Sounds like our Mini. Water pump, harmonic balancer replaced and the interior despite great upkeep was falling apart. Love the Abarth C except the rear is absolute shit. But it's a trade off we made for getting the droptop. The regular hatch seems just a bit bigger than the Mini.

We dropped our Cooper S for the Abarth. Price, maintenance over the long haul and a departure in design from the R53 made my wife look elsewhere. Just didn't have the uniqueness to it, it had before.

Sharing our dogs and cars. Here's Kelsi is her last ride before I sold my LJ (dog is still here, Jeep is gone):

Oh dear sweet god . . . I clicked a link from Spinelli on Twitter. I didn't think it could be THAT bad. It was so much worse. Brand managers please take note. Watch this. Study this. And never, ever, ever, repeat it.

I don't think anything is up . . . our '13 isn't getting any better milage. And you're not kidding about the discounts, the original sticker on ours was just under 31K and we got out for 21k.

Bought a Fiat Abarth 500C a few weeks ago and here's why. I got to choose the last car (BMW 135I) and my wife's MINI Cooper S was old and dying. Drove and tested the Fiesta ST, BRZ, GTI and Abarth . . . with a Challenger RT thrown in for fun. The Abarth was the clear cut winner for her hands down. Yes, the Fiesta was…

I have a good one. I was in the middle of a project to build my 89 e24 into a daily driver and it wasn't progressing as fast as I wanted it to and was looking for something fun to daily for a while. While perusing listings I found it: a very sharp looking 08 135i with M-sport package, aftermarket wheels and a little…

Like Patrick said in his article, the e24 is what I think of when I hear 6 series. So much so I made one my daily. But if they were to make a shooting brake . . . would trade mine away in a second.

White with black. No red.

I don't have an answer to the Fiat question but wanted to chime in with my experience at the dealer last week. My wife's 06 MINI Cooper S was nearing the end of it's life cycle and she had her eye on an Arbath. We walked in the dealer and they basically said take whatever you want. She fell for a Cabrio they had in…

This . . . this might be my favorite post in this thread. I have an Abarth C we picked up Thursday brand new that's the wife's daily driver and I daily drive a BMW, as of last week it was a tuned 135, but that got sold with a very high milage Cooper S to buy the Abarth. My new daily is my just finished project 635csi.

I think on the whole Jalopnik does a fine job, but there is a depth of coverage, content verticals and cultures left to explore . . . of course that takes resources.

Ninja Fucking Gaiden. I have nightmares about the final level. Never beat it . . . never will.

I was amazed when I visited Los Angeles last month how common these seemed. They were all over Santa Monica, and I haven't seen one yet in Florida.

Sweet! I have hit this list twice (e24 BMW and LJ Jeep build), with maybe a third coming soon (MGB GT).

Just going to go ahead and put my grand asshatery out there: I have three BMWs: a 1989 635csi, my over-tuned 08 135i and my 06 Mini Cooper S. I love them and hate them all.

Florida in the top 10 worst? Yep. Expected it to be worse actually. There are only three speeds in Florida, very fast, very slow and very pulled over.

That new Volvo wagon that everyone wrote about a few weeks back. P1800es looks, brown, manual . . . that rear window . . . I want it so bad.

I'm just really surprised this wasn't Florida.

Most BMW dealerships are not even ordering manual transmission to sit on the lot because they are not moving. Might have to order it if you want it. If you really want a fin BMW to throw around look for a 135i with the M sport package. Plenty of manuals to found in those. It's one of the best cars I have ever owned.…