That’s actually a good point. Though, bumper to bumper Hyundai/Kia is “only” 6 years which is still excellent relative to the rest of the industry.

Toyota North America has its own American staff, managers, executives. Cars made in America use a lot of American parts. Marketing money in America typically stays in America. Etc. etc. Sure some of it goes back to Japan, but it’s not like the American plants are run by Japanese guys in Japan.

Toyota North America is its own corporation. Much of the money stays in America. Some of it goes to Japan, sure, but it’s really a smaller percentage than most people think.

Different people like different things. 

On SUVs, the scale is a bit different though. My wife’s car came with 20" wheels and it could probably easily accommodate 21" wheels without looking too big.

Yeah, tires are just another component of the suspension. If the car is properly designed to drive on a low profile tire, there’s no reason the suspension can’t be tuned to drive similarly to a car with smaller wheels and high profile tires.

Even an M3's M Perf brakes will fit in an 18" wheel. You’d have to be driving some serious steel to need anything larger than 18" wheels on the track.

You just described the Tesla roadster. IMO, the Miata is a FAR more important car than the Elise. The Miata is a blast to drive and is affordable for the masses. It is usable as a daily driver and the market for it is huge. I’d much rather the Japanese make a reasonably priced sports car than pay through the nose for…

A computer made this year is, for 95% of use cases, no faster than a computer made 5 years ago.

When did that happen for CPUs? It is getting a bit tougher, but we’ve been reducing transistor sizes and continue to do so. It’s projected that we are close to the theoretical limit though so we may not have much further to go. CPU speeds have been increasing. Clock speeds have kind of hit a wall, but that might be…

Why compare it to what is considered the safest mode of travel available to the general public? Airplanes are only used for long distances and it is very expensive. Ubers are meant for short distance travel and is probably about as safe as driving your own car. I wonder if it’s even safer than walking or taking a bus.

What’s the difference between these crossovers and cheap compacts? The cheap compacts might be slightly more fun to toss around, but for 99% of driving it’s the same boring shit.

Before they made it free, you had to buy the upgraded audio system before you even had the privilege of paying for CarPlay. BMW were truly being douchebags. They rewarded lease customers though because they made it free for the first 3 years on a new BMW.

A transverse engine AWD system is “the future”? It’s a compromise to fit economy car platforms onto “SUVs”. This is not electric, hybrid, or any other modern tech. It’s just a torque converter transverse automatic transmission mated to some facy diffs and a transversely mounted ICE. SH AWD is not really groundbreaking…

Thanks dad.

Aluminum was once more expensive than gold and salt was one of the most valuable commodities. That’s pretty irrelevant now.

Leather is not supposed to be the cheap durable option. Leather as a material is more expensive than almost any other textile. A good option that feels like suede but is breathable like fabric is Alcantara.

VW no longer offers that warranty as of MY2020 cars. Also, KIA’s B2B is 5/60k which is still better than the rest of the industry and only one less year than VW. Even when VW was still offering the longer warranties, it could be argued that KIA’s was better.

VW no longer offers the 6/72k warranty . It’s a 4/50k warranty now for MY2020 and beyond.

I’d be impressed if they could mount that V8 since this is a transverse platform like the Acadia/Traverse.