The Geneva Conventions only apply to those who actually signed those treaties. Terrorists are certainly not subject to it.

I've never felt it in my Abarth (wider tires, lower and stiffer suspension), but have a little bit in rented base 500s. No big thing, no worse than say a minivan. At 2500lbs, they are not particularly light by historical standards. A similarly sized 70's compact car would have been <2000lbs, and on much narrower tires.

As do I, marvelous, aren't they?

It's MUCH smaller and less useful than a 500. 500s are not as small as you might think, just the styling makes them look smaller than they actually are. A 500 is just about the same size as an original VW Rabbit. (Golf MKI for those on the other side of the pond). And an Abarth is more fun than every Toyota currently…

And little British sportscar people were doing it LONG before Jeep people started.

I think it is probably just a matter of volume - BMW knows they are going to sell many times the numbers of AWD 3s and 4s than they are AWD 2s, so it was easier to justify the expense of certifying the 3 and 4 than the 2. Similarly, you can't get a RWD 2 convertible with a stick either.

Not surprised. We don't have traffic up here really. If I lived anywhere near NYC, I would probably want an automatic too. At least with BMW you can just order one. Do European Delivery and have a ball and save some cash too.

And the current 3-series. I would probably have bought a new wagon if I could get one with RWD and a stick like my old one. I really like the f31, I find it usefully larger and more refined. But BMW won't sell me one that way. So too bad for them, I'll keep the old one another 15 years or so.

You don't necessarily have to order them, my local dealer stocks them because people in Maine still buy stickshifts. In most parts of the country, you would have to order one though. Which is no particular hardship with BMW, I wouldn't buy one any other way.

It's not developing it that is the issue - they sell these cars with AWD and manuals all over the world. It is our ludicrous certification regime where every combination of body and drivetrain must be certified separately at huge cost that means it is not cost effective to offer niche drivetrains in the US.

An RV. Any RV.

Here's another one - get any sort of ticket in Maine in your first year with a license - 30 days for the first one, 60 for the second one. Third one is a year. I managed to get 2 speeding tickets in 4hrs - it was not fun riding my bicycle again for three months my senior year of high school...

We had a similar crime here in Portland, ME. In '61 they tore down this granite French Renaissance gem:

All these years and it is JUST as uninteresting as the first one.

Whenever anyone brings up the fact that Bangled BMWs sold in record numbers, I always respond "Imagine how many they would have sold if they had not been hideous". I drive an e91 3-series, while it is a fantastic car, pretty it is not. What came before was far more attractive.

He had the idea, he had nothing to do what-so-ever with the design of the car.

Beat me to it - the man was incapable of drawing a bad line.

Not even remotely a designer, barely an engineer.

At this point, most of the bad ones are being parted out. You are more likely to find an at least decent one for sale than a wreck. They are not worth enough to restore, unless it is a DIY labor of love. Really not that hard to find a decent one in the Internet age, just hang out on the Alfa forums, and be willing to…

Talk is cheap.