Well, *I* want some luxury with my practicality, and I buy new cars. My last two new car daily driver purchases were an '08 9-3 Sportcombi and an '11 328i Sportwagon, both with 6spd stickshifts. And if I could get one with RWD and a stick there would be a new f31 328i wagon in the garage now. Since BMW won't sell me…

Recent history is that there is nothing to buy. It's a chicken and egg situation. The SUV fad is mostly over, and now that CUVs are ubiquitous it is time for tastes to change again. The bigger issue is that the automakers LOVE that they can sell a CUV (or these jacked-up wagons) for $5K more than the sedan it shares…

BTDT last time, but planning to go again this time. The Porsche museum is nice, but the Mercedes Museum is SPECTACULAR. Also planning on the Ferrari and Schlumpf museums this trip.

That turn signal thing is really fun on *LHD* Peugeot 504Ds (because French). Totally messed me up when I had one along with a bunch of other cars.

Depends on how much it costs. For me, where I am, comp/collision on my old Range Rover is <$200/yr, with Comp being $150 of it. So why would I not at that price? If it is $1000/yr then that is a different story.

Tavarish does point out that it is about 1/2 price - though I have no clue as to the market for these, no interest in them at all. I agree that is about the right place to be on a freshly rebuilt car, and the two salvage title cars I have owned were priced at that level. One was an accident, the other a theft…

Exactly my point. ABS is intended to allow you to have maximum braking while still allowing you to steer the car. But the reality is most drivers DON'T try to steer, they just mash the pedal and pray. But ABS still helps, in that at least you will then hit whatever you are going to hit straight on allowing for maximum…

ABS doesn't really prevent that many accidents. Most people are too clueless to do more than stomp the pedal and shut their eyes. But what it does do is a decent job of ensuring the car hits straight on rather than sideways, allowing the other safety features to do a better job.

The advancement of emergency medicine gets a fair share of the credit too.

Way overbuilt, as most things were back before computers allowed you to shave everything down to the last necessary ounce. And not all that cheap adjusted for inflation - the Minor was not really an econobox, more like a 1950s British Camry. A middle-class family car. And you still find very few of them still around,…

Part of the trick is you have to start with a decently built car, not one built as cheaply as possible. You don't find many cheap econoboxes from any era after 50 years. Usually they are cars that got put in storage when nearly new, or the proverbial little old lady drove it to church on Sunday cars.

Toyota I can buy as legendarily reliable. Subaru?? HAHAHAHAHAHA! I think there is a LOT more Subaru in the Toyobaru than there is Toyota. Which is both a good and a bad thing.

Is it really that much bigger than a Golf? More Jetta wagon sized? I have only seen one in passing, looked pretty small. The Q5 is not exactly vast inside.

'16 M235i (on order), '11 328i wagon, '01 Range Rover HSE, '74 Triumph Spitfire, just sold a '13 Fiat Abarth to make room for the M235i, depending on weather or mood. And 40+ rental cars a year (for the past 20 years or so) due to work travels, including way more than my fair share of these rolling turds. Thankfully…

Which should not be done until AFTER you have negotiated the price of the new car. And I refuse to waste my time negotiating in person on the price anyway, that is why Dog invented e-mail. My car buying process is an initial scheduled appointment to get any questions I have answered and a test drive if needed. Then…

While I think this behavior is abhorrent and inexcusable on the part of the dealership, the sad reality is that when you walk into a dealership you are instantly judged as to whether you are worth the sales persons time. To avoid this, I nearly always make an appointment when I am interested in looking at a car. It…

BMW is the same. Right now they have some big push on evidently, as my last service visit generated several e-mails and two phone calls to ensure that I gave them all 10's on the survey.

What does it do that a Golf R won't do for ~1/2 the price? Impressing valets does not count.

What they will have is a loud crap car that rides badly and still handles badly.

The Internet Panther Love utterly baffles me. These cars are complete and utter crap on wheels. They don't go, they don't stop, they don't turn. They get terrible gas mileage for something so slow. They have no room inside considering they are the size of a small ocean liner. The ride is nausea inducing even on the…