“This will be the first time Minis will be made outside of the UK.”

MINIs have been built outside the UK for awhile now. The current Countryman is built in the Netherlands and the previous generation was built in Austria, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Brazil.

The best cars ever made were in the 90's. Last of the area before everything was being watched.

Is anyone else starting to think that our society being dependent on advertising to pay for everything isn’t healthy?

Things like this make me never want a new car, or at least the ability to disconnect it from the internet.

Gee, I was just hoping they would use that data to improve their cars in the future.

As if I needed another reason to hate “connected” vehicles...

1st Gear

This is an example of intent vs practice. Many design features have good intent but are misused by operators. I cannot tell you how many cars I see backing up or changing lanes without a driver’s head check because it has a backup camera or lane departure warnings. And as a driver, bicyclist, and motorcyclist, this…

I initially turned my nose up at 1st gen (2004-ish) backup sensors, but I soon learned that they allowed me to parallel park my truck into spots that I wouldn’t have otherwise attempted. They were awesome.

My salty take on 1st gear:

Nobody has forgotten how to drive.

It’s impossible to to really study, but I’d say that has more to do with actual crash safety than crash prevention. Cars in 1990 were built a lot different. Airbags were only really in luxury cars, the structures were weaker, and the load dissipation on cars was worse. Not to mention the terrible side-impact safety on…

Yes, but we still have many, many vehicles on the road that do not have these features, so even though your vehicle may have collision assistance that brakes for you before you rear-end a car, that doesn’t mean the one behind you will stop in time, and if that car rear-ends you, the cost to repair your car is probably…

Yes they are, and if it keeps the safety guys happy and they can have a good business agreement with the government, they’ll invest in these technologies. Though ultimately, It’s part of the ‘NEW WORLD ORDER.’ Control will slowly be taken away from us, and cars will be no different. We, the people, are the problem…

Yes, but also consider component failure due to age or road hazards. “Sir, there is a rock chip in your grille-mounted radar sensor. That will be $500, please.”

Cars are turning into a expensive, depreciating, unrepairable appliance. It’s kind of frightening.

All that driver assist tech is also increasing insurance costs as repairs become more and more expensive.

Because “parking lights” as described above, mean the car is parked and not moving. No need to confuse other drivers. That’s why DRL’s are not just amber parking lights but actual white lights.

To their credit, Ford did fess up to it and gave me a new battery free. Dead cell I think. The car was only 18 months old at that time.