There are few things that have put me more at ease (after the initial anger/disappointment/recriminations wear off) than getting that first sizable ding on a car. After that, I can pretty much stop worrying about it, and I can park as close to other cars as I want because what’s one more ding?

Diesel shines in the fuel economy realm compared to hybrids when you are doing lots of steady state highway cruising. Hybridization really shines in stop and go settings, but adds little on the freeway. So I can see buying diesel over a hybrid equivalent if you mostly do long freeway drives. That said, I can’t imagine…

The Ford Flex gets way too much love on this site. It looks like shit, and it’s not a good car by any metric. Its only redeeming quality is being a ‘wagon’ in a market undersaturated with wagons, but nobody’s going to pay $13k for this example of the species.

There are worse things than swooshes.

Same designer:

welp, all boxes are checked. Official Jalop status

Patrick George'd

From the citation of Thim:

Ford: We’re going to call our electric vehicle a Mustang to try to leverage brand equity.

“Shift smoother, Robert, I nearly spilled my highball.”

“I just like to see Geoffrey change gears (*Sulu laugh*)!”

The Audi V8 had the misfortune of going up against Mercedes before they decided their cars were “needlessly overengineered”. How many despots would pick this over a W126 560SEL, or W140 S600L? And then the crooked investment banker who drove himself would have had the Porsche-built 500E.

I am stunned that the auto industry has not heard that people hate piped-in engine noise. You’d think they’d be elated to discover they can stop that practice, and thereby save $1.47 per vehicle.

What is fuel economy? I agree, WANT!

Aaaaaaand the countdown to 2045 has begun 

So wait, Subaru becomes more and more humdrum by the year and Toyota starts making the fun cars?

I had a part time job at the service dept in a VW dealership in the mid 00s. Its why I still have never purchased a VW. My favorite was all the cars that would come in with their side windows permanently half down since the clips were plastic and would crack every time there would be a big outside temp change. Spring…

Holy shit -- EXACTLY!  Good onya!  I only made it a year with my ‘04 GLI.  Loved driving it.  Hated owning it.  There were never any major mechanical issues with it, just so many small things that KEPT happening, and the VW dealer/service network is a frustrating joke.  I swear, VW maintenance is a psychological…

I still have twitching from my 2001 VR6 GTI. Bought brand new and traded in after two year warranty expired..... Nope.  The car was peppy and I did love that engine and stick combo but it was at the dealer for small crap way to many times in those two years......  CP  

The Acura is a great choice. This generation’s design is my favorite TL.