I had a 2022 Camry SE rental and thought it was the most uninspired, lackadaisical thing I’d experienced in a long time. The Chevrolet Malibu drives better.

You’re right. I missed that (should’ve read it better).

Sure did! I would love to know how they did that.

I’ve had that happen, too, where the dealer quoted me one rate and then I had to re-sign documents because the rate was actually a tad lower. But they were able to take electronic signatures; I didn’t have to physically go to the dealer and sign anything.

I mean, as I outlined below, even if you do go to the dealer for financing initially and that deal falls through, you still have the option to shop the loan around and come back with your own financing, if you can get it. You don’t have to either accept their terms or return the car.

Well, to be specific, a dealer may hold a car until a loan is solidified, meaning all identity verification and stipulations are in, and the lender has granted approval. At that point, there’s no way the deal will fall through and the dealer is guaranteed to get paid as long as they submit everything they’re supposed…

It was funny. BMW penalized me for trying to use their in-house lender, a couple of Novembers ago. The deal on the car I bought included a $3,250 military incentive, but that decreased to just $500 if you used BMW Financial to buy or lease.

Thinking something was afoot, the Johnsons ignored the dealer. But the dealer retaliated and sent a tow truck to repossess the SUV.

Oh, the N63 is absolutely a terrible engine, but the S63—which is in the X5 M—is based on that, anyway. So neither the X5 M nor the X5 M50i is a great choice, long-term.

It can be. If you LS-swap it, haha.

This. The X5 M is needlessly harsh in a way that you wouldn’t expect for a midsize SUV. Most people would be better-served by the X5 M50i, which has a very supple air suspension setup.

Oh, that’s even worse. How were they ever supposed to make any money at $21K MSRP.

And therein lies the rub. However good of a car it was or wasn’t, Chrysler couldn’t make any money on it because they had to put up big discounts to move it. $21K OTD is probably a 20% discount or more off of what MSRP was.

I can think of far worse ways to spend $38K than on an Integra A-Spec with the 6MT. The problem is that the rear liftgate and a few deleted features are the only differences between it and a Civic Si.

I believe it. That would have been the D3 S8, which was the generation before this. What a complex engine. Ditto the W12, which they still had for my generation.

I think that car has a lot of flaws, namely a terrible UI and a lack of noise insulation that would shame a 90s Saturn.

PowerShi(f)t.

The gen. 2 Chrysler 200 had a lot more swagger and swankiness than other midsize cars. It was somewhat hamstrung by the problematic early 9-speed ZF transaxle, and by Chrysler’s heretofore dismal reputation for building passenger cars.

I mean, they effectively are, since the relationship is with BMW primarily, and both cars use components supplied by BMW factories elsewhere. That said, Toyota had more of a hand in developing the Supra than you’d think.

These cars are not for the faint of heart. It also looks like I’ll need to replace one or more motor mounts soon, which is a lot of labor (plus they’re hydraulic-filled) I’m just going to let the shop drop the whole subframe and replace anything else that would need doing while the engine and transaxle are out of the…