Ha!
It’s not even the size or the Japanese nameplate, the Tacoma is the segment sales champion. It’s that 5 speed strippo pickups are pure retail buyer poison on the dealership sales floor. The take rate on Douglas’ ideal truck would be a handful of annual new truck retail sales nationwide, like a one percent take…

Former Saturn master tech here, Spring Hill factory trained ‘96.
The variable displacement compressor is a really neat and clever engineering feat. A few of them gave us fits under warranty back in 1996 when they stuck at minimum displacement and wouldn’t cool down the brand new cars they were in. More info about that…

Follow up here:
All those concurrent sentences taken together worked out to be a single 6 year sentence to be served.

There’s a lot to cover here, but here’s a few differences:

1) The US has lots of wide open spaces and low density, where it’s common to drive long distances. By land area, Texas is larger than the entire country of France, for example.
2) Surface parking is usually abundant and free once you’re outside of the central…

2019 Nissan Frontier 4 cylinder, stick shift, RWD truck, new for $20k.
Theres a half dozen of those same trucks on Autotrader new with 6 cylinders for about $21k.

Seriously. I’m old enough to have lusted after the Corolla FX16 GT-S in 1986 and the ‘88 MR2 supercharged when they were in showrooms and I was a kid. The Works Group B Celica Turbos too.

Toyota used to be amazing for fun, fast, at least somewhat affordable cars, and then they just gave up. This car is beyond a legit…

That’s great to hear. If they get real demand and sell out the production run at a profit, hopefully that will encourage them to make more cars like this one.

Safety doesn’t cost as much (or weigh as much) as a lot of people think.
For example - because I owned both of these cars back to back - compare a 1993 Civic Si 2 door hatch to a 2013 Fit Sport 5 door hatch - an IIHS Top Safety pick in 2013.

Same size and footprint. Similar performance and spec. Similar mileage and…

Ah, OK. I was looking at the current generation - 2018 to 2020

Ooookay, my guy. Whatever you say. Might want to read up on it some more before you comment further:

New, dedicated platform. Unique 3 door body. Roof has been lowered by 91mm. Car is 55mm wider. All body panels are different. Carbon fiber reinforced plastic roof, aluminum hood, trunk and doors. Entire powertrain is…

They’re not cheap, even used. There’s only a dozen or so for sale nationwide on Auto Trader, lowest asking is $28k and going up from there to $40k which is getting close to new MSRP.

This is not a package added to a FWD Yaris. As the story mentions, only the headlights, taillights and antenna are shared with the regular Yaris.

Loads of shiny Tacomas over here on the west coast with empty beds.

It’s wild that the Tacoma is still the top selling midsize truck, since it’s so mediocre. Reputation and resale value really show here.

They’re just not good, compared to, say a Colorado. The Tacoma costs more but has less power (both 4 and 6 cyl), the automatic trans is poorly programmed, the cabin is cramped for…

When I was teaching adult continuing-ed automotive at a local university, the topic of VWs would come up, usually in context of some shiny, unreliable, out of warranty turd needing the exact same fix for the fourth time in 4 years. I told them that VW had perfected the art of making a quality looking and feeling car,…

Who is this douche and why should we care about him?

This. For example - the NJ salvage inspection is done by the State Police, who are exclusively looking for stolen parts, VIN documentation of every used part and sales receipts for every new part used in that repair.

When I ran a repaired salvage car through that inspection years back, the disclaimer was right up…

It does if you’re paying a premium for an undamaged,  “no structural repair” car - I.E. no serious accidents. Diminished value is a thing.

I used to do PPIs and forensic auto repair analysis at my shop (both for car owners and for plaintiffs/lawyers), and it depends on how much the customer is willing to pay for and how invasive they want me to get, basically. A standard, one hour shop labor PPI? Maybe not, if the repair was well done and everything…

If the Tesla standard for used cars they sell is “no structural repairs” , then it doesn’t matter how good the structural repair was, it’s still fraud and the consumer wins in this case.