9 and 3

It was warm afternoon, circa 2003, and I was piloting my '95 Toyota Supra in San Diego towards the Mexican taquiera of choice, Cotixan, or "Coti's" as my friends and I affectionately called it. The Supra was one of the "hero" cars of my teenage years and I certainly felt lucky to be able to be tooling around in one just a few years later, completely unknown to me that this car would be worth 3x its value inside of a decade (long after I parted with it.)   This steed served me well. Alas, if only I had the foresight to keep her! $$$ On that typical, sunny, San Diego day, I was driving northbound on the 5 freeway and exited eastward, merging onto Balboa boulevard. As I continued onto the incline road from the exit, I heard an exotic sounding roar from something coming up on my left. Looking over my shoulder I caught a glimpse of the passenger side headlight. I remember how it looked oddly like the Supra's own: projector lenses inside an ellipsoid casing, o...

With 2021 coming to a close, I reflect back on so much that has - and continues to - change rapidly in the world. This set of changes has indeed affected all things automotive.  From a host of new EV models and companies coming online, to the sports and collector car market having a tremendous surge in sale prices, to an ongoing parts and supply shortage that has affected every make, model, and parts supplier in the industry, to the what-were-they-thinking grills of the new BMW M models , there has just been so, so much that has happened this past year that it's been hard to keep up. Let's pretend this is Long Beach. Only the containers are ships waiting in the harbor. The guys at Donut Media made a quick and entertaining video on how the shortage currently came to be. Its worth the watch.   As far as the automotive market in general, much like housing, it's a seller's market . Prices of new cars are virtually non-negotiable and in some markets with high demand model...