That's good feedback and I certainly hope your Volt holds up as well as the Prius. For you, it's not a big leap of faith and that reflects well on GM. Most new cars are very expensive to repair, especially when involved in an accident, and so the Volt isn't unusual in this respect. But certain types of repairs the…

VAG did make a few traditional W engines for the 18-cylinder Bugatti concepts of the 90s. Weirdly enough, Rocchi originally developed the W configuration for a potential W18 engine for Ferrari...way back in 1967.

It's not exactly a secret. Why do you think GM pushes Volt leases so aggressively? Volts (and Leafs) depreciate like mad. Why? Part of it was the tax credit which effectively devalues a new car. Other reasons? GM has been steadily pushing down on the price tag to help sell the cars, which pushes the used examples…

Agreed. There's a definite trade-off right now because these battery-conservation schemes result in a very heavy battery pack. If you want to save money and keep your environmental impact as low as possible, the small gasoline-powered car (think Fit) probably still wins because very few people keep their vehicle…

Absence of heat will not preserve a battery indefinitely. Electrodes decay naturally over time through simple charge/discharge cycling. Electrochemical decay is the real enemy for batteries as the active surface material of the electrode falls apart. It's unavoidable, especially in Li-ion batteries such as the Volt's.…

The FB20 and FB25 are a lot different than the old engines. No, they don't have DI, but Subaru isn't happy with the results of that approach yet. The new engine has chain-driven cams, a different bore, more efficient combustion chamber and new conrods for longer stroke. Between that and revisions to Lineartronic, it…

The manual on your 2010 was only rated at 27 highway, the CVT at 29. The new Outback gets a better CVT and the revised 2.5 from the new Forester. I'll only believe the 33 mpg highway number when I see it, but my folks have a 2012 and it most certainly gets 30+ highway at around 75 mph. I wouldn't trust the trip…

Thanks, Ray. That was an extremely helpful post that really shed light on the finer nuances of top-shelf marathon training, and also served to calibrate my sense of what is "in" right now. Back when I started running I thought the Boston Marathon was relevant, but realize now that it is only so because it was the site…

Beautiful recreation. Along with the German streamliners, this is one of the first truly aerodynamic circuit cars. I wonder if we'll ever see a 57C replica.

Actually, it is about love or hate. You apparently hate post-1985 Saabs. And that's okay. In all serious, the pre-'85 (why 1985?) cars are slow, quirky, inexpensive and fun. The post-85 cars are quick, efficient, safe, relatively expensive and fun. I'm thinking of 900 SPG, 9000 Aero, 9-3 SE 5-door, 9-5 Aero of the…

I don't think I made that suggestion. In fact, if I actually read my post, I see that I did not suggest anything. This crash scenario is a relative scale, not an real-life simulation. Manufacturers would not accept a test that did not occur under extremely controlled conditions, and an immovable wall provides that.…

I certainly don't have a problem with what he's doing.

Getting unsafe drivers off the road is like trying to get uninsured people to stop using the emergency room as their primary care physician. It's a great idea, but good luck actually doing that without major policy effort. And it doesn't change the fact that people get in accidents, safe or unsafe. Anything operated…

Ah, okay, either or... I had a CPO WRX once that spent 45 days in the shop in a single year.

Unless AP's reporting is wrong, the version of the law in effect when he bought the Tesla gives him double the value, not triple. Also, Tesla gets four tries to fix a specific problem, which could mean the car is in the shop for more than 30 days and still doesn't meet Lemon Law requirements.

With the Ambassador, Michael is almost definitely referring to the 7-inch lengthening of the Ambassador wheelbase for 1973. He's not wrong about the bad timing on AMCs part, but yeah the Ambassador platform and nameplate was definitely not new. But it hardly mattered. They kept the shorter version and renamed it the…

The LaFerrari was available to the public...a select set of the public that can afford what probably was a six-figure deposit (I'm not bothering to check). Production was limited, the slots filled up. It's mass, or serial, production you want to define, and it becomes arbitrary pretty quickly. I could argue that one…

I'm not talking about the production figure. I'm addressing a direct quote from you: "I think we need to limit the term "production car" to only include vehicles built without a preorder or deposit."

All 499 LaFerraris are 'spoken for' and 'preordered'. Not a production car?

Thanks for cutting to the heart of this. Some of the cold-hearted crap I've been reading in these comments is sickening. Sure, most drivers can deal with sudden and unexpected power loss, no problem. I have a friend whose Cobalt has done this several times. But what about an 80-year-old who simply isn't strong enough…