck the dick up till they hiccup.
"It would be easier to replace one of doctors than it would be my plumber."
If I had a little more flexibility in my joints, I'd become a plumber. No one EVER argues rate with a plumber.
I forgot that a month before they gave to SPLC, they had their hand out for extra money beyond a subscription for keeping the lights on because of the coof lockdowns.
I vaguely remember that, sort of like I vaguely remember Grassroots Motorsports. Some things are unforgivable.
To make rates where no one argues with a plumber youd have to go the small business route which would not give you the flexibility you desire
Everybody who is successful is willing to do something other people don't want to (or can't) do. That's why we get paid for it. The more unwilling or unable people are to do it themselves, the more you can command for the service.
My cousin and his sons are plumbers. It's hard on the body.
It's _really_ dirty / nasty too .
-Nate
(the junkyard Mechanic)
Refrigeration pIpefitter here (Local 353). 62 years old, 5 bad discs, 2 fake knees, a triceps tendon reattachment, countless hand surgeries, and I need 2 hips. I'm on every old man medication known to man (BP, cholesterol, thyroid, TRT).
It's hard on the body. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.
Dad was a plumber. He didn't tell many jokes, but his favorite was:
"Plumber goes to a Dr's house and fixes his toilet. He hands the Dr. his bill and the guy smacks his head and says, 'THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!! I don't make that much'
"The plumber never even looks up and says, 'neither did I when I was a Dr.'"
As other members noted, the magazine had begged for money because of the pandemic restrictions, then donated money once the George Floyd activism swept the country... GRM's response to the very same people who had given money but then questioned the SPLC donation was to basically call them racists.
I had previously competed in the Ultimate Track Car Challenge, with fairly respectable results... I was signed up to compete again when the SPLC fiasco went down. I immediately withdrew my car, and from that moment, GRM never saw another penny from me.
I feel this in my bones. Reliable residential contractors are few and far between. If you simply show up when you say you will and do the work you said you'd do for the price you quoted, you'll have as much work as you can handle.
The ones I really don't get are the ones who come out and spend an hour getting info to quote a job and then ghost me. Why did you waste your time? At least give me the F U price.
What is it about the small residential contractors? I just had some work done at my house. I could have done it myself, but I had more money than time on hand for the job and I like to support small, local guys whenever I can.
He estimated two weeks start to finish, gave me a price, I said go ahead and start ASAP. The whole point was I wanted this job done quick to keep my pregnant wife happy. Seven full weeks later he's wrapping up and gives me a different (~25% higher) price claiming that we never talked about a portion of the work when we most certainly did. That was my fault as much as it was his, I never got a written estimate and took him at his word. He was 30-120 minutes late for his self-declared start time every single time. The most creative excuse he gave for his delayed arrival was that he was moving his boat in his yard before he left using his work van and got both the van and trailer stuck in the mud. At least the work is of decent quality, I guess.
That rant over, when you find a good contractor, they're better than gold. I'm always slightly worried in the back of my mind about the fact that my amazing plumber is in his 60s and I'm in my 30s. I've known him for 10 years or so and I try to lend a hand/pick up a little bit here and there from watching him (which he doesn't mind and actually seems to maybe enjoy), but when he hangs it up, I'm screwed.
The New York media establishment has always had a hatred of America and telling the truth, the denial of the Holocaust while it was happening, they didn’t have to be American, they hated the Jewish society just like they treat the Boomers, part of it is identity politics and part of it is a hatred of free will, the leftist media establishment really wants is a communist society that has no borders, part of this is Fabianism, the slow shifting of the Overton Window , always in the direction of socialism, it is more about control of all lower classes, which would be the vast majority once those in power eliminate those that helped them establish their monolithic societies.
It was the New York Times that supplied Walter Duranty's paychecks. That lot's been at this a while.
Like since the late 1800’s.
The Idea that Americans don’t have a culture, only dark color skins can have a culture, people who think this are evil.
Being Jewish, I'm not a huge fan of European culture, but the notion that "white people have no culture" is patently insane. My dad made us stand in line for over an hour to see La Pieta. Beethoven was fuckin' glorious long before Alex and his droogs.
Apparently the SPLC was opening bank accounts with made up company names and used them to run the informant payments thru. The bank secrecy act is going to scoop them up.
Isn't that technically money laundering?
This is the best explanation I’ve read. The writer is a lawyer. https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/800-million-reasons-wednesday-april?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=463409&post_id=195033287&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=18j5wi&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
I love the descriptions of the SPLC's bank accounts as "a leprechaun's hoard" and "morbidly obese."
Jeff Childers is a great writer and really funny guy. I love the Happy Warriors. His goal is just to get the truth out and he loves to skewer and mock the powers that be. His Substack is the first thing I read every morning. Mike Rowe just did a great interview with him.
He is!
This is really well done!
The NYT is one of his favorite punching bags. Well deserved, of course.
That was great. Coffee & Covid goes to the top of the inbox and The Way I Heard It gets listened to first when it’s released.
He’s my dose of sanity in the morning.
I wasn't aware of Childers, just finished reading some of his stuff. Thanks for the recommendation.
He's a little too Trump happy, but yes the substance is typically excellent.
That’s when my wallet is still in my pants pocket when I throw them in the wash!
The Feds have them dead to rights. Conspiracy, money laundering, wire fraud. That’s one big uncontestable paper trail. The best part is the Feds freezing their $800 million. It’s hilarious.
That’s why the left is screaming “The Feds have informants, too!!!” As if the SPLC morons have badges and guns.
https://theonion.com/klan-rally-70-percent-undercover-reporters-1819566475/
The entire management of that organization needs to be in jail.
When I worked for a trading firm, our commitment to following the rules was non negotiable. When I see malfeasance at any financial organization, I can only assume it’s intentional because of all of the internal checks and balances that exist.
As a lawyer who has actually handled money laundering litigation, yup.
.....and speaking of SPLC antics, doesn't anyone in/on this forum remember Morris Dees?
ronnie mentioned him yesterday
Yeah,money laundering laws will getcha if someone is serious about it. All you need is to create a system that masks the real source or destination of money. It's just that simple.
On the subject of Americans of certain social standing being fascinated by Europe the way ravens are fascinated by Bright Shiny Objects:
It is way older than 100 years!!!
Class, I am going to use a pitch pipe to give you the proper pitch, and then we will all sing, very respectfully, "Yankee Doodle."
Yankee Doodle went to town,
A-riding on a pony;
He stuck a feather in his cap,
And called it Macaroni.
OK, Class, that's enough!
The backstory of "Yankee Doodle" is, a non-rich Colonial American is parody-ing a rich young man who has just come back from his Grand Tour of Europe, which was a "Coming-of-Age" ritual for Tory-ish young people whose parents were the kind of people who would not be pleased by the American Revolution.
It might be an Historical Legend, but supposedly, when young rich people came back from their Grand Tours, all they could talk about was how wonderful Italian cuisine was--especially, the Maccherone--Macaroni. So, skeptics called the young rich kids "Macaronis."
Accessorizing one's outfit is something a Macaroni would do.
OK?
I've never understood just who gave the SPLC its moral authority to be the exclusive definer of who is and who isn't a hate group. Why is the Klan a hate group but not the Black Panthers? The Aryan Nations but not La Raza?
The oppressor/oppressed matrix. Just like POC can never be racists.
the federal government considered the Black Panthers of the 1960s a hate group, and if I am not mistaken, the ADL, SPLC (irony!), and the US Commission on Civil Rights considers the New Black Panther Party a hate group.