Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Another heat wave done

San Francisco Bay Area just finished its annual heat wave around Labor Day. As I type we are basking in the foggy coolness once more. Thank the heavens for our natural air conditioning.

You know when hot weather rolls around, the official puts out a spare the air alert? That’s purely symbolic, right? Someone isn’t going to see the alert and then go, “You know what? I don’t need to drive today. In fact, I don’t need to go to work!” Especially not in our American individualistic culture. Especially not in the current climate of: “I got mine, fuck you!”

Besides, in this region, a significant percentage of cars are electric. No emissions to begin with. But I’ll have you know I personally decided to not drive my car during yesterday’s 90 degree deluge, even though I needed to move my car back to its typical parking spot post street cleaning. Because I am a citizen of the world. Where is my Eagle Scout badge?

The problem with heatwaves in this region is that it is completely sun. Soon as you go outside, you are beaten down by the ceaseless rays. There’s not a cloud to be found. No momentary shade to salve the heat. I’ve been less miserable in hotter and more humid climates in Asia, because there were plenty of cloud cover to be found. An enclosed oven is more bearable than one with an open flame right above your head.

Good news is there’s only but about two weeks’ worth of days out of the entire year where it is truly uncomfortably hot. No wonder San Francisco’s homeless population is so high. If I were to shack up somewhere out on the streets, the mildly cool year-round climate here is the most logical option.

Give me the money

It’s health care open enrollment season at my place of employment. That means the updated pricing figures for the coming year are out for the respective health plans. It’s always interesting to see just how much the employer is pitching in every month towards my health care. Annualized, it’s over $12,000.

I know that’s a part of my total compensation package, but psychologically it’s not that tangible. It’s money that I don’t see ever. The take-home that reaches the checking account every pay period is what’s most salient. And because I’m rather on the healthy side, my interaction with health care provider doesn’t go beyond the annual physical. So you’re telling me that’s worth $12,000?!

What if that money is given directly to me instead - to use however I want. Now obviously health insurance is important, so I’d still go on the ACA marketplace to buy something. Surely there’s plans that are significantly cheaper than $1,000 a month. Weaker coverage is likely, but I’m okay with paying higher deductibles so long as the true catastrophes are covered. That’s what insurance should be.

What would I do with the leftover cash? Invest it, of course. Compounding is our best friend. If that money is truly considered compensation, then let me decide how to best use it. Throwing money towards good health insurance is not maximizing its utility, given my current station in life. My tune would no doubt change if I were to have dependents.

Isn’t that a big argument against universal healthcare in America: the preservation of choice? That ought to include how much healthcare I want to have, especially if employers are giving out that money regardless. Give me the cash directly, I’ll figure out the rest. It’s like using your personal credit card for work related things and getting reimbursed later: you get to keep the credit card points!

Burdened with perfectionism

Amazon’s The Grand Tour is back with a new series and three new hosts. I have to say that despite the abundance of quality automotive content on YouTube, there is simply no replacement for one thing: cinematography budget. We watch The Grand Tour because it showcases cars in an insanely beautiful way that only a small army of cameramen and support staff can deliver. YouTuber with a consumer drone can create a suitable TEMU facsimile, but are they going to wait hours for the correct sunsetting light for that perfect shot?

Probably not.

The Grand Tour - and the many Youtube channels that do similar content - is proof definitive that cars are meant to be driven and used. Provenance isn’t how much money the owner spent on maintenance. It’s what sort of roads the car has traveled to. What sort of story a particular scratch on the front quarter panel has to tell. A winning race car with many hours of accumulated dirt and scraps on the painted surface is immensely more interesting than the exact car fresh out of the factory. Because it has done something.

Super low mileage museum pieces are a one-trick pony. A time capsule showing a moment in time - when the car was new. There no further story to tell.

But if you’re afflicted with obsessive compulsive behavior like me, it can be very difficult to do things with your cars. Each additional mile, each additional round of maintenance, opens up opportunity for something to get blemished. Something to go wrong. A scratch on the interior plastic pains us deeply. God forbid we curb an alloy wheel - there will be no sleep that night. The peasant amongst us can’t afford to throw money at the problem, either. Paint protection film? I don’t have another $5,000 on top of the price of the car just to protect it from nature.

