drivers happily block a lane of traffic while waiting for something, even when there are open spots where they may pull up.

I still think they missed the opportunity to call it the “e-barth”

Fair point - I still wonder why a CEO wouldn’t check internally if there was existing company knowledge about the poor experience before setting out on his own. I appreciate the effort to see for himself either way.

I know that it’s fine for the 60, but the point I’m making is that EVs of any range make a hell of a lot more sense in dense cities where the majority of those 40% live, which means that the lack of chargers is felt even more there, thus bringing me back to the need for longer range/time between recharges.

Funny that it would take the Uber CEO and a handful of other executives getting behind the wheel, and experiencing the technical difficulties and stresses drivers face first-hand (as well as the rudeness of Uber riders) to change things.

For some reason, despite New York City’s density, walkability and extensive public transportation system, people still choose to drive cars in the heart of the city. When you take all the traffic into consideration, getting around by car makes even less sense.

Those are all great, but other than a Fit and the Bolt, you’re stepping up from subcompact to compact class with those others, which might be too much car for example if parking is constrained (parallel parking 164" of car is great, and some of those options are 6-18" longer). I don’t mean to say that there aren’t…

I feel the same with the Honda Fit - you’ll see forum posts regularly of people lamenting that they have no idea what car they’ll replace theirs with. It was by far the king of subcompacts, and easily plenty of car for everyday use for a family of 4, but nooooo we all have to drive crew cab F-250s now.

Cargo and interior volume are not enthusiast metrics

I partially agree on #2 - if Ford had gone the Panamera route and sold a 4-door Mustang starting 10-15 years ago, the jump to a crossover might not have been seen as so antithetical to the brand name.

Another example of people buying more car than they need.

California got so close to this by requiring trucks to have commercial plates

Honestly just making light trucks subject to the same standards as passenger cars would be a major win

I’ve only checked out the hatch 3 and since I’m super tall it’s not big enough for me, not to mention the horrid blind spots.

The last gen Jetta (2010-2018) was a US-specific model, correct, though I think the current one (2019- ) is the same as in China. Even though the US Golf, Sportwagen, Alltrak, and GTI were also built in Mexico, the Golf is VW’s bread and butter in Europe; they don’t skimp on it and probably share tons of panels with…

I mean, of course a $43-50,000 Volkswagen was doomed to fail. The Germans need to realize that in the US they aren’t a premium brand made to look better by SEAT and Skoda - they go toe to toe with Toyota and Honda. Had the Arteon replaced the Passat in the mid-30,000 range I bet you’d see a lot more of them.

Which, annoyingly, they did sell a Golf R Sportwagen in Europe.

Upgrade his VW Golf to something a bit nicer and sportier

That’s happened across the entire segment though, and why most OEMs ended up introducing new, smaller models (VW Taos, Toyota C-HR, Honda HR-V, Kia Seltos/Hyundai Venue/Kona) for those who don’t want the continually growing ones.

Toyota Rav4 & Honda CR-V