I always do this....this is especially necessary for when you are under 25! The good deal on a small coupe is not as nice when you found out the insurance is almost as much or more than the car payment (this actually could’ve happened to me if I wasn’t careful in the no-fault state of Michigan).

The Feds in their bubble have never really cared for safety.

This guy is welcome in America anytime in my book!

I hate these guys.

Rule #1 of a DMV...don’t give them power to do anything that isn’t already set in stone it will never end well. Imagine having to go to the DMV to merely swap anything involving software (ecu fix...even an o2 sensor has software on it now). DMV stuff is bad enough as it is already.

Even when the fixes are for design flaws in older cars?

Frankly we need to scrap the DMCA altogether. It’s poorly worded and has a massive chilling effect on the 1st and the 4th amendments.

Here’s my money! My father had the Toyota version. Not a single problem until it was T-Boned by an F150 @ 50mph...It still drove home with my father not being seriously injured. Too much damage to fix and too many cars in the driveway in the city...it went to the boneyard under her own power with honor...

I wish that there was a hybrid version with better mileage since the Flex is bad for the city on gas. I bought the smaller C-Max but a Flex would have made a nice cool covert camper for the beach.

My parents put a lot of miles on their Flex, no rattles. Yes there are some fit and finish issues, but both my parents love it.

I’ll say this. The Chinese can make quality products when they want to, the question is will they want to?

Chinese brands become successful by doing what the Japanese and the Koreans did...provide a commuter car that is inexpensive to run and inexpensive to buy that meets or exceeds current safety standards in the US (including the IIHS tests that are harder). Parts availability must be good enough that any competent can…

I know what you’re talking about...My mother’s 99' Odyssey had so many sliding door problems including opening randomly on the freeway (always fun to slide shut a sliding door @70mph when you’re 9 years old...it was fun at the time...scary now).

Sliding doors arent too heavy when they aren’t power ones. The utility of a sliding door especially when using a wagon/mpv as a camper is unparalleled. I essentially want a Grand C-Max (cmax with sliding doors) but Ford won’t make a hybrid version or bring it to America.

Put sliding doors on a Prius V and I’ll buy it (I have its rival, a C-Max)

Rural ND/SD might have a problem if all the small town guys go belly up...the nearest service center for your new car is 110 miles away.

Rural ND/SD and MT have to do weird combos of brands to stay around...like a dealer by me that does Ford/Kia or another that does Honda/Nissan/Volkswagen or another that does Chevy/Subaru.

Harder to go to independents with a hybrid or electric.

About the no-haggle...one could merely honor the internet price when I come in to the dealership. The dealer that did and rounded the price up including taxes got the sale. All parties happy, the sale including test drive took a little over an hour.

Personally I’d like to see a manufacturer owned dealership with the some sales people being sales engineers (eng. degree or eng. tech cert.). Some of the best engineers I knew in college went to become sales engineers for auto suppliers because they could build anything but also explain to a bean counter why the hell…