Except the Buick is priced right at where the Outback is.

Even with options, this car looks like an awfully good value. $36k for a well-equipped leather-lined luxury lifted wagon isn’t bad at all.

Because it’s not about the engine, but the platform. The Cruze platform might need major re-engineering to accommodate the prop shaft, transfer case, and rear differential for AWD. And considering only two Cruze competitors even offer AWD, Chevy isn’t probably too bothered about it.

The Range Rover Evoque has them, too. I don’t know why, but I don’t mind them either.

Both the X and J cars were a size class bigger than the Alliance/Encore.

Over 500,000 people bought them in 5 years.

Over 500,000 people bought Alliances and Encores in just 5 years on the market. That’s probably more cars than Peugeot sold in the US, combined.

Wow, so you’re saying a high-priced sedan from a brand that’s been practically nonexistent in the US for 20+ years and sold less than 7,000 cars here in its BEST year is having trouble

It isn’t about speed limits. It’s about the percentage of driving people do at highway speed vs city speed.

That’s the previous generation 5. The one in the OP is the mostly unrelated 1984-96 Renault “Super 5.”

Bingo. That and American high-speed cruising use patterns stressed these cars more than European use patterns did.

Harvest Gold is literally my favorite color

I loved the Tiburon, and this generation in particular. So did Top Gear. Hammond said it looked like a Ferrari and drove quite well for a cheap coupe.

These spots were doubtless approved by a GM exec who saw Toyota’s “grounded to the ground” ads and thought “YES! THIS is how we beat Toyota!!”

I think he’d wreck it even harder for the attention.

If you combined VW/Audi/Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz US sales - with or without their non-German brands - I don’t think you’d hit 1,000,000 unit sales a year in the US, much less “millions.”

Yup! Even longitudinal AWD systems hooked to inline engines, like we’re seeing more commonly with BMW and senior Audis, need to accommodate a transfer case, which affects serviceability.

Volkswagen has a car for everyone, from the diesel enthusiast to the asthmatic that breathes their diesel fumes.

Its simple longitudinally mounted RWD inline-4 is a huge reason for that. Not many companies can build their cars like that.

They get coddled especially when they hold the first presidential primary of election season and no one wants to piss them off.