Of course, perfectionism has its advantages in other domains. Our attention to the details is how we got/get ahead in the workplace. Those of us in the perfectly circular Venn diagram of OCD and car enthusiast need a way to turn down the perfectionism when it comes our automobiles. When cars get used - as well they should - the scars will come. Tackling a first-time project like replacing a glovebox? There’s a good chance something will get mangled. It’s all part of the game.

We should still very much care about the process: of doing things meticulously, and not taking shortcuts. What we shouldn’t do is to let adverse outcomes cripple us from doing anything in the first place. Because we want to have stories to tell.

Right to servicing, right away

Word on the street is the Mazda MX-5 Miata comes out of the factory just sort of aligned. The suspension geometry is within a wide specified threshold, but nothing is precise set and matching. The front wheels can have zero degrees of camber and it would be considered satisfactory. This is kind of surprising because such a lightweight sports car is very sensitive to differing geometry. You’d think Mazda would want to set it down perfectly so that potential buyers experience the optimum setup on the test drive.

It’s very unusual to take your brand new car in for an alignment service. Typically you do so after a few years’ worth of mileage. Even the ultra meticulous Porsche owners don’t take their 911 right to a suspension shop from the dealership. Nevertheless, I booked my 2026 MX-5 with a local performance shop to do the alignment, and realized two things.

One is the issue of the manual transmission. With less and less cars being fitted with a manual, you’ve got a generation of people who has never interacted with an H-pattern gear lever. These same people now work in automotive shops. You bring your rare manual gearbox car to a tire place, and it’s very possible that none of the staff there can move it onto the ramps. You wouldn’t know any better until you pick up the car and immediately wonder why it smells so much of burned clutch material.

This is why when I fitted a secondary set of wheels onto my Miata, I transported the wheels and tires separately to America’s Tire. Whatever I can to avoid trusting another person to drive the manual.

But it’s likely not possible to avoid it forever. What if there’s a manufacture recall? Outside of a Porsche dealership, I personally am not confident another brand of dealer will for sure have someone who knows how to drive stick shift. Even for Mazda, a brand that sells the most iconic manual roadster of all time.

The second realization is: you ever noticed most automotive service shops are not open on the weekends? I am super fortunate to have a job where I can call out for a few hours to take my cars in for servicing - whilst still getting paid. Krista the barista at the local coffee joint can probably call out too, but during those hours she is not getting paid. It’s a sort self perpetuating hole the working class finds themselves in. They can’t afford a brand new car - less chances of something going wrong, but they also cannot afford to take time off to service their used cars.

“Just buy used and take care of it” is not as easy in reality as it is pithily said. The very people that can use that advice often cannot do so because none of the service shops are open on the weekends.

My local America’s Tire is open on Saturdays, but you should see the absolute humanity that crushes into the store for those precious weekend hours.

Run away into the sunset

This Reddit user is slightly ranting about the state of the car enthusiast market. How everything that’s new and exciting all cost into the many hundreds of thousands, or millions. The user ends with this nugget: “Do I just buy a Miata and run away into the sunset?”

Insert Leo pointing meme.

That’s me! I literally just bought a brand new Miata, and hopefully shall ride it into the eventual sunset. I too am disappointed at the monetary inflation of the enthusiast market. The special Porsche that was once a stretchable goal for the working man (I literally did it) has been punted beyond any reasonable reach. The manual transmission is a dying mechanical art from, but no worries, McLaren is bringing it back into their lineup… in a limited special priced equivalent to a house.

I can see how that can be discouraging. Unlike the kid with the Countach poster on the wall, working-class car enthusiasts have already come to the realization that we can’t afford a Lamborghini. At least the kid can still dream and strive for a reality that isn’t yet set in stone. 38 year old me? The chances of me ever being able to plop down $250,000 for a singular car is absolutely zero.

