The demographic who wanted one also faded away, or now have enough money to buy the Lexus/BMW/Merc, etc. they always wanted. Large two-row or three-row crossovers have gotten sophisticated enough to fill in the gap.

Not sure what the Supra has to do with the Cressida. You want a suitable RWD Toyota? Buy any one of a number of trucks. Or pony up for a Lexus IS/RC. Toyota doesn’t play in the inexpensive RWD sedan space, probably because the few people who want one really just want a blunt instrument like a Charger. Even Ford/GM…

The ES started out as Camry, then as a stretched Camry like the Avalon, then finally on its own GA-K platform shared with the Avalon. Each generation of the ES grew in wheelbase by an inch or two.

I agree with you but weirdly sales of the Sonata didn’t drop off nearly as badly as the Elantra did in the last couple of years. I think the Sonata will be a decent option for folks who don’t care about the N and are put off by the challenging aesthetics of the Elantra. I like the idea of making it a premium 5-door.

You can’t get the turbo engine with AWD. And I’m not sure how much I trust that variable-compression engine. It apparently hasn’t been problematic but I still think it’s somewhat pointless for the return it offers. There may still be a few customers looking for a tried-and-true V6 in their sedan.

The RDX is perhaps much bigger than it used to be, with almost 80 cubic feet with the rear seats down. It’s close to the Lexus RX but the cargo area layout is more useful. The Germans you selected are all way smaller, as is the Venza and CX-5.

Nice! I hit a deer with my 9-3 Aero and coffee from an open cup (never doing that again) was forcibly injected into the ignition switch. Fortunately, the breadboard for the ignition was located up by the steering wheel so the replacement ignition switch was cheap. But I had some really weird electrical stuff happening…

AMC used that same system until at least the mid-1970s. It was horrible not just because it took a long time to buckle up but because there was no retention slack. So often you couldn’t reach certain controls.

It’s definitely a shame Alfa didn’t build something unique instead of selling what was essentially an expensive coachbuild of a Maserati Coupe/Spyder. Alfa didn’t even build them; Maserati did. Fact is, the old, slightly wacky Alfa was in steady decline even before the buyout by Fiat and the company would soon lack…

Really? Then Dodge must not have sold the 4-cyl with AWD bc it would have been tough to command $30K for that rolling pile. The Pentastar/AWD combo would certainly been around $30K.

I dislike the misinformation, too, and the Mirage is a good value. But please let’s be honest about the engine. The 3A92 is very noisy and unrefined. It’s been built for close to two decades. It’s a tough little bastard complete with timing chain and MPI, which means it will likely outlast the chassis it’s attached to.…

It’s not clear from the ad whether all these things are completely broken or just wonky. The sunroof should definitely be tip-top for that sort of money, but it would be silly to replace the fuel gauge sender if it resides with the fuel pump in the gas tank. Just replace the pump when it goes. I have a similar issue…

Too much money for sure, but in today’s market an S2 is probably double that number and the RS2 will be well beyond triple.

This is true. 4% at 84 months is really a $25K Mirage.

Make the inoperable ones operable. Profit.

The dealership has probably already started to turn down people with worse credit to help defend financing that supports these markups. These on-the-lot cars are priced to take advantage of those who need or want the car *today*. Most dealerships are seeing an 8-week lead time so smart people will place an order and…

If you’ve got a 4-cyl, 4-spd auto Journey—rental spec—then yes by all means it is flaming hot garbage. With the Pentastar V6 and a 21st century transmission it becomes a lot better. Not fantastic, but for the money a defensible purchase.

I believe the SS package in ‘76 also got you the heavy-duty suspension, but there’s a possibility you could get on the Concours as well I guess.

Yeah, I agree. I would totally rock a Cooper and I even like the 4-door model as well as the base turbo 3. The Oxford edition is a great deal and these absolutely drive better than almost everything else in the $20-25K bracket. But the ownership experience scares me a little.

You definitely could have gotten a 3-row, AWD, V6 Dodge Journey for around $25K back in 2016. Which is interesting because both the Outlander and Journey share a common ancestor: the Mitsu GS platform. The reason it was cheap was because under the skin it was old. Mitsu did well to update it to pass crash tests, but…