Bad Mechanics, An Off-Road Lexus For Nobody, and Maybe Shut Up About Cannonball Run Already?
Literally unprofessional drivers on the most un-closed course.
I’m back in Arizona for the time being, and ready to light up your inbox with some frankly lukewarm news. No, this isn’t the M4 review you might be looking for although you can read my review for BMWBLOG right now if you want. I probably should’ve buried that link deeper. Oops.
For the two people left reading, enjoy these cautionary tales about bad mechanics I’ve scrounged from the internet over the last couple days. Also, a potentially unpopular opinion about the Cannonball Run and a Lexus SUV that’s pretty much guaranteed not to be unpopular, despite a six-figure price tag and questionable packaging.
Keep Your Friends Close and Your Mechanic Closer
Over the last few days I’ve heard a lot about shops doing, well, bad things. First I heard about a C6 Corvette that fell off a lift. Apparently, the shop offered the owner $5,000 for their 175,000-mile Vette with a salvage title. Which, first problem, is extremely low for a running and driving C6. Equally problematic is that the owner allegedly expected $17,000 in compensation, which is an equally insane amount of delusion in the exact opposite direction. What isn’t shown in the picture above is that the mechanic in question offers prospective clients some pretty obvious red flags: a big “Now Open!” sign, the name “Quick Fix Auto Repair,” and an address scrawled in what appears to be a red crayon. That’s a pass from me, dog. This is what I call avoidable contact (thanks, Jack Baruth).
Equally astounding but less jaw-droppingly stupid is the case of the 11-year Porsche repair. A lady brought her Porsche 911 in for a pothole-related incident in 2010 and the car simply never came back. The 993 apparently required around GBP 9,000 (around $11,800 USD) worth of repairs. The woman gave the mechanic a break when he reportedly suffered health problems, and also cut him slack when he spent nearly a year in jail for assault-related charges. She finally sued and won this year, receiving GBP 114,000 ($150,000-ish). Remember, folks: find a good mechanic or do your own maintenance – preferably some combination of the two – because finding a bad one will cost you a lot more.
Launch of the Lexus LX700h
Lexus is riding high on the off-roader trendiness, and the flagship LX SUVs are the next to get a full-fledged off-road variant – the Overtrail trim. But, curiously, this also requires ordering a hybrid powertrain. The 700h sports the twin-turbo 3.4-liter V6 engine from the lower-trim LX 600 and throws in some hybrid componentry. Like BMW, Lexus sandwiches an electric motor between the engine and transmission. Output rises from 409 horsepower to 457 horsepower, and torque increases by 104 to 583 pound-feet of torque.
Overall, great news. But I’m interested to see who the buyer for the Overtrail model really is. The Overtrail gets an unsurprising collection of off-road goodies, like front and rear locking differentials, all-terrain tires, and a skid plate. I imagine well-heeled off-road enthusiasts would rather do as I’ve done – correctly – and purchase a 20-year-old GX with the same capabilities, less complexity, and better styling. Kidding, mostly. Realistically, I expect this to attract many of the Toyota Land Cruiser shoppers that are used to spending six figures for a bit of stealth wealth and off-road chops, but won’t be caught dead in the smaller, cheaper Cruiser Toyota released this year. There’ no mention of the truck’s starting price, because if you have to ask…
Maybe We Shouldn’t Care About the Cannonball Run?
Autobahn-crushing German sedans have always been a favorite for participants in the Cannonball Run “challenge.” Alex Roy famously completed a run in a tricked-out E39 M5, and subsequent runs saw choices like a modified Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG and a sleeper Audi S6 dressed up like a cop car. But most recently, an unlikely candidate has shattered numerous records: Chris Stowell and his humble 535d. For those uninitiated, the Cannonball Run is essentially “get across the country as fast as possible.”
In a video from the longtime Cannonball documentarians over at VinWiki, Chris had pretty tempered expectations for his drive across the country. He wanted to make it in 27 hours. More or less, he hit that goal, dashing from the Red Ball Parking Garage in NYC to the Portofino Inn in Los Angeles in just 27 hours and 16 minutes. This, in fact, breaks three separate records: the solo record (27:54), the pre-COVID overall record (27:25), and the diesel record (28:30).
While I’m a big fan of diesel BMWs, the Cannonball Run is the much more divisive subject here. And, in fact, the preceding two paragraphs are directly ripped from a piece my editor at BMWBLOG rightfully scrapped. Cannonball Run isn’t this extraordinary feat of driving prowess – it’s driving recklessly and getting lucky. Even the newest “hall-of-famer” admits that he started “falling asleep a little bit” at the wheel several times before taking a Five Hour Energy. Wonderful – what a consummate professional. When the Run started in the 1970s by racer Brock Yates and Car and Driver editor Steve Smith, there were literally tens of millions fewer vehicles on the road and deep triple-digit speeds weren’t even a thing. It was an interesting slice of Americana and even had a little bit of protest rock-and-roll energy. Maybe we follow the music and collectively move the heck on.
Speaking of moving on, I’ll have a review coming for the M4 here on the site in the next couple days – stay tuned. I’d love to hear from you about the Cannonball Run and anything else I covered here today. Stay safe out there.
Sources: Reddit and the Drive; Road and Track and FHWA