Toyota in the USA doesn’t need a Fortuner, it needs a new FJ Cruiser.

I bought a Civic Si sedan this past fall after trying a Veloster N and not liking the body shape or its mediocre manual transmission. It’s also missing features that were important to me and standard on the Si: sunroof, heated seats & active cruise.

I’ve owned multiple BMWs. Your perception of their relative increase in quality over brands like Kia is not accurate.

From what I’ve seen, the US is definitely getting the full-N versions of the Elantra & Tucson, but the Kona N is a question mark.

I feel like the Defender is in line with other off-road-accented crossovers like the Bronco Sport, and the Cherokee/Compass/Renegade Trailhawks. Although among the Jeeps only the Renegade really hits on the boxy/retro styling. Much of what most people want to do with their somewhat-off-roady vehicles is perfectly…

I’m no off-roader purist and the new Defender seems fine and good when judged on its own merits. Except for the lack of reliability. I’m willing to put up with less-than-bulletproof cars if there’s something especially appealing about them but that’s not the case here for me. 

Exactly. I replaced all the incandescent bulbs in my taillights with LEDs for this purpose. 

If you want to feel good about Madison roads, take a ride through Indiana sometime. 🤣

The MS6 was great in snow...most of the time. The snow I got stuck in was deep, like 8+ inches. Blizzak LM-25s are performance winter tires, not regular studless winters, so that combined with the lowered suspension and no ability to get all 4 wheels churning together meant it wasn’t so great at getting itself…

Several years ago I lived in Madison, WI where there was plenty of snow. I had a Mazdaspeed 6. It was awd with a Haldex-style fwd-based awd system. For performance driving, it was programmed to proactively send power to the rear axle, which had a Torsen LSD, but there was no actual center differential or way to lock…

Hyundai and Kia do make a lot of well-equipped cars for the price. But the Si is way cheap for the performance hardware you get. It’s taking a break for 2021 but my 2020 stickered at $26,200. These are the next-cheapest cars with an LSD and adaptive dampers.

As an Si owner, the Si has the performance chops that these 1.6T HyunKias lack. They have roughly similar engine sizes and outputs but the Si’s LSD and adaptive dampers along with a generally better sorted chassis, shifter and steering are a step up. The loaded up versions of the 1.6T HyunKias do have a lot of…

The regular 1.5T Civics are good, but the Si is that little bit special because it has an LSD and adaptive dampers.

The reason it's not a contest is the Si has an LSD and adaptive dampers. 

I’m generally a fan of Hyundai and Kia, but as a 2020 Civic Si owner, the Elantra N Line and all these other HyunKias with the 1.6T are of no interest to me. The secret sauce in the Si is the LSD and adaptive dampers, neither of which are available in any 1.6T HyunKia, and really should've been mentioned in this…

Uhhh no. I’m all for attractive cars in all segments. Blending in is not the only way to make an attractive car. You probably like only silver cars too.

He deserves all the whacking he gets.

Fuck this both-sidesy bullshit like this. I’m sick of people acting as if both parties are equally as bad as each other and equally guilty of the same offenses. They’re not.

This is fine. Drifting may not make sense to people focused on objective performance measurement in a timed track situation, but I think of it as the motorsports equivalent of any number of skating, snowboarding etc type events scored by judges. Sure it’s subjective, but sometimes car people get too caught up in…

There have been various whisperings about him over the years which you can find if you google ‘fred armisen creepy’ or a similar phrase.