The Audi A3 still comes with FWD and gets 2 mpg better on the city cycle while the CLA FWD gets 2 mpg better on the highway cycle. If Mercedes undercuts Audi on price it will be because you usually get less standard equipment with M-B; Audi A3 has a moonroof, leather upholstery, and projector headlamps standard, e.…

Again, it’s a December 2017 sneak peek but it won’t formally be introduced until the Detroit Auto Show in January and won’t be on sale until some unspecified time later in 2018. Anything manufactured in CY nn can legally be labeled a MY nn or MY nn+1. Manufacture year matters because regulatory changes generally take…

76-78 were Capri IIs; Ford skipped the 1975 model year entirely and introduced the 76 part way through calendar 1975. My dad had a 1972 and my sister bought a 1976 as her first new car.

If we’re going to be eliminating jobs through automation then we need slower population growth to balance demand for labor.

SMEG is an Italian acronym, like FIAT.

Since IRS came back and the 1.4T became the base engine, it would actually be my 2nd choice for a $20K car. The higher-spec ones, no, until VW stops trying to convince me that V-Tex is a suitable material for automobile upholstery.

It seems a bit sexist to think that men shouldn’t swear around women or vice versa. I’m considerably older than Drew, and I guarantee you that among the engineers and scientists I know and have worked with, the women swear just as much as the men. You should hear my sister talk about her overentitled medical students.

It looks like a giant Nash Metropolitan.

This is similar to an anecdote about “urban mercenary” Repairman Jack’s early days in F. Paul Wilson’s series of novels. As a teen he helped an elderly man whose streetside landscaping was repeatedly being mowed down by damn kids driving crazy to install some steel bollards embedded in concrete within the…

I know in some states an employee on sick leave can’t be dismissed if they have a disability insurance policy through the employer (it was optional from mine), until the patient’s doctor determines if a claim on that insurance will become necessary or not.

I’d actually forgotten that the Aztek had a tent option. I remember when it was introduced as an option for the Chevy Nova hatch in the early 1970s; I wonder what the first example was.

Drums without power assist would make it a lot more exciting to stop as well.

The wheels have ten spokes, but the pattern isn’t the same. Mazdaspeed wheels had 5 concave spokes, and 5 convex spokes that sat slightly behind at the hub. The 6 wheels are more similar to the 20-inchers on some past CX-9s, possibly a newer design from the same supplier.

How American of you to ignore the existence of southern hemisphere.

There seem to be a lot of owner complaints in both Australia and the US, with Nissan settling class-action lawsuits and whatever the equivalent is Down Under. As with the Getrag dual-dry-clutch DSG used by Ford and FiatChrysler, it is difficult for an observer to separate what may be actual faults from dissatisfaction…

There’s an AWD Mazda3 in other markets so the necessary pieces could be put together, but US buyers seem to prefer lifted and high-roofed, and Mazda USA already has an excess of low-volume models.

Well, all the major tire manufacturers. Regardless of drive wheels.

They are bigger than I want, but I could be seduced by the chance of having a 5-door saloon again, especially since the 5-door is one of the few automobiles to offer a deep jewel green paint, strangely not available on the wagon. But the “attractively” priced 1SV lacks some significant standard equipment compared that…

Didn’t Toyota emails leak last year about their ambition to reduce wages at their US plants from average for the auto industry to average for manufacturing in the local area? Which I believe was from low 20s/hr to low teens, excluding benefits statutory and otherwise.

I remember the then-CEO of Saturn countering criticism of the styling by saying the Saturn customers didn’t care about style. My reaction at the time was that maybe it would have been smart to make the car somewhat stylish in order to attract some people who weren’t already customers. I think what she meant was that…