4th: I count myself as one of those who replaced a car with a car this year; although a VW Alltrack is sort of flirting with crossover territory.

Our area of Colorado has been in a fire ban for pretty much all spring due to the dry weather. There are some wildfires, and sunsets have been more spectacular lately from the smoke, but fortunately we haven’t had any real ash problems or the telltale stink of wildfire this year so far.

Yeah, it seems like people generally expect A/C to be readily available for everyone. For a lot of areas of the US, it just doesn’t make sense... even when there’s a handful of days every year that you know will be absolutely miserable.

As a bonus, the more people “wait out” the tariffs, the less time they’ll be around as every auto company screams to the hills about declining sales.

As a former F10 owner*, I’ve got to agree with you there.

We have an alltrack and it is a bit underpowered, but really it’s fine for what it is. I just appreciate being able to row my own in a new car these days.

No worries. I always test the transmission that way. The rear end - for stress factors.

My wife and I spend about $50-80 a week between the two of us. For main meals, we like to make a monthly (or so) visit to Costco. Our total monthly grocery spending usually ends up at around $300.  

Didn’t they put a different turbo in the automatic 9000s? And I didn’t think the 9k had the same transmission problems as the classic 900.

Point taken. CatIIIb autopilots are very sophisticated; however the pilot is an integral part of the operation of that aircraft, whether he or she is directly manipulating control surfaces or not - in something like an A340, the pilot is the systems manager who must be present and aware at all phases of flight, ready…

that they falsely used the marketing term “Autopilot” which suggests automatic driving

Can confirm regarding the Audi buying experience. My wife drives an S3, and the dealer is great. Free coffee/drinks/snacks, clean place, great service department (which is open until like 9pm), and they were willing to deal on the sale and our trade. No issues sitting in/test driving anything, either.

I always referred to it as a driver’s body language (as in the body of their car).

Are you a Saudi oil baron?

I mean, I don’t think anyone doubted they’re shipping at this point. I see them driving around town now and then.

In isolation its actually a miracle of technology.

There was a guy that worked at the place my wife works... he went 10 years making the same hourly wage. Professional consulting company, and he was in a highly skilled type position. TEN YEARS!

Good point on taking it too far (I’ll admit I haven’t seen an ATS in person). And it’s true the proportions of the BMW are good looking at it from the outside; I think they could do better with the room they have to make it a bit more useful. My wife’s car (S3) is smaller than a 3-series and the back seats are fine.

They are probably following BMW’s lead on the back seats. I mean, I had an F10 5-series and even that car had pretty limited rear legroom.

The old Saabs also had the engine mounted backwards, with the clutch sitting up by the radiator and all the belts conveniently impossible to reach, up against the firewall.