Excellent piece — some of the language seems a bit contrived, but excellent nonetheless. As I was reading, I sort-of had this song starting to play in my head. Video related:

Generally not — although if there's a big power or price difference between the manual/automatic of a certain model it can cause a difference in rating. The only one I saw that had an appreciable difference was an early RX8 — when the manual had 40 more hp than the automatic.

So the trend of irresponsible young men buying used large, rwd sedans like the 300, Charger, and Crown Vic will soon cause the actuaries to say, hey... wait a second...

In most US states, the "cheaper insurance for 4 seaters" is a myth. The vast majority of states allow vehicle value, part replacement cost, power-to-weight ratio, and safety equipment like traction/stability control as the rating criteria that are exclusive to the vehicle.

I've only ever heard them in videos but they sound ridiculously smooth — they have to be to power the ultimate Japanese luxury car. It's a lightweight, small-displacement v8 with a hemispherical combustion chamber and a lot of potential even if they're really rare.

Honestly, I think the C5 ovoid lights would probably look better than the C6 round ones. My biggest problem with the newest vette is the design treatment of the B/C pillar. It looks like it's trying to make a compromise between the C2 and both iterations of the C3 (buttressed and hatch) and it just doesn't look that…

I don't think it's racist but more "stupid,"

Know who I saw dahn at de Jahn' Igl?

#corrections — in the poll it's listed as an 85.

With some 18"steelies and some big fat dog dishes... maybe...

My 130 hp Accord wagon does just fine. I don't need a family car to have more than about 200 hp anyway.

There are a lot of great answers here but I will submit an answer with another qualification on it: The best sounding engine in a car you can buy today for under $1000:

I'm in the SX4 camp based on the rake of the rear and the front lights being pretty low. Around here they're all over buy-here-pay-here lots and the Suzuki dealer in Charlotte was known for financing everyone "no matter what." That leads to a lot of generally irresponsible people — like the kind who would drive drunk…

During that time, GM also bought up many local rail companies that operated streetcars and cable cars and completely dismantled them because when people had a cheap, reliable public transportation system, there was no need to own a car. This was detrimental to GM's business model.

I think I'm going to pick up a few of the Witching Hour ales. The description seems like it's right up my alley: rich, black, and malty... mmmm.

There was a time in my life when I needed a car "that day" and only had $500. I walked away with a blue 1995 Corsica. The trunk was closed with shoelaces and it went about 10,000 miles without a single oil change before the head gasket blew and I gave it to a friend of mine.

Ernest Hemingway once said "write the truest sentence you know."

One night in 2002 I was drunk sitting at the computer. I made the mistake of looking at Ebay and something caught my eye. 1989 Taurus SHO with a starting bid of $750 — it said "125k miles: transmission rebuilt last year." The car ran and drove and it even had a video. I figured if the guy was that serious that he…

Not my favorite (That would be the Iso Grifo) but yet another forgotten DeTomaso machine, the Guara: Powered by a Ford 4.6 DOHC mod motor and apparently styled by a six-year-old with a crayon, it was the Italian supercar that wasnt.

To all those who sort of don't get it, or think that because it's a pushrod V-6 originally designed in the late 50s that it's junk, or think that because it's a GM product from the 80s that isn't a B-body, Corvette, or full-size truck that it's junk, let me end this run-on sentence and use an analogy you may…