I’d bet if you drove it after a few hours in my grandma’s ‘78 Lada you’d reconsider.

I thought the same thing when I read the title. It’s the fourth generation of A3, and third generation of RS3 as the first gen A3 (1996-2003) did not have an RS version.

I live in the land of the free, so I can import anything I want without any kind of silly 25 year rule. There is still some forbidden fruit though, for other reasons. Basically anything sporty, small and Japanese. I could buy them, but I would not fit. I sat folded myself into a Suzuki Cappuccino once. Just, no. I had…

Those would be too expensive for the US market though.

I’m 6'2" and I fit in a 1960s-era Fiat 500 just fine. There will be no legroom behind me on the back seat and I might sit shoulder to shoulder with the front passenger, but I fit comfortably enough to drive the car. The old Fiat is much smaller than these Soviet cars.

Given that that jury president was an American (Spike Lee) and among the 8 jury members only 3 were French, I doubt the nationality of the winner was the most important factor.

People complain, period. Might as well do something you like. I know I wouldn’t like to have to review a generic crossover, certainly not if I have to make it look professional. I presume Jason feels similar.

I’m surprised Jason didn’t simply refuse to review this car.

Given that the Taos is not even available in Europe, I guess VW is really trying in the US. VW provides Europe with slightly smaller/slightly more expensive/I guess slightly fancier crossovers in this segment.

This and the other crossover reviews on here always come off as “this is fine, but I hate it.” Which I get, but it’s becoming increasingly one note.

Not really, as that Toyota iQ based tiny Aston Martin still emits too much from the current perspective. It is too inefficient. Just not to the extreme extent as the ‘real’ Astons. You might underestimate the strictness of the regulations.

If they price them more realistically, they will sell.

They’d do a lot better to just put slap a 100% tax on cars that sell over 250.000€ and use the money to fit more renewable energy.

What I’ve never been able to figure out is why Volkswagen has a decent reputation for reliability in Europe. Is it that their smaller displacement engines, which we don’t get here, are more reliable or they only good in comparison to other European brands?

Define ‘truck’. There certainly is no loophole for SUVs. I don't know about pickup trucks, but they are a negligible niche in Europe anyway.

Moving production out of Italy won’t help. The regulations count for every manufacturer that sells in the EU. And obviously does not care about cars built in the EU but which are sold elsewhere.

These were not designed with the different (which is NOT the same as more strict) US crash regs in mind. So it would fail, in the same way a USDM car would fail EU crash tests.

In Western Europe the power grit is not an issue. At least not for the current usage. No brown outs.

This was to be expected to be honest. And given the tired state of new ICE cars in 2021, I honestly embrace this. A ‘classic’ for fun, an EV for commuting and other practical stuff.

You certainly do have a point. The German inspection is only about safety and emissions, not about reliability. So just the fact that it passed does not mean it will not suffer from old-car issues.