The thing about all the writing about cars that I do for work is that it’s turned me from someone who knew the difference between an SUV and a sub-compact, and was capable (if not always willing) of changing a tire, or even changing oil, into someone who actually notices different makes and spouts trivia about them.

“Oh, that’s an Audi A4,” I said, when one appeared in a movie we were watching, “I just wrote an article about how Audi and BMW are using torque vectoring to enhance their stability control systems.”

Fuzzy finds this a bit annoying, and frankly I don’t blame him, so when we came across a vintage 1971 Mustang in the parking lot of Albertsons a few weeks ago, fully restored and sporting a FSBO tag with an asking price of only $7500, I didn’t mention the 2002 Mustang we’d passed on the way to the store, and I didn’t talk about how the new neo-classic muscle cars were way spiffy, but less desirable than the vintage models.

I just said, “Wow, too bad we don’t have the spare cash for this.”

He looked at me a little dubiously. “You’d never let me have this car,” he said.

“No…but I’d let US have it.”

Sometimes, I think I frighten him.