Side curtain air bags are responsible for making A pillars get thick and bulky, until they start hiding pedestrians and even other vehicles from the driver’s view.

Wagon versions of sedans with repackaged rear suspension:

I still don’t have a car with any of those things, and my two current cars were made this century.

Reminds me of the Mercury Messenger Concept.

Not unless it’s some kind of premium lazy people feature. Hatches get treated like doors, not like trunks. Do you “release” a passenger door? Nope.

Damn, that's a thick A-pillar.

I don’t know how many 3- or 5-door hatchbacks have a “release” for the hatch. You use a handle just like on every other door of the car.

My experience with 3- and 5-door hatchbacks is that they don’t have a release—just like the rest of the doors on the car don’t have a release.

The passenger who doesn’t want to roll the windows down on a beautiful day.

I’m looking at the part surrounding the gear shift.

My observation was that the Saturn’s center tunnel looks much bulkier than the Pontiac’s.

Who knows how many people recorded a life-threatening altercation and didn’t survive to upload the video?

Turn the steering wheel all the way opposite from the guy and back the hell up.

Here’s a better question: Why does the RX even have a second row? Has anyone ever toted more than one other person in one of these things?

Now all it needs is an analog tach that isn’t exclusively bundled with the nav system, and interior trunk panels that don’t feel like flocked cardboard.

I think you mean “pre-apoplectic.”

I had the opportunity to rent one (second generation Mazda3) and regretted it instantly and for the rest of the week. No hip room, no leg room, no visibility. Absolutely miserable—and I’m not a big guy by any means.

Is it possible to get toggle switches without touch screen, though? Harumph!

Nope. You’re wrong. This is beautiful.

I was amazed to find there was less usable interior room in a modern Mazda3 than there was in my 12 year old Protege5. Outwardly, the Mazda3 dwarfs the P5, so where did all the space go?