From the late 1920s to the early 1960s, Maserati was a very successful racing car company. Until 1957, the company sold almost no cars for the street and appeared as both works and privateer entries at races around the world. For a short time after WWII and before Formula 1, Maserati was the dominant force in Grand…

Unfortunately, Maserati sales practically vanished in the U.S. during the first reliable model year: 1987. No 1988s were imported at all, and by 1990 sales were just 240 cars. The good “BiTurbos”—228/430/Spyder—are unicorns.

Everyone thinks it’s an airplane without wings. Sigh. No. The carbon-fiber chassis was never designed to be an airplane. Just because it looks like an airplane fuselage and has a jet engine attached doesn’t mean it’s airplane. The car generates no lift, so it cannot be an airplane. Sure, you can graft wings on it and…

YMMV, my grandparents had one and the front suspension corroded prematurely. Despite excellent maintenance the engine lunched itself not far out of warranty (~60K miles)—sheared cam bolt—and Nissan refused to assist. Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice car and miles better than the VWs they used before, but they lost a…

Well, most of R&D. Not all of it. You could still get a BRZ or a 3.6 Legacy or even a fourth-gen Forester XT. But it’s a shame Subaru turned its back on manuals and mainstream turbos. At least the turbos are making a comeback.

Only about 15% of new Volvos get the T8 powertrain, so it’s still a little “special”. It would be cool to see an inline-5, and given the longitudinal layout of the engine (I think) they could possibly do a 5- or 6-cylinder gas engine in the hybrid architecture. But Volvo’s modular engine family is old and gone, and…

You’d want to drive it and inspect it, too. Noisy gearbox syncros will be a red flag, and it’s possible even in California that the rear wheel wells are rusted away. Frankly, I’d rather have the gas 2.6 in a rig like this but I get that some people love diesel.

“The BEV market in 2019 is smaller than it was in 2018.”

I see your point, but please note that I said “more pure of sports car”. There’s not many left at any price, and while I ding Toyota for the lack of manual option, I understand why it was left off the menu.

Auto company? France has done well in aerospace and trains. A regressive tax system and a socialist political environment served to stagnate the auto industry in France. For a period from 1890 to ~1930 the French auto sector was arguably the most innovative in the world.

It’s difficult for people to understand because as is typical for modern Porsches the ride is quite good, as is comfort. So people automatically think, hey, grand tourer. But these are still sports cars, just different by degree. The only one I’ve been in that offers the punishing experience of a sports car is the GT2…

But there’s something uncool about an LC500h

I’ve seen one on the road so far, and I was disappointed at how downmarket it looks. It just looks very chunky and busy, a lot like BMW’s new 3-series. There’s nothing elegant about it.

It’s a solid take on the marketing, but I don’t see that there’s a problem with Toyota’s approach. The company targeted 250 U.S. sales per month for a total of 1,500 for 2019. As of the end of September Toyota had sold 1,477. The car is also sold out in Europe for a year (IIRC ~900 for that market). So Toyota has made…

The Mustang-Probe thing is more like what happened to Porsche and its 911. The Supra situation is totally different and is more like what FCA did to get a roadster for its Fiat brand without having spend an arm and a leg for a low-volume car.

Wait, so rebuilt title, more than twice the miles, and it’s somehow missing it’s alloys? Also, no warranty and it looks to be a base spec car. That’s probably not the best example.

That’s an interesting take. The Pantera was easily the most successful of the very few accessible mid-engine sports cars from the early 1970s, handily outselling the Miura and Berlinetta Boxer combined. Complaining about the rawness of car that did pretty well on the track with minimal modifications is strange.

What’s the difference between the European Micra and others? The last and current generations of the Micra and Latio/Almera/Versa are all on the V platform.

I’d love to see a miniature body-on-frame vehicle show up, and Mitsubishi does make a ton of very small commercial trucks and vans for other markets.

Subaru brought back the Crosstrek hybrid recently. It uses the Prius Prime tech, I think, so it’s a plug-in.