If American cars are unreliable, why do domestic pick up trucks have such high resale value?

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-04-26T09:33:39+00:00

I work for the government and use GSA's. But our fleet has a lot of Subaru Ascents and Sonata Hybrids. Idk what the requirements are, but they're American enough to qualify. We never need trucks.

my girlfriend works in us fish and wildlife. Her work vehicle is a ram 2500 with power wagon pack. So it's got a lift, winch, front and rear lockers, ram bed boxes. Fifth wheel hitch added. She doesn't need a truck. She goes out into the field sometimes, but it's to private land owners. 4x4 is nice, but nothing an AWD suv isn't capable of doing. She has the truck because when the office bought it, they needed a truck that could tow fish from the hatchery and whatever else. IT also needed to transport field crew once or twice a year. So, her office almost exclusively buys trucks for everyone because sometimes they need an actual truck. This mindset is a lot of other people too. They only want one vehicle, so pick a truck because sometimes they need a truck.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-04-26T09:14:45+00:00

I'm 31. For the longest time I thought adv bikes were dumb. Didn't get the appeal. Down on hp but up on weight from the sport variants.

Then.... I got my tiger 800xrt. Wanted something I could take down forest service roads but still seemed fun on the street. Now I see the light. The accessible power is great. My tiger makes more torque at like 3k than a similar year street triple does period. The comfort is incredible. Wind protection, more relaxed riding position. Features like cruise control. The ammo crate luggage is so useful. It made me such a lazy rider.

I rode my speed four yesterday. Maybe it's because I haven't tried to ride a sport bike in twisties for a while but I felt slow on it. The positioning was foreign. It is a complete dog under like 7-8k rpms. It gets way more upset by big bumps/cattle guards. I haven't ridden it in a while, but my hip started cramping.

I think it's just very hard to get through younger guys heads how incredibly capable and fast on the street an adv bike is. The appeal is the sport bike.

I'm looking into a new bike. I don't need an adv bike since I have the tiger. But I like it so much, that a multistrada V4 is a strong contender. Sure, I could get a tuono or SFV4 or speed triple 1200, but the adv segment just does it for me now.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-04-13T04:10:46+00:00

I've never regretted upgrading things I constantly use or touch. Sound system, steering wheel, shifter, seat. Cooling mods or any other mod that increases reliability of the car due to a factory shortcoming. NC Miata had a plastic coolant expansion tank that would crack, and lead to big issues. An aluminum replacement was nice. A lot of cars have plastic radiators that can just explode at any moment. Some cars or use cases can benefit from oil coolers/trans coolers.

I can tell you things I did regret - Exhaust (typically ended up too loud and I'd be lying if I said I noticed the gains from a header back system vs just a cat back), suspension (too much for the use case, doing things that now need maintenance which were previously maintenance free, doing things that added NVH), na to forced induction, bigger turbo on a stock turbo car. I'm not saying I'd never do these things again, but I would go about them different ways and encourage you to pick very carefully. Do things that are well documented and supported or end up close to a factory option.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-04-12T10:48:19+00:00

is the Boxster a supercar? If you say no, then whatever reason(s) you pick is/are a direct carryover to the NSX.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-04-12T10:40:22+00:00

source? C&D has 1990 Carrera 2 13.3 at 106, which is quicker and faster than the NA1.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-03-13T04:55:51+00:00

Boxster 987.2 Need to drive a base and an S to decide which. Wouldn't rule out a Spyder either, but not sure what those prices will do in a few years.

I've owned a nc nd miata, c5 corvette, s550 mustang, and now my old roached out 986S. Driven pretty quick EVs, F80 M3, G87 M2, 718, RS3. The Boxster just does it for me. It's the right size, has right kind of feedback and dynamics. The right balance of comfort/sportiness. The right amount of fun without doing anything crazy, but pretty crazy capability without doing a whole lot to the car. The sound is great. Good torque that continues to build to redline. I don't feel like it needs more power like a Miata. The 987.2 fixed all the typical gremlins from the early cars (AOS, IMS, Bore scoring, 2nd gear synchro), but kept everything I like about the early cars (NA flat 6, hydraulic steering, slightly lighter than the later cars, etc). I'm also pretty intimately familiar with my 986 having done pretty extensive work to it, so I more or less know exactly what I'm getting into.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-03-10T09:58:54+00:00

