What part of the Golf R’s interior is “frustrating as hell”?

That’s a full sized van that seats 12 or 15 people and has a pretty cheap-to-maintain Chevrolet drivetrain. The VW looks nicer, but seats 7 people in this article’s trim with very little room left for bags. I’d also bet the VW drivetrain will be more expensive to maintain over the life of the vehicle.

If they were able to somehow keep the base price at the same as the outgoing model, the old 370Z started around $30K base while the STI is $38K.

1st Gear:

Yeah I think a lot of people will *look* at it and say, “Wow that’s small.” Especially if the dealers park them beside F150's. I think many, many buyers don’t *need* big, but they *want* big because it projects the “I Drive Big Truck” style that they enjoy.

I think you’d have to drive it before making the call that it’s “dog slow”. The 0-60 time isn’t a good measure. This 0-60 of ~9.x seconds matches the eGolf I leased, which was faster than a stock GTI below 40mph. I also had no issue merging or driving on highways around the Bay Area in California with this vehicle…

Buying a used Leaf?  Do some research and get this app:

Just for kicks I took a look at the “First Edition” and was *shocked* to see the interior is not black-on-black! Did I end up in an alternate universe, or do pickups get exempted from the black/grey everything interiors that are default on every sedan/CUV no matter the price?

Does ‘crazy gray’ include:

Yeah truck got bigger because people *wanted* to drive a big, imposing vehicle. When lots of people *need* a truck, this one would be fine but it’s not what they’re going to buy.

True, Mazda isn’t stupid. It’ll sell probably in the high 20K range after the 7500 federal incentive.

This is an automotive blog, but didn’t the invitation to integrate China with western business predate Clinton by about 20 years? Tianamen Square was a very flashy event on TV, but normalizing relations with a despot like Mao Zedong was even more extreme than hoping to change the Chinese government post-Tianamen.

For this car I’d say the price+range is way worse off than the price+0-60. I don’t think many people who buy commuter appliance CUVs care about getting “smoked” by a teenager. The teenager, however, will think he’s a street racing superstar while ‘competing’ against non-participants.

I have a better idea. Rather than a potentially racial biased car law, lets make sure that any modification of ride height (>2 inches), wheel diameter (>2 inches), or gross vehicle weight should trigger a safety test:

If Elon got a couple years of increasing stock values by selling his IP out to the CCP, then he (personally) won. Just like all other automotive companies in the world, they don’t give a shit if they go out of business in 36 months due to global competition with China (or anything else) as long as their C-suite is…

It’ll be interesting to see how many of these sell. Full size pickups didn’t get big for safety or fuel economy; trucks keep getting bigger because people want to drive something *big*. It’s either a style preference, or it makes them feel powerful, or it’s overcompensation ... or whatever you want to call it.

I was on one of those in Sedona a few years ago.  Fun ride.

I’d also be wary of using those ultra narrow i3-only tires on bad dirt roads.

... and gas/diesel vehicles with a CO alarm?

This is a timely article for me: I’ve got a Volvo XC90 with 25K miles, still under warranty. It got a check engine light due to a misfire on cylinder #2 a few weeks ago. They replaced all the spark plugs (AGAIN! this is the 3rd set of plugs since the engine was built), but they did NOT replace the damn coil pack.