Beautiful car, but I think the risk of the $8K timing chain replacement knocks this one out of the game. And you can thank Doug for the heads up.

Neutral: How Does The Prius Succeed?

Mercifully, amidst all my reminiscing about DIY on my old Audi, I’d forgotten about the UFO brakes. Ugh, what a nightmare.

I had serious love affairs with two ‘90’s Audi 200s, and at the time lusted after these V8s. I still think they are beautiful, and I already know how to replace the window regulators, fix the locking system, take the dash apart to do the fan motor...you get the picture. That said, I am insane enough to still want one…

I’m only buying a Maserati if I can get it at Carmax, with warrantee.

Uh, the build your own link goes to the Subaru site.

Pretty terrible, but at least the Porsche engineers are doing it with the actual exhaust, instead of the artificial VW fake-out, the Soundaktor.

Is this the best they could do for rear legroom? Come on, its supposed to be a Bentley!

Whoops - but it was advertised as a manual. But that’s not the only one out there.

A little CP. You can move up to a 300 HP 2008 535xi wagon and have your stick for less money. And if you are looking at these, you probably have your own damn iPhone already.

Whatever happened to the old Jalop factor/formula. (Jeesh, I’m so addled I can’t even remember the exact name, which is why my search for it just failed). Various factors of a car were assessed and point values assigned, then totaled up to see how jalopy your ride was. Like number of cylinders: (I’m making these up)…

I’ll give you 300 pounds. :)

Fixed now, thanks.

Fit platform, but the engine is a 1.8l with about 15% more torque; should be an improvement over the tinny tiny Fit.

Blue skies? In Beijing? I guess thats what happens when you can order alternate day driving, shut down hundreds of factories in the area as well as 40,000 construction sites. Tomorrow’s forecast: heavy smog.

Looks like all that major maintenance was done by the original owner, so I’m not so scared. Looking at cars.com, NP.

If you get the manual 2.0i Premium, you cannot add the “Eyesight” package - the adaptive cruise control and braking functions likely want full control of the CVT computer.

Ah, David, the “Build Your Own” link takes us to the Hyundai site, not Honda. Do you think that is a better way to go?

The answer is (still) always Miata.

Good, no great to hear the Tom will still be posting. As I read through all the moves, I was getting really excited, until a little voice whispered, “What about Tom?” So double thanks.