Racing against amateurs probably adds a certain risk factor. You never know when they will do something, uh... amateurish.

I might be over-generalising, but how many people buying small batch backs or CUVs actually give a toss about the individual driving characteristics of their already pretty generic 2L 4cyl engine?

There’s always room for different tuning — low-end torque for minivans and SUVs, high-winding horsepower numbers for sporty models, etc.

With steer-by-wire, won’t the need for a steering wheel that turns all the way one way or the other be unnecessary? A slight turn of the yoke at high speeds will only turn the front wheels a few degrees, but at parking speeds, that same degree of turn could cause the front wheels to turn to their maximum amount.

Mazda MZR and Duratec 2.5 are indeed same motors.

same floorplan but the engines and transmissions were different - Ford did use a Volvo engine for the European market RS models 

Why would anyone want to claim credit for this abomination?

Ford group brands did this a lot in the 2000s. The same basic Puma* 2.0L 16V turbo diesel engine went into everything mid-sized in Europe for years with various power outputs (140bhp in the Mazda6 and Jaguar X-type; in the Mk3 Mondeo it put out 130 in upper trims or 115 in the middle trims, and detuned to 85bhp in the …

Then there’s also the whole issue of turning right on a red light. That’s a weird rule. Why is it a thing?

Counterpoint: an old chassis means that there will be a lot of parts availability and easy swaps between years.

Jason keep in mind that Experian (and R.L. Polk, owner of CarFax) are only obtaining registration data on cars with the SAE/NHTSA standardized 17-digit VIN format. This was mandated for 1981 Model Year cars, although I have seen a few 1980's using it also.

We did! It didn’t really work...

Unsolicited financial advice is the worst.  We know nothing about his situation - he put. Budget out there, and we work with it.  Talking about investments and prudent savings strategies here is just so self indulgent and patronizing. 

Oh man that could have gone so much more poorly given that it started with “As much as I like David Tracy.”

Whew. 

FINNISH HIM!

in the comments section? for sure

Did someone just straight face recommend a defender to a big guy?  Have they never been in one?

VERY poor choice of words.