I qualified for Ford’s x-plan pricing through my employer. (Ask your HR department, you may be surprised!) That bundled with incentives, and end of year dealings meant I walked out the door with a loaded new 2016 Focus ST (all options) for less than 27k. Not too bad.

I’ve thought the same thing about the escape. The turbo 2.0 version is one of the fastest stock cute utes around. Get it with awd and drop it, add cool wheels/tire’s, some tasteful mods, a tune, bolt in some ST Recaros, and you’d have a pretty badass wagon thingy.

Not surprised. Maybe it’s time for an XT5-V? I’d like to see what that would be like.

It as if my childhood hotwheels playtime came to life.

I’ll also add, and should have in my original reply, that these less than appropriately dressed ladies are certainly not helping to encourage young women to enter the field. What kind of message is this for our daughters?

I’m a straight guy, I like to look at attractive women as much as the next straight dude or lesbian woman, but come on man...it’s time for this sexist crap to stop. I don’t need to see scantily clad women with cars to enjoy cars.

If someone is filming you, and you know they are, don’t be inclined to show off. Period. Otherwise you are just asking for the car gods to humble you.

If your only mode of Transport is a 20 year old Ducati, you may need to question your life choices.

Hot damn. Those Ducs are some of the sexiest bikes of all time. Looooove them. I will own a 996 some day. Until then, I have to make due with my little Ducati-ish Honda Hawk GT (which requires far less service than a Ducati) ;)

sounds like an interesting Jalopnik article: which performance car can fit a rear facing toddler seat in the back?

My wife’s friend’s Odyssey (2nd gen) had to be retired due to trans issues with less than 150k. My boss had two Odysseys shit the bed. His first Odyssey (2nd gen) was put to death due to trans issue, he got new one (3rd gen) and it also suffered trans issues and he had it rebuilt. My neighbors got rid of theirs due to…

2 years rear facing?!! Is that what they tell people now?! Holy crap. And yes, baby seats in a 2 door hatch are easier than you think.

But that doesn’t last too long. Those seats get turned around in a relatively short period of time. Why unload a car just for a few months worth of having to move your seats up a little? Plus, then don’t get the convertible model car seat. A second car seat is less coin than a whole new car.

this is true. Every single Honda Odyssey owner I’ve spoken to says they’ve had serious transmission issues.

Short of getting a good deal on a 365hp AWD Ford Ecoboost Flex, don’t sell the GTi. You don’t have to. A hatchback it perfect.

Never used an automated car wash, don’t intend to either. But then, I live in Florida so I can even wash my car in the winter.

I thought this was the first frame of an SNL sketch.

if I’m cussing at a car I’m working on it’s a damn Toyota. Such pains in the ass. Did a starter on a friend’s V8 tundra. The manual says it’s required to remove passenger side exhaust manifold, which on its own is a huuuuge PITA! F U Toyota. We got it out, but what should be an hour’s job tops, took all damn day.

The turn signals? Eh...no big deal. Plenty of cheap aftermarket grills and you can relocate signals to headlights. Personally, never bothered me.

This car’s paint is mostly original and looks way better in photos than in person. I have no plans to respray it as it’s kind of nice to not have to worry about it getting scratched.