Jesus, the waste of R&D dollars that implies is breathtaking. If this was de Nysschen deciding that the nigh-unto-perfect LT engine just wasn’t snooty-specification enough, then he truly deserved to be fired.

I’d love to know what those 50-100 would-be Bentayga buyers decided to lease instead. 

The Bentayga is still the fastest SUV in the world, no? I have not driven one, but have drag-raced one from a stoplight (in a Ferrari Testarossa - pass the Grey Poupon mothafuckas) and been shocked at how hard that beast launches.

Indeed! The E82 is a barrel of fun - I think your 135 will itself be a collector’s item even without the 1M’s fat fenders and fancy diff.

Huh? I’ve rented the new Pimpala several times and thought they were pretty darn good. One of my favorite things to pick up from Hertz, actually. Far nicer than the Nissan sedans they offer in the same rental class, and roughly a tossup with a Kia Optima or Hyundai Sonata.

^^^ This!

To each his own, I suppose. I miss my 993. I regretted buying my 996C4S and my 986S. I really want a 997, but seriously 90% of the ones on Autotrader are silver on black, which is boring.

^^^ This. It’s not the damn headlights of the 996. It’s the interior design, the quality of the materials, the way it doesn’t turn in very well, the weird seesawing ride motion, and the IMS crap.

Does the average luxury buyer really care whether it’s a 4 or a 6 under the hood these days? The Germans sell millions of $60k cars with 2.0T motors each year now — and sell far more of the 4-cylinder variants than the V-8s..

The story of Hyundai/Kia is basically this seesaw between very capable global execs and the Korean corporate culture of command-and-control from the top. I think we know which faction won on this round.

This. A 7-series or 9-series Volvo is like a small pickup truck where durability is concerned.

100% agree. My “city beater” is a 220k-mile S-Class. It’s perfect for the job.

Pretty unlikely. Financial austerity will probably be Nissan’s near-term future. Expect to see more high-margin luxury SUVs.

Guys like Ghosn aren’t doing it for the yacht. They’re doing it because money is how they keep score. Ford’s CEO got a 19% raise in 2017. Mary Barra at GM made $22M. The Board made Ghosn take a pay cut.

...to Juke and jive around the prosecution...

Dude, can we *please* not amplify this nonsense? These guys are batshit crazy even by Internet Shitposting standards, and we don’t need to give this any more exposure.

True, but couldn’t you build up a turbo K20A for a fraction of that cost?

You’re not wrong, but the cut that they take (35%) is way too big for that convenience. At a minimum, that guy should be grossing $500/month/car or $17,500. Turo’s take is over $6k, which pays for a lot of bookkeeping and credit card fees.

We rent out one of our trucks on Turo (it basically pays for the truck), and I cannot for the life of me imagine why you’d want to run a 30-car fleet through them. At that scale you’re so much better off forming your own rental car company. Turo’s commission is just too large to make sense once you’re renting at…

Red is making a comeback - BMW, Audi, and Lexus will all sell you a red leather interior now. Even Mercedes on some of the coupes. I really want velour to make a comeback, though.