Stuff We Use: Power Inverters

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we have actually used or purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

Despite all the boomer bleatings that everyone needs to unplug and pretend they’re in the Stone Age during road trips or camping journeys, there remains a real need to stay connected and use a few electronic devices during such adventures. Addressing electricity requirements can be tricky, which is why power inverters exist.

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Stuff We Use: Trunk Struts

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we have actually used or purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.


Like the last installment in this series, the following post is a tad different than most of the other Stuff We Use missives. Instead of a universal product like battery boosters or jack stands, we would like to walk readers through the installation of a replacement part on one of our cars just the other week.

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You Shouldn't Be Afraid of Autonomous Cars, Here's Why

It's podcast time again. This week, we talk with Alex Roy, principal at Johnson and Roy Advisors, a company that provides strategy for companies in the AI, robotics, and transportation space, about why autonomous cars aren't so scary.

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Stuff We Use: Smoked Side Markers

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meager income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.


This one’s a little bit different than some of the other Stuff We Use missives which pass through our domain name twice a month. Instead of a universal product like battery boosters or jack stands, we’ll walk ya through the installation of an accessory placed on one of our cars just the other week.

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These Are the Best Family Cars for 2024

This week we sit down with John Vincent, senior editor of vehicle testing at U.S. News & World Report, to discuss their best cars for families for 2024.

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Have We Reached Peak EV? (Part 1)

Electric vehicles are dominating the industry conversation, so we had a chat with someone who is a bit of an EV evangelist...as well as with a journalist who noted that his outlet elected seven electrified vehicles to its latest Top 10 list.

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Stuff We Use: External Speakers

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have deployed in our travels. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

We’ll cop that the topic of the one is arguably more car adjacent than some of the other products we’ve featured in this series – but there’s no denying that gearheads generally like their tunes.

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Stuff We Use: Two-Way / Micro Radios

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have deployed in our travels. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

 

Just about everyone reading this missive has some form of communication in their pocket – whether that’s a smartphone, flip phone, or can-and-string is largely a matter of preference and comfort with technology. That being said, there is still room for two-way radio sets in this modern era.

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Stuff We Use: Socket & Wrench Sets

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

 

Following up our posts about the likes of floor jacks and battery booster packs, we thought it a decent idea to profile socket sets which have passed through our hands – mitts which get increasingly calloused with every terrible hooptie pushed / pulled / dragged home from the depths of a forgotten barn of junkyard.

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Stuff We Use: Hydraulic Floor Jacks

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

 

We recognize there’s no shortage of items we’d like to improve around this place to make it a better experience for our B&B, not the least of which is implementing an ability to deign every single one of you with a vehicle from the Panther platform.

 

But until the pencil-necked VerticalScope accountants permit that largesse, we’ll have to be content with the fact we’ve come to learn you lot pretty well over the years – and, as such, we know you’re all bringing home hopeless hoopties which will eventually require the services of a hydraulic floor jack.

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Stuff We Use: Toolboxes & Worktables

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meager income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

 

We’ve been publishing these Stuff We Use installments for a spell now, trying to make sure items covered are generally found in a gearhead’s garage. But it’s unhelpful to have a raft of tools without anywhere to store them – which is why this post will talk about the types of toolboxes and worktables we find helpful.

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Stuff We Use: Under Pressure (Washers)

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meager income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.


We’ve mused before on these digital pages that a clean car seems to run better – a missive that apparently holds true for sports cars and hot hatchbacks, though burly off-road pickup trucks and SUVs may take umbrage with that assessment. Nevertheless, most gearheads tend to like keeping their ride relatively clean, explaining the sheer number (and type) of pressure washers marketed toward consumers.

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Stuff We Use: Isn’t That Just Just Glovely

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meager income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

 

One of the great common threads that helps hold this place together is the fact that both our writers and readers tend to work on their own cars. Even if a few don’t currently live in a spot that provides a spot in which to wrench, the desire exists, and just about all hands have spun sockets in the past.

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Stuff We Use: What’s the Best Battery Booster Pack?

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meager income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.

 

One of the reasons this site works well is thanks to the marked similarities of, erm, quirks our writers have in common with readers. Like so many of you, most of our properties house at least one vehicle which won’t start on the first try, to say nothing of the random boxes of junkyard detritus accumulated through years of vehicular mayhem. 

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Stuff We Use: What’s the Best Garage Lighting?

On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meager income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.


If you count yourself amongst the few with a covered garage in which to wrench on yer hooptie, this post will – as the kids say – be relevant to your interests. If not, read on anyways because just about every nook and cranny of one’s home could stand to receive a dash of extra illumination. 

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  • VoGhost Matt, I'm curious why you write that inventory levels are low at 74 days. Typically, 60 days is the benchmark for normal inventory.
  • Jeff Arthur Dailey--If you really want to see a similarity between Chevy and Cadillac look at the 71 Chevy Caprice compared to the 71 Cadillac Deville more similar in looks than the 61s. Motor Trend even had an article comparing them and stating that you could buy a comparably equipped 71 Caprice and save thousands. The 1971 Chevrolet Caprice/Impala: Value-Priced, Cadillac ... YouTube · Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History 16 minutes, 53 seconds Feb 3, 2024
  • Buickman mostly cut and paste information. where is Jack Baruth when you need him?
  • ToolGuy In a perfect world (we don't have that), and a stable world (also no), one might expect the used EV pricing curve to follow the new EV pricing curve but with a lag. Overall that might be sort of what we are seeing but I will have to noodle on it more. (I know you can't wait.)
  • ToolGuy Ok after listening to the podcast (and re-listening to the relevant part while doing a painting job in the hot sun, won't make any significant pronouncements at this point) I was curious about the methodology. ¶ Here you go: "Methodology iSeeCars analyzed over 2.2 million 1- to 5-year-old used cars sold in May 2023 and 2024. The average listing prices of each car model were compared between the two time periods, and the differences were expressed as both a percentage difference from the 2023 price as well as a dollar difference. Heavy-duty vehicles, low-volume vehicles, vehicles discontinued as of the 2023 model year, and vehicles in production for fewer than four of the last five model years for each period were excluded from further analysis." ¶ So for any specific model, you have age and mileage and condition factoring in (think of the volume curve for 'new' models over the past 5 years). ¶ The overall averages have a -lot- of model mix going on. ¶ Random question: is the 'listing price' the listing price (likely) or the actual transaction price? (It matters if the listing prices were too optimistic a year ago, i.e., some of the 'drop' would represent more realism in the listing prices.)