Not the point of the article, but holy moses is that Corolla appalling to look at. Whoever walked into Toyota and decided everything needs to look like an angry carp should be thrown out of the nearest window.

When I was a freshman in high school, I got a ride home from an upperclassmen who was sort of a friend. He was a good dude who I knew for awhile because we had older siblings that were tight. However, about 10 seconds into the 5 minute drive to my house, I noticed an alarming trend:

Along the same lines: what sort of person advertises a car as “Tow Yard Special”? Is that supposed to make people want the car more? 

Confession Time: The second description of generic boomer hot rods made me want one.

I can sort of understand, but the whole industry deserves to be in that bucket. GM practically destroyed the evidence of the EV1 project. Last year, they sold the most Tahoes they ever have since the recession. That Toyota doesn’t bother with an overpriced BEV isn’t some kind of indictment, especially when they…

1. Indifferent on the styling itself (not bad, not great), but I kind of dig the proportions. Smallish overall dimensions with a decent size interior and rides a little high is something the world needs more of.

That’s the novelty of the headline. Because this the sort of cars people buy because of what it will be worth in 5-10 years, most were already paperweights in the first place.

I think the point (whether the article makes it well or not) is that a stalk is usually the cheapest way to do it*, and EV’s need all the ways to stay cheap they can. Lo and behold, all the EV’s have them.

We agree on this more than you realize. The big manufacturers thought they could do the Tesla approach 15 years late, and found out the hard way they couldn’t last summer. Plus, Tesla can lean on their superior charging network, and out-cost-cut the rest because they’re at the perfect size where they are scaled up for…

Rare situation where this gif can be used for a good reason:

Hell yes. The whole shifter and stalk assemblies GM had in the 90's was somehow extremely intuitive despite looking insanely complicated.

I guess we don’t disagree then, it was just a weird thing to try on pin on Toyota. IMO, I think the whole other side of the industry thinking they could prop themselves up on overpriced EV’s when we needed more affordable options is damning in it’s own right. Tesla is the only real exception, but I’m comfortable…

This is an argument I can buy, but I still don’t think we can say for sure until those SSB’s either do or don’t happen in 5 years. The odds are just as good that Toyota may have just opted out of this transition phase with traditional Li-ion BEV’s. Even if they underestimated the court of public opinion’s disapproval…

Don’t disagree, but I don’t think I could ever say Toyota should be more conservative than they already are. The whole reason they can get away with not having a competitive BEV is because of their reputation as the most conservative manufacturer out there: Their products won’t have the most bleeding-edge technology,…

The stance that hybrids are a better use of the resources and infrastructure we have on hand for the foreseeable future is not “anti-EV propaganda”, and making that jump makes me think you’ve got some other beef with them.

Curious what the rationale is for them losing credibility? If anything, they’re the only manufacturer that seemed to acknowledge that a hard left-turn to EV’s all at once was a bit optimistic, and a hybrid transition phase was probably more practical.

I think it’s less of a #FREEDOM and more of a: people being angry all the time thing. Whatever little voice in people’s had that told them to just goddam relax died during 2020. NYT has had a couple good pieces on it over the last couple years.

I agree for the major 4 NA sports leagues (although hockey might be a stretch), but NASCAR is definitely in a state where it *needs* the exposure. Even if all the behind the scenes content is technically out there, NASCAR really needs to throw it in the potential fan’s face to get their attention. 

It probably had some tangible ROI for a time, but eventually became a loss-leader where having their brand attached to something good or funny everyone saw was worth the clout. Now it’s gotten to a place where the commercials have such a low hit rate that they could definitely do that better some other way for a lot…

This most be the first time I’ve ever seen a Kia Sorento, because holy shit, that is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, save for the awful new Bimmer schnozzes.