You are thinking of the Jetta. Which, traditionally, has been nothing but a Golf sedan.

The 63 hp is a legal maximum for a Kei car. More hp and it falls out of the tax bracket. The output is probably underrated. Additionally, I would expect it’s mostly done for torque reasons.

My mom, who got her license in 1971, drove an automatic for the first time in her life in 2017 or so. She was so confused by the fact that her left foot had nothing to do, she tried to left-foot brake. Which went about as smooth as you can image.

Probably depends on where you live. I never ever do 0-60 in one go. 0-50 at most. Or 50-80. Or 30-60. Or 60-100. But I never encounter infrastructure where I’d legally and logically would/should do 0-60 mph. I don’t live in the US though.

A relatively small country. But that’s not the point, as the population size is still much larger than that of most US states. I thought car registration is a state thing in the US, not something federal.

I do not understand how such a thing can happen in a first world country like Canada (or the US).

Basically all VWs look generic. And yet, VW is the biggest or almost the biggest manufacturer globally. People LIKE generic cars.

Which is why VW is focussing on Europe first. I hear the hum of EVs all the time. Renault Zoes mostly, but Teslas and others as well. And I live in Germany, where people don’t buy many French cars and certainly no American cars. So, these two VWs will be huge here.

Like this? This is from 1975.

Exactly! I don’t understand the fascination with high hp daily drivers. They give you an impressive push in the back for a second or two, and then? You’re never at the limit while on public roads. Driving at the limit of either your own skill or the capacity of the car is where the fun is, imho.

For the most part I think Honda stopped offering attractive mainstream cars a long time ago. I do expect that Europe will get the new Civic though. I just hope that they will add another body style, because no one buys sedans here. And haven’t been for multiple decades. With the exception of luxury cars.

I mean, it’s a Nissan. That it’s dull and soggy to drive is a feature, not a bug.

“Europe isn’t a big buyer of it’s vehicles”

Nope. A Fiat 500 or a Smart can easily meet those requirements.

I’ll spell it out for you, as we’re still comparing apples to oranges. I’ll use EPA tests and US gallons.

You keep talking about relative fuel economy. Fuel economy of ‘equivalent sized’ vehicles. I keep repeating that this is completely irrelevant, and that in Europe it’s about absolute fuel economy. So completely ignoring the ‘equivalent sized’ part, as this has zero effect on fuel economy/CO2 emissions taxation. Zero. 

My point is that, even though 30 mpg US on the interstate is impressive for a truck with a gazillion hp, it is still abysmal interstate fuel economy for a 2020 passenger vehicle. 36 mpg US is hardly better. 30 mpg US is 7.84 L/100 km is 182 gram of CO2/km. And that’s on the interstate. So, it uses about twice as much…

“For commuting I am willing to compromise, and if I must go automatic to get the other features I want then I say go all-in and go EV.”

Fair enough. I was mostly looking at the FCA lineup. Which consists almost solely out of whales and dinosaurs.

True. The newest car I own is 20 years old. And this is intentional. I like the idea of an EV though.