As you say it is too late now, but in any case I doubt it would have made much difference.

Not only that. One thing is selling pseudo-premium fast Fiats at 15-25k and another very different one is selling 35-55k luxury sports saloons and SUVs. Alfa Romeo does not have the image for the latter.

And you’d be doing very well indeed. Well, at least with the Giulias.

It is. Also, Lancia with a sad little rebodied 5 door 500 in Italy outsells the entire Alfa Romeo lineup combined, in the whole of Europe.

These liveries are ghastly and vulgar and the GTA/GTAm are a sad attempt to get some money back from Alfa Romeo á la Porsche.

One wishes this kind of innovation came back to the pinnacle of motorsport.

Except that it is a Ligier, not a Tyrrell 😉

Now that you mention the fast BMWs and Kias, here in Spain there are no (as far as I am aware) high performance pursuit vehicles. The fastest things must have been the 159 2.4JTDm used by the Guardia Civil.

“I have never made it to Finland but I did live in nearby Sweden for a while and I remember the cop cars there being similarly practical. (A lot of vans and wagons.)”

Then, either we rethink personal mobility or electric cars are doomed.

This, so much this. When I can recharge my electric car in 5-10 minutes to do 300-400km I’ll consider switching.

The facelifted car is wearing M-Sport bits while the pre-facelift car in the comparison wears standard body parts. That’s why the newer car looks more aggresive.

Let’s see how the non-M Sport version looks.

Sometimes I drive a Smart Forfour Turbo with the dual clutch automatic which can do 37mpg even with 85mph blasts down the motorway.

A Smart Forfour Turbo can do 37mpg including doing 85mph in the motorway and also a bit of city.

It’s €1.10 a litre for petrol here. However EV sales will probably be more impacted by their high price and economic crisis rather than fuel price.

Honda e?

I had to drive in city traffic in a manual in a regional European capital.

Fun is just a byproduct of our landscape.

The 2 Series Coupé and Cabriolet (which apparently will not survive the current generation) are rear wheel drive while the 2 Series Active, Active Tourer and Gran Coupé are front wheel drive.