Kids today love those damn listicles. For you old people out there–the kind who walk into a place to ask for directions, then argue with the locals that they can’t possibly be right–a listicle is like an article but in list form. It combines our modern obsession with short-attention-span, soundbite media with our natural proclivity to place things in order. …
I actually enjoyed the Automatic NC Miata I rented.
It blipped the throttle on downshifts, had 6-speeds like the manual and I could cruise along without issue on the highways and brake stand it a bit off the lines when I wanted to make the merge.
I suspect the ND would be much the same, just more.
JG Pasterjak said:
3. An Italian Car: Sadly, many of the things that make Italian cars cool also make them stupid, stupid choices given any rational consideration.8. Looks Can Be Deceiving: You know what looks exactly the same as room-temperature steel? Steel that’s 700 degrees.
3. Wistful Duke is looking at Giulia Tis to replace the aging 2004 TSX in a few years. Adult Duke is happy that we have 2 or 3 years to see just how bad an idea that would be before Wistful Duke whips out the checkbook.
8. High school chemistry teacher successfully beat that lesson into my head, except with lab glassware rather than miscellaneous steel stock.
Stefan said:I actually enjoyed the Automatic NC Miata I rented.
C/D or R&T, I forget which, came right out in print and said that the automatic NC was every bit as much fun to drive as the manual version, for all non-competition driving.
9. A Car I Don’t Really Care About: This is a wonderful, liberating thing! About 10 years ago, I had a 1986 200SX coupe. It was bone stock, ran well, near mint interior, absolutely 100% worn out shocks and the air condition worked. Bought it for $600 and drove it (often very sideways) for a full year without more then an oil changes every now and then. It drifted really well on a big gravel parking lot close to my house (and later, when the tires were bald, it drifted pretty much everywhere). I would let friends borrow it if they needed and I never washed it. I finally gave it to a friend who were in some financial trouble and she drove it from NC to Ohio without a glitch.
Best car I ever had - never gave a E36 M3 about it.
2x4's are actually 1.5 by 3.5" as measured. Like you, I learned that too late. :P
9. A Car I Don’t Really Care About: Dude.... this is the most liberating thing ever. Buy an old Toyota pickup... change oil some time.. maybe.
2x4s come in two different lengths, the 8 foot ones that are 96" long and the 8 foot ones that are just short enough to fit between the headers to create an 8' 0.5" finished wall. Guess how I figured that out.
Don't know why, but I've never cared for tube frame race cars. May have something to do with working on them I suppose. Cutting off and replacing a front clip, not a good time. Hanging new body panels, also not great fun. Sure they're fast, but if you ever see one at auction 30 years later, it would be almost impossible to know if you're buying the real thing. They fact they let something like a tube frame RX8 race against a production 911 still bothers me somewhat, not that I hold things in or anything. 
And everyone needs at least one Italian car in their lifetime, just do it! Years ago I had 8 at one time, a mixture of Alfas and Fiats. My favorite was a '61 Fiat 600D. You need to do a 600 based Abarth project car for Classic!
8. Looks Can Be Deceiving: You know what looks exactly the same as room-temperature steel? Steel that’s 700 degrees.
I was at a prospects location once where their business was producing aluminum billets. The president of the company went out of his way to warn me not to touch anything in the plant as hot aluminum looks the same as cold. I'm sure I had that "well duh" face on when he told me that (I worked in aerospace for a decade) but it now occurs to me that many sales droids may not know that.
9. A Car I Don’t Really Care About: Not to be callus or anything, but I just want to experience the freedom of zero expectations. Everything I’ve ever owned–even the stuff that was true crap (cough Mitsubishi Mirage Turbo cough)–I’ve cared about at least inasmuch as I wanted to preserve it enough to get some value back out of it at some point.
But I think it would be remarkably liberating to have a car I’m willing to walk away from at some point with no guilt. Flat tire? Leave it at the side of the road. Bad fuel pump? Roll it into a ravine full of mutants. Needs ball joints? Trebuchet.
I have this problem too. I bought a "winter beater" and now I insist on fixing every stupid little rattle or broken fastener on the thing despite stating all I care about is that it doesn't kill me. Mechanical empathy or I'm too cheap to just let a vehicle just go to scrap when some minor work would net me at least some return on the purchase. One of the two.
"Pickups are a portable hole into which you can throw all your dreams and all your hopes and take them with you on an adventure."
I'm now using this as my signature on an overlanding forum.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
I love the tube frame stuff too! My favorite is Group 44’s Jaguar. The sound of that V12 is magic.
Ball joints—>trebuchet, that made me lol!
ultraclyde said:"Pickups are a portable hole into which you can throw all your dreams and all your hopes and take them with you on an adventure."
I'm now using this as my signature on an overlanding forum.
This should be available on a t-shirt.
paranoid_android said:Ball joints—>trebuchet, that made me lol!
I thought that was tied into Italian car ownership, especially the Fiat 124 since they had a rash of balljoint failures.
