I developed a theory a while back about how different nations see reliability.

- Reliability in Japan is a car that will go on forever provided it’s sympathetically maintained.
- Reliability in America is a car that takes sustained abuse balanced by oil changes and tire rotations every 500 miles and may need a whole new…

“He”?

1st Gear: Nissan and Renault *do* share platforms and engines:

The steering doesn’t offer that crisp MX-5 feedback

Interesting to hear the concept works in practice. And I think you’re right on the sense of right of way for whichever lane is continuing.

I’ve always thought the logical answer to stop one or another lane getting “priority” of some kind is to merge both lanes into the centre line, and then have it join one or the other regular lanes a short while later. If no one lane is the one being closed off, then there’s no benefit to staying or bunching up in the…

Not a Chevy detractor by any stretch, but I don’t buy GM’s claims that this particular shape is a disaster for aero.

Flown in 747s and A380s in business on long-haul, so upper deck of both. Little to choose between them really - the A380 just allows more upper deck space for first/business. I’d like to travel on 747s a few more times, but the A380 is comfortably the quietest aircraft I’ve ever flown in - on the top deck at the very…

Seconded. That’s the best description of any car I’ve ever heard.

Italian versus Swedish?

I’d actually forgotten there was a 3-cylinder diesel in the ForFour, as with the image you post. Never drove that one, but the tiny and less powerful unit in the ForTwo (45bhp initially, 54bhp later) was easily better than the petrol units in that car (Brabus version aside). It’s amazing how much more pleasant a 3-pot…

Tiny three-cylinder diesels in cars were never a good idea due to their crudeness

Never quite understood America’s hatred of the Chevette - Europe got more or less the same car, and it was perfectly fine for its day.

Well yeah, if you’re going to compare the Leaf to the sedan version of each, but the Leaf is a hatchback, so it makes a great deal more sense to compare it to other hatchbacks. The “hatchback sedan” is a thing that doesn’t exist - the cars you’ve listed are sedans.

A spectacular CP. Mainly because in the UK, you can get one actually build by BMW for a couple of grand.

It’s a nice idea, but it shuts out the elements a little too much. I don’t mean that it keeps you warm - which is obviously a good thing - but it doesn’t strike me as being a vehicle that’d a) give you much feedback on the surface beneath or b) much visibility.

NP. Decent bit of nostalgia, and that price really doesn’t look too bad considering the prices of all the neat European Escorts are going up fast. $3k for a Mazda with a Ford badge looks great compared to £5k+ for a CVH-engined 1980s Escort with XR3 scrawled on the back.

I’d not start throwing around accusations of having “no idea” if you’re describing the Leaf as a car the size of a Fiesta. It’s longer and taller than a Focus, and only a few inches narrower.

Easy NP for this. Not bad money at all for a fully-prepared race car.

Love all of these. Old 1980s and 1990s digital gauges are one of my favourite old-car features. While I didn’t buy my entire car for its gauges, these are still a highlight of one of the cars I own. It’s bright, clear, looks great, disseminates information easily...