The actor or the periodontist?

Victim blaming is what happens when your followers are a cult.

And I’m pretty sure Tesla would just flat out lie about recalls not being required, and then convince the Musk worshippers that a critical safety defect was a feature.

Tesla is “winning” because of a few reasons. They have a huge lead in both production capacity for EVs and battery packs, and charging infrastructure. But the real reason they are winning is because they sell cars for less than they cost to make. Other manufacturers aren’t so dumb as to see huge profits in EVs that…

But it still probably had less cowl shake than the factory Saab 900 convertible.

Yes, we seem to be at the dot-com pre-crash moment with EV startups. Most will never deliver a viable product, let alone make money. No-one can make money on EVs without emissions credits and consumer subsidies. This will change, but not fast enough to save the ones that are all hat and no cattle.

In either case, travelling wave reactors that use primarily spent nuclear fuel and don’t melt down if they lose power would be a pretty good solution. Nuclear has become a bogeyman because most of the plants that exist are ancient designs.

That would be slicing off $164 million. Not exactly earth-shaking.

BMW must be the very worst offender when it comes to this con about the various EVs that are coming next year with amazing charging and range statistics.

I think the X is uglier than the Y, but it’s a close call. The Y is very colour-dependent, with the black with black trim helping to disguise its unimaginative blob-like design. In white it looks god-awful.

I’ve actually heard Tesla owners say they bought FakeSelfDriving because they wanted to help Tesla’s R&D efforts and in so doing help to advance civilization. Not their exact words, but that was the gist of it. They were so blinded to the cult that they threw money away for a figment of Elon’s imagination.

Funny you mention that, when I test drove the e-tron and the Taycan, they each showed the range ticking down almost exactly with actual distance. Drive a Tesla and it’s like 1.5 km of range lost for ever 1 km driven, at least that’s what it seemed like with my S. Our Soul EV is better than the Tesla, but still drops…

It’s really sad, but I guess it’s a reflection of how much most car makers have chased volume at all costs. The E46 was a truly great car (absolutely loved my E46 325i touring - RWD, manual with sports suspension - despite its limited practicality). And BMWs of the era you’re referring to were generally so far ahead…

From what I’ve seen at all the Porsche dealers here, it’s trivially easy to get a Taycan, when nine months ago they would supposedly be like gold dust. I don’t think they are selling well in Canada, but the figures show that globally they are doing well.

For me it was when my XC90 T8 was constantly in the shop over my 14 months of ownership (I think 10 times), until I just couldn’t take it any more and sold it, vowing never to own one for the rest of my life.

I still think the E39 is just about the pinnacle of BMW design, maybe even the pinnacle of BMW, period. A huge leap forward over the E34, amazingly comfortable, yet poised and razor sharp to drive. I’m generally not a luddite about progress, but BMW has gone from really owning the “driver’s car you can also fit people…

Funnily enough, the first time I drove this era of Si, I borrowed it from a nearly 70-year-old advertising creative director. His other vehicles at the time included a Yamaha R1 and R6, and most weekends he would go skydiving. The Si suited him perfectly. And it was absolutely electrifying to drive.

My favourite engine is still the naturally aspirated N52 in the 2006 330i. It was obviously less torquey than the N54 and N55 turbos that followed, but it had so much character, and perfectly linear power delivery. For me, 255 hp in a balanced RWD package was just the right amount of performance to feel like you could…

These are the same as the posters on Rennlist who show up on classified postings for wildly expensive GT cars with “damnit, I would buy this if only it had the leather fuse box cover.”

I had a 2004 RWD E46 touring. Looking back, it really was the best balanced, most well sorted car I ever owned. Amazing ride / handling, great steering feel and just fast enough. I actually preferred it to my 2010 E91 xdrive. We didn’t get the RWD E91 in Canada, so I’m not sure if that’s what made it less fun to drive…