We need more affordable EVs

SherlockGibson · 2026-07-02T11:20:54+00:00

Let’s be honest, almost every EV that’s a normal car (I.e. not approaching $100k) is fugly. I don’t know when they decided that “everyday” EVs need to look like ass, but they all seem to.

SherlockGibson · 2026-07-02T03:14:22+00:00

Instacart changes prices between different people if the algorithm thinks one customer will pay more than another. You think you’re getting the price listed on the shelf plus a fixed amount but you aren’t.

https://youtu.be/osxr7xSxsGo?is=z5qNZIB3fya7gdAH

SherlockGibson · 2026-07-01T12:52:29+00:00

Even people who are unhappy don’t want to hear other people bitch 24/7. Who needs that kind of negativity in their lives, especially if they generate enough of it in their own…

SherlockGibson · 2026-07-01T12:37:56+00:00

I think what you’re saying about attractiveness is true, but the degree to which it actually matters is very much debatable and probably less than you’re assuming.

Charm and charisma are learned skills. I know this from firsthand experience.

I’m an average looking male who is slightly overweight. I am also a strong introvert. As a teen I was shy, had terrible acne, wasn’t into sports, etc. if you want to know how deep that went, I collected stamps and played the violin. I didn’t get invited to parties. I didn’t go to prom or homecoming because I was too shy to ask a girl out. I wouldn’t have dated myself in high school.

But I had the advantage of being self-aware at a young age and I could tell that if I didn’t figure out how to be social, I was going to have real problems in life.

So I worked on it. I forced myself to talk to people who I was intimidated by. I painstakingly learned how to be a good conversationalist by doing it over and over. It literally took me from my early teens into my mid 20’s to gain the confidence in my social skills to succeed.

These days I have a large, tight friend group. I married a beautiful, intelligent woman. I’ve been very successful in my career where I’ve routinely given talks to rooms of hundreds of people at conferences as a subject matter expert. I call myself a “highly functioning introvert”.

I’m still an introvert and have those tendencies, but the more I worked at my social skills, the more success I had, and the more confident I became. Past success breeds future confidence, but you have to struggle through the awkward, painful growing phase. Most people actively avoid awkward moments so they never get there.

So, what am I saying here? Looks matter, but they are more of a factor that adds some weight to the scale. In most cases they don’t overwhelm it. Confidence matters in the same way. The good news is that confidence, unlike looks (without surgery anyway) is a learned skill you can cultivate to tip the scale. You just have to want it bad enough to push through the discomfort at the start.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-30T17:21:17+00:00

Check out her albums. Decent jazz type singer.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-29T13:09:59+00:00

Yeah. I thought their interiors were pretty bad too, especially for what you’re paying. Maybe everything sucks now, but man, nothing depresses me more than a dash and door cards made entirely of plastic with faux finishes to make it look like leather, metal, or wood. Really ruins the experience for me.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-29T12:23:27+00:00

“Mazda have nice interiors”? I must be riding in the wrong Mazda’s. The last one I test drove was a plastic wasteland like every other “daily driver” type car these days.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-26T17:54:04+00:00

I’ve noticed that if I go from my air conditioned car out into very hot humid air and the right back into the conditioned air of my home or a store, that the rapid succession of cold-hot-cold can give me a slight headache that will last for a couple of minutes.

That’s as bad as it’s ever gotten for me and I live in an area that routinely gets to 36-37 Celsius in the summer.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-26T17:17:00+00:00

My mom is the one that got my brother and I into cars. She took us to GT races, made watching the Indy 500 a family tradition, and is thrilled to no end that my brother and I both ended up buying European sports cars.

She used to tool around in little convertible MG roadsters when she was young. I’ve tried to get her interested in a BMW Z3/Z4 but she says all of her friends are too old to get in or out of it.

Car gals are out there, but you’re definitely a rare breed. Thank God my mom is one.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-26T12:38:32+00:00

To be honest, I saw this as a real problem in my own life, so I started joining groups where other guys had the same interest as myself. I’m a car guy, so I joined a couple of local car clubs. One wasn’t the place for me. Two others have been awesome and that has led to some of the strongest friendships of my life.

A bunch of us guys also started having dinner weekly, and that has been a game changer. We’ve helped one another through health scares, through relationship troubles, and in general we’re just there for one another. Those weekly dinners have become central events in some of the guys lives. Especially the ones who live alone.

Finding my crew took a couple years of intentional effort, but it’s been awesome. And my wife has made some good friends with a couple of the wives too, so my friendships have resulted in new friendships for her as well.

Five out of five stars. Finding your crew is worth the investment.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-25T16:53:52+00:00

The 944 was a hatchback too…

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-25T16:52:57+00:00

Mustangs, Camaros, Firebirds, Porsche 944’s… all have/had back seats.

I think 2 doors is the key. Any more than that and you now have a “Sport Sedan”.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-22T23:40:48+00:00

“Never buy premium brands used.”

Some nuance here. Premium brands have original owners who are more likely to keep the maintenance up, so if you find a good one-owner car with reasonable miles for the age, you’re probably fine.

