I love Minis but their intrinsic BMWness scares me. Like BMW they hold relatively high values under warranty period. After that (say 80k or so) and the value plummets. I wouldn't want one out of warranty, at the very least powertrain.

Responsible sports car. Guffaw. VW once said "It takes a lot of guts to call a Volkswagen a sports car". They were referring to the Corrado, which is a thoroughbred racer compared to the CR-Z. The only salvation for the model redesign the hybrid system so as to make it the most efficient car on the road (ala original…

Why are you characterizing Musk as throwing a "hissy fit" and being a "stubborn ass"? Jalopnik has a history of being anti-Musk, not pro-Musk, and this piece hardly strikes me as being adulatory. Musk is operating publicly through legislative and legal channels. If you don't like him, that's fine, but to deny him the…

Something going right: A new HopCat location is opening downtown.

I'd have to agree. Ernest Henry should probably be on a top 10 list based on influence alone. He also managed to stick with his ideas through WWI and helped Ballot launch the first 16V DOHC road car in the early '20s.

Yep, that was the huge problem with the car. VW moved production to a new factory without sorting out any problems first, and didn't really even want a car associated with the NSU brand. But they desperately needed FWD water-cooled platforms since VW had tossed its money into dead-end Beetle-based projects.

I'm pretty sure it was a different car entirely. It was definitely smaller than the Ro80 was intended to be a cheaper little brother. Safety-wise, the K70 was a good design, with centrally placed fuel tank, and the interior space was good. Unfortunately, this was one of VW's worst assembled vehicles. It was rushed…

The designers went on a sabbatical to Tuscany and brought back their visions of beauty and poured them all into this one car.

I'll pitch in as that guy as well. The Biturbo sold like hotcakes compared to the low-volume machinery that the Orsi family and Citroen were hawking in the 60s and 70s. Its most accessible 'supercar' model, the Merak, sold 1830 units. Plus, going after the German marques was nothing if not adventurous.

In general, I agree. Insurance companies have cheaper extended warranties and buying a CPO car shouldn't need extended work. But I did purchase a CPO WRX (should have my head examined) with an extended drivetrain warranty and it saved me a bundle. The WRX required two separate engine rebuilds for a total of more than…

I had two post-GM Saabs and the problems were almost completely different. The engines themselves pretty maintenance-free, but in the case of the 9-3 I used synthetic oil and occasionally used WOT to burn away carbon. It never leaked any oil for 200k miles.

I believe the engines (both the TigerShark MultiAir and the Pentastar) are made in Trenton, NJ. As cars go, it's quite American. But the transmission is most definitely German.

It really depends on the style. Nobody does a lager or a wheat ale like Germany, IMHO. But IPAs? The U.S. wins hand down. If somebody over there has made a beer that can hold a candle to Pliny or Heady Topper I have not had it.

The real story is that it's the Pillsbury doughboy calling timeout. Toyota knows that Americans like high-fat foods and sports so it seemed the perfect way to their hearts.

It is certainly sensationalism. TWC has no strictly set criteria for determining whether or not to name a storm (unlike NHC's hurricane naming methodology) and beyond building awareness among the general public that a low-pressure system does exist it does little to help anybody. I'm surprised the government doesn't…

This car used basically the same type of battery chemistry used to start all modern IC vehicles. If modern EVs could weigh 500 pounds and travel 12 mph, they would definitely have a far higher range.

Volt and ampere units are named after Italian and French scientists so they are likely the same in any language.

I agree with you. Cadillac is all about full-size luxury (and has been since the 1920s or even earlier). Good-quality smaller cars have been a recent experiment. The Escalade is a decent example of full-size luxury, but the ATS/CTS/XTS cars aren't going to sway anyone from seeking out the big German marques, and…

Dude, those things are everywhere for $2,500. You can have as many you want.

The LS400 was Lexus' first product. There was nothing prior to that to take unseriously. Unless you mean the along-for-the-ride ES250 which was a warmed-over Camry.