How many Volvos raced with Volvo engines? How many Alfa Milanos ever reached 100K miles before being turned into racing cars? This doesn't seem terribly meaningful. Some cars won't feature on the list because they're always worth more than $500. This is partially an index of poor resale value retention. Any mechanic…

This person is in the wong line of work. I understand bitter, but she is more in the deranged neighborhood. Step away. Slowly.

This would be almost as good an investment at $9,500. I wouldn't give $95,000 for Conan O'brian's future prospects.

@imag: No doubt. Just like there are people who complain that the Civic Si doesn't have a turbo. Not everyone wants a turbo. Nor do we want a transmission that shifts for us and a nanny that steers, brakes and modulates the throttle.

The US gets the same Civic that Japan does. Hatchbacks are for Europe. The north american/JDM Civic has a mulitlink rear suspension to the Euro hatch's beam axle and our Civic Si has a helical LSD while their Type R has...big rims and a start button. Their dash is a video game. Did I mention that the hatch weighs…

Sure he did it for the insurance money. His deductible on collision was only $500 and the old one needed a $42K set of tires and a $34K oil change.

@duurtlang: Europe has not been the open market you seem to think. The French survived through protectionist policies for decades, just as Fiat did in Italy. GM is Opel. Why would GM use Cheverolet, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, etc.. to compete with Vauxhall and Opel? When they had sane management, they didn't.

@FromaBuick6: The CTS is too heavy for its interior volume. Only the impractical CTS-V is quicker than mid-priced family cars from Japan because of the extra 600 lbs the V6 Cadillacs carry. The DI engine carries almost no benefit in performance over the base V6 in terms of power or efficiency, but it does have a…

@optional flavor: How many AWD turbo Celicas did they sell? I've seen more photos of All-Trac Celicas than I ever saw them on the road or at the dealer. People blame Toyota for replacing model lines that they had to stack and burn at the end of the year.

@tonyola: The Supra is better now than ever. Basically, they were crummy personal luxury cars until the 1982 model. The 1982-1986 were besically competitive mid priced GTs of the era, at least for people who had no idea what a car should look like. The 1986.5 intro brought a return of the embarrassing boulevardier…

Don't cry for the Datsun Maxima. Nissan had already peaked 10 years earlier, when they had new 240Zs and 510s on the lot. Maximas needed serious owner modification to approach the perceived potential of their specifications. They were still tacky and flimsy garbage even after having all their soft parts replaced with…

I'm not disappointed in either. I've been following the US car market for about 32 years, and GM has spent it claiming to be about to catch up with Japanese product. I was disappointed by the X-car, by the J-car, by the A-car, by the Fiero, by Saturn, by the K-body, by the Catera, by the Solstice...etc... Each one…

It's like they're just going through the motions. The BMW that was great is dead.

As we watch decades of inferior products finally bringing Detroit to its knees, it is worth remembering that there were other car makers that were so inept that they couldn't even survive into the '90s in our open market. French car makers.

A friend of mine in college's nitwit brother bought one just like this. I remember spending literally days trying to produce pedal pressure for the hydraulic clutch. Another buddy of mine bought one to drive while he rebuilt his Spitfire. When the Spitfire was ready, the Midget languished in his parents' driveway. I…

@Grive: Taking a new M3 to a track day costs a minimum of $50 a lap for tires. At least Veyron owners can afford their stupidity.

@snapoversteer 'bout to get told: I had a customer who inherited one of the last RWD Fleetwoods. It had been garaged from new, had about 9k miles and an LT1 V8. I thought it would be great but discovered that GM suppliers used materials that couldn't stand up to 15 years in a climate controlled garage. The 'chrome'…

@snapoversteer 'bout to get told: Matt probably hasn't even seen a redneck.

This ad has a welcome honesty lacking in Porsche commercials.

@JC Whitless: No doubt. We've been down this road, and it was a crummy ride. There will always be people too witless to see inevitable consquences. They're probably the same people who won't learn from history. That's why we have trends.