I thought for sure the i3 and i8 would be followed with a more mainstream-sporty i5, but no dice. Agree that hybrid is the way to go for practical people who don’t need a 1500-lb battery to make a gas-free statement.

The first part surprises me, I’ve only seen the crazy 40k+ examples.  Looks like the Sport starts at 36 and the Touring at 39.5.

So same story as the death of the 90s Japanese sports cars. Sell the same car for 10 years as it goes from <30k to 50k, until everyone else’s horsepower and other gains make it too hard to justify.

I think you’re blurring some pretty different groups. 200k/yr middle managers aren’t buying 5M houses, the mortgage would be more than their gross pay. They’re buying 4-500k houses, maybe more if they’re older and rolling (say) 250k in equity into the 700k house for a 450k mortgage.

Hang on, two-smoke diesels?  When was the last one of those released?

I know this site is filled with hyperbole, but what specific income do you have in mind for this ~90-100k car? Because there are plenty of people making 40-60k and financing 30-40k cars, so it’s not unrealistic to think the people buying these are making 100-150k...unless you think moving up the income curve means…

If it’s 40k after 3 years, why not budget like it’s a 50-55k car, and then if you have to sink 4-5k into the transmission or suspension, it doesn’t break your bank and you’ve still got a beast of a car?

When a 5-6 car high speed crash results in a single injury, I’d say we’ve made one of the most inherently dangerous activities in existence pretty safe. If we “nearly had 3 injuries”, then we also *didn’t* have those injuries.

Very first picture, look at the lights.  Squint if you have to.

“chud”?  I didn’t know you people were real...

Fu Manchu, or:

You say that as if the sociopaths you’re enabling will ask for your opinion.  They aren’t going to stop with control of your paycheck and car.  They’re already clamping down all forms of media and pushing bug food and social credit scores.

Does your “better civilization” involve crippling taxes, insect-based food products, and personal autonomy replaced by ad-filled automated pods?

And if the entirety of ocean trash, of every single type for all of America, Europe, and 100+ developed and semi-developed nations still accounts for <5% of what’s out there, that means we could spend billions here to impact a tenth of a percent. Far better to have the 2 overwhelmingly dominant third-world sources…

Over 95% of ocean trash comes from India and Africa where they dump entire truckloads of sewage and trash directly into their water — ever seen an actual river of trash? Plastic bags and straws in first world countries are a virtue-signaling rounding error.

Come on now, I haven’t used 5000 plastic grocery bags in my entire life, and I certainly wouldn’t go through that many before I’d lose or tear a reusable one.  Stuff like this and banning plastic straws while India and Africa literally dump truck loads of sewage and trash into rivers, the source of 95+% of ocean…

They did this with the FWD Impalas last decade

Sounds like somebody got an amazing deal -- 50% off!

Yeah it’s disappointing how little power even the most advanced ones put out. If you look at the university solar cars (ie directly solar powered), they’re one giant surface and weigh nothing, and are still pretty pitiful.

Ah I missed the aerodynamic part, thought you meant from the road slope.  So given sufficient power but insufficient grip, just drive faster until grip increases.