“Aside from the cosmetics...” You say that as if it’s inconsequential. The styling was possibly is biggest failure.

First two generations of CR-V had a picnic table built in.

I worked on a few, and honestly, aside from the novelty factor, they’re exactly what they say on the label, an X3 with a stick. Approximately 2-5% more fun than an automatic X3.

Wrestling coach here. I am tired of hearing the same thing from my fellow coaches and wrestling parents: “Wrestling toughens these kids up”; “I made my kid wrestle to build character!”; “I signed my son up to wrestle to make him tough!”

these are much more common than the x5 stick and to my eyes are a bit more svelte. i’ve seen 3 or 4 advertised in the area over the last year or so.  always craigslist never on autotrader.

In my experience, the higher end dealerships treat you like a human being and don’t play games - I felt like I needed an acid bath to get the skeeze off after just test driving a KIA Stinger, and I cannot imagine the local Hyundai store will be any different - certainly my Hyundai owning friends have very little good…

Most people also don’t know that the first generation BMW X5, the e53, was also available with a manual and the 6 cylinder engine in the US. Was looking for an older BMW wagon this summer and couldn’t find one that fit the bill. Ended up with a 2005 X5 6-speed. Honestly it’s pretty awesome.

Can’t speak to Hyundai or Kia as whole but Genesis cars alone have very good initial quaility and high reliability. They are rated pretty high by Consumer reports and others.

“and what’s with the hose just hanging on the floor?”

I’m so used to the US government getting incredibly picky about lamps that this is genuinely surprising to me.

They put a Jeep fascia in the bed.

Configurator broken, won’t let me 3.3T and 6-speed manual...

As someone who owns a 180sx from Japanese Classics, 10/10. Easy to get, work with and ship. Car was as posted and been very happy for 2 years now

#canada #r34 #15years #smug #hashtagsareannoying

The shrouded sparkplugs of the Wankel rotary engine are one of the engines greatest design compromises in terms of fuel efficiency and emissions. Having to keep the plug buried in the housing doesn’t exactly allow for optimal combustion within the housing. If Mazda can somehow adapt this Skyactiv-X sparkless…

The neat part about some of the older GT3 RSes was that the 911 Cup parts just bolt right up with minimal effort. So, did you break something while tracking the wheels off your 997 RS? Well, here’s the Cup diff...

You’re actually arguing that BMW’s manual transmissions are less reliable than their automatics? Now I’ve seen everything.

Good point. I suspect emissions have a lot to do with it too. Much easier to know what the engine is going to spew out when a computer controls the shifts. But the manufacturers still think saying, “it’s faster, it’s faster!” makes a more compelling case. 

You’re surprised that a German engineer cares more about beating their own performance benchmarks at the preeminent automotive test track, than about whether or not we get to play with a knob while driving?