TBD, so let’s make something up! I is for Industrial, so it’s a cargo van. Or I could be for Individual, and be a skateboard platform for other automakers and coachbuilders. M is for Minivan, so it’s a Model X with sliding doors instead of falcon doors. And the second 3 is the second generation 3.

It’s too bad that “Model T” is taken, or he could extend the model range to spell out S3XYTIM3 (though he would need a second generation Model 3, I guess).

In addition to Stan’s correct take that magnitude of the problem is more important, the issue is that “long term dependability” means completely different things to JD Power and jalops. JD Power thinks “long term” means three years old, but jalops would add at least a decade to that.

Copy Volvo’s V90/Cross Country strategy and give it a special order option that turns it back into a Legacy wagon.

Why is he inoculating himself against germs if he thinks germs aren’t real?

You just called Jewish people dogs! I’m telling Twitter!

If it’s something so large that the cargo cover can’t properly obscure it, it wouldn’t have fit in a conventional trunk anyway.

Sorry, those practical, non-offroady vehicles are all being killed off.

That is what I was wondering, too. It’d be fun to see a comparison between an unstretched 418 Town Car and a Police Interceptor Crown Vic. See which one is a better platform for an apocalypsemobile.

I ain’t gonna judge this time.  I was also drinking before, during, and after the State of the Union.  No other way I was gonna be able to sit through it.

The problem with this concept is that you’re imagining a fixed outer dimension of the engine block, with the thickness of the block expanding inward with increasing temperature. That might be a useful concept for a short intermittent stage as the block heats up from the inside out, but not at a relatively uniform…

Could you or Dr. Randolph shed any light on warming strategies with respect to nonrotating components? I tend to worry about warping cylinder heads by applying too much of a load when the head isn’t at a relatively uniform temperature, especially with modern downsized high compression and turbocharged engines.…

Outside of the homicidal Decepticon styling, I’m glad I’m not the only one who is bothered by that hatch. What really gets me is that the sedan has almost the same profile, with a teeny little decklid. The hatchback is trying to look like a sedan, and the sedan is trying to look like a hatchback. Why not offer a…

It definitely depends where you are, as to whether it’s a meaningful economy. In cities, supply of space goes down, and demand goes up, which in any normal economy would increase the cost of the good (space), but that cost isn’t sufficiently isolated to the driver. Instead, for the uniform cost of a vehicle…

I’m not saying there is a hard cutoff - somebody else brought up the percentage. Everyone’s using it for something different. Also depends what you count as “using it.” If you’re “using” a full size pickup 20% of the time, but you define “using it” as “taking a lawnmower to your aging parents’ house to mow the lawn…

Yeah, this is definitely not restricted to trucks.  Nice thing about minivans, though - no one buys one unless they absolutely need it.  Pickups and SUVs used to have a similar deterrent by way of being uncomfortable and squirrely on-road, but they’ve gotten so much more refined.

Agreed, though their sales are a drop in the bucket compared to full size trucks, which means there are still too many behemoths outside their natural habitat. It’d be nice to see the compact market come back, too, but small commercial vans like the Transit Connect may prevent that.

Americans are moving more toward urban centers (i.e. places with fewer and smaller yards to take care of, more landlords and fewer homeowners, etc), so there should theoretically be fewer and fewer “truck jobs,” yet truck sales keep on increasing.  While it’s difficult to determine the real purpose of one particular…

40% is solid

Big trucks are a nuisance to other drivers in ways that a basic Corolla, or a sports car, or a luxury sedan are not. Idgaf about anybody’s truck when it’s parked in their driveway or cruising on a wide-open highway. It does annoy me when I can’t find a street parking spot because of the extra length of trucks parked…