R53 or bust for me. Driven every gen of hot Mini, and still the R53 is the best handling and best sounding.

also, the opposite is true: completely debadging your car is just as stupid

No, they are not catering to enthusiasts. I would walk right into the Ford showroom, find the manager, and tell them exactly why I WILL NOT be buying the elephant in a track suit they want to call the RS SUV. I would tell them I will be shopping elsewhere precisely because of that, and their RS SUV is in fact…

Oh fuck off Ford.

Just abandoning the entire treaty when the other power starts struggling to get out from under it is not the way, that is what happened during the 1930s with the Naval Treaties. Look at what happened.

That is exactly it. Soon all sedans and sports cars will be “also rans” rather than be truly unique offerings. two door mid engine turbo v8 or turbo v6 hybrid. slap a badge on it. done.

that is the thing that catches most - many don’t understand depreciation hits fast and outstrips your payments, and the rest think “Oh I will drive it into the ground” and 3 years later are shopping for a new set of wheels due to a variety of circumstances

but increasingly people are living with monthly budgets, not looking yearly because of increasingly the “string contract” work lifestyle, increased cost of living, etc.

This is not a surprise and has been happening for years. It was rare when i sold cars when the customer was not willing to stretch to a longer term to get the leather pkg etc. or the big SUV because they had one kid...

May not be true for you, but it is for me.

No, they don’t.

was it not the US Army Air Force (USAAF)? So you would not say armed forces plane anyways, but USAAF?

well if you are moving a shift lever in a gate, it might count as a semi-manual? But pushing a button or budging a shift lever up or down...nope. Also no clutch?

But no manual?

but it takes 20 seconds to search what plane it looks like...

It is late, and you are right.

if there’s a machine that’s shifting the gears instead of a human hand, it’s an automatic transmission

hence why I said “approximation” - it is a radial underwing single prop at least

But...that is like saying: “This P-51 Mustang was painted to match the armed forces colours of 1944"

This article is so full of inaccuracies it is hard to know where to begin.