Instead of lamenting it, we in the peasant class should rejoice that there are still some options for our income bracket. Just a few options, yes, but kudos to the manufactures for still catering to our niche. My Mazda MX-5 Miata and the Toyota GR86 remain affordable samples of what car enthusiast claim to want: naturally-aspirated engine, real-wheel drive, and a manual gearbox. All for the relatively low price of mid 30,000s.

For sure those two cars don’t carry the social media scene points of a BMW M car or a 911 GT3. You shouldn’t care about that, right? For sheer joy of driving, the two sports cars from Japan is excellent at any price. The fact that they are priced affordably is a damn win for the common enthusiast. Of the two, I picked the Miata because I had one that I miss dearly.

No wonder it was so high

One of the big reasons I sold my F87 BMW M2 Competition was the surprisingly high insurance cost. As a late 30s male with zero accidents in the past decade plus of driving, the insurance bill should be going down. Plus the fact the BMW was a completely leisure car - no commuting - and entirely paid off. It should be rather low on the vehicular actuary tables, but it definitely wasn’t. Towards the end I was paying almost as much for the M2 as I was for the 911 GT3.

And now I know why. It seems the late model BMW M cars are a hit with the Gen Z instagram driving crowd. The G80 generation M3’s popularity with the young enthusiasts has morphed into a meme. Broccoli heads paying huge monthly payments for the privilege of piloting Bavaria’s finest. The lament around the past two Monterey Car Weeks is that the youths with M cars have taken over and ruining the fun.

Who would have thought! Olds heads like me couldn’t have imagined it when the G80 first launched with its hugely polarizing “beaver tooth” front end design.

Of course then, when the demographics of a vehicle skew young, insurance rates are elevated commensurately (looking at you, Toyota GR86). What are younger drivers more prone to? Crashing. A quick infinite scroll on instagram and it’s easy to see many banged up G80 M3s. Locally, there’s one that crashed on Highway 9, sadly with fatalities. It’s no wonder the insurance on my M2 not only remained high, but increased year after year.

Glad to be done with that.

Silver lining: who said the youths weren’t into cars? I think it’s great to see Gen Z drivers share enthusiasm and passion for this thing of ours, even if it seems to be largely concentrated on one model line of BMW (Audi and Mercedes Benz madly punching the air right now). Social media is memetic after all; copycats and herd mentality. These kids are the future to which the enthusiast flame will be kept burning. So don’t be so quick to dismiss them next time your highfalutin car event gets invaded by the G80 army.

Something it is not

This morning I finally got an opportunity to take my 2026 Mazda MX-5 up to the local mountain roads. The verdict so far is: it’s a bit more floppy than I remembered. And that’s not a bad thing.

Coming out of a BMW M2 that’s flat and sharp at all times, the Miata’s innate softness and rolling character is quite the contrast. With the Mazda you definitely cannot ham fist it into a corner; the driver must work with the delayed fluidity that the car has. You walk the Miata on its tippy-toes, rather than bludgeoning the tarmac with maximum force. The car floats and undulates with the road imperfections, and you have to let it do its thing and not force it into something that it isn’t.

I’ve watch and read many reviews on the ND Miata, and universally it seems people complain about the car’s built-in softness in the suspension. There’s too much body roll. I think problem here is people are taking the incorrect lens to view the car. You cannot treat the MX-5 like a modern sports car. It doesn’t have the flatness or immediacy of a Porsche 911 because it’s not that kind of car.

The Miata is more akin to the 60s sports coupe with skinny tires and massive suspension motion. Watch this Goodwood Revival race for an example of the sort of cars I am talking about. Instead of wishing it corners flatly with quicker reflexes, the driver should work with the MX-5. Let the motion and body roll inform you of how to best chuck it into a corner. Because you can easily tell when the car is upset: massive body lean, but going nowhere quick.

I reckon owners that modify the MX-5 by adding in suspension stiffness fundamentally miss the entire point of the car. I don’t think we should be turning it into a Honda S2000. There’s plenty of other sports cars with firmer suspension and faster steering controls. You buy a Mazda MX-5 because you can dance with it.