I generally find Toyota’s styling anywhere from ugly to bland, but that blandness seems to work really well on vehicle with this awkward giant sedan/CUV size. Still not sure how I feel about the 2-tone, but the overall shape seems to look good. The interior looks pretty bland too, not sure how competitive that is with…

The Honda Element. It was the perfect sport-utility vehicle with the emphasis squarely on utility. A flat floor and low load height meant you could fit things in the Element that wouldn’t fit in a suburban. Fit 2 mountain bikes, your girlfriend, all your camping gear for a week and a dog in it comfortably. Bags of…

I mean, how could Toyota not sell these things today?

The shortage is a global situation. The EU is at its lowest supply since 2004, and the U.S. supply has dwindled in part due to the significant exports of diesel to the EU to assist with their shortages resulting from Russia’s war, the French refinery worker strike, and overall refinery closures due to the pandemic.…

Fear mongering at its finest. 

First gear: I don’t believe a single word that comes out of that dude’s mouth. Musk is a perfect example of why CEOs need to keep their mouths shut when it comes to anything other than legitimate business discussions. He is the primary reason I will never buy a Tesla.

Fourth gear:
Too little, too late. People have…

The Lotus Espirit V8 wing. It shouldn’t look this good, being a curvy wing on a pretty angular car.. but it just works.

Lightyears ahead? As much as I am annoyed by Tesla and its fans, I’ve yet to see a Chinese competitor that meets Euro/US safety standards and has performance comparable to a Tesla. Somehow, any truly “competitive” EV made by the Chinese doesn’t make it to markets where they have decent safety standards. 

I like when Chinese companies have nearly cloned the designs, or key design elements of luxury car brands. 

Competition is good for consumers unless there isn’t a level playing field. The Chinese don’t play by the rules. In this case, tariffs are wholly appropriate. 

79 “man hours” is not equivalent to 79 hours.

<desire to import Honda Land Rover intensifies>

I daily drive a 9-7x aero and I came here to say the same thing. It has a bunch of Saab quirks and the interior is much nicer than the TBSS. Plus it wasn’t just badge engineering the 9-7x has a legitimate Saab interior with green gauges and a center key hole. 

The 9-7x Aero was awesome. It had a 6.0L LS2 and was nicer overall than the TrailBlazer SS.

Ah, good catch. Renaissance Zones are designated in the most distressed or needy areas of Michigan where MEDC and the state will do anything to attract business there. Both the business and the employees are exempt from most taxes for the period but the the duration of the exemption is predetermined when the zone was…

Correct. However, things like Chapter 313 allows the local district to exempt a business from the school property and then get a reimbursement from the state equal to that tax abatement. While it is a locally approved process, it is still state funds taking care of a businesses’ tax liability (with almost no state…

It was SLK underpinnings, not SL. So this:

American luxury in Japan?

So as cars became safer the number of deaths dropped dramatically, that is a very good point but has nothing to do with the topic at hand. If speeding tickets are up that means speeding is still happening and thus adding speed camera’s did nothing to prevent deaths.