Great pictures, great writing, great series...thank you!

Maybe not the best, but unexpectedly fun - a Kia Picanto. With the 66 hp 1.0L I-3. It was a great little thing to tool around southern France.

What year Focus?  My wife and I turned ours around after about five miles, realizing that we were both already suffering from back pain.  The replacement Camry was much better.

No shit! Stilted sentences of staccato stupidity.

Ford made Model Cs and Es, too.

That harlequin Passat...love it. Harlequat.

No, the manual + red paint combo was too fast. 

It’s probably better than the base unit.

No - tablet up top is a far better location than integrated in the midsection of the dash.  It’s easier to operate, easier to see, and makes the reverse camera far more useful.  I get that it doesn’t look great, but function overrules.

I’m in ME in an assembly plant at a large US company. I’ve been through a strike mitigation plan.  I’m not just making stuff up.

OKKJ: Stay in the greys and GFY.

But that’s true for any new hire; they’re gonna be slow. Anyone who has a much better background should improve their speed far more quickly.

Most “factories” now are assembly plants - joining pre-finished pieces together. John Deere does have its own foundry (and assuming a machining line after the parts are cast), but most of that’s likely automated.

Well, good for you. We’re not either; a properly set up assembly line should have adequate documents in-station so anyone with even the most basic training can walk up and complete the job. Guess your IEs need to work on that, huh?

I have a “desk job” in an assembly plant. I’ve worked the line, our accountants have worked the line, HR’s worked the line. We do what we have to do.  Are we welding?  No.  But I can guarantee they didn’t have any old loser start welding tractors together.

Please, never work in an assembly plant.  You wouldn’t last long with that attitude.

Oh, give me a break. On any given day, if they’d been short people to move the tractors and asked other production operators to drive them, many would have done the same thing. This is NOT likely a job they allow anyone to do.

Have you seen the current 2020+? I’ve not been in another Subaru since test-driving a 1st gen Outback years ago, but it’s damned nice. Only a couple of pieces of hard plastic, the rest is nice and soft touch. It was easily on par with the Mazda CX5 we also tested but the seats were much nicer (Mazda’s hard, flat…

That’s just dumb.

That’s why we bought our Outback - wanted something with more cargo room than our Mazda3 hatch, and with more capability, that wasn’t expensive. We could afford a Volvo or Audi but didn’t want to pay for them, short or long term. The Outback is still a wagon, and it’s the only affordable one out there.