Bummer man. I actually was pushing my wife toward the 5 when we were shopping for the MPV since she had a rather long commute at the time, but she didn’t like that power sliding doors weren’t available, plus we had been talking about getting a camper which the 5 wouldn’t pull. 

As I stated, I clearly have bias towards the Mazda and looks are subjective, but...

Yeah, the stock 5-spokes don’t do anything for me either. If anything, I have wheel envy toward my wife’s van. I might need to get myself a set of MPV 17's. No plans to go up to 18's, it rides hard enough already.

I’m clearly biased, but even if I attempt to set my obsession aside, I say the first gen Mazda 6 fits this description. At least the better trim level versions.

Back in my college days, much fun was had in an abandoned Metro that was found at our fraternity house around 1999. How no one was killed, I have no idea. Geo ftw.

Other than the benefit of a larger hatch opening rather than a trunk lid (which does give the benefit of loading larger items compared to the sedan) there’s no actual increase in cargo space. If anything, the “trunk” floor on the hatch models is actually smaller.

Us local readers are such enablers. Keep up the good work, son.

Any time. Keep the faith. Do some mods and spice it up a bit. I installed a full MSDS + Magnaflow exhaust (which is too dang loud, don’t get the Magnaflow part), geeked out with a Nexus 7 tablet in the dash (love love love it), just this week upgraded the stock stereo to a Kenwood 2-DIN (found the dash kit at a…

I think I considered selling my current 6wagon once during the 3.5 years I’ve had it. I don’t even remember what potential purchase made me think about it, but I felt dirty about it very quickly. I had a nearly identical 6wagon with automatic before this one, I am very glad that I made the upgrade to a manual one.

Yes. No Bueno. 

Amazing what you can do with 5 minutes and some free photo editing software ;)

To my beloved car:

An image overlay I made a while ago while researching this subject confirms it. You just get to go ultra-minimalist with the cargo if you choose GTI rather than wagon.

This blew me away back when that wagon was new and I checked them out at the auto show. My wife’s Pontiac Vibe felt like a limo in comparison.

Since I already made this when the new A6 Avant was released, I’ll just recycle it.

Ha, I was there and took these pictures, honestly didn’t even notice until looking at them closer this morning while chatting w David about them. I really should have spent more time admiring this collosal POS while I was at the yard 2 weeks ago. What a disaster. 

Funny... I only stopped to take photos of this thing and sent it DT as proof there are vehicles out there with more rot than his. And this Taco is 51 years newer than his Willys. Crazy. 

Best part, the engines are pronounced “eek-oh-boost” and the shitty B515 Fiesta crossover is pronounced “echo-sport”. What in the actual fkk?

Bless you. And damn I miss my 88.

Clever knob design, no question. Yet they put the audio controls on the wrong side of the steering wheel. Well unless you have a RHD car, since I have yet to find one auto maker that keeps the button layout consistent in relation to the outboard / inboard hand of the driver. Everyone just uses the same steering wheel…