Regarding the HSE vs Supercharged argument on the Range Rover Sport (L320), the Supercharged didn’t necessarily have specific problems. There are unique parts that are wear items, like the special air struts with variable damping (versus the non-variable-damping ones on the HSE)...and the supercharger nose cone.

That isn’t a Pathfinder; that’s an Armada.

It doesn’t scream aspirational to me in the way that the E-Class Coupe did. Perhaps, as another commenter pointed out, it’s the fact that it has B-pillars and fixed quarter-panel windows.

That’s fair. Sporty it definitely isn’t.

The Jaguar S-Type and X350 XJ were also retro cars, of a sort.

GM’s demise was a bit more complicated than “they didn’t make good small cars.”

GM’s profit margins were absolutely horrendous, because of decades of bloat, poor management structure, and dealer and union obligations. Its overhead was too high. It needed these large, high-profit trucks to make any money. And that’s why…

I feel you. There are a ton of cars I’m mad GM got rid of, despite their unprofitability or unpopularity. The Buick Riviera is one of them. The Holden Commodore and its derivatives is another.

Note that what they aren’t providing with these markups-in-disguise are extended service contracts (warranties)...because those can be canceled and refunded at any point. Whereas the physical goods they apply to the car cannot be.

I’d say Saturn was doomed from the start. It never made GM any money, and by 2000, GM executives were pulling back on spending any additional money on it, because that would come at the expense of the other GM divisions that were a lot more profitable. As soon as Saturn received a rebodied version of the Opel Vectra…

I think that’s a great one, because it exemplifies the American morale arc of the aughts. We entered the 2000s bright and hungry, were made culturally stronger after the 9/11 attacks, engaged in a period of commercial excess during the early part of the decade, were hit hard by the 2007 recession, and ended the decade…

To be fair, the original W163 M-Class was a body-on-frame SUV. The M-Class did not go unibody until the W164 in 2006.

That’s a good one. The tail-end of my dad’s tenure as a Toyota salesman was right when these came out, and I remember sitting in one. For some reason, 11-year-old me really liked the shape of the steering wheel.

I honestly can’t think of a better example than that. In particular, that generation of Altima was class-leading in many regards, and was a remarkable glow-up from the prior (irrelevant and, frankly, undersized) Altimas. And, yes, an  SE-R from that era is a treat. I know someone that had one.

The radar is the hexagonal bit below the main grille. You will also find this on many of the G-chassis BMWs, since the Spectre shares much of its electrical architecture with those cars.

The massaging seats in my 2022 X5 PHEV are underwhelming, too. It’s disappointing to know that BMW Group is apparently incapable of designing good ones, because if they don’t put them in a Rolls-Royce, what do they put them in?

I’ve been on a couple of rallies with Adventure Drives, run by Rob Ferretti. On the most recent one, his 458 Pista definitely had brake dust all over it, as did the other Ferrari, driven by a youthful grandmother. Both cars definitely got their legs stretched.

I think you’re correct.

Wow, what a shitshow. I’m sure that was highly inconvenient, on what was supposed to be a lovely, stress-free trip.

If they did that, it would sort of be a return-to-roots. All of the early and many of the mid-era Infinitis were just rebadged premium-JDM Nissans, anyway. The G, for instance, was a Skyline.

The 5 GT had MPV-level seating, not unlike a C-Max. Which did make a rather large difference.