The twisties you’ll want to drive (267, Mt Rose and Emerald Bay) will have a goodly amount of sand buildup on the shoulders this time of year. Road=cold. Tires=cold. Do not turn off the nannies, and be careful edging over the white line. Guardrails are there to save you, not the car. Bon chance. The infamous Mt Rose…

Pedant here. Haven’t gotten past the headline yet due to annoying british-ism. We drive A stick. We go to THE hospital. In the UK, you drive stick, go hospital, and avoid articles when inconvenient. Also, aluminum, aluminum, aluminum. Now, back to your article.

Who will pay to use it? If it’s expensive + unreliable (e.g. SF Muni) ther will be fare aviodance and the system won’t be any better than buses that everyone seems to dislike.

Maybe German Automakers are smart enough to hedge their bets. The German government can demand EVs all it wants, but American car buyers are not ready to up and dump ICE engines on a self-imposed deadline. The EU can change tax policies to discourage diesel consumption, but that will never happen in a country as…

There is that “the rest of the world is doing it” argument. Yes it’s logical, but we tried and failed in the 70's. I’m still doing the KPH x .62 = MPH, C=(F-32)*5/9.

JagWag?

In the US: Sportwagen-stick-diesel FWD only, 4 cyl. BMW-auto-diesel 328d AWD only, 4 cyl. No one will give you a diesel-stick w RWD because automakers hate freedom.

*said in best Thurston Howell III voice*....

This is hilarious--I can visualize most drivers rolling foward or back on that lunch tray as it descends, crushing their front or rear ends in the process. Also, imagine the pissing contests as other drivers stop traffic to cut into line waiting for a lunch tray to become available. No way this is possible without…

Wait--I remember a double-clutch between 2nd and 3rd, but I only drove that a few times....?

alameda de las pulgas?

No, but you pick your poison. Neither Honda nor Toyota seem to want to build a diesel drivetrain that would maximize dependability. I need diesel for the mileage, so I have a very limited choice. And of course, the only diesel stick is in a truck. I chose the diesel wagon (BMW), no stick but 4wd. Not ideal--life is…

Because you’ve never owned one? They’re crap, and the people who say they’re not don’t know any better.

I think you have to look at who’s living in rust country and who’s not. If my vehicle is going to rust through in 4 years, it makes sense to buy a new FCA product. If I need to drive lots of miles with high reliability, that’s not the FCA product profile.

This is an example of goin’ Full Gonie, though usually this kind of treatment is reserved for Californians.

South of Market is a difficult maze to negotiate. The vehicle seems to do OK except for parking in the bike lane on a couple of occassions. There are swarming MHDBs everywhere on their fixies--would not like to be stuck behind this car.

Overgrown rat. The folks who loves urban vermin never have to deal with them: breaking into your house to nest, spilling your garbage bins, being a traffic hazard, shitting everywhere. Even mountain lions will avoid them so the only natural predator is man.

Would be ideal with the V10 diesel from the old Touareg thrown in there.

since the rest of the car appears spotless, this seems to be selective car-washing with perhaps a cover over the plate to confuse toll booth cameras?

There fixed it. You want to cry some tears, go check out the VW UK, BMW UK, Audi UK and MB UK web sites to see all the awesome vehicle/engine configurations they make for the Brits that they can’t be bothered to bring over here. Passat estate? check. Caravelle? check. 5 series touring? check. RS everything? check.