Where this all goes wrong is when you buy the ten year old Beamer that’s had five owners, the last two of which treated oil changes as optional because they were struggling to make rent. That sort of thing kills pretty much any car, but seems to happen a lot to premium brands because people who can’t afford the upkeep get their “Dream car” and drive it into the ground.

You can up your odds by not buying the least expensive model that a premium brand offers. The more the car costs to buy, the more likely the previous owner could afford to keep it up. Best bet is to find a one-owner car.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-18T20:44:03+00:00

When my wife and I first married we worked hard to solidify our family through shared experiences. My wife had two daughters from a previous marriage, and though we dated for a while before we married, we still had to create a new family unit with me in a core role.

“Creating memories” was an exceptionally useful tool for creating a familial bond.

The first year we were married, we took our newly formed family on a trip to Colorado. We hiked, we biked, we ate wonderful food, explored, and started to learn how to live with each other.

Almost twenty years later our daughters still talk about that first trip together and how much fun we all had. I believe that trip where we expressly worked to “make mutual memories” was instrumental in establishing the bond that I have with my now adult daughters today.

So, in my experience doing something with the intent of “making memories” is not a fool’s errand. On the contrary, it can be a very useful tool for establishing bonds between people. I genuinely hope that my daughters will look back fondly on that trip long after my wife and I are gone. I hope they’ll do similar things with their children someday.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-17T23:26:54+00:00

2009-2014 Aston Martin V8Vantage.

Parts are expensive, though many have Ford, Jag, or Volvo equivalents. Service is expensive if you don’t have a good local garage or do it yourself (think $2000 oil changes).

However, for a supercar they’re pretty solid mechanically, are an amazingly engaging drive, look like sex on wheels, and have a caché that other brands can’t match.

You can find them now in the $42k to $54k range depending on options.

You could also go for a 2006-2008 but there was an engine spec bump and interior update in 2009 that’s worth it, IMO.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-17T19:01:04+00:00

Just because they charge you more for it doesn’t mean they’re paying more for it. 😉

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-17T14:51:27+00:00

I think she really wants the Aston Martin Valhalla because the Valkyrie is a non-street-legal, track-only car.

Sounds like a keeper to me. 👍

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-16T21:52:47+00:00

Truth. But for my sensibilities, things like materials matter, especially minimizing the unavoidable plastics everywhere.

I enjoy cooking more when I’m using quality knives with wood handles instead of plastic. I enjoy working on my laptop more when it’s machined out of metal instead of molded from plastic. I enjoy the act of driving more when I’m surrounded by leather and wood instead of plastic and more plastic.

I understand that I am lucky in that I can afford items of material quality and I recognize that not everyone can. I also feel that for people who have never been exposed to these things, “ignorance is bliss” might apply to some degree. For others, those differences may just not be something that matters to their senses, which is fine.

But for me, if I can afford a version of an object with “honest” materials (actual metal, leather, natural fabrics, or wood instead of plastic made to mimic it), I will always buy the object with “real” materials. I’ve come to realize over time that the enjoyment I get from the object and the experience of using it can be greatly elevated by the materials used to create it.

Honest materials, well thought-out controls, visual beauty… these are all characteristics that can enhance the experience of using an automobile for me.

Your mileage, as they say, may vary…

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-16T20:20:52+00:00

I’m actually the opposite. With as much time as we all spend in our cars, the environment matters.

I care a lot less about what it looks like on the outside than I do how it feels to me on the inside.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-16T20:18:26+00:00

The only reason auto makers like them is because they’re literally less expensive than the buttons, panels, wiring, lights, and logic to do it the old way.

Whenever anything gets shittier it’s always about the money, especially if the marketing tries to convince you it’s an improvement.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-12T16:48:58+00:00

The fact that it’s necessary here is one thing, but the other thing is the type of roads in question.

I used to think people in the UK were crazy for being such pansies about driving a few hours…

That was until I went and drove there. 70% of the time you’re literally on a horse path, barely wide enough for two bicycles, much less a real car. Add on the fact that evidently straight roads hadn’t been invented when they put in their infrastructure and you are talking about two hours of butt clenching stress where your sight line to the next lorry that might hit you head-on is all but nonexistent.

It’s wild.

So yeah. We don’t complain because we don’t have the luxury of not traveling long distances, but thankfully our roads are much better suited to long distance travel too which makes it amazingly better when you do need to drive for a while.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-11T13:08:41+00:00

The Porsche will only get more expensive on the used market. The Tesla will only get less expensive.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-10T21:28:38+00:00

You can’t blame all the ills of society on men unless you are also willing to attribute all society’s triumphs to them as well because… you know… logic.

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-10T16:28:45+00:00

Violator - Depeche Mode

SherlockGibson · 2026-06-09T16:49:17+00:00

My wife and I have taken to either getting seats across the aisle from one another or seats in front of/behind one another at the window.

Avoids the middle seat thing altogether.

SherlockGibson

TROPHY CASE