So basically this is an award given by psychotic assholes to another psychotic asshole?

INCORRECT.

The regulation mandating it was passed in 2006. It entered effect in 2008. And it required:

“55 percent of a vehicle manufacturer’s light vehicles manufactured during the period from September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009; 75 percent of those manufactured during the period from September 1, 2009 to August 31,…

No shit.

Our Mazda came with it standard. The comparable Accord didn’t, and I would have had to buy the EX trim and spend $10k more than I paid for the Mazda to get an Accord with it.

We had a semi swing into our lane suddenly on the freeway once as we were passing. In avoiding the crash, you saw the esc light kick on,…

1st:

This is nothing new or unusual. Automakers have done this time and again with new safety features. Note it isn’t the feature itself that is high cost - its that they’re making you buy the high end trim to get it. Look at their Escape example - “rain-sensing windshield wipers, auto high-beams, blind-spot detection,…

Girard CLEARLY didn’t want the set of steak knives. He wanted that Eldorado.

But does the base trim Traverse ride poorly? Just because something is a lower-market model doesn’t mean it rides worse than a top end model.

Besides, you’re completely incorrect here. An Acadia Denali has adaptive suspension as an option, something you can’t get on a Traverse.

You’re describing why people make a choice, but that doesn’t touch at all on whether it is luxurious or not.

Only if you can find a manual... its hard enough to find a manual to begin with - finding one with more than six speeds is near impossible.

How can a Mercedes M-class be considered more of a luxury vehicle than a tricked out Acadia?

There’s nothing inherently less luxurious about a luxurious trim of a GMC than something badged Mercedes or BMW. The badge doesn’t make a vehicle luxurious. The equipment/feel/ride do.

Honestly, when we’re getting much past 6 gears, I prefer a CVT. 8 speeds I find annoying as it seems like they’re always shifting up or down. At that point, just having something that operates smoothly and doesn’t drop off power as it shifts would be better.

Yet more evidence of just how full of shit the Koch brothers are.

They’re allegedly libertarian and opposed to subsidies. But when we ask that taxes on gas be set appropriately to fully fund federal road construction, they throw a fit and complain that it would take away their subsidies.

As others have pointed out, it will be parallel to the ground. Apart from the efficiency aspect of the rocket nozzle already discussed, there are other efficiencies to be gained from this:

1) It takes a lot less fuel to lift an airplane up into the air than it takes to push a rocket to the same point. Wings are…

They’re paying on-time, the government has made a significant profit off those loans, and those loans were granted after it was clear they had escaped the threat of bankruptcy.

Numerous other automakers also received those loans, too.

Man, your Ford dealer sucks.

They are WAY more generous around here with discounts... and rebates are normally somewhat higher, too.

Exactly.. Average model 3 price is over $50k. That’s solidly in the midsize luxury category, well above the price for a “low-price, high-volume car for the masses”.

Surely you could have done better on the TC... :)

Stand inside? No, certainly not for most people. But it is incredibly roomy. If your definition of “tall” is the jacked up roof available on the Transit, then no... but by most personal vehicle definitions, it is tall - because you’ll be hard pressed to find a vehicle with more interior height.

And every time Amazon paused their expansion during those 9 years, you saw profits start coming in pretty quickly. But they kept focusing on exponential expansion which masked that every new business they got into was fairly quickly profitable, but overwhelmed by expansion costs. On the other hand, every time Tesla…

So where is the low-priced high-volume car for the masses?

They’ve produced the outrageously expensive S and X, and now have the luxury-priced 3. But nothing low-priced.