Aren’t the EV ranges small-ish? There are alternatives that get further on the battery aren’t there?

MPV is what this type of vehicle has always been called in Europe…

There have been many other MPVs from GM, just not in the US:

I read your link, which is from 2016 and concerns purchasing tax (one-time) for Turkey.

Not in Spain, where the road tax between 1680cc and 2710cc (always considering 4 cyl engines, as cylinder count is also taken into account) is exactly the same.

Why isn’t the manual offered in Europe?

IIRC the 2 litre - four cylinder is not in any tax bracket limit (1.6 litres and four cylinders are). The choice is probably a combination of those taxes but also the 500cc per cylinder rule.

In my experience they have some minor annoying foibles, but the oily hold up well.

It’s a psycological thing. My aunt hates my car (a hatchback) because you sit too low in it despite being able to regulate the seats perfectly. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Indeed 265bhp for a base engine is mental. Nevermind, our base versions are far less powerful.

“In this application, it’ll have 518 horsepower. While that may not sound like a ton, remember Porsche horsepower is different from just about anything else.”

I guess that in the US you only had the Common Rail versions, the earlier Pumpe Düse ones were even worse!

Where does this leave cars such as the BMW M140i?

I used to drive a non-QV Alfa Romeo and it was fine, mostly. The oily bits were perfectly fine but it had some minor niggles (none caused it to grow to a halt by the way).

Quite possibly, but your original argument was no LSD (or similar) no performance variant. And that is simply not the case.

Worse than that, even for older car enthusiasts, society regards performance cars and speed as something bad and to get rid of.

Many hot hatches and some sportscars beg to differ. And they go round corners very well.

I drive one! A 340bhp hot hatch.

These enthusiasts are a pretty minor group and amid the chip shortage crisis manufacturers shifted their production towards more profitable vehicles, which the cars aren’t. Hence the waiting list.

More like everymans BMW X1. Or Alfa Romeo Tonale for that matter.