I like the contrast of a dark exterior/light interior and vice versa, along with the option of color keying the two. Although, given that nearly all interiors are black now and that about 1/3 of all cars are black, I guess many are defect color keyed. 

1st) Considering that Tesla seemed to be actively recruiting to fill a large number of vacant positions at all levels of its retail operations worldwide, as well as maintaining the pace of new store openings, pretty much right up to the announcement that they were closing virtually all stores and eliminating virtually…

I love how basic it is, wish we could get chrome dog dishes on more modern cars. Of course, I get more of an IRS agent or city code enforcement officer vibe out of this one. 

What, maybe rural Vermont or Minnesota? 

Hell, people will happily smear feces all over the walls in bathrooms of stores that aren’t left unattended. 

Destined to become the most reliable and problem-free modern Toyota, no doubt.

All branding, works for other manufacturers too. I remember a coworker being very disappointed when I pointed out that his B-Series was really a Ford (he had declared that he would never own a Ford product when I was complaining about the paint adhesion issues on my Mustang).

If they were talking about how the plant was run under GM exclusively from the ‘60s-’80s, they’d have had a point, but yeah, NUMMI was really a model plant from the 1980s onward. They just ran out of product to build at the end. 

Toyota took full ownership of the NUMMI plant when GM filed for bankruptcy, then sold most of the site to Tesla for $42 million at the same time they bought a 2.5% stake in Tesla for $50 million, meaning they effectively gave it to Tesla for free. I think they eventually raised their interest in Tesla to 3%, but sold…

That certainly takes up space, too - they also make dashboards on site, and then you have Elon Musk’s bedroom and office out on the assembly floor as well. 

The NUMMI plant was one of the better and more modern facilities that became available as a result of GM and Chrysler’s bankruptcies in 2009, and was also convenient to Tesla’s existing headquarters and R&D facility in Palo Alto (or, at least, more convenient than any of the others, all of which were east of the…

Yeah, but I think Tesla has made some changes to the plant that has reduced its capacity. I know they took out one of the paint shops, and also their rail spur. 

Unfortunately, Rivian has already bought the old Mitsubishi Motors plant in Normal, IL.

I would actually love it if they built a small, 4-seat city car on the platform. It could be what the Up Exclamation Point should have been in the first place, except electric instead of ICE. 

Something tells me that this is very quickly going to surpass the Stelvio and go on to be the best selling Alfa Romeo ever built, until such time as an even cheaper crossover is introduced. 

Hmmm, you may have a point. All this time, I’ve been thinking that the Tesla name had successfully carved out a pretty good image for itself, BUT, Mercedes is Mercedes. All else being equal, if your typical social climbing snob has a choice of a vehicle with a three pointed star on the front, or a vehicle with a…

I wonder how much this has to do with the 1st gen TT being considered something of a postmodern design icon, leading people to hold onto them and keep fixing them beyond the point where pure economics would intervene, combined with the usual cycle of used luxury cars working their way down the auto sales food chain to…

Great writeup, worthy of Aaron Severson (whatever happened to that guy?). Typical GM story though, fantastic concept, somewhat flawed initial execution, and everything fixed and perfected in time for it to be discontinued.

Could we add "avoid school bus routes" too?

Considering that Volvo doesn’t really make any truly sports/performance oriented cars that people would take to a legal race course anymore, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. In daily use on public roads, acceleration is more important that top speed. 112mph is still way faster than anyone should really be driving…