I should probably have said specification. I remember looking at new ones back then and you were hard-pressed to find one under $50K new. Excellent car for the money, but nobody ever called it inexpensive.

Infiniti was a mixed bag early on, though. The M30 was overpriced and weak sauce compared to the Lexus SC. The J30 was just weird—let’s make a sedan with a really small trunk. The G20 was decent, but you could get the same drivetrain in Sentra, I believe. The I30 was I think basically a Maxima with better trim. The…

I agree that the ZZW30 was garbage, but even the much better option, the Elise, had to bail out of the U.S. market. And that was a really pricey car considering the performance. An entertaining MR car doesn’t have to be very expensive, but these days it has conform to so many manufacturing, regulatory, and scale…

That’s probably why an electric MR2 is still on the back shelf. It’s the type of car that makes more economic sense than an old-school MR runabout. But the fun-to-drive factor? It’s probably not there yet.

And Toyota has an engine like that, too, the 8AR-FTS from Lexus.

Great piece! Believe it or not, there was another Citroen-powered voyage in Canada named—you guessed it—White Expedition. Unlike the disciplined approach of the previous expeditions, Croisiere Blanche was a farce. Incredibly, two Citroen autochenilles survived this trip and remain in Alberta.

At least one survived. The one called “Scarabee d’Or”, or Gold Bug, is in the Citroen museum.

The half-tracks were based on a 10cv Type B2, which had about 20 hp and was geared for a top speed of maybe 45 mph. The auto-chenille would not be as fast, probably, but these were supposed to get more than 25 mpg, which is very good for the time.

In the 1980s the manual transmission wasn’t obsolete. Most automatics were still hot garbage—inefficient, slow, and hard on the wallet. That didn’t change until the 2000s.

It would be nice if Subaru sold the Levorg in the U.S. as a slightly bigger Crosstrek.

The LSD/275 car starts at $30,655. Performance-wise, sure, it’s a pretty good deal. And it looks great, too. But there’s a steep fuel economy and practicality tax: At least 10 mpg combined worse than a Civic hatch, definitely more in the city. And the Veloster N prefers premium, so basically double the fuel costs.…

It’s partly about body length. The Civic hatch is only about 4 inches shorter than the Civic sedan. The Crosstrek is a couple of inches shorter than the Civic hatch.

And terrain... 8.7 inches of ground clearance along with a simple, rugged AWD system is the decider for some. The Civic is obviously a much better car on the road, though.

An A40 was at the Monte Carlo Rally Historique this year.

The GT6 was certainly weird. I thought the Mk I looked decent, but of course it’s fundamentally flawed. It’s funny, almost every dedicated British roadster of the period had a fixed-head version. Must be all the rain in ol’ blighty. A couple of them looked very nice, like MG’s GT. others like the Elan S3, Jag’s XKs,…

The Hornet I had used a space-saver spare. By the time it was finally needed, about 18 years after the manufactured date, the sidewalls were so cracked it wouldn’t hold any air at all.

There were a bunch of them in the entry list. 320s too. I was surprised to see SEATs and so many Eastern bloc cars. The Polski is cool and odd, but who knew a Volga M21 was eligible? Or a Zastava? Or a VAZ Lada?

I agree with you completely—the Escalade is just about everything a Cadillac should be. However, it no longer owns the luxury SUV segment. Competition is definitely out there. The M-B GL/GLS outsold it by a wide margin in 2017 and is still neck-and-neck. The latest Lincoln Navigator is gunning for Escalade sales, as…

Over 6,000 Mondials were produced over a 13-year production run. I think that 987 figure refers to just the 3.2 coupe.

What’s crazy is that the Volt was one of the biggest selling plug-in hybrids. But they didn’t sell (nearly) enough. I bet most were leased.