In the 80s, my mom’s parents had a brown Buick Park Avenue Electra with brown velour interior, and at the same time, my dad’s parents had a blue Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Regency Brougham with blue velour interior. So, the same car, basically.

Needs more fluffy burgundy interior.

Aside from general softness in the market for cars like the Miata, I think Mazda royally screwed up the options mix on the ND.

Or just give us the WRX hatchback and/or wagon we’ve been clamoring for and skip the stupid jacked up ride height Outback treatment.

“BUT WHAT ABOUT THE AUTOCROSS TIMES” is beside the point. Most people don’t buy fun cars to win a particular autocross event. The majority of hot hatches are bought by people who want a fun, sporty-but-economical daily driver.

These are one of those features you really come to appreciate after getting used to them. Especially if you also have auto-dimming exterior mirrors.

The Civic Si’s power is unremarkable, but it has an LSD and (apparently very good) adaptive shocks. Neither of those are available on the Focus ST. The GTI Sport has an LSD and stickers at $28k, the GTI Autobahn adds adaptive shocks and stickers at $34k.

I...hate how it looks a little bit less than the Civic?

I still don’t think you know what opulent means.

I went to St. Martin on my honeymoon but stayed on the French side and did no such airport beach nonsense. I did however drive a Hyundai Grand i10, had an insane view from my Airbnb, fed stray cats in a nature preserve parking lot, and ate a lot of really good food.

You’re thinking of brake-based torque vectoring, which simulates the torque vectoring effect using the traction control. There is definitely such a thing as an electronically-controlled LSD.

Hyundai sells the i30 in the US as the Elantra GT. We’re getting it for the 2018 model year. But the top trim will be the Sport with the same 201 hp turbo motor and multilink rear suspension of the Elantra Sport.

I had a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Hemi with 245/70-17 General Grabber AT2 tires. Around town in the winter I’d get about 11 mpg. Highway was more like 15 and I think once I cracked 16 on the average MPG gauge. It was my winter not-really-a-beater that I bought because I geek out on fancy differentials and it had 3…

I picked 190” because most of the “compact” models are in the 180-186” range at this point. Equinox, RAV4, Forester, and Santa Fe Sport along with many other “compacts” are all in this range.

“finding a male lead in his 20s who can act and sing has proven difficult — especially since the studio wants someone of Middle Eastern or Indian descent who they can pay a low salary.”

Oh look, a grab handle.

Two-row midsize not-luxury SUVs are the endangered species more than the luxury ones. Basically everybody has a compact (<190” length) 2-row and a larger 3-row, and often a subcompact as well. But aside from the Grand Cherokee the only other midsize 2-row options are the Ford Edge and Nissan Murano. I suppose you…

So we can ridicule him.

Ah, yeah I got tripped up when looking up parts listings and saw the fender liners appeared to be plain old plastic. The carbon fiber sheet molding compound wikipedia page mentions the Viper, and also the “Forged Composite” stuff Lamborghini is using.

CFRP is a catch-all term for any carbon fiber plastic combination, including the kind made from woven carbon fiber fabric that’s more commonly seen on car parts.