Doesn’t the RS already have a hand-actuated parking brake? I mean, it’s not super convenient to reach while driving, but it is down there to the right of the driver’s seat, isn’t it?

I think you’ve confused horsepower for jalop-cred. The Mazda 3 and 6 are not powerful, and hence not terribly exciting 1/4 mile at a time, but they are absolutely the best driving cars in their segments.

Highway onramps, lane changes, interior ergonomics, they’re all the best I’ve driven in their segments. Sure the…

Mazda’s Kodo language translated well from Shinari to Takeri to Mazda 6. Have you seen the new CX-5? They’ve been way better at this then average.

I’m hoping the new design is evolutionary rather then a complete break.

It seemed like an unusually low number (1 of 5 still around). I’d hope they weren’t all scrapped. Japan is notoriously safe with cars, there’s no way they were all crash victims.

Apparently being an NA owner in Japan requires a certain level of dedication, rather then being broke.

Is everyone glossing over that with 120k cars sold in Japan, only 23k are still left? Did they all get exported to Australia and New Zealand?

There’s a lot of other comments highlighting that yes, the FR-S and Miata do sell. There is a market for this car. What I think they’re missing, however is what this car was supposed to do better then the FR-S.

The 140R and 130S were pitched with the 1.4T from the Gamma and Delta platform cars of the time (The 130S…

Is the 180hp as under-powered as it sounds? How does it compare to the CX-5 or the Escape?

I’ve lamented that the Pentastar isn’t an option. The Cherokees with the 3.2 have a lot more grunt then I expected.

Speaking of the Cherokee, is there a marked difference to justify the compass existing between the Cherokee and…

Why not name the planet Bob?

I don’t think the groups are as disparate as you may think. The Caterham, Colin Chapman, “Simplify then add Lightness” mentality is pretty attractive to a subset of engineers / automotive enthusiasts. You’re looking at people that are hands-on and probably grew up on Lego. I know I did. Caterhams are kit-cars. Lego…

Yeah, it’s protomold. I’d recommend them. Their pricing is good and their service is great. They’ve saved our butts more times in the last year then I can count.

Sorry about the delay, I don’t comment much and just noticed the notification.

And that doesn’t even take into account some of the changes that are happening in the prototype buisness. We’ve been working with a supplier out of Minnesota that has a 15 day standard leadtime on molded parts. They can even expedite down to 1 day if necessary. They’re cheaper, faster, and higher precision then our…

I’ll second the request for steering feel insight. “near-perfect electric steering” has a huge caveat on it. Where does it fall on a spectrum between the RX8’s “pretty good” electric steering and an NA Miata’s near psychic steering with a manual rack?

Not in the corner of Troy / Rochester Hills that he'd want to buy. While Somerset is high rent, the Crooks & M-59 intersection is significantly more blue-collar. This house, for example, is within a mile of where he works: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/26…

I wouldn't expect a manual. The center console won't accommodate it without a serious re-design.

The Chevy Cavalier is a perfectly serviceable daily driver. Cheap to own and operate, durable, and there are worse cars out there (I'm looking at you Aveo). There's no good reason for it to be the punching bag it is around here. Somebody decided it was an awful car and we were off to the races.

I've been driving one…

Can we please stop ragging on a crappy econobox from the 90s? You're not funny and you're not clever. Here's the top 5 crappy modified cars I found in the 90 seconds I cared that you were still bashing my winter beater:
http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/cto/471357…
http://detroit.craigslist.org/wyn/cto/472812…
http://de…

Also agreed. The side profile is a mess. There's no way I'd believe there's enough space for it to be 2+2 and rear engined. It's visually too short to be even reasonably feasible. It's fine work for someone at CCS but there's no particular elements worth discussing as Mazda-inspired (Kodo-esqe) or inherently RXish…

Completely agreed.

This just made my day. I'm going to sound like an idiot but I've had the mouse about a week and didn't see anything in the documentation that explained what this button did. Having found it didn't seem to do anything with profiles or DPI I had left it alone. The mouse has been in smooth mode and was bothering me…

This just made my day. I'm going to sound like an idiot but I've had the mouse about a week and didn't see…

If the question is: Would I buy a 3-door Fiesta ST? The answer is quite probably. I'll be in the market in the next 18-24 months (the DD is getting up there in miles) and while the Fiesta is attractive I've lamented on multiple occasions that there's no 3-door in the states.