The car you don't care about-
I owned a 1995 Taurus. I paid 100$ to own it. That may have been generous. It regularly leaked oil onto the exhaust manifold, and attempted to start on fire. I once was so sure it was going to start on fire, I took the title with me, intent on giving a fully engulfed ford Taurus away as a white elephant gift. God I miss that car. I did in fact stop driving it because of a flat tire. I traded it for the world's rustiest cherokee, that I never had the title for, and crushed it for 250$. Made a great storage shed. I shoulda kept the waffle wheels.
Fueled by Caffeine said:9. A Car I Don’t Really Care About: Dude.... this is the most liberating thing ever. Buy an old Toyota pickup... change oil some time.. maybe.
The wife's last 2 cars. Drive them. Occasionally look at the oil. Put tires on them. Eventally rebuild the suspension because bajillion miles. when done, sell for a grand and move on.
DeadSkunk said:2x4s come in two different lengths, the 8 foot ones that are 96" long and the 8 foot ones that are just short enough to fit between the headers to create an 8' 0.5" finished wall. Guess how I figured that out.
8' 2x4's are rarely 96". They are AT LEAST 96", but usually about 96 3/4". They vary from 96" to 97".
The ones to build a wall are not usually referred to as 8'. They are called "precuts", meaning they are precut accurately to length. 8' precuts (to build an 8' tall wall) are 92 5/8". 9' precuts (to build a 9' tall wall) are 104 5/8".
The reason for the inaccuracy in length of 8' lumber is the speed in which they are cut at the lumber mill. They are cut by gang saws, moving very rapidly. The goal is to give you at least 8', but not waste time measuring accurately. If you're gonna build something, the assumption is you have a saw and a ruler and know how to use them. 
JG Pasterjak said:
5. A Pickup Truck:
9. A Car I Don’t Really Care About:
I had a mid 80's full-size GMC that I got cheap. Burned oil like I was spraying for mosquitos. Took it to the dump one day with SWMBO and wound up with a flat. Didn't have the OEM jack in it, but had a bottle jack that wouldn't fit under the frame. Dug a hole just deep enough to get the jack under it and then it wouldn't lift the truck high enough to get the spare on. In disgust I asked the wife to hand me a screwdriver (to release the jack) and she asks me if we can call somebody for a ride instead of walking home! She thought I wanted the screwdriver to take off the license plate and abandon the truck...
JG,
I hate to admit it... An NA 1.8 automatic is a pretty easy car to live with and not a slug. Around town it is actually really nice.
...words I never thought I would hear myself say... :(
There is a comfort in not caring about a car, but the car still being super reliable. My previous daily driver was a '96 M-edition Miata with bad paint, worn out interior, and a bad top. I drove it for 5 years and almost never washed it. When I went to merge into traffic the nice new cars moved out of my way. After 2 years of use I had gotten my money's worth out of it. So at 5 years I could have left it on the side of the road and been money ahead.
8. Looks Can Be Deceiving: You know what looks exactly the same as room-temperature steel? Steel that’s 700 degrees.
In High School metal shop, we cast a drama mask. I left mine cooling on the grate where you knock off the sand from your mold. A few hours later, I go back and pick it up with my bare hands.
In the interim, someone else had noticed that my mask was cool, moved it elsewhere, and put theirs in the exact same spot. It was still 700 degrees. Lucky for my fingertips, I pinched it to slide it over so the damage wasn't too bad.
Never assume in a metal shop.
In reply to DeadSkunk :
96" and 92 5/8...
Hmmm. You're a "car guy", Pasternak?
You haven't owned a Miata? Yet you diss an automatic Miata for your wife. WRONG. A Miata is pretty much required for any supposed sports car guy. An automatic Miata is a very good driving car, and actually quite fun. You're bias is depriving her of a wonderful experience. Bad husband!
You haven't owned a pickup? How do you tow home car projects, engines, etc? How do you tow a race car to the track. (I actually tow mine with a giant diesel motorhome...)
No Italian cars? Again, pretty hard to take you seriously if you haven't ever had one of those beauties. But then, you probably think a Datsun F10 is a "sports car"...
Pathetic...
Thinking that sex is important. Can I have my twenties back? And all the money I spent on eau de toilette and stupid clothes. There's gotta be a challenge cars worth at least. 
A list of one. With sub lists galore.
#9 car you don't care about.
This struck a cord, If and when I stop caring about a car it gets a new owner.
In my unrealistic world the new owner will treat their new car with more respect that I would to one that I have owned for ten years. When I look at my van and think if I bought this today for what I'm selling it for, what would I do. The answer is, lots of very small details that I currently don't care about, don't care = new owner. I just can't let myself not care about a car.
I find the need to buy at least one car per year that is bound for the crusher, then fix it up while driving it. My current $400 jeep will get all fixed up then sold for little to no profit, but it will get saved from the crusher and make someone a nice car. I will only care about it until it is up to a certain standard, once I'm happy that it is reliable and will be trouble free it's time to sell. It's this reason that I can never make money selling cars, I can't just not care and push a problem on someone else.
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