And the Chinese have what reason to trust that? There is currently no major threat to Japan, yet the US still has 50,000 troops stationed there for strategic reasons (i.e. in order to be close to China). There are 35,000 or so US troops stationed in Germany simply due to the strategic location relative Russia. The US…

I wonder how much they would trust any guarantees, though. If Korea is re-united (effectively becoming South Korea), what’s to stop the US from opening a base in the North in ten or twenty years?

Absolutely, and by doing so you’re probably having a much greater car enthusiast experience than those doing otherwise.

Except that the only reason the word “Porsche” carries any weight in your sentence is because people connect Porsche to luxury, performance, status and good looks. When it comes to luxury, performance, status and looks, the 914 is in every aspect a VW. The only thing Porsche about it is the badge on its hood.

I have never said that they will (put it simply, they probably couldn’t). They will negotiate the penalties. One part of doing so is bluffing/bullshitting, but another part of doing so is highlighting exactly how absurd the required amount is, or what the consequences would be. They pointed out that if they actually…

Considering that the one I linked to was (a) the second cheapest I could find in Europe with a running engine (the cheapest one was extremely high mileage), (b) located in Italy, the country with the most sold Alfa Romeos per capita, and (c) had done 72,700 miles, almost twice as much as the one in this ad? Nopes, not…

As someone who loves Alfas, I still think this is CP based on what you’re getting for your money. But after looking at prices here in Europe (where the car would arguably be less rare), he’s not THAT far off. I found this one in Italy for 10,000€.

This is what samurais would look like if they had Reddit accounts.

This is touching on a problem that many people overlook. Yes, electric cars can help combating climate change, for example, but the long-term struggle that humans will always be facing (don’t get me started on cold fusion here...) is the availability of energy. Every available source of energy has its drawbacks. Coal…

It’s true that they also sell Audis, although Porsches and Lambos are probably negligible. But the profit margin on the average sold Audi is even somewhat smaller, coming down to $2,700 per car.

Bluff? As I mentioned elsewhere:

The gullwing doors is symptomatic of the path that Tesla has taken in the past few years. Fake innovation in order to woo the gadget crowd (“sure, the car is twice as heavy as any other car and therefore requires twice as much energy to get moving, but look, we have a tablet instead of buttons!”). When the Roadster…

Hmm, this is an issue with automated doors that I hadn’t even considered.

Of course, I also want a harsh penalty to keep other companies from doing these things, but I disagree with your numbers. Looking at cars sold in America, the 46 bn fine would be the total profit from all cars sold in the past 20 or 30 years. Add to that that a recall + fix for every affected VW car would probably…

Absolutely, and when the final amount is being negotiated, the terms of payment will surely be a factor as well.

Considering that the proposed fine amounts to VW’s total global profits (and keep in mind that while they are small in the US, globally they are one of the world’s biggest brands) for three and a half years, I doubt that the salaries of the executives would make up even a fraction of a percent of the total fine.

Heh, that’s a zombie movie I’d actually watch.

Nice scarecrow you’ve got there. But no, when it comes to products that are to be sold commercially, being overly sensitive to critizism (or entirely unable to deal with it) is always a drawback. You can’t be an architect, a web designer, an author or a game developer if you’re going to throw a fit and call it quits…

Hmm, could be beyond my capabilities, but could also be worth a try! And maybe a setting to synchronize as much as possible whenever you’re near a free wifi.

I actually agree, American manufacturers have shown for the first time in a little while that they are pretty serious contenders to both Asian and European brands. But I wouldn’t yet consider them superior in such a way that it’s a sales argument, that’s what makes me curious when people say that ‘built in America’ is…