I *think* the key separation is that station wagons/estates come from full-size cars, maybe even a mid-size depending on who you ask. Hatchbacks come from compacts and subcompacts.

To each his own, but I really don’t see what is so offensive about this. The tablet sticking out of dash is normally a bad look, but it can be done in a way that doesn’t look awful, and this is it. I would certainly put up with a lot worse to have the three HVAC dials, especially when they are right where they should…

Great write up, Mercedes. Laying down in the back actually seems... kind of awesome? I really like everything about this thing, but can’t come up with a reason why I would or should get my hands on one right now. Hopefully this model sticks around a while.

These have been like this for the last few years. The only other “convertibles” with usable rear seats are the Wrangler and Bronco, which... are a whole different animal.

At the very least, you would think getting out of the lot requires a ticket that the thieves would not have, and require driving through a gate that always has cameras on it (even if most of the lot doesn’t).

“Keep fixing the old car because guess what, it will cost less in the long term over scoring a newer ride well over retail.”

I would rather go for things that can’t be easily replaced. 

The most important part of Italy’s HSR is that the majority of it was built just in the last 15 years, on top of ancient infrastructure. Still, I can’t even work up the energy to dream of something like that in the US because whatever plan will be met with some jackass poking his head out of a trashcan full of F18's…

It’s been fun transitioning from my earnestly belief that stiffer consequences are rarely the solution for helping humans change, to realizing we’ve reached such bottom-of-the-barrel shit-headedness that kicking the crap out of someone in the street is probably the best recourse.

Yeah, most of the years I see there, save for models that have just come out in the last few, end with a 6 or 7. Looks like you just got unlucky.

Seriously? My experience during my last car search was that just about everything got it in 16/17. At least all of Ford and Chevy did. 

One thing that is fairly standard during a strike is that management will say to themselves, “Haha, how hard can those jobs be, we’ll just do it ourselves,” and then management will try it and inevitably fail.

And if you don’t like it you can just suck it up and get a 120-month loan like everyone else, buddy.

There’s got to be some breaking point, I just don’t know where it can go from here.

I’ve got a weird conspiracy that the ever-increasing Lexus grills are Toyota telling us they will never give up on ICE’s.

Fair point. If anything I’d say borderline commercial vehicles are automatic winners and should be left out of this discussion because those are designed for needs and not wants, Live axles and BOF construction aren’t going anywhere in that market because they are cheap.

I don’t think you can say the Express is old school, it’s just old. It’s a car from 2003 that just happens to still be in production.

Sort of. Boats precluded the likes of Ferrari, Koenigseg, Pagani, etc. in that: You can make the new prices a complete farce because anyone that can afford $200k on *1* car they don’t drive a lot can probably afford twice that.

Wish I could bump this higher. I was a part of this first wave of cancellations Saturday morning, and the Southwest employees at the gates at MDW very clearly told us the problem was Pilot related. At that point, the storms that cancelled some flights later in the weekend/Monday were still west of the Rockies.