A lot of tourists who rent cars will leave their passports in their hotel safes when they go out in case they get robbed, since passport replacement is a huge hassle and can cause the visitor to risk overstaying their visa while they wait for a replacement. This is something even the US government advises.

Yep, SUVs sized like the Kuga (Escape in Europe) are actually smaller than even a 3-series in length and width, so they do fit on European roads and parking spaces. They’re popular on both sides of the pond.

Next thing you know, Ford will have serious product placement in a Batman movie :D

Regarding NAFTA, I’ve always wondered about the future of car manufacturing in Canada. Ontario’s electricity costs are through the roof and their provincial government seems to be actively sabotaging manufacturing with all kinds of regulations, only to try to make up for it with corporate welfare. In the last decade,…

If you live in an area with hot summers (or a tropical area) and don’t have ventilated seats, white seats (or anything light-coloured like beige or dune) are the next best thing.

Not really, it was always intended to be a limited run vehicle. In 2014, GM decided to shut down Holden manufacturing in Australia by 2017. However, their contract required them to continue producing the Commodore in certain quantities until the shutdown date, so they decided to offload some excess capacity by…

GM actually sells more in China than in the US. Most of what they sell over there are sedans and small/mid-sized crossovers. In fact, I’d say China is now dictating GM’s global strategy. China is also the only reason GM didn’t kill off Buick in 2009.

The Escape is also a downgrade from the Fusion in terms of interior quality and features (I own both fully loaded). The Escape is basically a lifted Focus and it shows.

To be fair the Navigator is selling well especially the six figure Black trim. It’s objectively a better car than most of its competition. Sadly Lincoln’s other offerings aren’t made to the same standard.

If there is any giant spike it will be short lived. The oil market of today is very different from the oil market 10 years ago, namely all the proven reserves that have been found in North America but not tapped because of low global prices. It won’t take very long for North American producers to send the price back…

But all it takes is North American producers turning the taps back on to send oil prices right back down in almost no time.

They make it in Mexico and if the fatass in the WH blows up NAFTA that could adversely affect their margins on that model.

You can also thank cheap credit and longer-term loans. I’ve met people financing brand new vehicles that cost 80% (or more) of their gross income.

Sync3 is awesome. QNX-based and has Android Auto and Carplay support. Super fast and super stable.

Same here! While almost all the cars I’ve owned have sunroofs, being bought used and loaded, I never ever open the damn thing. It’s a vulnerable point on the roof, it adds weight, and it reduces headroom (not that I’m tall enough to be affected, but still). Plus opening it would bring about the risk of bird droppings…

Even local Chinese aren’t going to get in trouble if they’re using VPNs to access Facebook in China and post photos of their morning coffee. If they’re trying to organize dissent of any sort though, and the censorship police find out and manage to trace them back, they’re screwed.

My phone supports both Asian and North American LTE bands, but I’m a cheap bastard so I opted to just use the free 2G-speed roaming when I visited China (also a T-Mobile user). It was amusing to see “LTE” on my phone but have atrociously slow speeds due to artificial throttling. However I was indeed able to access…

In your case, you seem to get a lot of enjoyment out of using a truck as an actual truck, so by all means get a truck :)

I feel ya, used to live in the Bay Area and 500k will buy you barren land big enough for a shed, if you’re lucky. Part of the reason I moved to MI.

I live in MI. Even in the nice suburbs you can find an ok house for < $200k and if you do a 30-year mortgage, the payment can be that low.