I guess we must live in very different locales. Around here in border-town the people I see in Mirages, Versas, and Rios aren’t buying them because they’re new. They’re buying them to get around, and run them hard for as long as they can. I would say there’s ego involved with folks who feel the need to switch to the…

Ok, but these cheap-as-dirt new cars often feature fairly old tech so even if issues crop up they’re often easily fixable at a dealer and usually don’t prevent drivability. I speak mostly from anecdote as my former roommate had an ‘04 Civic she bought for $3.5k in 2019 with 120k miles, and it stranded her on a couple…

Take the Chevy Malibu.

Which is still cheap as dirt.

Depends on the country. In Brazil and South Africa plenty of regular folk drive lightly armored cars as gun violence is a genuine concern in day-to-day.

IT’S ALWAYS A NISSAN ROGUE

If you drive this, you’re either:

THE best off-roader you can buy.

$2k down, $300 a month puts you in a brand new Kia Rio. It will presumably work every day, has a warranty, and has brand-new car safety like airbags all around. A used Honda Civic will be at least 20 years old, cost you no less than $3k, most likely need deferred maintenance, and crash like a tin-can. Seems like a…

I dunno, in Tucson Blake’s buns are always sad and mushy whereas In-n-Out’s are crisp and fresh. Maybe it’s the specific locations. Also Blake’s is kind of pricey? Like, almost twice the price for the ‘NM Style’ vs ‘Animal Style’ which are both my go-to.

I think even calling that a ‘bumper’ would be charitable. It’s just body cladding at that point.

Well, that was Giugiaro! So maybe he did some uh, borrowing from his mates at Cambiano...

This. I thought that immediately once I heard the statement:

You would really expect something different from a manufacturer that calls this ‘service mode’?

Seems like a bad business model to me, like if the local grocery store was only open when people want to work there. An actual product should be available at predictable and reliable times, not just on the whims of the workforce.

Between the ads, the slideshows, and the increasingly hostile commentariat, I wouldn’t mind never coming back here again. Alas, Stockholm (Gothenburg?) Syndrome.

of course the Transit has no relation to the Crafter, that would be preposterous.

True, but I don’t think I want to maintain either of those in 20 years.

That’s good to know, looks like Kroger has a pretty well fleshed-out system going.

the ever looming threat of Jalopnik disappearing