The goal is people leasing a car, then turning around and collecting the CPO fee 3 years later when the lease is turned in. After the CPO warranty runs out, the OEM could care less if their car falls apart in someone’s driveway.

But once you get used to these new luxuries like hands-free tail gate, proximity keys, heads-up display, radar-cruise, memory seats, heated seats, window shades, etc, etc- they really do come in handy

If you’re going to lease a new car every three years (because only poors drive the same car longer than that), who cares how well it holds up year four and beyond?

Think Maytag washing machines in the late 20th century. They made their reputation on reliability, so they sold fewer machines at a slightly higher cost. That business model worked for decades. We bought one of the last Newton, Iowa made machines in 2006 and it’s still working great.

Marriage is a legal union. Religious and cultural practices and traditions are peripheral and optional to the legal contract...

His taxes, the debate debacle, the Melania tape, Gillfoyle, the clear and present danger of Russia’s election meddling... you name it, they won’t be reporting it.

Eh, I’m a 65 year old monolingual American. There’s not much point in trying to learn another language at this point in my life. I kind of wish I’d taken French back in middle school (starting in 7th grade). At least then I would know how to pronounce fine wine labels ;-)

This whole story is just fascinating. My ethnic heritage is ½ German, as is my brunette wife’s. Both of my grandmothers were born in the USA although their parents were not, who immigrated from Germany sometime around 1880. I couldn’t understand a single word of the Jacob and Lisa video, yet I felt a very…

Ten bucks each from 30 million Trump Cultists would do it.

I guess my 2009 Z06 didn’t get the memo that I had to build it myself. They run 11s stock.

I just wasted a few minutes of my life which I will never get back, at trailerparkboys.com. Don’t repeat my error.

Read this, it’s a start.

...they could encourage steady growth in EV purchases by making it less financially desirable to own gas cars. Hiking the gas tax year over year would be a great way to do that (especially since it hasn’t increased with inflation in decades), but that is politically impossible in the U.S.

It has value because it survived an era when they had perfected the disposable automobile. It takes effort to preserve pretty much any vehicle from the late 80s or early 90s, after they figured out how to manufacture things cheaply but before the materials were durable enough.

Back in 2016 I was looking for a new replacement for my wife’s 2010 Fit, which was a splendid dog transporter with the back seat down. I spent two afternoons at the 2016 Cleveland Auto Show with a tape measure, clipboard, and camera, measuring 10 or 12 five-door hatchbacks and CUVs/SUVs ranging from another Fit…

Starred for Pontiac reference.

Based on your comments, I’m guessing you are located in the UK or somewhere on the European continent. Here in the States, my perception is that if you drive a two-door coupe or a very-hard-to-find three-door hatchback, you are probably unencumbered by children. Having a four-door sedan or a five-door hatch…

I guess in this particular aspect it has to do with cutting costs by only having to build a single body style, and if they’re doing it they may as well go with what sells the most.

But the definitive shift towards automatic transmissions dominating the market is later than the muscle car era, isn’t it? If I had to guess I’d say that it happened throughout the 80s, maybe starting in the late 70s?

They had held onto that belief from when they were kids that automatics were just better.