Possibly, just possibly, the Ferrari 458 family (Italia, Spider, Speciale). These are likely the last naturally-aspirated V8 Ferraris, as the next generation moves to turbocharging, and then turbo/electric hybrids. The 458 replacement is likely to have 600+ hp and be insanely fast, but may lack the glorious sound and…

The "gap" drives me insane, too. I've been two weddings where the bride was constantly talked about as being "so fanatically organized". In my experience, that's someone who appears to be organized with lists, clipboards and crap, but has no vision of the big picture. In both cases, the gap was caused by an apparently…

Hey, honey, why don't we splurge on a party that almost everyone will forget a month later, because it's like all the other weddings, instead of putting a down payment on a house, or paying down our student loans, or buying a car?

There aren't any screen controls on the wheel, but there are a bunch on the left and right pods. Did you find the six controls on the back of the wheel? Volume up, volume down, pause, next track, prior track, change mode. Nice Easter Egg if you don't read the manual. Like the Porsche heated steering wheel button on…

My mind is clearly too puny to comprehend the 458 controls as quickly as you :-). But I drive mine mostly on the street, so use the car differently from you. While the steering wheel controls are quick and easy to learn, and the turn signals are definitely in the best place, the non-steering wheel controls are a pain.…

No fair. Some F-car drivers do use turn signals. The Ferrari steering wheel is confusing at first, but then becomes natural and works very well. The other controls? Not so much.

All I know is that mine had the engine out three times for various recalls, fortunately under warranty.

All Ferraris ever, with some worse than others <cough> Testarossa <cough>. As @DougDeMuro will eventually discover, pretty much anything you want to do to a 360 requires dropping the engine. It's quite an interesting operation to watch, unless you're paying for it.

I agree about the Boxster. I had one as a service loaner a few weeks ago. Maybe I have a puny mind, but I couldn't find how to access the engine at all. I was just curious to take a look at it. For all I know, there's a Mr. Fusion somewhere in there driving a little electric motor, and a subwoofer making vroom vroom…

Ah, interesting that the UK includes all those ancillary items. The US, much as I love it, seems incapable of listing the actual price for anything. It's always the most base of all base pricing. For example, rental car rates are for amusement only, because the rental company will tack on all kinds of BS charges,…

I'm perfectly willing to accept that I may be wrong, and that my perception is not reality. The sad fact is that manufacturers play games with models and options to make it hard to compare like with like. I suspect that the truth is that some cars/models are marked up more than others for UK markets.

Yes, in some cases. About a third of the world's population lives in RHD countries, and two-thirds in LHD. But RHD is skewed towards emerging markets, e.g. India, with the notable exceptions of the UK, Japan and Australia. Almost every car is designed for easy LHD/RHD manufacturing, so this shouldn't be a big factor,…

I lived in the UK for 33 years, and now in the US for 22 years, and it still surprises me how much cheaper almost everything is in the US. If you check new US car prices (always shown without taxes) and UK prices (dividing them by 1.2 to take out the VAT), you'll find that they're 35-50% higher than the US. For…

Sorry I forgot about the ST. That's an enthusiast car and enthusiasts are more discerning about options. I meant a run-of-the-mill Focus when there are 50 of them on the lot or nearby.

Oh yes, I agree about Europe. When I was working in Switzerland, I bought an Audi A5. It was to order (none in stock). It also cost 80% more than the same exact car, same warranty, same free maintenance in the US "just because". I don't know how people in Europe put up with this. It wasn't taxes....I'm talking pre-tax…

Actually, almost any car company will do that, if you have to have your own very specific set of options and colors. In most cases, it takes less time than you might think: sometimes as little as 4-5 weeks. But your overall point is correct. The highest-end cars (Porsche, Ferrrari, Lamborghini et al) have enormous…

I saw my first Macan at the Pinehurst Concours on Sunday; I don't think that it's even on sale in NC yet. It was.....ok, but seemed very cramped compared to a Cayenne and some of the interior materials seemed cheap. I love Porsche, and have owned everything from a 924 (in 1984....yes, I know) to a 997 Turbo, and have…

Plus impaired value. People don't generally want to buy cars that have been crunched. This looks like non-structural damage, with a perfect fix a strong possibility, but it'll be on the car's record. Cars that have this kind of damage often end up as rentals. There might be $50-75k of impaired value here.....

Don't use lawyers, buy a Nolo book, use the money saved to buy one of these.

Sigh. As anyone with, you know, a brain, can probably tell, the Top gear guys, while somewhat prone to racist comments, almost certainly didn't have anything in mind other than "an inclined plane" when they used the word s***e.