So I lived in Rolla Missouri for about 4 years. It’s a small strange town that is about 30 minutes from a very large Army base (Ft Leonard Wood) and has one of the best engineering schools in the US (MS&T, formerly UMR). There were a couple junk yards that dealt largely in mil-surplus items. Poking around these yards…

Except that the Pacifica isn’t made in the US...  Which makes is less american than everything but the Land Rover

I too have a 14 TDI sportwagen and have owned several old diesels that wouldn’t start without spending the night on a block heater if it was under 35.

I would think Honda as close to VAG if not more, while separate divisions it is all under one brand. Everything from Horizontal and vertical singles (think lawnmowers), V-twins, parallel twins, flat 6, v-4 (motorcycles), 3 cylinder (outboard), aircraft engines and then the automotive engines.

To be fair a cheaply made fiberglass kit car is far more dangerous than a motorcycle.

In February 2009 I bought a 2001 Focus ZX3 in a 5 speed. I upgraded from a 96 Plymouth Grand Voyager to it.

I was in NY a couple weeks ago and we had to drive from the financial district to East Rutherford and it both took forever in a car and was crazy frustrating.  I would definitely want to ride my bike if I ever lived there...

It’s funny, I was in NY for work last week staying in Manhattan and headed out to Jersey for a day. It blew my mind that the news stations and coworkers were all talking about this.

I can’t argue with your state list, and I live in Missouri. Other than the BBQ there isn’t much of a reason to visit. When people come in for work I take them to BBQ, tell them to go see the arch and then I’m out if ideas.

Looks like a first gen CRV to me - the side open back gate, with CRV tail lights. Proportions are about right too

Mine is a 2012 5 speed hatch, it’s has a ton of emission control issues. Replaced most emissions and tuneup parts on it and still can’t get rid of a check engine light and it’s only got 95k on it.  If we hadn’t just bought my wife a car I’d be ditching mine too - it gets to limp along another couple years though.

I still have an affinity towards old fords, but I won’t be buying any new ones again

The CVT in it is fine. The flex started shifting hard and slipping at about 70k miles. Yeah it’s less space, but we didn’t need the third row and it was a bitch to park.

I’ve owned mostly Ford cars and trucks my entire driving life (15 years) but we've soured on the brand recently. We just traded in my wife's Flex for a RAV4 and I'm seriously contemplating getting rid of my Focus. Quality is not what it used to be and the vehicles are starting to fall apart around 80k miles now.

Who hurt you?

I regularly haul my two kayaks and gardening supplied in my hatch. It does it wonderfully. If you want to haul around stinky things it’ll pull a small trailer just fine. I have a buddy with a mini cooper that is into RC planes and he pulls a custom built trailer for it all.

Man I hope you’re wearing your flamesuit today - these comments are insane!

I agree wholeheartedly - I’ve always hated sedans. SUVs and Trucks for hauling stuff, coupes for looking sexy and hatchbacks for everything else.

You are the devil. I worked at six flags while this was their main marketing song and it played on a loop all summer long...

My parents both owned some cool cars- here are a few I know of from my mom