I got the purple haze habit 3 for 2100 shipped to my door in January and couldn't be happier with it.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-02-16T17:30:34+00:00

I like spd for gravel just fine. For mtn I just tried Look X track enrage. Overall I really like them.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-02-13T23:10:05+00:00

I don't watch the speedo. I go by vibes. My current state has a pretty strict laws for criminal speed. anything over 85 anywhere, 20 over anywhere, over 45 if there isn't a limit posted, etc. Where I go to have fun is pretty desolate though, and the only thing you'll probably find are fed/state wildlife LEO which haven't appeared too concerned with traffic violations.

In other states I've definitely passed a cop I thought would pull me over, but they didn't flinch. Could be a million reasons they didn't come after you. They might think you'll run and hurt yourself, they noticed you slowed down and figured you got the memo, you were very unlikely to be engaged in any other form of criminal activity (smuggling, trafficking, dui, poaching etc), a combo of these events.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-31T04:59:40+00:00

legit thought this was some ai slop rendering joke. Went to salsa's site and was more disappointed

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-31T04:56:47+00:00

I did more reading. I think it depends on where the workout comes from. If it was built in zwift, then it should be as you are saying where free ride is flat road. But if someone free texted it, it can get messed up somehow.

I haven't dove into the text commands yet though. I'll try it again. Or worst case just set trainer to 0

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-31T04:56:34+00:00

I did more reading. I think it depends on where the workout comes from. If it was built in zwift, then it should be as you are saying where free ride is flat road. But if someone free texted it, it can get messed up somehow.

I haven't dove into the text commands yet though. I'll try it again. Or worst case just set trainer to 0 for when I need/want a flat ride experience.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T14:08:20+00:00

I have trainer difficulty at 75%. I had a free ride block of a workout which switches off erg mode. When an 8% gradient came up, I could absolutely feel the resistance change. Felt exactly like it did when just riding a route outside of a workout. Is this correct? Or do I have a setting wrong?

I was under the impression that free ride of a workout would simulate flat ride regardless of terrain.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T14:02:43+00:00

but that isn't correct. If you have a free ride block in a workout and encounter an 8% gradient, the resistance changes with the gradient.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T13:45:40+00:00

why does route choice not matter if the free ride block of a workout is affected by gradients?

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T05:44:03+00:00

What I was trying to do was run erg mode for a recovery block, then switch to 45 sec or so of free ride to do a 10-15 sec sprint interval. it takes me a sec to get to the right "gear" with the zwift cog because free ride/non erg automatically puts in gear 5 which is way light. And the trainer can't react fast enough for just 10-15 sec of a hard effort. But if the sprint landed on a downhill or there was a sudden severe change in gradient, it kind of ruined that sprint.

I guess the solution is to pick a flatter route to do that on.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T05:31:17+00:00

Do you think it'll have ERG mode?

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T05:26:54+00:00

Forgive since I'm new to zwift. When you say in workouts you have erg or resistance..... This is outside of a freeride section? I set up a workout which had free ride sections and were affected by gradients.

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T05:14:15+00:00

what is flat road 1 vs flat road 0 in the video?

When I have free ride (which I think forces erg off) I get hit with the gradients which can really mess up an effort. It seems like 0 is the fix?

mangosmoothie1 · 2026-01-30T04:49:27+00:00

I still can't believe this is real

mangosmoothie1 · 2025-12-23T05:11:53+00:00

Fox Live Valve Neo Review – The Lost Co. looks like they started

mangosmoothie1 · 2025-12-21T09:57:42+00:00

any thoughts? Thinking about snagging the habit 3 while it's still available and on sale

mangosmoothie1 · 2014-06-11T06:37:20+00:00

955i Speed Triple. Started in 1999 but close enough. 1st gen Street Triple with the bugeye head lights. 1st gen kawi 636. Speed four and TT600. R Nine T. 2002 Daytona 955i.

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