I agree with that 100%. I do not think that it will be a van like the Pacifica or Odysssey, I think it will be something more utilitarian like an NV200 with a place to sleep and so on. People like having a more nomadic lifestyle today and it would be nice if they had vehicles that can do it all without being $40,000.

Bambiraptor...

Thats the real trick, brands like BMW are built on enthusiast credibility. Switching strategies and focusing on mainstream tastes can work in the short term (it did for BMW 10 years ago) as companies can ride the coattails of their reputation but make enough silly crossovers and baroque luxo-barges and the credibility…

And back to engine displacements, s to denote high output versions.

Goodbye suicidal wrc heli pilots, sad to see your job being taken away by drone pilots, just like our military.

Neutral: I used to consider them as an interesting datapoint until I’d read more about them. Apparently a grenaded transmission and a slightly annoyingly placed functional window switch are equally rated demerits to ‘quality’. That’s nonsense and I no longer pay attention.

Yea keep yawning when a “boring” car has 50% more power than the “sportiest” car they make. It’s actually depressing to think about it. This will be a second faster in 0-60 and a few seconds faster in the 1/4 mile than the FRS and the BRZ. It’s absurd.

This entire comment section should probably be COTD.

Better to wear a competitor’s shirt than the brand’s shirt when shopping. Going to the bimmer shop with a BMW hat and t-shirt is going to make it difficult to say you’re looking at alternatives.

on one hand:

One of your finest selections.

best I can do with no mouse and using a chromebook. :)

...in person, with my own eyes.

I guarantee that there are no “Alpha” dealers anywhere in the world.

No, you don’t understand the history.

CAFE pushed the crossover movement because it let manufactures kick the MPG requirement can down the road. They are classified as light trucks.

The manufactures put the sedans on the back burner and pushed for the CUVs hard with new tech and aggressive pricing. You’ve been…

Thats what my “fleet” looks like right now, actually.

This picture is a testament to modern materials science.

Antiquated lighting regulations, actually. The rest of the world enjoys new lighting tech and performance while we’re stuck in the 50's. Many European cars offer LED and even laser headlights with adaptive aiming and selective high beams to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. But we can’t have any of it.

I think Bosch’s role was probably like the grape sellers in prohibition who would print instructions on packages of grape concentrate cautioning consumers how not to turn it into illegal wine. “We have added the feature to our software, please do not use it to illegally cheat emissions testing.”

I’m thinking Bosch provided debug or test-mode software that the OEMs then used for production to meet the emissions requirements. I wonder if Bosch was smart enough to provide disclaimers on inappropriate usage of the software in their agreements with the OEMs.