There is probably a very good reason why Mazda couldn’t just poof 3" of interior space into existence. We just aren’t privy to it.

He could have been charged...but since there appears to be no conclusive evidence, the charges wouldn’t have gone anywhere.

This is a really good list!

It can’t be misleading if you can’t figure out the name in the first place!

For me, its that 10 year old family car with faded paint, a squeaky drive belt and half a dozen bumper stickers about their kids’ school and their teams. It’s 1 major repair away from being traded in, then sent off to a life of obscurity at Dale’s 1 Owner Used Cars lot in the middle of Alabama.

My wife’s nickname for me is “Little Chuckle”.  I wonder why...

From a purely technical perspective, the Impreza and Legacy sedans do cost less. The Crosstrek is their entry-level “SUV”.

Here’s what their marketing department has to say:

Yes, that’s what I understood.  Still weird!

Tesla has always given me a strong vibe of “this car is not truly complete.” I had some seat time in a 2023 model and for one, the freaking cruise control wouldn’t work without a software update. The screen was nice and big but the position was terrible and the interface looked no better than a 2nd rate smartphone. …

Partial car at full price.  What a strategy!

Almost EVERYTHING about the XL-1 was weird.

If you don’t like asymmetry, I should warn you there was a time when the passenger side mirror was optional on many cars.  Feels like this applies to pre-1980s cars.

Despite their function, I always found high-mounted mirrors weird.

It most definitely is one of the newest CR-Vs to offer a manual transmission. My folks had a 2002 EX AWD manual and when the next gen came out they were bummed the manual got dropped.

I found it odd that the author broke out the “small” costs of the repair, and didn’t mention paint.

Oh, they’ve learned a lot by way of hiring all sorts of engineers from across the industry. There’s no way they would have had success with zero clue what others are doing.

I thought that was the codename for Hyperloop...or was it the underground tunnel thing?  Hard to keep track anymore!

Competitive analysis is nothing new and it isn’t necessarily a sign of incompetence on behalf of the one doing the teardown. Automakers have been doing teardowns of competitors’ cars for decades. I would not be surprised if Hyundai, Toyota and VW were also tearing down Civics, and Honda was tearing down Corollas and…

IMHO the only way this could happen is through a combination of de-contenting, limited build configurations (i.e. - RWD only, 1 battery size), use of stainless steel body panels (no paint and no expensive metal presses), or reduced performance (range, acceleration, etc.). I suspect there would be more demand for such…