It is 3 x 1995 Jeep CJs cheaper than base model Audi R8 V10.

It has to do with 100% pride and prestige.

Human driving logic that car robots can never replicate:

Lewis comes from the country that gave us The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Deep Purple, Sam Smith, Adele, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Iron Maiden, Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Queen, Amy Winehouse, and the lot.

China has their own weird world view. For example, in recent WW2-themed patriotic movies aired in CCTV4, they featured a sniper. Historically inaccurate it is, but let’s give it a shot at historical realism: they tried to give the young aspiring boy the best tool that happened to land on China: a German rifle with…

American brands have many different unique perceptions outside the country. For example, in the UK and most of its Commonwealths, Chrysler is seen as an upmarket brand. In Indonesia, the 300 is selling as much as an E-Class here (about USD 100,000) and people still buy it. The 3 litre V6 powered Dodge Journey is…

When they become easier to drive, feature 7 seats, and looks like a car.

You are an ex-Porsche guy, so you should know a bit about luxury other than sporting stuffs.

Totally agree. The Mercedes of late 1990s switched to “beat the world” (a.k.a VW’s world #1 ambition today) mode and screws up the quality massively. BMW is always unreliable as ever. Audi at that time is also gaining popularity. Volvo lacks the styling for more than a decade.

As handsome as the car looks, it is still plainly 2010s generic. Infiniti, Audi, Aston Martin, Ford, Mazda, Alfa Romeo, Volvo, all have that gaping big grilles and frowning headlights with accentuated projector case.

I don’t subscribe to all the hypes about Tesla and Musk, but I have to say that with all of its ground-breaking technologies, at least Tesla fails gloriously after 60,000 miles, rather than pathetically like Volkswagen’s frustrating, unnecessarily overcomplicated dual clutch auto.

German quality declining?
My uncle owns an old 1995 Mercedes C180 (W202) that he amateur-rallied the shit out of it, speeding (up to 180 km/h), waters, jumps, gravels, muds, high speed cornering, full lock cracks.
It still went smoothly aside from rattling glove box, as a daily driver for 7 years more.

See how heavy the R-27 and all of its derivatives are and then judge. People say the same about AIM-7 Sparrows. But see R-27’s weight.

Ever since Datsun 120Y, Nissan mid-range sedan model always gets this reputation of being the boring-est of the bores. Toyota Corolla is always in the spotlight and gets all the flak for being the ultimate boring appliance car. But when one remember Nissan Sentra / Sunny, they will be eternally grateful for Corolla.

CLA is pretty expensive given its offering. Meanwhile companies like Mazda, Citroen, Renault, Honda are offering cars with luxury rip-off interiors that feels slightly upper class at bargain bin price. Recent Hyundai models are getting there too.

I too saw that resemblance with Nissan’s LMP car. It took me a lot of seconds to make sense of the near-vertical front wheel pod and F1-like front aero wing.

Does it mean that they are very used to the RWR constantly chiming so they don’t pay attention at all to the blipping lights and alarming noise?

I always thought that the proper response is to intercept them, show your presence and a litte stern-talking-to.

Probably the 1970s FAB-250 bombs. The Soviets stocked a lot of this ordnance that Russia inherited too many of them.

I did experience buying Korean car, a Hyundai ix35, and just like you said, the dealer (Hyundai) is very lackluster and couldn’t care less despite their cars being the best, price point wise. You get more power than CR-V, CX-5, and RAV-4 with roughly within the middle fuel economy, and a very solid bodywork. The…