“game of handing out money to anyone and everyone”

David, thank you so much for posting this. It’s important to remember history — both for those of us who lived it, and for people who didn’t, like Mercedes fanboys who think the object of their affection can do no wrong. Nor would I single out Daimler as a poor manager (but certainly one of the very worst). Other…

Your definition of “used in battle” is fairly exclusionary of the last 70+ years of carrier history, and their air-wing’s contributions to the Korean, Vietnam, Cold, and Gulf wars... not to mention GWOT. But don’t let that get in the way of your narrative.

You know what basic economics is? Not getting yourself in debt for a degree that will not allow you get into a career to pay off said debt (i.e. Journalism, which is dead by the way). Education should be treated as an investment in yourself, and return on investment should be considered before making the purchase.

Vehicle Service Agreements are also known as Extended Warranties. The warranty term went out of vogue in the industry in the mid 90's because there are far more regulations on a warranty than a “service agreement”

Yes. Try living in Brazil for a month. With a popular car. That costs over 40 thousant bucks and has less than 83 hp. Without air conditioning, or assisted steering whell. And still fold like a can in an accident.

Yeah, Ruf builds their own shit, Singer (and I LOVE their looks) just screws old 964 into older looking models and charges you the same money

Surely that’s referring to the toxic and radioactive air that will permeate the Earth after nuclear war lays waste to our planet?

I wonder how many people actually realize that GM just sold off its one remaining semi functioning engineering department? All of the cars GM currently makes that people actually like and want to buy (The Cruze) are German. And now we’re expecting that engineering effort to move to China and Korea. Yeah, that will…

You are so correct. The referendum has pitched people against each other, you are forced to take sides. The majority of people didn’t give a flyingn f..k about being a member of the EU before this referendum but now everybody has strong views about it. Our prime minister is playing a blinder though, while the country…

Uh I don’t know where your information is coming from but it’s on the MQB platform so it probably shares >1% of its parts with an A7(i.e. A few switches that are in all VAG vehicles). It shares 90% of its parts with a Golf & Passat because that’s the platform it’s built on.

Yeah that’s what I see. They are giving up their Euro brand. My thought though, and why I mentioned Ford, is that they will try to sell in other markets under a GM name (eg Cadillac, Chevy or Buick). Brand unification globally might be their goal. I hope it isn’t to pull out of Europe forever.

Not to discount the impact of the European market, but there are a hell of a lot more up-n-coming buyers in China and India, and GM is stronger in China than Ford is.

Money is apolitical. Listen to economists and they’re usually laughing at people (both left and right) who try and understand the world’s largest economy from their back porch. If you want to understand how something really complex operates, don’t listen to the amateurs (ahem), listen to the doctorates and experts.…

Uh, no. Ford didn’t need a huge bailout because they saw the crash coming and mortgaged all their physical assets to the max while the credit markets were still functional in order to generate operating cash... and they still took lots of government money, just not as much and under different programs. Congrats on…

The ending of this post is so distasteful and immature. Shot their dick off? Really?

Thats before Trump, now whatever he says, they automatically attack. He could cure cancer, and the media would say how awful trump is for destroying healthcare jobs.

I didn’t, only because I was ordered early and received quite a hefty discount. $16k off retail on a fully optioned model. At the time I unloaded it, I had it just under a year and I only had 5.5k miles on it.

And a cheap Land Rover is the most expensive SUV you will ever own.

We don’t talk about the CVT...