@JC Whitless: But why give people the tools they need to reduce fuel consumption and save money when you could much less easily spend decades drafting fuel economy legislation, creating regulatory agencies, creating tax loopholes, setting state by state emissions standards and just generally mucking around?

I could be ok with electric power steering. I like how there's less load on the engine from the power steering pump and I'm guessing it's fairly easy to disable, which you'd probably only want to do on something like a Miata... Of course, no power steering would be preferable, so it's sort of a best of a bad situation…

@Cheeseslap: Sure seems that way... Hell, Madoff was the chairman of NASDAQ and he managed to operate for decades.

@Seasonone: Also - if you want a manual transmission, the Versa is actually the only one with a 6 speed, the Fiesta has a 5 speed (which actually is something that's fine with me since I don't particularly like 6 speed manuals)

@Ray Wert: sorry, didn't see it. personally, though, I would think most cars in the compact segment would "beat" cars in the small segment at everything here except power / acceleration, which is what seems to have happened with the Fiesta.

Yeah, but the M3 is faster, the Prius is more fuel efficient and the Versa is cheaper....

Electric, computer controlled emergency brakes.

@zeeboid: Everytime I've let a cat out of it's carrier in my car, it makes a bee-line for back of the brake pedal...

Yeah, good luck disabling anything on my L-jetronic equipped E30...

@SerialThriller: Well, it's not nearly as "bad" for the convertible, which seems a lot more common. Still, baby may have back, but I'd hit it. The XK8 coupe is one of the few cars I can see ditching my E24 for right now, although it saddens me that I'd never be able to find a manual one :(

@calzonegolem: Yeah, I think it was a pretty ballsy move that really helps Mazda's reputation, IMO.

my vote goes to...

@Aprime: My bad, it was the sedan - the 11k one with a/c and no other options.

@mycorvettebroke: I have no problem with people driving like you describe... in the right lane. It seems to become an issue when you have them in the left lane, in particular when you have two of them doing it simultaneously next to each other in both lanes. I don't give a shit if your cruise control is set to 1 mph…

@Matt Hardigree: Oh, and I should probably mention that last summer I rented a Suzuki Jimny 5 spd, 4x4, of unknown year while vacationing in Belize. It had 250,000 km on it and had been abused greatly by American tourists who don't know how to drive a stick or a 4x4. The transfer case howled to where I had to keep it…

5 speed Nissan Versa hatch, probably an '09 MY. The shift gate and clutch were so vague it was almost impossible to drive.

hahaha, awesome writeup. the British do seem to be the worst when it comes to arriving at a completely arbitrary opinion of a car, although considering my linguistic constraints, I can really only compare them to American and Australian reviewers...

@Jim Topoleski: the accord's mirror does look like it's folded in, especially in the lower pic.