Kia probably didn’t spend all that much for it. The Elise was already in development at this point and no doubt Lotus wanted to be rid of any of GM’s projects asap. As for Kia’s motives, it was gearing up for growth and the M100 “Kia Sports Car” was conceived as a complement to the new Sportage model. It might have…

Thank you.

To be fair the RDX presaged the current trend for turbo-4s in almost every compact luxury offering. The problem wasn’t the turbo-4, it was the horrendous fuel economy that offered no real advantage over a big V6 or even a small V8. I doubt the first-gen model could accommodate a V6.

Right, but seeing as how Z3 clown shoes are getting even more money than this car, which even rarer and has a definite performance edge, the price is in the market. The only real demerit of the Z4 coupe, if you can call it that, is that it doesn’t look like a clown shoe. Oh, and the cargo space is pretty bad.

Hmmm... not sure the top goes down on these.

The A/C unit looks like it might be a period item. But there’s undoubtedly a more original ‘68 Rambler American out there.... in fact, I was able to find a few active listings.

The Civic hatch is about 10 inches longer than the HR-V.

Both terms are technically correct. 180-degree V12 because the pistons share a crankpin. The only crucial difference, then, between this and, say, a 60-degree V12, is the bank angle.

Almost all cars from that era were tremendous POS so I wonder what that review was measuring this car against. I suppose an early Pinto or a wagon with cool colors might fetch similar money, but this Mitsubishi at least featured much better engineering than the agricultural Pinto.

The XC90 certainly stands out as one of the few high-quality luxury SUVs of the time period. I’d place the early X5 in the group but the early ML-class was a low point for Mercedes. Lexus was a cut above everyone else with the LX.

ID4 is absolutely better, but that’s in a different price category, maybe closer to the Mach-E. The Niro is also around $40K.

The current CX-5 is an overhauled version of the one that launched way back in 2012. I doubt Mazda would even consider reverse-engineering a hybrid drivetrain into one, even it did have the capital.

Yeah, exactly. Not every battery is the same—most older Prius hybrids use NiMH batteries which degrade quickly if asked to deep cycle. Shallow cycling preserves the battery.

It’s snooze-inducing, but no worse than its competition (Bolt, low-spec Model 3).

Anything with crossover-level seating height is going to command more cash. Also the Impreza doesn’t get the 2.5L option. Not saying it’s a great deal, but there’s reason Subaru basically tripled its Impreza(platform) sales by adding the Crosstrek.

A CX-5 Touring is clearly the nicer buy if you enjoy driving (on paved surfaces). But keep in mind that the Crosstrek has a base price almost $3K lower than a FWD CX-5. A loaded Crosstrek vs a lightly-optioned Touring? The CX-30 might be a better comp.

And in the older Bolt’s case, the MSRP doesn’t match what it’s actually worth. Note that the new 2022 Bolt starts $5500 less than the 2021. That compensates in part for GM losing the $7500 fed tax credit and the fact the Bolt just wasn’t going to sell at prices approaching the new wave of EVs like ID.4 and Mach-E, as…

‘gas’ and ‘saving’ are in the title because this ad was for the U.S.-market Marina. It was called an Austin because that was the most familiar brand to Americans. In the UK, I gather, most of the transverse front-engined cars were Austins while the live axle cars were badge Morris.

It’s unfortunate that Jeep chose to style the Compass so close to the facelifted Cherokee, especially considering how close they are in size.

I was not expecting to see the EcoSport on this list. Ford did 64K sales of this 2019 and 60K in 2020. It’s reasonably successful despite doing nothing that a Fiesta couldn’t do except lift the passengers up higher from the ground. I get that it’s old, but Ford wouldn’t cancel it until some sort of replacement is…