FYI from Wikipedia:

First Gen Mercedes M-Class. Weird Unibody-on-Frame mashup would make it a Medium-Core SUV (Right??). I’ve never owned an MB, but I hear the 3.2 V6 motors are pretty bulletproof.

Hesitant CP on this one.

MK7 GTI owner here as well, and I totally disagree ;) Third GTI and my first with 4-doors. You don’t realize how impractical 2-doors are until you’ve had 4! Bag of groceries? Pop it in the rear footwell without having to fold the seat forward. Picking up a third person? Pull up and, get this, they can get in while you …

Haven’t tried their jeans (I have issues spending more then $100 on pants that could potentially see yard work duty), but have had great luck with Banana Republic’s Athletic Fit/Rapid Movement dress pants & chinos. Nothing better then being able to see the thigh-seam of your boxers through dress pants lol!

Speaking of redundancy, I also throw the wheels under the car. This was a habit from working in a tiny garage, but figure it adds a decent safety gap if everything else fails. Not to mention if wheel off during a wheel swap, and car were to fall, replacing a wheel is cheaper then the alternative!

I think I saw 740 GL on the trunk, which means this is a stock NA car. My first car was one of these, and an automatic. And yes, it was slow - like right hand lane with flashers on, being passed by Audi 4000's slow.

Extra points for the one handed high speed turn using the palm-of-your-hand method.

When I used to smoke, I would ash out the vent window in my 83 GTI. Which worked great until the time I had the main window open at the same time, and the cherry flew back in and down the back of my shirt.

There’s been a lot of odd ball “classics” climbing in value lately. Here in the states, we’re starting to run out of options. The only things that are left to skyrocket are E36 M3's and watercooled-VW’s.

10 years ago, I thought about buying a clean, sub-100k mile, single-owner 968 Cabriolet at $11k. I’m not a convertible guy, but the thought took up at least a half hour of my consideration. I bought an equally clean, manual E46 wagon instead.

I’m currently leasing a GTI. The way I treat this car (it is pretty fun) I wouldn’t buy it off-lease. Frankly, after this experience (this is my first lease), I don’t think I would ever buy an off-lease car! That’s probably where cars get their bad raps for reliability - someone buying a 1-2 year old car that has been…

My lease is $200 a month w/ $2k down (Base/base 2017 GTI leased at the end of 2016). My dealership had a deal at the end of 2018 for $180 a month with no money down (for the same year/model). I didn’t investigate further (felt weird getting a new car after less then a year), but I think GTI’s lease just fine. Name…

Regarding Jetblue, I received a $75 voucher due to a flight nearly getting canceled but able to leave at the last minute (4 hours later) due to a mechanical issue. (Note: Yes, it was a little nerve-wracking to get on a plane where the pilot says “The electronics are working for now, so we’re going to get off the…

Hard to tell from the distance, but it looks like at least 3-4 cars were not interested in letting this plane just merge into traffic. Maybe because of no blinker?

Waiting for all the arm-chair auto-execs to come in and say how this car is a horrible idea and that no one will pay that much money for a Volvo (especially one that doesn’t have a manual transmission).

Funny - I feel that armrests tend to get in the way of “real” driving. As my first track instructor yelled at me, “What the hell are you going to do with your hand on the shifter between gears???”

Totally different cars. I think of the GTI as more of a “city-car”; it’s small (by today’s standards), making it great for darting through Boston traffic and running errands. Plus, since it’s a lease, I’m not super concerned with pot holes or salt in the winter.

The number one American purpose of a wagon is to drive for hours on end on America’s boring and crumbling highways. I would not want to do that in a base Outback.

I have a 2016 V60 with almost 90k miles. I decided to rotate the tires the other day. POS doesn’t fit my floor jack, so I had to use the scissor jack from the trunk. What a turd. Plus, after I rotated the tires (10k miles late I must add), it now has road noise. Total POS.