Most people check a car’s safety ratings and crash-test scores before buying,

1st Gear: MPG is litteraly one of the lowest priorities on my car shopping list. In fact I don’t even look at it. As long as it’s not single digits I really don’t care. And even then for a fun weekend car I don’t care if it’s single digits because the car isn’t my daily.

The government push for EVs would feel more…

Midwest... I just checked and that dealer has that truck marked at $29,999 now with all the discounts, incentives, and rebates they are throwing at it here at the end of the year.

No you don’t understand. Electric vehicles are the future, therefore they much look “futuristic”. It’s an automotive design rule, that must be adhered to absolutely with no exception.

Yes. Commercial fleet configuration and they are actually pretty nice.

I’m right there with you. I drive a Fiat so that is basically every truck and SUV on the road for me.

Also the fun aspect of when one pulls up behind me at a traffic light at night, that my car is narrow enough that I get their right headlight in my right mirror and their left headlight in my left mirror.

Jesus, at this point trucks are going to just become Freightliners, Kenworths, Macks, etc... Look how HUGE this thing is. The bedside literally comes up to that guys nose. How in the hell would you actually put anything like a sheet of plywood in to, or get out of, the bed of this thing. If that guy flung an arm over…

I think the problem with seeing that as angle of it is, just like the EV craze in general. At least at the trade shows and in press releases it seems as though the manufacturers are running full steam ahead and jumping in with both feet into this tech. Almost as if they can’t eliminate driving fast enough. So I can…

My rust bucket with 220k miles on it.

In a world with super safe autonomous only driving (IE banned human drivers), what is the motivation for a manufacturer to make different models, beyond how many people it can sit? Driving dynamics and performance no longer matter. Everybody would be doing 65mph 3" form the car next to and in front of them at all…

Came to say this. Just because you are commuting and bought a beige mobile doesn’t mean you can’t have fun driving. Example...

Somewhere around ‘86 my mother who was not financially well off at the time had to buy a used ‘83 Plymouth Reliant to replace her ‘79 Pinto wagon. It was as basic as they came, no radio, no…

Not on private property. Especially your own. The exception to that rule is a parking lot in which the owner has given the police department permission to patrol and enforce.

Pretty much what you are doing.. Just last winter....

Northern Indiana, 20(ish)*F degrees, 6-8" snow on the ground, working in the gravel driveway, patching transmission cooler lines, replacing waterpump and radiator on my winter beater ‘91 Cherokee.

But there have been other times as well.

No trick like that for the 500s to my knowledge. A few people have imported Sabelt seats from the “595 Competizione” but haven’t been able to get the seatbelt or the airbag light to go out on the U.S. cars as far as I’ve seen.

But the dealer can definitely make the option to disable it available in the dash menus (for…

“What have we lost? Character. Different kinds of noises. In some cases, noises at all—the kind that don’t have to be piped in through speakers.”

Sometimes yes. That happens when your house sits on 4 1/2 acres. Especially if I’m heading out. I’ll drive to the end of the drive, get the mail, and then belt up and go to the store or wherever I’m going at that moment.

EV buyers are generally smarter than the rest of the population.

But this is a new car sold in 2017. Something as basic as a passenger seat belt alarm for idiots who insist on not wearing their seat belts should be standard.

I love R55 Clubmans as well. I wish what they had done was left the Mini R53 size and made the “larger model” the Clubman. I don’t get the point of the current F55 4 Door Mini at all.

Well first of all I like how the manufacturer likes to pretend that selling 40K cars is the end of the line for viablilty.

But, I’m with you on why they aren’t selling. I loved the R53, was luke warm on the R56 (mainly due to size increase), and repulsed by the catfish appearance of the F56. Add to that the price has…