Well, in Europe cars with automatics typically (until 10 years ago?) were:

That is quite interesting. My dad told me you have to learn in the manual cause that is actually learning how to drive. He also knew that learning in a manual causes you to actually learn about governing speed and it keeps you more engaged. Americans these days are more concerned with convenience so they can play…

Weirdly  enough, the RAV4 (Prime) is again the fastest car in the Toyota line up, IIRC.

The Voyager is a stripped-down pre-facelift Pacifica.

Hondas are Japanese.

Jason, I think you and Alec need to do a collab on some tail lighting.

Never change

This one?

I always loved when power window switches have two levels of “click”. The first level is normal operation. The second level requires a harder push and express opens or closes. Simple but useful. I think BMW or VW invented this, but it’s becoming commonplace.

In the Netherlands as well. If the trunk lid has a window, it is a hatchback and a ‘door’. Usually.

Here in Spain we describe them as well as 3 door and 5 door. Basically if the trunk opening has a window, then it’s another door

To me, a liftback is a subsection of hatchbacks where there is a good chunk of bodywork extending behind the glass, often horizontally. A good example would be the Skoda Octavia, which has an area of horizontal sheet metal aft of the glass.

It seems like the strongest resistance to the using 3-door and 5-door come from North America, where cars have traditionally only been either 2 or 4-door sedans/coupes and hatchbacks weren’t as popular.

Technically they updated it last year; made it flat like everyone else

Seriously! I saw one in person for the first time yesterday, and the guy did a full rip to redline after he pulled out of the parking lot. I had goosebumps for half an hour.

The third gen Volvo XC70 has an interesting take on this where the primary taillights are the “waterfall” unit on the tailgate—however, if the car is driven with the boot open, the software relegates the fender-mounted running lights to function as brake lights; a brilliant solution IMO!

Don’t know what happens in the rest of the world but EU regs are that certain lights ( I think it’s indicators and tail lights) must be visible when the boot or tailgate is open. The intention is to reduce the risk of someone being ploughed into if they have to stop by the side of the road to change a tyre or…

Only remotely related but I feel like this is where it belongs. The Chevy trailblazer had these weird asymmetrical tail light arrangement on EURO models only. (Yes, GM did sell them in Europe, albeit for a couple of model years only. They never made it through the face lift cycle.)

I can’t overstate how happy I am that there are other people as nerdy about these details as me. I came down to the comments hoping to see someone mention the 2003ish Range Rovers.

Torchopnik is the best Jalopnik.