I so want these to come to the U.S. (I get that would mean Suzuki would have to come back to the U.S. and that ain’t going to happen, but I digress.) This feels like a spiritual successor to the Suzuki Sidekick of which I owned a ‘91 JX and loved (I get the irony that the Sidekick was the replacement for the 2nd gen…

I hear the same junk on my Fiat. I have a 2012 Abarth that has had zero/zilch/none in terms of issues in the 6years and 91k miles I’ve owned it.

Welcome to modern cars with CANBUS systems and body control modules. The electrical system is not an electrical system any longer, its a communications network with dozens of individual nodes that talk to a central ECU. Diagnosing electrical issues in modern cars is a nightmare.

Same plug change interval on Fiat 1.4t engines and they use iridium plugs as well. Turbo is hard on plugs and yeah you can likely get away with running them for 60k+ miles, but the car will run more efficiently if you keep the plugs fresh.

31,000 miles is the plug change interval on my 2012 Abarth’s 1.4t, and it uses iridium tipped plugs. I just hit 91k miles and put in my 3rd set of plugs a couple of weeks ago. 

This is definitely their fault for all the reasons you list. Also, the last time the Golf sold particularly well was with the MkV generation when the rebadged it as a Rabbit for a short time. Those things were everywhere. (and to be honest I think the MkV Golf was better looking than the GTI). I kind of saw this…

I know three people with Sportwagens for the reasons you list. This decision annoys the piss out me. And I’m with you, I don’t like the Outbackified wagon trend. Prefer the Sportwagen to the Alltrack, and prefer the Insignia Sport Tourer to the TourX.

Funny you should say this.. They are already working on an MBQ chassis based subcompact crossover for the U.S

This is no real surprise. VWoA has long been known to the VW community to hate the VW community. In truth I’m not surprised to see the Golf go, since all GTIs are 4 door now (I have issue with the lack of 2 door GTIs but that horse has already been bloodied by that stick). I do take umbrage with the Sportwagen going…

I never cared for the baby-Audi look of the mkIV Jettas. They abandoned the boxy simpleness of the first 3 generation cars to go too upmarket. GLI trim helps their looks, but the GTIs are much better looking in this generation IMO.

Jalopnik speaking my language...

I’ve been complaining about this on Jeeps FB posts for weeks now. The lack of the 6spd means that the Renegade is now off my (getting increasingly shorter) next car shopping list. Jeep has been pretty upfront that they made the switch to the 1.3t to offset fleet MPG economy so that they didn’t have to make changes to…

This, went to several dealers on several different occassions. None of them had one.

No 4x4 option in a manual 500X though. Taking that AWD option pushes you into in the 9spd.

You are absolutely right. And Jeep has not been quiet in admitting that the reason for the new 1.3t and the dropping of the 1.4t, was to offset EPA average fleet economy so that they didn’t have to make changes to the Grand Cherokee. In other words, because the big ticket item needed some breathing room, those looking…

Ironically you complain about the 2.4 Tigershark being a crass let down, and then bought an Abarth 500 which has the same engine as the base model Renegade. 1.4t. BTW a piggyback ECU that works for the Abarth works on the Renegade as well. So 200+hp is not hard to hit.

I shopped them in a couple of times in 2015 and…

Mmmmm... Contour SVT. I wanted one of these so bad back in the day. Alas it was never to be. But I still CL and FB marketplace search them from time to time waiting for one to fall in my lap. Star for you. 

Well remember. The ultimate goal here is for you not to be driving. They want the car to do that task for you. And when you aren’t driving what you really need is a giant TV to watch apparently. 

Exactly. Car companies don’t force THE MAJORITY OF people to buy things they don’t want.

Car and Drivers MSRP prediction asside. I’m betting they are going to go down the Ford GT route with this all new mid engine ‘vette and triple/quadruple the MSRP. I mean Ford took a car that was approximately $130k and reintroduced it as a super exlusive invite only car with an MSRP now at around $450k because…