Huh, my wife had an ‘11 Insight, and I thought it wasn’t half bad. Sure, it’s no sports car, but it never tried to be one. For what it was, it was fine. It was reliable, got excellent mileage, and could haul an impressive amount of stuff when called upon.

I rented a Model 3 on Turo in Portland, and it was nice, but I’m leaning away from it now that I’ve driven one.

I borrowed my roommate’s Jetta for a date with my girlfriend at the time, now my wife. I could drive a stick just fine, but couldn’t figure out the reverse lock out (yes, I now know you push down), so I always parked in a way I wouldn’t have to reverse. I just used the excuse that I was trying to keep his car nice…

Try driving in Texas. 80mph on the rural highways will barely keep you out of the way of semi trucks. The speed limit is 75mph anyway. There are a lot of places in the US that 80mph crusing is commonplace.

50mpg cars are pretty rare, but a Honda Fit will fit real adults in the back seat, costs just $16k to start, and gets 33/40 mpg.

The FA engine in the current WRX has equal length factory headers, but some people install aftermarket unequal length headers to get the burble sound back.

I think the boxer’s biggest benefit to Subaru isn’t the low center of gravity or the inherently balanced crank, which are nice, but it’s actually the packaging.

I’d argue charging a battery pack isn’t really that big of a deal, but I’d be more concerned about inheriting someone else’s electrical problems.

As a road-legal car, probably not, but maybe as a side-by-side. Mahindra does sell tractors and ATVs in the US.

As opposed to the rest of Jalopnik and ex-Gawker at large, which is totally fair and balanced...

The 2005-2009 Subaru Outback (and probably other Subarus of the era) has a hidden diagnostic code reader built right into the trip meter display. Simply follow a Konami code of different button clicks to bring up the secret menu:

Exactly! Why take a perfectly good X3 and make it worse?

COTD.

It was about making the donors happy, and any notion of stimulating the economy is 100% pure marketing.

The cost of the Republican corporate tax cut would have paid for the U.S. government to cancel out American student debt in its entirety, down to the last penny. If we could afford cars, then we can buy cars.

I mean, the E30 325i still has a computer ECU, and all of the light bulbs are on detection circuits. Any little solder degradation or worn wiring will trip the idiot lights. As far as finding a simple RWD drivers cars, it’s certainly not the simplest, although the M20 straight six is a joy to tinker on.

Step 1: Avoid buying into big intimidating projects.

I’m sorry, but “various bits of western Europe” does not equal “just abut anywhere”. Again, I chalk this up to Subaru being a tiny company, and Western Europe is full of local OEMs with similar sorts of offerings. I’m thinking Opel, Ford, Skoda, Volvo, VW, etc.

What other markets are you thinking of? Subaru is a tiny company by automotive standards, so I always thought their success in the more mountainous regions of the US was just an outlier, not a rule.

I have, but not at the same class of car as Subaru. Both Kuni BMW and BMW of Salem were great to work with, Salem especially. Helpful, knowledgeable staff, and no pressure tactics.