Since I bought my BMW, the trunk opening dampers haven't worked. When I press the trunk release, it flies open at catapult speed and feels like it'll go through the back window. It's a simple repair but a PITA and doesn't really impact drivability or longevity. 

Yeah the metal surfacing on the side feels too premium to be Nissan (which has the cheapest, blandest metal surfacing in the business). More Hyundai to me.

It looks good. A hell of a lot better than our Explorer and Edge. It’s modern without trying too hard (Palisade, for example, is the opposite). And it’s good they’re offering some interesting colors. You can take beige if you’d like, but I would prefer not to have another bland, greyscale, crossover.

I had my car searched at the Canadian border at Windsor/Detroit for NOT looking at a border patrol car suspiciously. As I was inching up in the queue of cars, there was a parked border patrol cruiser I stopped next to for a few minutes in the queue. I consciously avoided looking at him at all, which he found…

fuck.yes.

In American English, we have some interesting slang for numbers. We usually say “one-fifty”, “one-eighty”, “three-sixty” for 3 digit numbers, even though that’s technically incorrect.

Because “Eff Won Fif-tee” rolls off the tongue.

this is true. I think a carbon tax should be separate, and levied on gas, non-renewable electricity, and at the sale of a new vehicle, based on the carbon it generated through production.

FWD packaging works well for EVs, as it does for gas cars. That front compartment needs to exist as a crash zone, anyway. GM decided to forgo a Frunk and give more interior space by packaging the EV components and motor in the front compartment. Tesla does the opposite, packaging everything under the floor and rear…

This is all true.

Since Americans would never allow a government tracker in their car (though many happily allow commercial trackers via insurance or OnStar, etc), the government could leave it up to insurers to collect the tax. Similar to how property taxes are collected in escrow on your mortgage.

Pay-per-mile insurance schemes are becoming more and more common (I personally won’t go back to normal insurance). It’s not an uncommon idea, but the implementation is expensive if they require a tracker or OBD reader. Not to mention people simply won’t allow that invasion of privacy from the government.

He did what a CFO does, and sounded optimistic while committing nothing. If he said “we’re almost certainly going to win some of all of the NGDV contract”, then I’d see the cause for suit.

Bangle caused a shock in the luxury automotive world, and it took other companies years - even decades - to catch up.

It’s goofy, for sure. But you KNOW they’re going to put all the climate controls into the main screen and replace the buttons with a metal strip or something.

I only say this because I’ve been in several of the newest generation Mercedes products. The entry level ones have tons of shiny, cheap, glossy plastic (GLB, CLA and A class are the worst offenders). This appears to have the same plastic appliqué coveting the entire center console and part of the door cards.

But those 70s german taxis chugged along for a decade, until they were sent to the Middle East and Africa to keep on chugging til this day.

I think this is a small step back in exterior design and a major step back in interior design from the current C. I know screens are all the rage, but the sheer amount of buttons on the steering wheel (there are two directional pads! Four shelves of buttons? Why??), general cluttered feeling of MBUX and the fact that…

Idk why the Q5 in particular seems so unappealing and bland to me, but whenever I see one I think of a FWD Tiguan hiding underneath. I know that’s not entirely accurate, but any sporty luxury SUV that isn’t RWD based seems like a sham to me.

Another thing to note about Brazil. Theft from automobiles is extremely common. Having an SUV, hatchback or pickup truck of any real value is just asking to be broken into.