Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 16hI have to thank you, because I was looking at a Cayenne Turbo EV. Optioned up correctly, it's $213,000, and at $20k down it's $2900/mo for 39 months. I was thinking that was the most, well, fuck-witted financial decision I could make. Not so much now. 060
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 15/10/2026Based on the winglet door handles I’d lean more toward iX7. The iX5 uses those identical units. 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 12/10/2026Unofficial Denzel Week starts today. Please plan accordingly and do not drive or operate heavy machinery. 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 10/10/2026I just rewatched the first season of True Detective, and the best part of a season that is generally regarded as faultless is when they shoot the Quattroporte. 130
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026iX5 M, which should hopefully be available around the time the Lightning goes back at the end of its lease. There's the R1T Quad as a last resort, but the R1T leaves me feeling cold. Sure, it does [thing], but I nurse about as much excitement for it as I do dental surgery. 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 06/10/2026If the article used the same phrase she asked the dealer — to "remove her ex from the app" — a good Service Advisor should have understood what was being asked, but likely defaulted to "can't do nothin' with apps!" and stopped processing it right there and created a shitstorm of bad publicity. 030
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 06/10/2026In either case, once the VIN gets added to the app/site, the car will be sent a 2FA code that needs to be entered into the app/site in order to establish ownership through having access to the interior and a key to power up the infotainment system. So some rando can't get your VIN through the glass. 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 06/10/2026That's my read. With iDrive 7 — so, any BMW since 2020 except the i3(?) — selecting "Factory Reset" in iDrive severs all external connections to any linked apps. With iDrive 6 and earlier, adding the VIN to your "My BMW" online account revokes any previous owners' access. 120
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I feel like there's some information missing here, because disconnecting all previously-connected BMW apps is something the dealer has done with all of our lease returns. 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 06/10/2026I try not to think that each dollar spent at Starbucks earns 1.7 points. This, please, cannot pencil out the way I think it does. 000
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026One of the downsides of going back to school at 30 was that the Honors College was full of suburban children who really thought that Mideast peace would be easy if "everyone just took the time to listen to each other." I was asked to leave the discussion because I kept snorting (derisive). 130
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026There's no visible array around the Jurassic Park screen but that doesn't mean it couldn't be real. Earlier, Buick relied a similar concept, but it used clear Mylar film - one with horizontal lines, the other vertical - that was placed over the tube. Pressing made contact between the two sheets. 020
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I think the thing I love about that version even more is it's not a touch screen - there are infrared emitters/receivers (visible as bumps) arrayed across the edges of the screen, and 'buttons' were placed in specific locations so that 'touching' them broke the beams in an X/Y coordinate. 1204
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Just an absolutely awful and tedious car with terrible ergonomics, a transmission from the Chevy Colorado with the ratios unchanged, no storage, a top that fit like a 1980s ASC conversion... ...and it was the only press car I was pulled over in, just so the cop could get a better look at it. 1161
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Volkswagen of America was absolutely swinging for the fences with Arnold as their agency from 1995 to 2005. “Drivers Wanted”? The New Beetle launch? The Jetta and Golf and Passat and Cabrio spots from 1998-2005? Bottled Lightning. VW really lost the magic after the change to CP+B. 130
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Looks like there’s an entire heat exchanger for the oil system in that lower corner: 020
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Rather than decommission any black sites, I move that we strap Yud to a chair at one, hold his eyelids open with clamps, and force him to watch the episodes “Doublemeat Palace” and “Beer Bad” until he cracks and admits that Buffy is just... meh. 011
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026No, but that's kind of a red herring since my longest drive is ~1.5 miles to get coffee in the morning and it's in the Lightning. However, I did sell the Yukon with AFM delete on 35s and 4.10s because LOL. Really showed those 6000 SUX-driving weenies what a REAL American Tradition™ was. 030
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Like I said earlier, what's the point of working hard if you can't enjoy nice things now and then? 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Otherwise, most of the time these days the side of the car is now made in a single stamping and there's still a roof seam, but it's hidden from view through visual sleight of hand, like on my old GT350. 120
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026On a car where the doors DON'T close flush with the roof - I ran outside and took this picture of my F-150 Lightning just now - the seam between the roof is still there but it's filled with a black rubber strip. 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Of course, the door shape covered the A-pillars and 90% of the roof seam, but there was still a little gap from the rear doors backwards, hence the filler strip you see. They did the same trick on Taurus sedans, too. 120
