Looks like a dealer plate. Makes you wonder... potential customer? mechanic out for a joy ride?

Excellent strategy, sir. This could be a nice Mike Judge screenplay.

The nice thing about the Spark is that it feels like GM actually tried. The interior is at least interesting, functional and appears to be well made. The styling is more angry than cute, but it's also unique and sort of interesting. The problem is the drivetrain, which delivers a horrendous noise in return for a…

I have a feeling it'll be more like the Mazda Demio than the Spark. Compared to the Spark, you get better performance thanks to lighter weight and more power from a bigger engine. But it's got super-cheap plastic inside and little to nothing in the way of toys. It's a basic car that will probably be fun to drive like…

Only five times faster? The U.S. built nearly 50,000 M4s in four years. The entire run of Tigers was less than 2,000 units.

Well, it would have made the Cobalt/Ion/G5 a little more interesting.

Relax, he said 'less than stellar', which is a fair description for a 2005 Cobalt, and frankly a generous description for the execrable Ion. They were known to be barely competitive cars well before the recent revelations.

Gets in Saab. Scratches head.

Which GM are you siding with, new GM or old GM?

By definition, NASA has always been a political organization so I don't get where that's news. Global economic warfare isn't really comparable to outright slavery and murder. If it is to you, you have different standards than most of us about what is acceptable behavior in today's society. "Justice for all" is a…

Yes, they were. The Silver Arrows were a politically sanctioned effort funded more or less directly by Hitler himself. It was a Nazi program in all but name and these cars wore the swastika for speed record attempts. If you were on the race team, you were a de facto Nazi and even publicly apolitical drivers like Bernd…

These don't do that well on the twisties and shined mostly on the larger tracks in the '30s. When you have wheelspin in top gear at well over 100mph you have to accelerate with care. And the brakes are difficult to modulate. But the power to weight ratio is so high, they can't help but be fast.

The main criticism I gathered from Jalopnik was that Mini was quickly becoming less-than-fun to drive. I test drove a couple of Countrymans (men?) before buying a used WRX (huge mistake but that's another story) and they felt like they looked: a plodding CUV that was only mildly entertaining to drive thanks mainly to…

The Paceman has 5.3 in of ground clearance. The JCW version goes down to 4.2. My Saab 9-3 has 6 in of ground clearance. Mini gives you nothing in your fight against potholes. In fact, the low profile tires are a detriment; you'd be better off in a Corolla.

I agree, but the timeline is a lot closer. Maserati displayed its Touring coupe in March 1957. Volvo built its first P1800 prototype later that same year. The P1800 was designed by a Swede but had lots of support from Frua/Ghia. I'm guessing it was simply the fashionable "nose" of the time. Some period Ferraris have a…

I agree on some level. If I were a buyer of a 2011 Sonata I would probably say that Hyundai should have waited longer until its new designs had been more thoroughly tested. But looking from the outside, the combination of all-aluminum engine, 6-speed trans, direct-injection, turbos, hybrid, continuously variable valve…

Direct-injected turbo gasoline engines aren't new, but they aren't exactly old either. Good, reliable systems didn't appear until the late 2000s. BMW, Audi, Mercedes didn't make them before 2006, and GM and Ford had their first examples in 2007. I think Hyundai beat the other Asian makers in this technology except…

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…