SoonerLS

On my morning commute, my exit is a lane that turns into an off ramp, so it's usually moving at highways speeds until it actually diverges from the highway itself. It never ceases to amaze me how many people will come screaming up in the lane next to it, then expect me to slow down so they can get in front of me, when there was literally a quarter mile of empty lane behind me THAT THEY JUST WENT SCREAMING PAST. Year, sorry buddy, but poor planning on your part does not constitute emergency on my part.

Years ago, when Progressive still had the BOF Explorers with PROGRESSIVE written across the side, my old boss was coming out of the bank when he saw a wreck like that. He said the Progressive truck was stopped, the last vehicle in line at a red light, when this woman just plows right into it from behind. Her car submarined under the rear of the Explorer, lifting its rear tires completely off the ground, and drove it into the rear end of the car in front of it. The guy driving the car in front gets out, but from his vantage point, he can't see the car that caused the whole mess. He starts going on about the wreck loudly enough that my boss can clearly hear him from the entrance of the bank, then he sees the Progressive name on the Explorer and says, "well, at least you've got insurance!"

That's why I usually keep the fogs lit on my truck, but it's amazing how many people can't figure it out and flash me anyway. It's worse when I'm towing heavy; I have a Roadmaster Active Suspension setup on my rear suspension, and that helps keep the rear from squatting as much as the stock springs, but she still squats some when the trailer is heavy.

Around here, you can't go on green or you're going to intersect with someone who once saw a left turn signal be green. And it's not like the light was yellow while they were entering the intersection to make that left turn--the light had been red long enough for the oncoming traffic's light to be solidly green. God forbid that you try to stop on a stale yellow or even a fresh red, because you might end up with an extra vehicle as a passenger... I grew up in a college town, so I thought I'd seen some shady driving; turns out those college kids weren't a stitch on these loons.

I have many stories that confirm why I don't trust turn signals, but my favorite was when I saw a half-ton truck hauling a 16' utility trailer signal for a left turn, move into the left turn lane, then cut across two lanes of traffic, making a right turn. I'm pretty sure the folks who were coming down that highway off ramp were surprised to see him coming up it...

What’s that old saying? “Never confuse motion with progress.”

Although we're not technically energy independent, we are a net exporter, at least as of the last numbers published.

The hydrogen tanks are, as I understand it, usually made of composites (IIRC, there are/were some fuel cell vehicles which use(d) exchangeable cells to speed up refueling), so I wouldn’t expect them to be particularly heavy. Lithium-based batteries sized for vehicles are usually quite heavy, so I’d expect a fuel cell vehicle to have a significant weight advantage.

Based on the number of "M" BMWs is see, and how few of them are coupes, or even conventional sedans, I'd guess that the luxury/performance coupe is going to be a vanishingly small market. And that's a shame.

Bartlesville isn't even in the same ZIP code as nowhere--that's out in west Texas, somewhere between Seymour and Ralls. I'm pretty sure the directions to get there are "go to the end of the Earth and hang a left."

Does it help that they died in the same plane crash, and one of them was the pilot?

Well, come on down. We gots roads (some of 'em are even paved) and gas stations and a city with two airports named after guys who died in a plane crash. We're even getting the Intarwebz next week.

Yep. Even when my work phone was an iPhone, my personal phones were Windows phones. They were sooo much better than iPhone or Android that it wasn't even funny.

The last numbers I heard put the iPhone at about 60% of the US cell phone market. That’s a pretty good chunk of the market, but I don’t think I’d call it dominant.

Hell, the gov't is still trying to continue the lawsuit to stop Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard after the court told them no, that's stupid, you can't do that, and let the acquisition go forward.

Fill my eyes with that double vision...

If you're just looking at the EB35, I would be surprised if the versions from the trucks weren't the majority. As I recall, for the 12th Gen F-150, the EB35 ran somewhere around 40-45% of production, with the Coyote having similar numbers and the 3.7 and 6.2 splitting the remaining 10%. That would put the number of RWD EB35s somewhere in the neighborhood of 250K units per year from 2011-2014. Plus, when Navigator and Expedition merged onto the F-150 platform, they went 100% EB35. (When Ford introduced the small EB to the F-150 lineup, the EB35's percentage went down a bit, but we're still talking more engines than some of the transverse models sold combined.) The transverse EB35 was used in more models, for sure, but how many of them actually got delivered with an EB35 vs. the NA V6? It's not an insignificant number, but it can't be anywhere near the F-150's numbers just because you can combine the total sales of some of those FWD/AWD models and not reach 250K. Now, if you want to talk the NA V6es, I'd wager that the transverse versions would win that by a country mile. Further, I would not be surprised if the margin was big enough to more than cover the RWD EB35's margin when you combine the 3.3/3.5/3.7 V6es with the EB35.

Replacing the axle assemblies with failed/failing CV joints is normal; the CV joint itself is usually not field-replaceable. FWIW, the only CV joint-related reason you'd replace both front axle assemblies is if you had bad CV joints on both; they're independent parts.

I wouldn't go quite that far; I like having it, but I don't think I've ever used the keypad on the Flex. All I have to do is pull the handle to unlock or touch the pad on the handle to lock, so I don't really have a use for the keypad. My truck doesn't even have one; I could buy the door handle surround with the keypad and pair it like any other remote, but the juice isn't worth the squeeze to me.

I don't think his point is to match the fine to the depth of the pockets, it's just to make sure the fine is more than the profit they realized from the cheating. That doesn't mean that you take it as a percentage of the over-all business's profits, just the profits on that program--it's possible, and even likely, that the fine could make that particular engine program a money loser without affecting the position of Cummins as a whole.

That's kind of impossible. It's right there in the First Amendment: That is, basically, lobbying.

Farmers aren’t using regular diesel, they’re using “off-road” diesel, which has no taxes applied, so it’s $0.30 or more cheaper than the diesel you buy at the “regular” diesel pump. (It’s also dyed red, so if the revenuers put their stick in your diesel truck’s tank and it comes out red, you’re in deep doo-doo.) Personally, I don’t see much future for gaseous engines in ag. We went down that road with propane from the ‘50s to ‘80s, and diesel curb-stomped all the other fuel types.

Yeah, no, they didn't. I see a LOT more PIUs than Dodge SUVs wearing law enforcement livery, and a lot more PIUs than Chargers, too.

And agriculture--I don't know if anyone is even making gasoline-powered tractors these days, not even in the compact or utility tractor lines. There's just no comparison between the burn rates of diesel and gasser tractors while they're working.