I’ve driven the 6-speed Outback and for most purposes it’s frankly terrible. The low gears are too tall for the limited grunt of the engine and the gear actuation isn’t much of an improvement on the notchy 5-speed. I can see wanting one for off-road and mountain use (Canada-spec cars still have it available?), but…

Hmm, maybe. Ford used this engine for years in the Ranger/Mustang/Explorer and never rated it higher than 210, even after the OHV V8 was finally replaced by the 4.6. Land Rover briefly used the Cologne in the LR3 and quoted it at 216 hp. That’s on premium fuel with dual exhaust and a fancy intake.

It’s also important to mention that you could get an Elantra GT N-line (up to MY2020) with the 201-hp engine and your choice of transmissions while there was never a hatchback Si option from Honda. Sure, the Sport had 180 hp but there were a score of other differences that made the Si special.

Yeah, you nailed it. Honda not only stubbornly refused to design a dedicated RWD platform (aside from the NSX) or a V8 engine, it also whiffed badly on its turbo experiment. Of course, almost every Japanese manufacturer backed away from performance in the late aughts so Honda was not alone.

That’s a great point. GM’s effort to bludgeon the Miata with torque was a complete failure and now Mazda makes an NA Miata that almost keeps up with an old GXP. And with dynamics that blow away the GXP, which was never really happy with its manual transmission.

How long the trans will last depends a LOT on how it’s driven and also somewhat on what final drive ratio has been chosen. Granted, this is probably not a swap that will allow the transmission to run trouble-free for 100K miles, but it’s important that it’s a 4-speed (generally stouter trans than 5-speed) and that…

Well, the last Acura. The 8th-gen Si was every bit as enjoyable as the RSX, imho. Things started to soften with the 9th-gen 2.4L Civic while over at Acura the lightest thing was the CL9 TSX and later the ILX.

Yeah, I think Caterham made a 7 with a Suzuki 660 that made around 80 hp. That’s probably where they are all at and they are usually easy to tune up to 100hp depending on the turbo setup.

I think part of it is that Honda no longer needs a Fit in dealerships to meet its U.S. fuel efficiency goals... it’s already #2 behind only Tesla. Insight, Accord hybrid, CR-V hybrid, etc. all make up the difference and then some. And, of course, dealers are eager to sell the more profitable HR-V which I’m sure…

That’s a good point. By the early ‘60s VW was the gorilla in the room and acted that way to Porsche on several occasions. I feel like that’s part of the reason for the power struggles that emerged in decades later.

Yep, that sounds about right. As the aftermarket for lithium EV packs matures we’ll see more kits and low-cost repurposing appearing. It will get more interesting as the prices drop for the denser packs.

Absolutely, another great use for these packs... but that’s not refurbishment of the batteries themselves.

Haha, I agree about the curse... but AMC didn’t always struggle. From the mid-50s to the early ‘70s it generally was a profitable, growing company. Even in the late ‘70s AMC had a couple of profitable years, the same years Chrysler was in a death spiral.

The Pacifica rode on a modified minivan platform (CS), definitely not Mercedes. But there was plenty of Merc in the luxury features offered on the Pacifica.

The Prius battery has a different chemistry-NiMH-that is much friendlier to low-cost refurbishing (mainly to remove voltage depression) and much more robust with regard to cycle life. Also, those batteries are way cheaper.

And VW Jetta taillights. Like, virtually the same shape except along the flanks. And the Jetta is sold in a similar weird orange color.

The seller claimed to be doing an engine detail, as well as subframe and rear diff install before sale. It’s absolutely a Let’s Talk type of sale... I would want more details on the drivetrain, particularly the date of the last engine rebuild and the clutch.

The seller claimed to have bought this as a daily driver, and the E46 rack also says it’s a driver. The restoration just happened to be aiming pretty high, and it is a collectible model. It’s not hard to find a nicely preserved high-mileage 325is selling for $20K+.

You can probably do better on price with an unrestored car, but good luck these days in finding an ‘is’ without a significant premium for condition and mileage. This might actually be a great buy, especially with the suspension and steering upgrades and immaculate interior. But I would want a lot more details about…

The WRX has always been heavily based on a mass-market platform with a large percentage of mass market parts. The BRZ/86 is an entire specialty platform right down to the drivetrain. The bigger criticism is that when it comes to specialty vehicles in that price bracket, Mazda’s RF is just plain better.