Great, you didn’t know if you were being ghosted, or, the 204 had broke down.

 I owned both!. A 2005 Mazda6 wagon 5-speed and a 2012 TSX Sportwagon. The Mazda was the better wagon. The Acura was better gas mileage.

GM Failed terribly on the 6th gen Camaro. GM in the 60's would never have done a total redesign of a product only to make it look like the previous car. The Camaro is a great car wrapped in day-old styling. Jag circled the drain for decades re-hashing new cars with 69' XJ styling.

 It joins the 3-Series as another BMW that looks like a Subaru. BMW now has a BRZ to go with their Impreza.

Ford Squaremont. Didn’t work against the movement to FWD in small and midsize cars. Like the Pinto, the wrong direction at the time. Almost put Ford in the ditch until the Taurus came to save the day.

Here in Vermont, the dumbest car for a new young driver is a used 2-door Wrangler. A 17-Year old flipped one on its side downtown on a modestly snowy day driving home from school a few years back. Lousy crash ratings and with part-time 4wd, lousy in winter. Plenty of cool fun cars that are reasonably safe.

Sad, but, there has been 50 years to make a go of it. Historic? Yes. But, we can’t keep a ship as if it is a museum artifact. They burn money and there isn’t enough people interested to raise enough money to take care of it. Time to stop kicking the can and sell it to an entity who wants it. There was interest in…

Why doesn’t VW look at all the manufacturers who have gone to electro-capacitive switches only to return to knobs after poor customer feedback? Cadillac and Lincoln both got slapped for this. 

Bought my ‘17 after 3 years with a ‘15 (1st GTI ever for me at 50 years old). Can’t fault it. The best all-rounder I’ve ever driven. Wonderful on Vermont back roads and the Home Depot runs. Not looking forward to the MK8's electro-capacitive switches replacing knobs. Cadillac, among others went there and it fell flat. 

Now that Stallantis is calling the shots, I keep hearing excited enthusiast’s predicting a resurrected Lancia. Carlos Tavares is a very sharp man. Way too sharp to risk success in Europe by investing in a damaged brand at the expense of more important active brands. Lancia made some exciting cars 25+ years ago, but,…

Vermont also doesn’t have a Lexus, Infiniti, Range Rover, Jaguar, Porsche, or Tesla dealer. And yet, we endure.

 I want to like the MK8, but, its not happening. The electronic controls in the interior are not intuitive or respond well. The styling is different than the 7, but, not an improvement. More power? Sure , thats a plus. The lack of the sunroof on the R is still my reason to stick to a GTI. I just can’t find enough…

Do the motoring public a favor. Open the door and throw in a road-flare and walk away. This NEVER should have seen an assembly line. What a waste.

 Its also totally legal to walk around Buck-naked, but, nobody does.

Our Republican Governor was just re-elected with 70% of the vote. We are more live and let live here. Our elections are relatively civil and negative ads backfire. 

 The main reason it doesn’t change is our absurdly low crime rate. If you told people you need to carry a gun here, they’d think your nuts. We carry as a sidearm when we hunt, thats it.

Can’t drive it in Vermont though. Vermont requires a vehicle inspection annually with a windshield sticker.

 Honda really set the bar with that Accord. My Friend’s parents had one and the “surprise and delight” features it had was remarkable for the 70's! 

Now you need to find a German auto-blogger to come to the U.S. for a month to save that most elusive of Mondeo relatives, a 96' Mercury Mystique LS 5-speed!

I have a MK7 GTI, and I totally agree. Throw the Passat in there too. They are an interpretaion of what VW thinks Americans want without pissing Audi off. Reminds me of all the Chryslers that Daimler was responsible for.