You must be new here.

Depends on from who's view.

Sounds similar to the experience I had when shopping for my current car. On dealer has what from the picture appeared to be a nice E46 330ci with a manual transmission and the asking prices was in the range for what should be immaculate vehicle. So I go to check it out and the vehicle was off at the shop next door being serviced and I was told that I could wait about 10 minutes and then check it out. After the little wait the guy goes and gets the car and pull up in it. There isn't a single piece of trim that is lined up correctly on this car. At this point I am informed that it pops out of 3rd, but not to worry because "this is a common problem on these cars" and am asked if I would like to take it for a test drive which I do. On the drive it does pop out of third, but there is noise coming from both front wheels indicating bad bearings, lots of suspension rattles, clunks from the differential when shifting, and the VANOS makes the whistling noise indicating that it is fairly far along in the process of failing. I got done with the test drive and the guy ask what I thought of the car to which I responded "It's a piece of junk". The next question was what is wrong with it so I responded with the list. The rest of the conversation went:

Salesman: Well what would it take to get you in this car?"
Me: $3000 and a new transmission installed
Salesman: I paid more than that for it.
Me: Not my problem that you bought a piece of crap. You are asking a pristine vehicle price for this car and even paying $3000 for it with a new transmission it would still cost me at least $6000 in parts to fix everything that I know is wrong with this car and who know what else I will find when I get into it. This car had a very hard life and was not maintained at all, I have walked away from much nicer vehicles.(I then proceed to walk off)

I'm sure I found some young sucker to buy that car since it was a black 2 door BMW who couldn't see anything beyond that but that isn't my problem either.

There are other things to do on the internet other than watch Netflix. I can saturate my 80mb/s connection fairly consistently without thinking about it when doing GIS stuff.

Sounds like someone else lives on the outskirts of a metropolitan area surrounded by tree covered hills. I had the big antenna on a 16' mast attached to the chimney but that still wasn't enough to get much of a digital signal, but when the analogue broadcasts were still happening I got all of the channels. When I last tried to watch TV I could sometimes get the primary FOX and NBC station but nothing else so I just basically gave up on TV. Between Netflix, Hulu, and the existing collection of DVDs if I want to watch something I probably can.

You mean they aren't? In all seriousness from my experience they mostly range from mildly incompetent to circus carny levels of dodgyness. There has only been one that I had dealt with that I would say was a good guy but that was at a high end dealer.

Having been in highly secured buildings (not in the US) I'm not worried about the wall scanner being the security measure, but more about the guy with the machine gun next to it.

We just need the Cone of Silence.

I always thought the most common problem was the little plastic ratchet thing for the agitator or it seems to be at my house since my wife will over fill the washing machine.

And some walk by and notice that they are wearing nicer shoes than I am and that panhandling is their career of choice.

This seemed especially prevalent in Portland OR. The worst example was one lady who was always sitting a a bench near the McDonalds by the naked people building (the Standard Insurance Co building) who every day never bothered to look up from her smart phone and would ask "spare some change for food". She was easily 300lbs and going without food for a few weeks would probably do her some good. Then there was the day in which she asked me in the same breath "Spare some change for food? Can a buy a cigarette from you?". The funniest was the day another bum took the corner up the block and she was yelling at a cop about how he needed to remove him because he was "cutting off my business".

From what I can tell the European and American versions of vehicles aren't all that different. Some of the emissions equipment is different, the size of the airbags, and engine and transmission availability (the US needs more small diesels and manual transmissions) but beyond nothing really sticks out. Granted Americans don't get all the vehicles that are sold in the rest of the wold like the Ford Ka (first one to pop into my head) but at that doesn't provide a valid point of comparison. Personally I would take my 12 year old bottom of the line E46 BMW over any similar sized American car past or present for safety or driving enjoyment for a daily driver.

Sounds about right, as one of the biggest factor in mileage seems to be the driver. Having an '02 325i with a manual I get in the 35-38 mpg range (US) if I drive like a normal human but can get it down to about 27 if I am flogging it on on ramps and at stop lights, problem is I still have a bit too much teenager in me even though that age is long past. This is with a vehicle that has 116,XXX miles on it. Then on the other hand is my Jeep that gets 20 mpg with the 4.0l inline six and a manual, not bad for a box on wheels with 378,XXX miles on it but then I don't use it for much but when I do use it, it is for things that I need the cargo space, high clearance, or 4WD. It only gets driven a few thousand miles a year so 20 MPG isn't a big hit on the wallet and insurance is really cheap at about $12 a month.

I figure it is much like writing my congress critters in that they don't care what I have to say and if I get a response it will probably be patronizing one. At least when it is a congress critter and they send out door knockers I can let them know of the poor experience of receiving a patronizing letter back. Worst example was one of my state reps who sent me a letter thanking me for my support of X when I was actually against X. At least he went door to door himself so I got to let him know what I really thought. I figure that the FCC head will get on TV and explain that an overwhelming of Americans support the new regulations that disallow net-neutrality but at least I made an effort. Also I have contacted my congress critters encouraging them to put forward legislation mandating it but who knows what will come out of that sausage factory.

I would love it if Obama or congress would "fix" the NSA but that will never happen. They just don't seem to have the balls for it.

That was basically my impression as it seemed that auditing a college student with a small income filing form 1040EZ wouldn't net much of anything even if I did screw it up. I would dread having an audit now given how complex my taxes have become, even with tax software it takes a good 6 hours.