I in fact voted for “Prii” as well, until taking Latin and realizing that in fact, “prius” is the neuter form of the comparative adjective “prior,” so the actual plural is in fact “Priora.” Which is a Lada.

Does anyone else wish VW would get around this cost-cutting impulse they have for the US and China markets by rebadging Skodas? We could have gotten a new, inexpensive Jetta based on MQB way back in 2013 if they just put a new fascia on this:

I took my 2007 CR-V (first year of the jellybeans) to the extent of its offroading ability this summer. Almost got stuck on a gnarly rain-rutted road, had to back up, mash it in first and lean on the rear driveshaft. It worked. I might rather thrash a stock CR-V offroad than potentially ruin its on-road ride quality…

the heavy autobahn-eating coupe is returning to the road

Like with the Discovery in the cover image, this is an SUV being used as it “should.” This summer, two friends and I went on an otherwise quite well-planned road trip in a 2007 Honda CR-V, which is “my car” but owned by my parents. I rag on crossovers a lot because the people who buy them never really use their ground…

Uh-huh. Meanwhile, any typical Sentra owner, assuming this was one of the 15% not owned by rental companies or Uber drivers, would probably have lost interest and rolled over out of malaise.

Yes exactly! I thought we were promised an all-new Leaf, but here’s a bodyshell going on a decade old getting some minor fashion updates.

I guess it’s just that there’s an elegant blandness to it that might not fit with the new American luxury vibe the brand is going for.

I do think the old design was more distinctive, but at least this helps the MKX Nautilus not look “designed for China” as much.Now they really need to do the same to the MKC, which they’ll hopefully maybe call the Narwhal? It really just looks like any two-year-old Chinese CUV at the moment; just head over to…

Yes tell us! ...asking for a friend obviously.

It seems to me that there’s only chrome on the bottom of the greenhouse. This is a 2010 Sonata; the pre-facelift has amber rear indicators but the rest of the lighting doesn’t match up as well. I’d also consider the possibility of aftermarket lighting.

Don’t know if anyone has said these yet, but whoever was in charge of Renault larger-car design in the aughts had it going on. This Laguna II, if not new, certainly doesn’t look 16 years old.

A couple forward-thinking designs from a couple years ago come to mind:

My sweetheart, an ‘07 CR-V (the first year of the non-boxy model). Put 3900 miles on it this summer on a 9-day roadtrip. Took this photo in the morning in Mt. Rainier National Park.

Looking at some press pics of the new Leaf it seems like they didn’t even redesign the whole body. The roofline and greenhouse seem the same as the current generation. It took them this long to do this?

Hey, I’m from Oakland too but I was driving down near Palo Alto or somewhere on the peninsula and saw, like, three 3000GT VR-4s parked or driving around on El Camino Real within about a minute and a half. Crazy stuff.

That roofline and greenhouse is very similar to the outgoing Leaf’s. Is this just a heavy facelift and mechanical upgrade rather than a full overhaul? I’m seriously disappointed if so.

You know he’s a future autojourno when he says “Stuttgart” for Porsche. Classic lazy synecdoche there.

Walking around downtown Berkeley/Cal campus in my Best of the Best shirt, which features a 240Z, 2000GT, and Cosmo in touring-car getup. I see a guy walking his chihuahua mix and he yells, “Cosmo!” At first I figure he’s calling his dog, but then he says “Cosmo rotary” and now I realize what shirt I’m wearing and turn…

Going to channel Torch here and say: why the hell did they change the taillights? Nissan has a great motif going with the European light, but they give us an all-new design replete with red turn indicator. Whose decision was it to spend money on that?