Interesting, but not too surprising. Toyota’s engineering payroll probably spends more on sick leave than Subaru’s spends on product. I remember how long Subaru kept updating the old Impreza platform. I seriously shopped the WRX wagon in part because it was a throwback to older hot hatches. If only they’d built an…

I think Subaru wanted the car, when they weren’t sure their sales success would continue, when they didn’t know if leaving the podium would make the demand for the WRX and WRX STi dry up, and when they thought imminently high fuel prices might hang their AWD branding and bring the industry giants looking to snatch…

His dealership may not make him independently wealthy. It’s a tricky business, to be made a little trickier by Brexit, I bet. Even if it’s doing well, he may have made commitments that don’t allow him to walk away. I admire Edd, but I can’t fault Mike from what little I know.

Because Mike is not Edd. He is a different person with a different life made from a different past and with his own assets, liabilities, wishes, and responsibilities.

Clearly you did not Google flying spiders.

Mike may not be in a position to make an ultimatum. That show is his job. Is it appropriate to blame him for not making an ultimatum?

By and large they don’t, though. Not to effect positive change, and not that returns significant negative consequences. So the illusion that because one’s words are accessible everywhere they’re being dutifully read and given the import of sage advice by the right people continues to entice and disappoint, and in some…

There aren’t a lot of really bad people on the Internet, but we hear about every one of them.

And Fiat sold 542.

Of course, if the car exists, Subaru dealers want a piece of the action. If something’s going to poach sales from the WRX STi, they want it to be able to sell it. They’d want an exclusive if they could get it.

I believe someone already does a supercharger kit for it. I like the idea of a supercharger; it harkens back to the MR2 Supercharged.

The turbo sits underneath the engine in the WRX and WRX STi. The engine in the Toyobaru sits too low.

I’ve not seen a caped pantsuit before. What a regal look.

It’d steal from other sports cars, sure, but it’s silly to assume that no STI buyers wanted a 300hp BRZ.

Different cars with many of the same attributes appealing to largely the same fanbase. First, imagine the conniption Subaru dealers would have if the Toyota 86 got a hipo model and the BRZ didn’t. Second, imagine the Subaru fan wanting that hot BRZ and reading that she can only get it with Toyota badges. She knows…

Your ignorance is astounding. You laid out conditions that are not different from conditions that have existed many times before, and when informed of this, just repeated your conditions and said “but this time it will be different” based on nothing.

Mustang shares about as much with the rest of the Ford lineup as the BRZ shares with the rest of the Subaru lineup.

Ford Mustang is a $26,000 car that moves upmarket past $40,000.

Toyota owns 16.5% of Subaru, so they’re not likely to want to screw them. And Toyota probably sees less return on investment in a hotter 86 than they do in more mainstream vehicles.

You are confused.