Most people might own one or two cars, while some people may own a few or more. There are some car journalists out there who don’t even own a single car! The Autopian doesn’t seem to have this problem, as we own a crazy number of cars.
David Tracy has announced that he’s buying yet another Jeep. This is after a summer where he attempted to bring his fleet size down. I bought two cars this year, too. As it turns out, we’re all pretty bad at sticking to our plans. Hoonicus wins COTD today with:
Proving once again that The Autopian is a support group for the clinically, if not criminally insane.
StillNotATony:
DAVID RUSTOVIOUS TRACY!!! WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT THIS!!! At length!!! Cars go OUT, more cars DO NOT COME IN.
Sweet fancy Moses…
Jason wrote a Cold Start about old Lotus brochures, and gee, they were weird. Collegiate Autodidact:
Dang, that picture of the Elan with that person emerging from the obsidian cave is actually pretty creepy. Reminiscent of the Japanese horror film The Ring.
Ad director: Did you get those pictures of the Elan at the ‘Ring?
Photographer: Sure did, boss, real fuckin creepy with the Ring just like you asked
Ad director: What
Jason wrote about why some gas pumps seem to suggest that pumping fewer than four gallons into a car can “violate” federal law. Superfluous:
Only have a one gallon can? Not a problem, just pump the other 3 gallons into the gas station garbage can. Problem solved #lifehacks
Doughnaut:
Why waste? Use that 3 gallons for a gasoline fight.
Have a great evening, everyone!
(Top graphic: Jeep)
I have some 15,000 diecast cars. Does that count?
I disagree with the statement “No such thing as owning too many cars.” I doubt that there is one person that reads the Autopian who has looked at a huge car collection and not felt sorry for the cars that will never be driven. Proof that the person owns too many cars.
Counterpoint, Jay Leno. He is kind of an exception though.
Golly gee, thank you for one of today’s COTDs! What a pleasant surprise to get while drinking my morning coffee!!
Hadn’t been sure how many, if indeed any, would get my riff on the sexy Elliott Gould & Grover meme with the apostrophe’d nickname for the Nürburgring & the reference to a nearly 30-year-old foreign horror film despite those two being so iconic within their subcultures (& even at large, especially with the latter) so this just goes to show how Autopian readers are a pretty exceptional bunch 🙂
I sold the bugeye WRX earlier this year, and did not replace it with anything. I’ve been down to 3 cars since April and actually don’t mind. Much easier to juggle with my garage and small driveway, with no real street parking.
That said, I really considered a nice X1/9 in an auction yesterday.
I can appreciate your life choices – go live your wedge dream!
My goal for this year was also to not add any more cars to the fleet, but that has not gone as planned, and I ended up buying 2 and trading 1 for a worse car.
It’s funny how the individual writers have fleets, but the organization itself refuses to be hoarders. Wanna buy a cab?
“David Rustovious Tracy” is Comment of the Year!
I was using my best Dad voice to type that out, too.
Sigh…
Edit: it’s fine. I’m not mad.
Just disappointed.
Tanks! (don’t start collecting them now, unless it’s got gold bars in the fuel cells)
https://share.google/21Dw48XlrIWYLBUZ6
I want to add another vehicle to the fleet, but I am already having problems keeping the battery in my Subbie charged. And I only have 3 cars. If I was smart, I’d pare it down to just 2 cars and call it a day, but that ain’t happening. And even on my most heavily driven vehicle, I’m only putting on around 6000 miles per year.
The trick is to add motorcycles to the mix. Trust me. (Do not trust me.)
— pats parking area — “you can fit so many motorcycles into this space”
Used to own a motorcycle. Man, I miss it. But NOPE, NOPE, NOPE. Never getting another one again. Drivers are so terrible, especially since the Covid shutdowns, I would never trust getting a motorcycle again.
So instead I have switched to ebikes.
Easy, get a bunch of manuals and always park them on a hill. Or get 27 kick start motorcycles. Ooh how about a 90’s, Lada Niva with a hand crank.
The Subbie is manual. But no hills to be found. Pretty flat around here. Luckily I had a few extension cords so last night I strung them together long enough to reach the Subbie and had it sitting on a trickle charger for a couple of hours. Got it going. Went for a 20 min drive which hopefully was long enough to charge up the battery.
Honda EU generator and RIZK wheeled charger.
The charger is actually heavier and harder to move, but this combination has been useful more than I expected.
No worry about stressing a car vainly trying to charge a battery.
Oh damn, you go all out! I got one of those $100 jumpers that is the size of an old walkman, but I rather trickle-charge it slowly than jump it unless it absolutely need to. I got it going and now its a lot closer to the garage so I can hook up a trickle charger to it.
It’s almost always better to charge slowly when you can, but some batteries need more power to get activated again.
I’ve never used the high setting on the charger, and the second setting only for boost cranking.
The first setting might draw more, but usually applies 20 amps until tapering down to little or nothing as the battery charges.
Trying to apply enough power to start, especially on a diesel or high compression engine can be a hard thing.
Hooked up a commercial truck to jump my truck and the connections started smoking quickly.
I don’t have the generator just for the charger, but it sure is handy.
When my starter completely failed, not at home, I was able to eliminate batteries as a problem before I towed it by charging onsite.
They would have let me run cords, but it was problematic.
Good chargers really are quite rare, batteries too.
Rizk Natl, not currently produced
https://www.centurytool.net/CH110_Rizk_100_80_550_Amp_6_12_Volt_Automotive_Bat_p/rizch110.htm
I can commiserate. A bunch of projects showed up for the winter. Old RC glider to repower from glow to electric, old supercharged jet ski to bring up to snuff and trailer for said ski to refurbish for highway use. Most of that needs a shop press to make life easier, which means cleaning out that corner of the garage. Why did I do this to myself?
Cause it beats the hell out of looking back on winter in the spring and thinking “I guess I, uh, got caught up on TikTok?”
Excellent point! Staying off social media these days is wise.