It is a cargo van, likely a Renault cargo van, converted to passenger duty. All Mercedes vans are in principle cargo vans. As is the Ford Transit Connect.

I haven’t seen the test. Did it actually get 3 stars in the crash tests, or did it merely not get the 5 stars in the end because it lacked some superfluous tech like lane assist and automatic braking? Because that’s a reason many cars get a low-ish score nowadays.

I’ve owned a long list of French cars. I’ve owned multiple German cars. I’ve also owned 1 Japanese car. All of these cars were from the 80s or 90s, with the exception of my Italian built French 21 year old current daily driver.

Most of the automation features, like lane assist and automatic braking. The only one I like is radar cruise control.

I agree. The Ami is for a very specific niche. Cars like the Zoe are more expensive, but also much more versatile. An actual car.

Agreed. I recently invested in a low mileage engine and transmission swap in my 400k km 21 year old rust free daily driver, because I couldn’t really find anything newer that I liked enough. Now it drives like a well maintained 5 year old turn of the millennium car again...

Agreed. I will avoid a subscription-based used car like the plague, and I assume many others will as well. So, as long as there are proper alternatives, subscription-based cars will plummet in value.

A Zoe is much more expensive though, and is a 'real' car requiring a full drivers license.

Ford still sells a Fiesta-based car in the US though; the EcoSport. It merely has extra cladding and a higher price tag/seating position.

The Spark and Sonic were crap, that's for sure. However, the idea that cheap cars have to shitty is wrong. It's just that companies like GM never seemed to care.

We are comparing different things. I did not comment on US manufacturers or US manufacturer engines. I commented on US market vehicles, regardless of manufacturer. The 25 year rule was merely a byline.

The cars on the road in 1996 that required leaded gas must have been old jalopies or classics at that time, right? I was too young to drive at that time so I don’t remember, but I do own a (French) car from 1987 and that’s unleaded gas only.

I am not talking about US manufacturers, but about US market products. Just an example: a Kia Telluride is not a US vehicle, but it is a US market vehicle. A vehicle that would be priced out of the market in Europe due to its absolute fuel (in) efficiency. It might not be inefficient for a vehicle in its segment, but…

Yet, currently, US market ICE products are typically so dirty/inefficient in an absolute sense that they’d be taxed right out of the EU market. We had a discussion about this here recently in reply to some kind of Kia/Hyundai US market crossover. They’d still be allowed in Europe though, they’d merely be very…

The roads in the US are slow from a European perspective, not fast. They are long though. But does this really matter from a commute perspective? Few people commute from coast to coast.

Or, for example, western European countries. Where fuel prices are way higher than in the US, the standard of living is similar to better and the difference between rich and poor is much smaller.

As it’s mostly a US website, I’m not surprised the comments are rather US centric. That’s to be expected. What is odd to me is that it’s as if many (not all) Americans seem to believe that they live in a vacuum. In a very nihilistic way no less; maximize enjoyment today, who cares what’s left for the generation of our …

Yes. Also note the dials are above the (tiny) steering wheel, so you’re not looking through the wheel any more.

Exactly. I had to convert the 23 mpg US into something metric (10.2L/100 km) to grasp it, but that’s a 1980s value for real world highway fuel economy.

An X5 buyer would have bought a 5-series otherwise. Which is roughly the same size. And, from a European perspective, a very large car.