Calibers look a lot like the last two generations of Subaru Crosstreks. Also, giving a car a name that evokes guns is not a great idea, at least to me. It was also in the era (Cerberus, I think) of really cheap looking Chrysler dashboard/interiors, same as the pre-facelift Caravans and Sebring/200's.

I think that was the Kia Soul. 

But another case of the same name on a different kind of car and with a gap in between. I’ll credit the Caravan to Pacifica (exactly the same kind of car, different name) as a huge improvement though.

The new Escort in the US was mostly a Mazda 3. The Focus (about the same in both countries) was really the new Escort, and it was a huge change. 

Is that when the Audi (Austrian?) guy took over design?

The Wikipedia formatting messed that up and I couldn’t fix it. The names were in blue for links and all got put somewhere else where they don’t belong. Just read this:

(Wikipedia)

Don’t get a Fit. You won’t fit. I’m 5'10" and I don’t fit in the last generation. (Also ride and NVH of course....)

I would never buy any boy racer car used. 

Maybe they should have tested them before putting them into production or something. 

Only an anecdote, but my sister had three bought new GTI/Rabbit/Golfs and things broke on all of the all the time. Her last one was a normal version of the model shown and after fixing many things over its life at 90K miles the steering wheel was shredding, the lighter/power outlets didn’t work half the time and the…

But bring back horn rings!

Yeah, it’s pretty cute but the bed is way too short and makes it look cartoony cute, not real car cute.

“....buying direct from them sucks too, it just sucks differently.”

I’ve been blocked by two NYC NPR on air people because of very reasonable expletive free questions or criticism. The first one also got my rare and also reasonable comments to not appear on their website for any show, not even theirs, even if they are entirely complementary. There are right wing conspiracy theorists…

It makes sense that car dealers in urban areas are shittier than in others because they don’t get the same kind of word of mouth local reputation and take advantage of that fact. Car shopping (didn’t buy) in Brooklyn NY certainly confirmed that with the sleaziest low rent snake oil salesman crap imaginable.

In real life no one in the history of cars ever changed the manual transmission or rear axle oil. (Talking normal people.) Not saying they shouldn’t have.

I don’t like it when my car is in a breaking situation. 

2006 Jaguar XJ Vanden Plas: looks sort of like the old XJ , high tech aluminum structure, air suspension, folding burl picnic tables in the back seat, V8...OK you will be seeing a lot of that specialist but what an awesome car.

I had no idea what that was myself. Turns out it was a Pontiac concept car that was a Corvette in front, a Volt in the middle, and a Subaru SVX in the rear.