At least the small cars in that age were cheap and cheerful (C2 and C3). But the previous five years, 1995-2000... absolute misery, only mitigated bu the occasional Xantia activa or XM.

The Renault will probably be faster around the corners in skilled hands, but the Citroën will surely be more comfortable.

Of course. But as his Iacoccaness himself said, "Product comes first". He was a great salesman, but he also made sure to have something worthy to sell beforehand. The Mustang was a great concept beautifully executed, and the K-car was a solid piece of engineering.

Picture a war-torn country in 1940s Europe that had not received a penny from the Marshall Plan and had less industry than Czechoslovachia. Picture a truck manufacturer from that country which has only recently made the change from petrol/gas to Diesel.

Not only that: it was surprising for most people that this car, plain and uninspiring as it may seem, put Chrysler back on its feet.

N-630 between Seville and Monesterio, Spain. Seville is in a plain, so is Monesterio. But between them there are rolling hills and mountains over 1000m (3000ft) high, and almost nobody goes by that road because there's a highway running nearby. So what's the thing? Breathtaking views of mountain lakes, so many twists…

Well the Renault Energy and the Peugeot TU were also 8v and had higher specific power... anyway it was a fun enough car, only I'm more used to the handling of the French rivals.

Underrated, world-best for the purpose it was made for, love-it-or-hate-it... I see what you did there.

Don't forget it was assembled by lefty Andalusians in Barcelona!

Wow. The 60 bhp wonder (because even Renault had figured by then how to get 80 bhp from a 1.4l petrol engine). Maybe it was more fun than it ought to be, but German engineering meant that it was more nose-heavy than French or Japanese equivalents, and understeered like a bastard. A Clio or (especially) 106/Saxo could…

Yes, but the SDI is actually a bit more economical that the TDI... at the expense of anything resembling performance.

It's 10 times as much as it's worth. Which is still too expensive because that car is a POS. The dullest thing you could buy in 1990s Spain, apart from Hyundais. French superminis are not much better, but at least they're lively and fun to take to the (actually not very high) limit. This absolute dog isn't even fun to…

Start putting a couple of things at a time, instead of going the whole nine yards and tripping on the way.

"Just like any other air force in the world"... but with Silent Eagles and F-16 updated to the latest standard instead of Sukhois that have Soviet-era avionics (or, even worse, French avionics!) or Typhoons that are grounded every time it rains, it's too cold, or too hot (yes, we're working on that, but it's still…

Better avionics and weapons that we do actually know that work?

Well, the Arrow was a pretty impressive airplane for the era, even taking into account that press releases were overhyped. Same happens with the Hispano HA-300, a supersonic plane designed in 1950s Spain: yes, the F-104 and MiG-17 might have been better. But not that much better taking into account that Spain had all…

Allegedly, on both counts.

That's not the point. The point is that it's an expensive weapon that isn't working that much better than the cheaper alternatives available (namely, the F-16 and F-18).

The Starfighter was the triumph of thrust and light weight over aerodynamics. The F-16 and the Gripen are relatively lightweight too. Both of them are influenced by the E-M theory: make a plane fast and manoeuvrable and fly it higher than the enemy, and you'll win almost every time.

The Typhoon is already operative (sort of) and packs much more "punch" in real-world conditions.