You seem to have forgotten that the oil industry isn’t now (or has ever been) playing on a level field, in a free market - you forgot about:

1) the many billions in annual government oil and gas subsidies over the last 60 years

Not to bust your balls, but have you ever had to invoke Magnuson-Moss yourself when you’ve had a major warranty failure that could reasonably be blamed on aftermarket parts? Because it’s great in theory, but in practice all corporate has to do is say no to your warranty claim and it’s up to you to pursue corporate to…

Remember - with today’s seat mounted side airbags, better aftermarket seats often aren’t as cheap or easy as they used to be. And with modern CAN-BUS electrical systems, even adding a set of the same year but higher trim optional power/heated seats to a base car can be complicated, requiring reprogramming of body…

With all due respect, you might want to go back and look at that comparison, particularly the out the door cost of keeping your warranty secure by doing manufacturer required dealer service for the duration of your powertrain warranty on a ‘18 VW vs, say, a same year TourX.

If you look at the published maintenance…

Yup, the ‘96 and 2000 GTIs were absolute nightmares. And I considered an ‘18 GTI when I was new car shopping but the horror stories I was hearing from then-out of warranty GTI owners back then gave me second thoughts, as did pricing out the expensive, frequent routine maintenance required of the ‘18 GTI. The TourX I…

That’s too bad. Having had lots of VWs in our family from the 1960s to around 2007, we all really like the marque. (1958, 1966, 1972 beetles, 1964 Double cab, 1964 21 window deluxe bus, 1977 rabbit bought new, 1986 Golf bought new, 1996 GTI VR6 bought new, 2000 GTI VR6 bought new)

But the reliability nightmare of…

Those are great - did they ever make LHD models for the German market?

Who wants a 15 year old car for new car money?

A lot of people, as it turns out.

Charger sales in 2019 were up 23%, making it one of the top two selling years of *any* generation Charger. And the Challenger has sold 60,000 - 66,000 units in the US every year from 2015-2019, substantially more than 2009 to 2014.

Not worth it, IMHO

If only someone else was making this - I spent a bunch of money on a high end Pioneer NEX touchscreen nav unit for my Fit Sport a few years back, and it died literally a few weeks after the warranty expired. Hardware problem. Black screen, totally useless after failure.

I contacted the manufacturer for repair or…

Having driven both, there is a large driving difference between an Aveo and a Sonic, and between a Spark and a Sonic. Sonics actually drive decently, are remarkably quiet inside - Car and Driver measured 67dB @ 70 MPH, which is as quiet as a 2019 Mercedes E450 luxury sedan - and have a reasonable amount of power as…

Video seems to be gone. Backup?

Back around 1998 - a 1972 flat windshield Super Beetle with a ported Mazda 13B, reinforced 4 speed stick with a close ratio 4.37 rear gear, a side draft Dell’orto 48 carb and a ten point rollcage. 205/50-15 front, 255/60/15 rears under glass fenders with 1964 spec headlights and taillights. No heat, manual steering,…

As a former multiline major market dealer service manager (NYC, L.A. and SF bay area) - I have a hard time seeing how dealers will make a profit on EVs after the initial sale. Service labor typically carries the highest margin in the entire operation, by a lot. And there’s no reason to bring an EV back to the dealer…

If Toyota is content with small sales numbers to match that small niche group of buyers, that’s fine. And evidently they have been, for the last 13 years as the existing LC has continued with low US sales of about 1,600 to 3,700 units/yr in the last decade with minimal updates while being massively outsold by a ratio…

Riding the K1600GT for the first time (right after they came out in 2011) through the Adirondack mountains was a revelation. I was chasing the factory lead rider who was on a S1000RR, and he was not riding slow. The K1600 just rips, and sounds amazing doing it. I never touched anything down and I was hauling ass…

Nope, these were all standard issue H-D corporate demo fleet bikes. Harley brought several tractor trailers full of various models to Americade each year for the decade I attended. They did have a few lowered bikes for demo rides but being 6' tall with a 32" inseam I actively avoided those. FWIW, I never scraped…

I dig it, but if it was made LHD and brought to the US in current form it still wouldn’t sell for shit in the US. The only non luxury wagons that sell here are Subarus, virtually nobody actually buys el strippo-spec little cars here that aren’t Mistubishi Mirages and priced accordingly at the very bottom of the new…

I’m glad they did better at your place, because brand new leftover GB500s sat on the floors and in crates at all 4 of our local Honda dealers (South jersey, central jersey, Philly suburbs) for years. I knew the sales people at several of those places personally since I was riding a lot of then-new Honda bikes back…

Those came out just as I was buying my first bike, and I remember that they were expensive, slow and funny looking, and they sold quite poorly after the first year. IIRC Honda skipped production for those three middle years because there were so many new, non current model year leftover PC800s sitting unsold at…