At least in the US, the US Olympic Committee has iron fisted control of the Olympics trademark (including the five rings, etc.) under 36 U.S. Code § 220506. I would imagine other countries are similar, and the IOC also vigorously enforces the trademark.

It is galling that Estoril Blue is available on many regular BMWs with the M sport package, but not on the M3 or M4. It's a better blue than Yas Marina Blue.

Heh, I just said the same thing over on TTAC. New Passat looks really nice, but VW will never bring it here if it has to compete price-wise with usual midsize sedans (Camry, Accord, etc.).

This sucks. I know that Lightroom is better, but Aperture was "good enough" and had the one advantage of seamless integration into the rest of MacOS, so I could share photos, sync them to my phones, etc. just like with iPhoto, without intermediate steps or copies of photos, or any other management or work on my part.

Bought a 1997 VW Passat with a manual transmission and drove it from Houston to Austin from the dealer's lot.

What a big heavy SUV needs is torque, not power. These modern directed-injected engines may look good on paper in terms of horsepower, but they all have anemic torque. A good 8-speed like the ZF helps to hide that, but it seems that this car doesn't have such a transmission.

Customizations and special orders are a hassle to provide to the consumer, for both the dealer and the manufacturer. For the dealer, inventory and business process issues if it's not something they do all the time. For the manufacturer, it increases costs of production to be able to do so many variations on a car…

A lot of it also depends on the brand of car, in addition to the dealership. Some dealerships can't be bothered. Most brands, there's not a lot of customizability, everything is packaged; mostly, you only need to special order if you want a manual transmission or want a particular color, etc. Some common brands, and I…

What do you care if you're dead? You just have to find someone who's a good enough archer to launch that burning arrow onto your boat as it drifts out to sea.

That it's made by Google. That company just gives me the creeps.

The Ticonderoga class cruisers have up to 122 missiles in their VLS, the Arleigh Burke class destroyers up to 90. So assuming a carrier battle group has a couple of each as escorts, they can put up several hundreds of missiles. On the plus side, the AEGIS radar means they can put them all in the air at once at…

It has an open diff, but you can buy a mechanical LSD for $2,900:

I think it was the slippery texture more than the thickness, but the two together made it painful to drive. My mom's E-class has a fairly thin wheel, most of which is actually polished wood (from 10-2 on top and 4-8 on bottom), but where you put your hands it's stitched leather, and it feel's fine.

I rented a base model Altima to drive from Texas to Illinois last year. The steering wheel was so skinny and slippery that both mine and my wife's hands hurt just holding on to it. We finally stopped at a Walgreens and bought some sticky first aid wrap or tape and wrapped the 9 and 3 o'clock areas of the steering…

Am I the only one who thinks the ass of the A7 is ugly? Reminds me of a fancified Mazda 626 5 door. When it first came out, people said it was gorgeous, but I always thought it was no W219 CLS, which is to me still by far the hottest four door coupe (though the Rapide and the 6 Gran Coupe gives it a run for the…

Well suspension could use a refresh but it's not worth it economically, some squeaks and rattles in the back from something (could just be all the junk my wife leaves in the back), that kind of thing. Car is not falling apart by any means but if definitely has a slightly tired feeling, no worse than any other car of…

VW fan or German car fan and that was the best I could afford at the time? I'm not sure to be honest.

I have a MkV in that very same color. It's now showing its age at 128k miles, but from a road car perspective I always felt the steering was very precise and communicative without being too busy. It goes where you point it without drama. As a point of reference, I have owned/driven B3/B4/B5 Passats, a Corrado VR6, and…

I have a 2007 MkV GTI, with the DSG. It has close to 130k miles on it, and other than regular maintenance (which, to be fair, included at $1200 timing belt job), the only real issues I've had with it are the coil packs (common with VWs), a long neglected fuel filter (never changed until 115k miles), and my mechanic…

Agreed. When I bought my Mk5, I went out of my way to locate a four (five?) door. It was more important than having a manual transmission (though I would have loved both). The car has been super useful and fun to drive in the 130k miles we've put on it.