I believe Changzhou Xili Vehicle Co. is majority owned by the People’s Government of Jiangsu Province, which means the workers of the factory ultimately are working for themselves and benefit from the fruits of their own labor, as do all the dedicated workers and peasants of the great People’s Republic of China. Now,…

Not a big deal - just drill out the holes slightly larger, and stick in some plastic push fasteners. Use a little factory red touch up paint, and the holes will be practically invisible.

I have never understood this at all, if you want a big, central grille that extends the full height of the front end, put in an off-center license plate mounting point. Either that, or include a proper, horizontal bumper straight across the front that’s wide enough to fit the whole license plate within it.

I’ve had 3 or 4 police officers tell me over the years that front plates were of, at best, marginal utility for them. Of course, one of them had just relocated from Pennsylvania, where he grew up and went to college, to Virginia, where he accepted a job as a state trooper, and was complaining to me about how crappy…

Or, if they suspect something else and need probable cause (eg, see you pulling out of an empty parking lot that’s a notorious drug deal location at 3am - pardon me sir, but are you aware that California is a front license plate state, and what’s that in the plastic bag on the seat next to you?).

They might have been counting on the distance and language barrier taking care of that - e.g., how is someone in Japan going to trace their stolen car all the way over in the United States? Finding stolen cars that never even leave their original city is often difficult enough, so there's some logic there. They…

Since Europe isn't a closed market like the US, anyone who wants one can still import privately from Russia.

Pensions were unsustainable with increased lifespans, companies with massive amounts of living retirees turned into benefit providers. As long as whatever portion of the wealth I have is enough for me to live comfortably, I don’t give a rats ass how much more someone else has. Which is the case. Warren Buffett could…

I had it in an Escape I had as a company car. Did over 60,000 miles in 2 years, never averaged more that a fraction over 25mpg - with stop start, low roll resistance tires, and a tiny 4-cylinder in a vehicle that replaced compact cars.

If those ZAP Xebras and Wildfire WF650s that were brought in several years ago are any indication, the car itself will technically last, in the sense that it will still function, but it will age at a significantly accelerated rate. I’d expect it to look and feel 15 year old car with 200,000 miles after about 12 months…

IIRC, the Nissan Tsuru was like $6900 when it was discontinued in Mexico a couple of years ago. I’d say that’s about as cheap as you could get for something that met the bare minimum definition of a car that could be driven on the highway, if you stripped out all the mandated equipment save for seatbelts.

FCA pays a dividend on common shares and does not have a preferred class at this time, but anything that boosts value ultimately benefits all shareholders to some degree. 

It was probably just Charles Kuralt again

Outside the Agnelli/Elkann family’s holdings, FCA’s largest shareholders are institutional investors and companies that manage funds on behalf of institutional investors, and there’s a number of familiar names on there that ordinary people will no doubt recognize from their quarterly retirement statements. A large…

By the shareholders, do you mean everybody who has something other than just Social Security and coffee can of cash in the backyard for retirement? If you have a 401K, a 403B, a pension, or some types of IRAs, you better damn well hope companies are looking out for their shareholders.

Wow, no gimmicky LED accents on the front, no giant ugly grille, no floating C-pillar effect, no fake plastic windows - Honda pretty much nailed this one.

The fact that it was Tjaarda’s handiwork kind of explains that. He was fascinated with aircraft construction and did all sorts of experimentation with monocoque and space frame type designs during the ‘30s. The Lincoln Zephyr was the first commercialized product to feature his ideas around that, though I think some of…

Not rusty, paint that will clean up, a decent interior that maybe just needs a new front seat, a famously durable engine, and a pretty rugged transmission, all in a 55 year old car with decent parts support? I’d say NP, as long as it isn’t seized. 

It was the ‘70s, the same decade when 90+% of the gun shops in the US were last renovated or cleaned. 

To be fair, this was before Toyota was really building cars primarily with the US market in mind. In Japan, cars become increasingly expensive to keep on the road the older they get, registration fees for a 14-15 year old car are dramatically higher than one that just came off the showroom floor, so most cars get…