member12

When the Escalade came out, I thought it was tacky and blingy. The Mercedes S class was the tasteful vehicle for people who understood that function does not have to follow form in a luxury vehicle. Lexus used to know that too - that a smooth, sturdy car without distractions was worth paying for over something with lots of chrome and bling.

25 years later....now EVERY new BMW and Mercedes went far in that direction instead of focusing on what made them great. I'm furious as to what happened to the BMW 5 and 7 Series. And the S Class Mercedes has a hideous digital dashboard and an extremely overstyled design that the Germans have leaned into hard lately.

Meanwhile, the Escalade (lately....not the earlier ones) has become what the S Class failed to be....which is the tasteful large luxury vehicle. I don't think you guys understand how difficult it is for me to say that.

The Blackwing Cadillac sedans are amazing, arguably a better enthusiast vehicle than their competitors from Germany. And now the Escalade looks more tasetful and less tech-forward than the new S class.

Not only has large luxury SUVs started to replace large luxury sedans on American highways - but the Escalade has become one of the favorites, possibly one of the top selling nameplates over $100k.

Lindsey Graham.

Not a shock at all.

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The LED's on the back side of police cars are the worst. When they have someone pulled over, I'm completely blinded.

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I know they are for safety, but when we use them for cross guard protection for a party at work......that shite can cause seizures for anyone near a window.

It's really intense.

Maybe I'm getting older and my eyes suck, but I'm also noticing that Louisiana has almost zero reflectors on their highways and there is a shocking amount of street lights that are burnt out. And a lot of commercial or residential properties that install massive spotlights to light their property on the most convenient pole....which is fine....except they often partially aim into oncoming traffic on the highway and blinds the shite out of drivers.

Ascension Parish has one gas station on Airline with REALLY janky lights like that.

I agree that there is a certain demographic that drives around with high beams on all the time. And it's almost always sedans, older trucks, and older BMWs.

But the flip side of this is newer headlights are also really fricking bright. People flash at my low beams. Bone stock, no modifications.

This is not some ghetto squatted or leveled truck with low beams aimed at people's eyes. Or a Nissan Altima or Honda Accord with high beams on ALL THE frickING TIME.

So I just flash them back and they get pissed and flash multiple times like I have some kind of miracle ultra low beam just for them.

Ironically the most blinding cars I've noticed lately are newer Acura sedans and SUVs. They are all fairly low to the ground, but they have a collapsed sun for headlights. Can't see shite in my lane beyond those cars when they drive past. Luckily they are fairly rare vehicles now, but IMO if they are going to have ultra bright headlights like that, they should have the automatic leveling technology like other brands have.

But it's Honda, and Honda is a little slow with tech.

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Not as bad as fake sounds on an electric Ferrari.

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The electric Ferrari was so fricking stupid.

And the fact that it was electric wasn't even the worst bit. It was just one of many terrible ideas there.

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Put me down for Tom Cotton.

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Calm down. This isn't a restaurant menu.

I think she has something similar to what Dudley Moore had. She's clearly ill.

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Homes near military bases will always sell in short order and will almost always slowly increase in value - not the wild increases seen elsewhere but also none of the lows.

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Very good observation and it's 100% correct. The only asterisk is that those towns (like Augusta or Bossier) are one trick ponys when it comes to the economy. Lose the base, and those houses collapse.

Neither of that is happening anytime soon to those towns - so your strategy is a very good one so long as the housing isn't overbuilt.

I'd argue that the even safer buy is actually in towns that aren't cool, but have a low key diverse economy that avoids those intense boom and bust cycles (like Austin). Find the right spot in Tulsa, Baton Rouge, Mobile, etc. Although in Baton Rouge and Mobile insurance is a big headache and makes cash flow positive deals harder.

It's definitely large.

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This is insane to me. When I drive through LSU and see BMW's, Mercedes and Porsches parked next to $85,000 Z-71's my mind is blown.

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And a shite load of them are with out of state plates. Not just Texas, either.

Maryland
New Jersey
Indiana
Illinois

Kind of weird to me.

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Kenna City Solja

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You can deny it, but it's 100% true. It was a driver's car with real power and handling when BMW was adding bling, weight, and complexity to the F10 M5 cars of the era. The SS was closer to the earlier BMW E39, which was one of the greats that BMW totally forgot how to build by then.

Unfortunately Chevrolet sold about 6 of them. Because they looked like a fricking Malibu.

And even worse - the M5 got fatter, more blingy, uglier, less restrained, and more complicated with every year since then.