Curbside Classic Outtake: Keeping Up With The Big Boys Edition

Paul Niedermeyer
by Paul Niedermeyer

When my other son Will was a toddler, he loved to put on my size thirteen shoes and shuffle around the house with them. He called it Shook. This Samurai brings that memory back very vividly.

Paul Niedermeyer
Paul Niedermeyer

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  • Niky Niky on Feb 18, 2010

    The modern Samurai, the Jimny, has gone all soft. Of all things... it comes with electronic fuel injection... and an electric 4WD switch. - Thank goodness it still comes with twin live axles... it's incredibly good off-road, even in stock form on street tires... and properly set-up, it's major fun.

  • Bugo Bugo on Aug 12, 2010

    We had a red '86 Samurai convertible when I was in high school and drove like a bat out of hell. I jumped the thing on a crease in a parking lot and I had it on two wheels more than once. It's a wonder I didn't get killed in it. Top speed was around 85 and 0-60 was measured in minutes. It was a blast to drive in town or off road, but a chore on the freeway. The little engine loved to rev, however. It put out way more sound than power. I don't think I'd want one now because the doors were about 4 inches thick and because of how tippy it was. Consumer Reports was right about how easy they are to flip. And ours had wide low profile tires on it. I can only imagine how tippy one with stock tires or even worse, one that has been lifted would handle.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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