This is one of the taxis I hated to get in New York. Even with lots of practice, cabbies couldn’t keep the thing from lurching around crazily and the ride was awful.

The Cavalier was definitely a crap car built to a price point but a lot of other vehicles in the last 10 years have been sold with rear drums. I believe the Kicks had them until very recently and a few EVs like the Q4 and ID.4 have them for differing reasons.

Both very good points. I was eyeing a Forester back when Subaru was selling them in a Premium trim with stick shift and the giant sunroof but we ended up going with a wagon option. The advantage the new ones have over the old ones is much better NVH.

Unless I really needed the seating position and visibility, I would have a hard time going for the Forester these days. The Outback is a little more expensive but is otherwise superior in many ways. The Crosstrek is obviously a lot smaller, but $3,000 less expensive and with the 2.5 is somewhat fun to drive.

Pretty much spot on. The car had significant weak points-it was, after all, an outdated Mitsu platform—like bad lighting, iffy crash and handling dynamics, mediocre fuel economy, and a terrible interior. But it offered a very Subaru-like value prop with the added benefit of significant dealer discounting.

Yeah, I feel the cringe, but these days I also find it somewhat endearing, especially compared to the rage- and/or fear-inspired brodozer starter pack that is way more annoying and prevalent in my neck of the woods.

No worse than Porsche calling 911s Carreras even though it was a 356 that competed. Or that Porsche’s other paean to the Mexican race, the Panamera, is big sedan with a hatch. To expect a luxury brand to not make call-backs to its sporting past is unreasonable.

The really damning thing is that unlike, say, a QF Guilia or Stelvio, the 500 Abarth is not that much different than any of Fiat’s other economy products. I guess Mini was a little like this about 10 years ago.

It might not be without any business consideration either... California is bully on hydrogen.

Yeah, the ad is already gone, which makes me think somebody got a $30K Isetta for $21K plus a couple of thousand in refreshening costs.

Annnd it’s gone. I get the irritation, but this is one of those sales where it’s not really that important whether it runs or not. And this is the sort of car to not have a check engine light.

The Prius plug-in model, Prime, has always used a lithium-ion battery. The older Priuses and the current AWD model use nickel-cadmium, as did the discontinued C. The current generation of Prius hybrid uses a 0.75kWh lithium-ion pack.

“Bump up the batteries a bit to compensate...” let’s see, a ~80-horsepower 1.2 3-cylinder (what you’d find in a Mitsu Mirage) vs. a Toyota 170-horsepower M20A-FXS four-cylinder. And you want to cover the gap with battery? That kind of misses the whole point of a series hybrid, which is to boost low-speed torque and…

Hmmm... I believe the Prius has always been a “strong” hybrid, which refers to the 200-volt battery. Same deal with the plug-in. The Prius has never been one of the 48-volt MHEVs.

The throttle-wire broke in an old carbureted pickup that I was driving, causing the spring to go WOT. It’s a panicky situation. Instinctively, you want to brake and clutch to downshift. But it’s counterintuitive to brake and clutch when the throttle is open, so it takes some mental effort to do this. There’s…

You’ve got his style down pat.

Not surprising then. There’s a scene from one of his youtube films about one of his steam cars (I don’t remember which one, possibly the Stanley) in which a small fireball from the gasoline burner engulfs his head.

Ah, yes, not the one the Cayenne got. Not sure that helps matters much.

To each their own. I think it’s a great setup. But voiding the warranty so early seems very VW Vortex.

Used certified 2013 Porsche Panamera with a VW V6... no thanks.