After moving to West LA a year ago, I bought a bicycle. I went to school at UC Davis, and if you know anything about Davis, it’s probably the bicycling capital of America (seriously, more bikes than people) and is easily the country’s most bike-friendly city, with tons of bike-only roads and access paths.

That’s such a bummer. Well, I hope they get it right eventually. I’d love to see a MazdaSpeed 2 with a turbodiesel or something bonkers.

Unfortunately, social engineering works extremely well on people who don’t spend a lot of time doing commerce or business on the internet. If you’re just on Facebook at home and using a computer otherwise just for work stuff, you’re just not getting exposed to the hilarious amount of fraud that happens on the web.

I’ve got a sudden and indescribable urge to watch regular car reviews now.

Mazda 6 diesel wagon with 300ftlb+ torque? WHY AREN’T WE GETTING THIS

Wow. These people have gotten altogether too much sympathy.

Yes, I’m now aware he was pro-bono - my mistake.

As far as I was aware, there was substantial debate as to how to date these vehicles (and thus discussion of the shadiness of the importer) because so many of the parts had been replaced with newer Defender pieces that they were no longer really anything but a few frame pieces of the original cars, to varying degrees.

Unpopular opinion incoming.

Yeah, I was going to say - a W221 V12 is not anywhere near bottoming out at $35k. The V12s hold their value better than the V8s, but not that much better. The technology will age, and when it becomes clear an ‘08 S550 is a Palm Pre to a 2020 Hyundai Sonata’s iPhone 6 in terms of driver assist and connected technology,…

Man, that is weird. Lightning is some crazy shit, yo.

I think it depends on the vehicle to a considerable degree. I generally don’t drive in my flip-flops if it’s a car I haven’t driven before, because I do think there is at least some risk there in terms of learning how far apart the pedals are and how low they reach. But if you’re an attentive driver and not flapping…

That’s kind of what I’m wanting, too. The stiff shocks and cross-brace really aren’t of interest to me - I’d actually prefer the softer ride. But the LSD is one of those things that you have to get out the door, so I’m probably going to spec the Club version. I sincerely doubt Mazda will offer the LSD on the base car…

Exactly. This is basically just a glorified rebrand with a biometric spin.

Because we absolutely don’t make beautiful, soulful cars anymore. Give me a break.

It’s UK intellectual property law, all bets are off. My guess is even if they lose this, they’ll file a defamation (libel) suit once they get a hold of the film if there’s something in there they disagree with. The UK is very, very touchy about libel, so the BBC will have to tread softly in terms of making sure they…

Agreed, and the real value of customer feedback is that it comes from a non-developer mindset. As much as customers constantly ask for things that make developers go “ugh, that would be a nightmare / basically impossible, you don’t understand what you’re asking for,” they also make suggestions that it’s likely the…

Bad dealers essentially thrive on denying customers information that would help them cross-shop, negotiate with other dealers, etc. It’s all about maintaining this illusion that buying a car is some truly arcane and complex process and that if you don’t have them guide you through it personally, you’re going to get…

Clarification: the 500E does not have any Porsche engine components. The power plant is 100% Mercedes-Benz. Porsche may have tuned it (on that point, I am unsure, and there’s no good info I could find), but peak power and torque figures were in line with any other M119 5.0 of the day. Porsche did chassis, brakes,…

Yeah, that thing really is the ostentatious douchebag hyper-SUV du jour.