knife attacks

That’s not how we do things in the US. :-(

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but like you… Money.

I have a Mirage G4. It has a five speed transmission. It does not have internet connectivity, it doesn’t have a touchscreen, it doesn’t have keyless ignition, it doesn’t even have a fourth cylinder. It’s as reliable as a hammer, it still gets me over 40 mpg, and it’s paid for.

Dream vehicle? Any motorcycle. I have one, and I ride it sometimes, but I have a family that cares I’m alive and a lot of you seem to need a phone in your face to drive a car…

Yes another non-answer.

“Americans, why haven’t you built a parallel system that can take on the strongest military in the world yet? It’s been over a year.”

Edit: see what I mean?

“We can’t tackle government lobbying, the lobbyists bribed us not to.”

That is the episode that introduced me to the concept.

In some of Neal Asher’s books there is mention of a Dyson Sphere being constructed.

If you want to have a go of making one yourself, there is Dyson Sphere Program.

EDIT: “Bowl of Heaven” is another “not exactly a Dyson Sphere” novel, it takes place on a structure that is half a Dyson Sphere. Co-written by Gary Benford and Larry Niven. (author of “Ringworld”)

And once people who fix their old Camry umpteen times instead of buying a new one, there will be even more lobbying for anti-repair.

I have a 65 HP 4x4 with sealed beam headlights…

Maybe if they had a line of them hooked together? A train of some sort?

I once impulse bought a motorcycle but I can explain why I did that so…

For the purposes of this thread, I think buying a Mini-2 SE drone is the purchase to talk about. I’ve always been interested in radio controlled flying things, and I had the extra money, and it was on sale, so I bought it. I don’t regret it at all, though, because it turned out to be incredibly useful and fun. I had it for a couple of years until two weeks ago, when I flew the poor thing camera-first into a steel beam, which didn’t destroy the drone but put it firmly in the “cheaper and easier to get another drone than to fix this one” territory.

Now I have a license and people pay me to take pictures sometimes.

Sometimes a strange car will gain a sort of “cult” following, and that’s when you sometimes end up with a situation like you describe, where parts are made by many different 3rd parties. I have an old Japanese 4x4 that was so awesome that Mopar had to team up with consumer reports and the government to kill it. It’s 30+ years old and I can get parts for it as easily as I can an F150.

Notable past and current examples of this include:

Chevy Corvair

Geo Metro

Harley-davidson anything

Jeep wrangler

Suzuki Samurai

Toyota Supra

Edit: formatting are hard

It depends on the new car, I’ve found. A Mitsubishi Mirage is considerably easier to deal with than a BMW anything, because the people who designed the mirage had an eye toward maintenance because of the type of car it is. The BMW will go to the shop, while the Mirage will get it’s clutch changed in the driveway.

I have no idea what they cost. They used to sell the Jimny here in the US, in the 1980’s and 1990’s. They called them “Samurai” when they sold them here.

I have a Suzuki Samurai.

There used to be a car like that, could get a manual and you could fix it yourself - on the rare occasion it needs work.

It was the 2014-2024 Mitsubishi Mirage, and the entire US made fun of it. That’s what happens when someone makes a cheap, dependable, simple car in the US, people act like it’s the worst vehicle ever made because you can see exposed screw heads when you open the door.

“Porcelain transmission” sent me.

Don’t forget the oil pumps driven by rubber belts that need half the engine disassembled to replace it.

I wish we could get those in the US. We are sorely lacking in awesome little 4x4’s.

I don’t know, I installed Mint last year and it’s been great.

The only trans person I’ve ever known personally* was a FtM trans guy that I worked with who was mid-transition. He did talk once about how a lot of people forget about FtM trans people.

*I assume there are trans people I have met that I just didn’t know were trans. And now I’ve typed “trans” out so many times that it looks weird to me.