As much as I think the Smart is cool, I can’t see why anyone would buy a ForTwo. The ForFour, complete with back doors and the ability to take more than one passenger, is a whopping £495 more to buy new here in the UK. And at any rate, things like the Skoda Citigo are much better small city cars and cost less than…

I’ve a soft spot for the Mk3s. My dad had a ‘99 Golf Mk.3 estate, with the 1.9 TDI. It was fantastic. Never broke down, and only died when my brother crashed it having done about 170k.

I love that in this picture of the Prowler, which is presumably a press shot, the removable front bumper/moustache things aren’t level.

I’ve just got a Seat Ibiza in ‘Desire Red’. Similar to the Mazda red, it’s gorgeous.

Wrong Fiesta for America.

Not entirely sure. But it’s operating all the time the headlamps aren’t on, and is a part of the dash cluster itself rather than a proper dusk sensor. I’m guessing it’s not accurate enough to do anything else?

This is what VAG products do. My previous car, a 2016 Skoda Fabia, didn’t have auto lights, but had a sensor in the dash cluster which turned off the dash illumination in the dark unless the lights were turned on. 

Or do what the Swedes do- DRLs include taillights.

I was worried about this when I got my current car, a 2019 Seat Ibiza. It has a full digital dash display and I was concerned that it would be causing excessive glare but actually I’m impressed. It seems to have adaptive brightness, like a phone does. I’ve only had the car a month, but I haven’t had any issues. It’s…

TBH any ‘90s bright non-metallic red. And even some much newer vehicles. Here in the distinctly not-sunny UK there are still lots of vehicles which have faded badly. A friend had a ~2008 Vauxhall Corsa in bright red which had faded in just a few years. Not significantly like that truck, but you could see where the…

Had 25 in a 767-300 once. Admittedly, this was a flight from the Cayman Islands to London via Nassau, on Christmas Eve, so was arriving on Christmas day. But it was an interesting experience. 

The Arteon is a big car. It’s bigger than the likes of the A5 Sportback or 4-series Grand Coupe which are supposedly competitors. It’s a tradeoff- you can either go for space, or go for the premium badge. 

Agreed. The closest rival for the A35 is probably the Golf R’s brother, the Audi S3, which is also a ~300hp AWD small sedan.

Absolutely. Cross-country trains in the US would never make sense, even with a robust public transportation infrastructure elsewhere in the country, simply because of those huge distances and the relative sparsity of population centres. However, there are plenty of very densely populated areas of the US. The…

I like some touchscreens. Preferably those with some real buttons as shortcuts. I’ve had 2 cars with touchscreens as dailies now, a 2016 Skoda Fabia and now a 2019 Seat Ibiza. The touchscreens in both are very good- responsive, large touch points, clear displays, and nicely integrated with the dash cluster screen.

A friend has an Audi A3, which has a button which folds the screen away (I think other Audis have it too). Seems like a great idea. 

Very small cars as a whole are dropping off here in Europe, due to emissions standards. It’s kind of counter-intuitive, but it’s hard to make small cars pass emissions regulations. This isn’t a technical challenge, but an economic one. The margins on small, cheap, cars are razor thin as it is. If you then have to…

Which just makes it even more tragic. The longer the distance, the bigger the advantage the train should have. The commuter train my dad takes does 100 mph, far faster than any road vehicle can practically go (especially at rush hour). This is summed in up how Jason said the train rarely peaked above 40 mph, which is…

Train is usually quicker than bus

This really does show the difference between European and American rail travel.