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Ford would shape the door shells so they closed flush with the roof - behind the door, there's an upper weatherstrip channel that covers the seam between the side and roof panels, and also acts as a gutter to direct water away from the door opening so water doesn't drop straight down in the rain. 120
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026It's a cheap and easy way to cut down on assembly costs - the rear quarter is a single stamped piece that joins to the pillar stamping, that joins to the front body/windshield pillar stamping. The roof is a steel cap that gets slapped down on top of that and glued/welded into place. 120
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026This reminds me of working for a euro-magazine when the Phantom Drophead debuted, and my editor was lamenting how "those" people buying them - and you can guess what demographic he meant - didn't "appreciate the craftsmanship and heritage" of the "marque". 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026GM’s colossally stupid decisions about hybridization must operate on twenty-year cycles. I remember the popularity of the second-generation Prius and GM’s response, circa 2006. 000
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Of course it’s not the Z8. It’s the X7, obviously. 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026What could possibly go wrong? Apart from *gestures wildly* 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026It's NYT and thus paywalled, but is this the same crap we had to read about in 2008 with Wayne Gerdes, where people would be disrupting the driving patterns of a few thousand other cars in order to prove some kind of point? 100
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026The good part about middle age is that when your friends come over for a party, they bring better gift booze. The terrible part is that I have to work tomorrow. 021
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Sorry, that was spectacularly unfair. Let me try again: "Of all the cars I've purchased new, the Forester 2.5XT was one of them." 030
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026It's not. That generation Forester is unquestionably a "crossover", but it's known by many names, really. "Pièce de merde" is a favorite, as is, "The fetid lining of Satan's descending colon." The most notably fast thing about the 2.5XT was not acceleration, but how quickly I could get rid of mine. 130
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Came for the trenchant commentary, stayed for the "Clerks: The Animated Series" reference that was just released in the wild. 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Did… did they really complain that the shifter in the 85-horsepower, black-bumper, behubcapped Saturn SL1 - the car people bought out of necessity - lacked “sporting intentions”? Why did I like reading this magazine as a child? 020
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Acceleration should be taxed on an exponential scale. Anything that can do 0-60 in, say, 8 seconds is fine. You pay dearly to get than number closer to zero, and it's part of an annual registration. 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026The GM 3.8 and the Jeep 4.0 are not, in fact, great engines. 050
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Remember that there’s a scene where Dick Jones says OCP has “gambled in markets usually regarded as non-profit. Hospitals, prisons, space exploration.” …And it was supposed to be satire of Reaganism to suggest that those would be - I mean, be serious - privatized? 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Some of the finest off-road and overlanding vehicles come from Sixt. 020
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026It’s just really nice to see that Hal Holbrook is still out there, living his best life. 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Oh. I was going to say that the problem with knowing Isuzu people is that you can’t invite them and all the Commodore Amiga people you know to a party, because they’re the same people. 020
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 22/08/2026I think so. The review said that 55 came up in around 16 seconds and the remaining five took the rest. 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Remember this the next time you encounter some car weenie complaining how sixty in seven seconds is "dangerously slow" 160
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Y’all. Y’ALL. $300 sounds like a lot for a single-slice Mitsubishi toaster from Japan that makes just one slice of toast at a time, but… …it makes one PERFECT slice of toast at a time. 010
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026When I had the iX, a lone L2 was fine. Then my wife got an XC40 and we had to jockey for a single plug. Installing networked Wallbox chargers that load-share so we could both plug in on a single circuit was the cheat code for a happy marriage. 110
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 19/08/2026That’s a very circuitous way of stating that you’ve never driven an original Model Y. 😂 050
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 16/08/2026The blue wool option on the iX was enough to make be bring one home. 130
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I once had to drive the Yukon to work while I was in the process of installing the lift, and it had 2" spacers in the rear with the stock ride height in the front, and it still didn't look as stupid as the rake on that truck. 020
Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Look, I'm not a complex man. Some days drinking from this mug — courtesy of the fine folks at the law firm of Morrison Foerster — while on a client call, with the logo facing out? That's subversive enough to keep me going for a good, long time. 020
