I dunno, to me this is a bit like saying that The Weeknd makes better music than the Beatles because production quality has improved. Cars should be judged relative to the time they came out, give or take a model ahead and behind, but not against multi-generational improvements over decades. 

Daewoo - but not for the reasons you might think.

Yeah it didn’t have a 4-low range, but first gear was a non-syncronized granny gear. Dad and I used to pull logs around with it at our cabin. The official accessory catalog included bull bars and a snow plow! The tires that were on it new were proper off road tires, they made that ‘hummmmmm’ on the highway. I grew up…

P.J. O’Rourke—later known mostly as a politial gadfly, he used to more than just dabble in automotive writing—once praised these as a life hack for both winter and “mud time” in rural New England. The combination of lightness and for-real AWD, he posited, let them swarm through things that would bog down a…

I learned to drive on one of these, my parents bought it new. In 1979 there was a one model year only stripper special which got you the base model car, with just dual round headlamps, and 4wd. That’s what we had and I suspect that’s what this car is. All cars had an A/C position on the HVAC controls but that was…

Why are all of these fees not rolled into the basic price?

Well, it’s at least in part because car rental companies, unlike airlines, aren’t required by law to show you the total cost upfront. Since they are all competing against one another on Priceline, Kayak, Expedia et al, it incentivizes them to take any cost of…

I accidentally bought this at auction a few years ago. 1949 Packard Super Deluxe 8 long wheel base. Flathead 327 straight 8, 3 on the tree, 7 passenger seating. Turns over, got it almost running, surprisingly solid other than the drivers side floor and the passenger door.

I don’t know if it’s a common thing, but I’ve seen it more than once - making a Honda look like a BMW. I mean, don’t get me wrong, in their pre-Bangle days, they were clean, reasonably timeless cars, and there’s a few Bangle-era things that work, but the styling is never the biggest selling point of the thing. Plus,…

It is an auto ...no dice. 

I’m a third-generation Saab owner, I have LOTS of opinions about dead/zombie car companies.

The Lotus Enema looks like looks like they ground down that awful Lamborghini SUV, the Anus.

They already HAD it!

Well, running across the Atlantic in his wheel is certainly better than flying Air Canada.

RIP BAE.

Correct. Same in the Anglo-American context as well - derived from the English. A minimized version. “Sports” version cars were touring cars that reduced the non-mechanical embellishments.

The Vauxhall Prince Henry’s 25hp rating is misleading. It was an RAC rating for tax purposes. In todays money they produce around 80-95 bhp and a metric crapton of torque, good for over 90mph. Which, in 1914 was very sporting indeed. They also have the braking capability of a worn out 1970's bicycle.

I think the original Thunderbird is the only one that had any real intention of being a sports car*, being meant to offer an American alternative to the Jags and such that were starting to be imported, and pretty much right off the back, Ford started adding weight to make room for golf clubs (Continental spare in ‘56,…

I present to you the 2002 Chevy Monte Carlo Intimidator Edition. It delivers all the intimidation that a 200hp, FWD, 4 speed auto can possibly give. This has to be one of the biggest poseur badge jobs in history.

This is 100% the answer - even VW knew it.

I’m biased. But my karmann ghia. Considered a sports car by Volkswagen. A “poor man’s Porsche” but essentially being a rebodied beetle with whopping 60 hp on a good day. Calling it a sports car based on anything other than its looks is a stretch.