Rental Car Review: 2014 Porsche 911 Carrera or, I Rented a Porsche to Meet Magnus Walker and I Didn't Even Get a Lousy T-shirt

“You wanna roll up to this thing with Magnus tomorrow?”

It’s amazing how many times I’m just minding my business, living my best life, and I run into my old friend Matt Farah. In this case, we happened to both be in Miami at the same time for work. My work, of course, being of the cubicle-dwelling, advertising-selling variety, and his being of the driving-an-Aventador S-around-Wynwood-slowly-in-front-of-cameras variety. Naturally, I insisted that we meet up at the most Miami place I could think up, Lagniappe, for some wine, jazz, and excellent company on a Tuesday night.

Turns out that Matt’s good friend and occasional TTAC subject, Magnus Walker, was doing a book signing the following evening at Parkhaus1, a veritable institution in the Porsche community. I normally despise this sort of thing. I’m not a particularly social person to start with, and while I had never made the acquaintance of Mr. Walker and I assumed he was a pleasant and genial fellow, I’m not one to stargaze at another grown man.

“Nah, man. Besides, what would I show up at Parkhaus in? My rental Grand Cherokee (which, by the way, is an excellent vehicle and totes deserving of its own review)?”

“Why don’t you get on Turo and rent something dope?” (Matt says “dope” a lot. And “dank.” I’ve tried his vernacular on for size but it doesn’t work for me.)

Now there’s an idea.

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Trackday Diaries: Eyes Up, Mr. Outlaw

You really can’t ask for a more pleasant, harmless example of schadenfreude than the recent, and well-publicized, decision by “outlaw” Porsche painter/sticker-applier/Vimeo-movie-star/used-clothing-retailer Magnus Walker to crash into his own car hauler. Nobody was hurt beyond his own sore back and no one besides Mr. Walker himself had any monetary loss from the incident. Heck, with the extra publicity it might be a net gain for the dreadlocked whiteboy from the United Kingdom.

Which leaves us, the viewers, absolutely free to laugh and/or gloat about the whole thing. But if we want to take a minute to be thoughtful about it, there’s a more important lesson to be learned, and it’s not “OMG THE 911 IS DANGEROUS EVEN FOR THE MOST TRAINED RACING SUPERSTAR”.

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  • Jkross22 It used to be depreciation was the most expensive part of car ownership. Seems like those days are over (New EVs and lux cars excluded). Maintenance + insurance have taken over. Dealerships offering 2 years of maintenance means nothing. That's $200 tops. It's the unexpected repairs - a wiring harness, computer module, heater core, AWD problems - that will cost dearly. Brakes can be expensive since many cars now can't have rotors resurfaced. Even independents are charging a lot for this work.
  • FreedMike VW tossed in two years' maintenance on my car, and the next one's due after the lease is up. But all the car's needed has been oil changes and tire rotations. Unfortunately, the OEM tires (Hankook Kinergy) were unrepentant trash and needed to be replaced at around 23,000 miles. So...my maintenance cost over over a little under three years has been t $800 for the new tires. That sucks, but the new tires (Goodyear Eagle Sport) are a massive upgrade over the Hankooks. Ah well.
  • Rna65689660 2015 Ford Edge V6 AWD: 176k miles. One set of Cooper tires, rear brakes, rear struts. Oil change every 10k miles. 1 battery, trans and coolant flush at 100k.2013 MINI Cooper S 6mt: 117k miles. Oil change every 10k, 4 sets tires, 3 sets brakes, rotors twice, 2 windshields,1 HVAC rheostat, 1 cv boot cover. This week pcv valve with valve cover and coolant thermostat, lower radiator hose.The MINI gets driven harder.
  • Zipper69 Is Toyota trying to squeeze into a space between the mid and full size trucks, both ICE and hybrid?That market can only be sliced so thin until it's a continuous, amorphous mélange and a confused market and irritated buyers.
  • FreedMike I have it on good authority that Subaru asked Subaru buyers what they wanted out of the Legacy, and they came up with the following cryptic mission: "So outdoorsy I can feel the poison ivy." Subsequently, they tried to add at least 10 square yards of black plastic cladding to the side of the Legacy, creating the Legacy "Lost In The Woods" edition, but the supplier pulled out, thus sealing the Legacy's fate. RIP.