British plates are associated with the car, rather than the owner. It is possible to change the plate, but "vanity plates" in the American sense are not permitted – you can only swap for another standard-issue plate. Almost always, though, the plate remains the same for the life of the car.

I've always liked the look of the Pininfarina-designed BMC cars. The A55 and A60 Cambridge, and the A99 and A110 Westminster were also penned by Farina.

All is not quite lost – Innocenti built them under license for the Italian market, and one of their models (known as the Combinata) did have a full top-hinged hatchback!

Citroëns have a small, but loyal, following in New Zealand – my family have had a few BXes as well.

I've made two long-distance, sight-unseen purchases, and both turned out great! This was back when I lived in New Zealand, so the distances involved are somewhat less, of course.

Interestingly, so were the Triumphs. Even as stock, they were brilliant for back-road hoonage. I would absolutely love to get into classic rallying.

I've got the roadster down (1956 MGA), but I have a hankering for an old 140 or 160. They remind me so much of the Triumph 2500 that I spent much of my childhood being carted around in, and later had as my first car. Since the big Triumphs never made it Stateside, those Volvos make for a good surrogate.

I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE.

The front-engined Citroën DS did indeed use its spare tire as a safety feature – it was mounted forward of the engine, at an angle, so that it would absorb some of the impact, and cause the engine to be pushed down under the car in a larger crash, instead of into the passenger compartment.

But with those looks, who cares?

When I moved from New Zealand (where awesome Japanese cars are everywhere and all our Ford and GM products are European or Australian) to the US, I kept on doing double-takes when I saw those.

I like that! I've seen the technique where you mark the old belt and sprockets, cut it off, transfer the marks to the new belt, and line everything up that way, but that makes even more sense.

Somewhere, I remember hearing this generation of Lagonda dash (there were several, including a very cool CRT-based one) as the "Microwave Oven". Apt, I think.

Some manufacturers were doing turn signal repeaters right loooong ago. Admittedly, it's a British car, but I always liked how the Triumph 2000 and 2500 integrated the turn signal repeater into the B-pillar trim:

Yeah, and then, for whatever reason, manufacturers will put stupid-looking badges or even just plain plugs into the holes for the US market. *sigh*

There are plenty of well-developed highways in Europe, too – after all, Germany invented the modern highway network. True, people don't tend to drive such long distances, but you still see plenty of small-engined cars on the highways.

Interesting. I'd never come across a US-market car equipped with them. They're a great idea (if you know how to use them).

I think that you're onto something there. Automatic gearboxes that change up ridiculously early are really infuriating. Not that they're a solely American thing. The auto 'box in my parents' old Renault Espace seemed utterly intent on keeping the engine out of its power band.

Well said. Back in New Zealand, I had a Xantia, with the 'big' 2.0 XU10 engine and manual transmission. It had around 120hp, and although it was no rocket, it never felt slow or underpowered. Here in the US, the base model VW Jetta, with a similar weight and power output was decried as 'dangerously slow'. I don't get…

Nope. I think that self-levelling is required for HID lighting, but in-cabin leveling controls are unheard-of in the US market, AFAIK.