I see these around LA (well, one of their parking sites is on my commute...I’ve never seen one in the wild) and they are fantastically ugly, awkward-looking things to my eye. Everyone has different taste though, I suppose. 

I think you’re right on the money in your analysis. Fashion and modes of consumption have changed dramatically since the Penny’s/Sears/Wards heyday of 4-6 decades ago.

It’s definitely bland and looks like a dozen other small CUVs. But, for Buick, that’s a step up. Their current design language manages to be both distinctive and utterly boring. At least now people can buy a Buick without being afraid everyone will know they are driving a Buick. 

Reading the report, I still don’t see how a rate per million registration years is relevant. If they want to measure the relative risk of death IF an incident occurs, then the relevant rate should be something like driver deaths per 1000 incidents or something of the like. 

Thanks for fighting the good fight in this thread. The data on which this story is based are complete crap, and the conclusions are meaningless.

Kia Soul is a great option, and I would bet one with a couple years and not to many miles can be found for a good price. 

The lack of rarity is my issue here as well. If you’re talking Ferraris or similar exotics, there is a collectors market that absolutely will pay a premium for a car driven 60 miles a year (or less) and kept in climate controlled storage. Those cars are more like art in that they get valued as rare objects rather than…

I know nothing about this car beyond the pic posted about but now it’s the only Renault I want too

Ah, good info. Thanks for posting. Had no idea Alamo/National were part of the Enterprise group. 

I think Erik’s comparison between CEOs and football coaches (or coaches of any team) is apt. In both cases, you are dealing with huge, bureaucratic institutions with limited ability to make wholesale changes.

Exactly. I forget which is which, but I think each of the three premium companies (Hertz, Avis, National) have at least one down-market sibling. 

Great point about insurance and registration. Growing up, our family always had old beaters and my parents just carried liability insurance - no collision or comprehensive. Saved a ton of money. (That was years ago though, so not sure if that analysis still hold up today, at least in all states.)

Completely agree.

Agreed. This seems like the perfect time to do new model reveals, which are inevitably for cars no one is going to be able to buy for months anyway. Set up a website with tons of 360 interactive walk-throughs, so that people sitting at home can see every inch of the car. Trailer prototypes out to a few friendly…

Great comment. MLM is really the American dream, distilled down to its essence and then curdled - the belief that anyone is a millionaire in waiting, that entrepreneurship is the one way to true freedom, that there’s ONE SIMPLE TRICK those in control don’t want you to know about, and that riches lie just around the…

The mom of one of my high school friends had a Mary Kay car, and while it might have been a Buick, I’m 90% sure it was a Pontiac (would have been a mid-90s Grand Prix, if it was in fact a Pontiac).

That’s the lord’s work right there that you did. 

My dad has a full set of craftsman tools - ratchets, sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers and so on, which he bought nearly 50 years ago. After decades of working on cars, tractors, lawn mowers, chain saws and everything else for decades (including letting his two idiot sons use them), they are still largely good as new.…

Same. I got my first cast iron pan a couple years ago and for the first 18 months that I had it, I was so intimidated by trying to season it and clean it properly and all that that I barely used it.

The issue, I think, is that a lot of 4-cyl minivans can feel like they don’t have enough power to get out of their own way, being big, heavy vehicles shaped like a brick. Not that potential buyers are driving them expecting to get Corvette performance, but they don’t want it to feel slow.