I’ll give you the EXT, but the XLR and ELR are more platform sharing than badge engineering.

For the record, it had better suspension tuning and more comfortable seats. 

I can say as a luxury car buyer, I will only consider electric and plugin hybrids for any future daily driver purchases.   Aside from enjoying an average of 75mpg on each tank of fuel, I have come to love how much smoother and luxurious my A7 PHEV feels when propelled solely by the electric motor compared to when the…

You sound exactly like a “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” MAGAt.

The unsactioned gathering is what draws these folks in. This guy was just the worst offender becuase he killed two people.  Please tell me what “other points of view” I should examine about having modded cars drag race in the middle of a small town with a lot of pedestrian traffic. 

But thing thing here is in terms of actual systems security nothing was actually “hacked”. The dude called up an employee and asked for the password.

My Yamaha 750 with an Inline 4 made 100HP in 1994.

Considering the Panigale and regular Street fighter it’s based on are also 200+ HP Ducati, I’d say it IS kind of just a fashion statement. I don't think the muffler, wheels, and minor body mods probably make a ton of difference in performance. The "plain Jane" SF V4 can be ordered with the dry clutch kit and different…

Which almost feels like the opposite of what I’d expect. People NEED cars, so they get desperate and settle for something. Bikes, at least in the US, are more of a toy or secondary vehicle. You’d think that would make it harder for them to be shitty, but I definitely agree with you that it isn’t the case.

Car dealerships are bad. Motorcycle/ATV dealerships are worse.

Quality issues are concerning as well, as buyers in this segment have high expectations.

I emailed the author of the KBB article. Maybe he has it.

Seeing the distribution would definitely be interesting. Some of it must be people buying higher optioned models or jumping up a class solely because that was all that was available (because that’s what manufacturers are building), but I’m thinking that a lot of it isn’t a change to the mix of vehicles being sold,…

A $50K car is still pretty damned luxurious. You can get a perfectly adequate new car for $20K-$26K. Corollas, Mazda3s, Civics, Camrys, Accords and sundry other dull but worthy cars. You can buy a couple of Korean cars for less than that.

“Street” cars in the 7-second 1/4-mile range is downright common these days. There are folks that run Drag Week who will run 6-seconds runs multiple days in a row with a short roadtrip in between. 

You can’t extend your (frankly, amazing) experience across the whole market. The numbers don’t support it. Cox just revised 2022 estimated new cars sales in the US to 14.4 million from 15.3. 2019 was 17.1!

The subprime auto loan crisis will be brutal.

Not sure if this extends to other models, but I walked into a Toyota dealership this weekend and put a deposit down on an MT Supra at MSRP.

I have never had any brand or dealer loyalty. Never bought from the same dealer twice, and have owned cars from all kinds of different manufactures. I always shop the best price online for the car that meets my needs at that time.

Oh, I know fully well about the "believe in fake shit" crowd, my parents are Christians.