+Eleventybillion......This ranks as one of the most idiotic ideas theyve instituted yet.

+1

Seriously?  You guys are now breaking the Morning Shift into multiple posts?  Do you pay attention to your readers at all?

Latest generation Mazda6

Yup. Both Kappa platform cars (Solstice & Sky) were front of mind for me. I don’t think it would have saved Pontiac or Saturn, but GM could have had something special if they allowed the platform to ripen on the vine long enough to see a second generation, and addressing some of the initial shortcomings of the first. 

Dodge Dart

Pontiac Solstice.

The last Chrysler 200

For me, it was the 2nd gen Transit Connect sold in North America:

The 2012+ Focus had a lot of good things going for it and was nearly as good as the auto journo fanbois favorite the Mazda3 (which I have owned). But they really, really blew it with the PowerShift DCT- which, while enthusiasts continually gush about the superiority of manuals, an automatic is what 98.5% of normal…

I still feel that GM, Ford and others were stupid getting rid of their small affordable cars. I rented a Chevy Spark on a trip and for being a 13k car it was totally FINE. Power windows, decent mobile phone enabled sound system, good fuel economy, decent power and acceleration, even dare I say- fun to drive? 

For sure, though I have always found a way to make it work, just end up going to more work to more carefully pack things. Was even able to do a 2 week road trip with 2 kids, it was tight, and we used every nook and cranny, but it worked and averaged 39mpg overall. 

Yeah, that would be nice but would leave absolutely zero trunk space left. ;-)

An important but often overlooked fact is the difference between advertised and real-world range. Some tests have been done and showed real-world range, especially in straight highway driving, is usually substantially less than touted in promotion.

I agree slightly with this article, Range Anxiety is only part of the problem.

Anti-range anxiety arguments miss the point of the source of the anxiety.

Shh, no one tell him how ICE engines work...

Fact of the matter is 300 mile range isn’t 300 miles.

The study didn’t say that at all. You took a small point (38% of people could do fine with a short-range EV) and make a completely unwarranted conclusion (everyone’s range anxiety is nonsense).

This is bait. I’m too embarrassed and they’re all too illegal to recount.