awjayramey.bsky.social

Darmok *and* Jalad at Tanagra? In *this* economy?

One of most predictable/cringe covid-era NYC-exodus-to-CT fails I saw: Next-street neighbors bought new 1500sq-footer at peak price w/ water view. Months later, same developer builds 4 homes *around* them, close enough to be touched with broom out window. Water view lost. Now selling at huge loss.

Have always been in awe of western europeans, esp ones from wealthy countries, who willingly moved to NY (Brooklyn really) in the past 25 years. Every time I met one I had to stop myself from staring at them like they like they were a space alien.

The hell is a “goober nuttorial” election?

Still a lot of these around, which cannot be said for some other Euro cars of the era that actually have an official dealership presence (I am just looking at you & nobody else, Audi).

Frens.

Extremely Manual Saab (EMS) a strong sticker game has. ::Yoda voice::

I dunno what happened or changed in the past few years, but now the cars pulling the craziest sh!t on the road & the ones I stay TF away from are somehow the Forester, Outback, & to a lesser extent the Crosstrek.

So 264s have this little chrome thing on the D pillar that I hadn't noticed before. 1980 model, Canadian market acksh, owner bought it out there & drove it cross-country.

For 1991 these were just renamed The Coupe, hence the lack of 780 badging here. Never been in one of these, but these were not exactly all over the place in the midwest when I was in HS. I think I saw a grand total of one in Indiana during my HS years.

These still look so good. And I still haven't been in one. I think it's a jinx-type thing & I totally know why.

How many 850 owners today would even notice the mix of 1992-1994 tail lights and 1995 facelift blende here? The central piece is unlit btw, so it doesn't even have bulbs, thank gawd. Swapped one out once. Just subtle enough to stay invisible to most. 1996 car here.

The, uhh, Emergency Medical Service Saab.

325K miles on this one, looks below 25K inside & out. One-owner, 1992, straight outta Majestic Volvo (PBUH) in Warwick, RI. Black plastic bumpers regularly armored-alled from new, & it shows. Original paint unbelievably good. Has to be one of the best-kept 940s in the country. #emaculent

I'm sure this is like $150K plus change somehow. Standard wheelbase but two doors, & I guess plenty of cargo space. Converted from a 4-door to a money-no-object standard? Too 'spensive to get dirty I fear.

Was photographing something else, this thing drove by quick out of the corner of my eye, I didn't even get a chance to see what it was, but snapped a photo instinctively. Didn't know this was even a thing among W463 options. Standard WB, but convertible, & also troop carrier?

I don't have a Volvo 240 but I feel for 240 & other classic but daily-driven car owners now, b/c people will now just lean on the horn if you don't launch like an EV from stop lights/signs. There's now a Hummer EV that does double the speed limit on my street almost daily, around blind curves.

Now that the AI era is here, I think that we are at the very least owed some Thinking Machine laptops & a chip branded as the RISC Chip, so that you can finally use the epic Luther line: "Thinking-machine laptops. I'm talking about the 686 prototypes with the artificial intelligence RISC chip."

“The internet is a store but it used to be a library” hits me like a slug to the chest

I still need to try one of these. I don't understand how I still haven't.

1980 #Volvo 264 originally from Coquitlam, BC, 5-speed. Needless to say, the rectangular-quad fascia is not as common as it once was, & neither are 264s, which were rare even at the time. Owner drove it cross country from the PNW when he bought it.

Saw this #emaculent 1992 940GL over the wknd, 1-family owned since new, straight outta Majestic Volvo of Warwick. Still has ALL the dealer literature saved from new. Over 200K miles, but I think but paint looks closer to a 30K mile car. Ext plastic Armored-Alled from new so it looks fresh. Amazing.

Never could have imagined there would come a day in this country when I would see more JDM cars *every day* than E65s or any Bangledonks, or W220/W221s, & that the JDMs would be of this caliber. Yet here we are.

Yeah, this largely tracks. Only weirded out by Milwaukee & SLC being this close together. I wanna see someone from SLC survive a month in Milwaukee.

Non-zero chance that some of the people who placed a $50K deposit for this Roadster in 2017 have now died of old age.

Who says this country doesn’t build anything anymore? One of our top exports in 2025 were radio car dealer ads with that county fair shouting announcer voice with lots of reverb yelling about “new inventory!”#MadeInAmerica

We are moving toward a future with 3 main types of vehicles, & in fact we are almost there: 1. Gray four-door crossover the size of a Honda CR-V with invisible design. 2. $100K electric sedan with screens everywhere. 3. Giant pickup whose hood is higher than the roofs of the first two vehicle types.

$130K for a correctional facility aesthetic.

Hold up, hold up. So will it be able to enter gas station/convenience store lots with a front lip & overhang that low & long?

Like, how did they *know* all the way back in 1987 that this is what cars in this timeframe would look like?

Another car aimed solely at the Villain From Neill Blomkamp Movie demographic.

Is the current crop of BMW designers & execs too young to have *seen* a Mitsubishi Carisma at least weekly, which doesn’t even seem probable? Van Hooydonk is Dutch, & it was built there. But Carisma lead designer Kiyoshi Honda has to be feeling pretty good right now.

After the fuel economy standards were reset back to 1982, the 8.3-liter V8 turbodiesel doesn't seem so dumb now, does it, libruls? ::Cackling as I option the 8.3 into my Silverado HD that I use to commute 3 miles to the office::

Bingo board for cringe #noreaster #hurricane TV coverage. Which ones am I missing? "hunker down" "batten down the hatches" "ride it out" "vowing to rebuild" "local businesses are boarding up" "city officials are urging" "this local man is" "unprecedented level of cooperation"

Early Twitter was nice cause you could ask the Minister of Tourism of some tiny country a question & they would answer you within minutes & offer to pick you up at the airport if you wanted to come over.

Frens.

Saw something crazy the other day, no pics unforch: A working E65 7er! Hadn't seen one this year at all. I now see more JDM imports in traffic than working E65s.

I think we can all agree that the middle one is the most reliable of this three-car solution.

@jriz.bsky.social It's such a weird day, actually remembering 1996 & Huntsville, all the 30-year celebrations & tributes on TV & in magazines. And now we have doubled that time span. Voyager is now older than TOS was at *that* point. This Soran scene sums up my feelings about the 1990s basically.

There's never been a moment in my lifetime when US automakers seemed more hosed than they are right now. Just bleak shit all around, & no hope on the horizon. Last time something like this was unfolding was in the 1970s when Japanese automakers were rapidly gaining market share.

Jag-wire XJ6 (with XJR grille) works surprisingly well in this color & with these wheels. #emaculent

Every summer open-air festival or art show I go to now has a bunch of these in attendance.

20,000 leagues *under* the sea?!? In *this* economy?

::Judi Dench voice:: The Staffordwick Home for the Deeply Unserious.

W202 in the good color.

::sigh:: I didn’t think it would come to this, but now we need coachbuilders & tuners like Carlsson, Lorinser, Carat Duchatelet, Binz, Trasco-Bremen, & Brabus to produce drastically toned-down grilles for factory models that won’t blind dozens of other drivers when the sun is out.

Saw some Very Wholesome cars over the weekend. The fact that someone keeps a white Pontiac Parisienne in this condition is... I am struggling to name the millennial version of this phenomenon. It wouldn't be a Neon b/c that's slightly more of a Gen-X normcore mobile. Elder Xennial at most.

Choose your Home Depot fighter.

Frens.