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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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the first gen Ford Exploder

Either this is just an amusing typo, or there's some lore here I may have forgotten.

Also, to your point, it's fascinating that cars today have bigger power numbers and bigger fuel economy numbers than cars of the 90's or even the 2010's. The Buick Regal GS(?) had a turbo-4 engine good for like 270 HP (at least, as advertised) and even that is kind of hum-drum now. A compact SUV from today probably has just as much torque as a V8-powered F-150 from the 90's.

and improved paint prevents that sun-faded look old trucks used to get.

I think even 2000's cars have started to get that weird paint crust from age that I used to associate with beat-up 90's cars. Time will tell how cars from the past decade hold up in another 10 years.