I wonder how big of a hit this will take at resale time because it is conspicuously bereft of all wheel drive. I'd be curious to know how much more it would cost to lease one with two driven wheels instead of four.  ... View more

Hi Sajeev.  I couldn't figure out how to get in touch with you, so I'm posting this here. GuysWithRides had an 85K mile Merkur Scorpio in Orlando that I thought you might be interested in. The price isn't ridiculous too.    https://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/d/orlando-1989-merkur-scorpio-v6-rare-85k/7215629889.html ... View more

It seems worth noting that the overall winner of the 2020 St. Mary's Trophy was a 1963 Studebaker Lark Daytona over another Ford Galaxie 500. Incidentally, the only reason Tordoff was braking earlier than the Cortina drivers was because he was going so much faster. His apex speeds were the same.  ... View more

It's interesting to read the period road tests and learn that the E-bodies were never a match for the B-bodies or A-bodies. ... View more

Without the Miller 91, there never would have been a Bugatti Type 51. On the one hand, they were important cars from a time when the US built the best cars in the world of all types. On the other hand, the US started withdrawing from some areas of the market during the Depression and the Mustang's success killed the last American ambitions for automotive excellence.  ... View more

The DKW F9 prototypes were running around for years before WWII paused their development. Saab copied more than just mechanical components.  ... View more

Unless people start reading the bill of rights again, there are going to be more electric cars than anyone wants or has any use for soon enough. Why add to the problem? ... View more

Climate change is all about making China the sole super power. Honda has placed its bets. ... View more

The grey '32 Plymouth Sport Roadster and the two-tone convertible coupe are beautiful.  ... View more

I would gladly pay nada. If someone left these seats in my home, I would be angry about the space they would take up in my dumpster.  In retrospect, I suppose that means that I wouldn't gladly pay nothing for them. They aren't worth it. ... View more

1988 E30s and E28s still had the big five mile per hour impact bumpers. It's easy to spot a 1988 E30, because it was the one year that combined big bumper with big tail lights, ellipsoid headlights, and flush-mounted fog-lights. They also had the highest standard equipment levels of the run, which is why I consider 1988 to have been peak BMW.  ... View more

Who is their new caricaturist, I mean stylist? ... View more

I've got to admit that the peaceful protests have me thinking about buying my first full-sized truck. I drove one owned by my employer for a while in college while the transmission of my old Mercedes-Benz was being rebuilt. It was a dozen-year-old Chevy Big-10 in 1990, and definitely nothing like a current pickup in accommodations.  I also had regular use of an employer's 2014 Toyota Tundra 4x4 with four forward-facing doors and an eight foot bed. That one was a base model, and really the only feature I missed was central locking. I might grab one of the last 5.7 liter Tundras before they join the CAFE crowd. Fitted with a push-bar to protect the airbag sensors, it could prove the ultimate urban commuter.  ... View more

Jack's son races BMX bicycles and go-karts. Both are vigorous physical activities, and they are what nobody and psmith were referring to.  The jury is still out on whether or not there is something majorly wrong with enjoying video games, as can be surmised by the complete lack of humanity being evidenced every day in attacks on the elderly and defenseless taking place in our demoralized cities. If those cretins had engaged in outdoor activities with real human beings growing up, they'd have learned empathy and the value of actual lives. ... View more

Bubba may not be especially talented or stable, but at least he hates the fans. NASCAR deathwatch continues. ... View more

Twenty-four cars planned? He should have skipped the automatic transmission and had the people who missed out on the T50 fighting over them. ... View more

Promoting Chinese products is a really important and noble thing to be doing in 2020. Thanks for your service! ... View more

Did Rolls-Royce invent badge-engineering when they humiliated their one-time competitor by making it a discount companion brand?   The Silver Shadow was no antique when introduced in 1965. Sure, the Mercedes-Benz 600 was more ambitious and 25% more expensive, but the Shadow at least represented a sincere attempt to combine modern chassis engineering with traditional levels of isolation from noise and ride harshness.  It had one of the best transmissions(TH400 IIRC), Citroen's innovative hydraulics, Detroit's A/C, and various attempts at a decent sound system. All of it was surrounded by wonderfully hedonistic touches like lambskin carpets, mirrored burl-wood veneers, organ stop vent controls, and finely finished cast switchgear. It is true that they didn't evolve and replace it like a Honda Accord, but it is also true that it competed with cars that weren't always improving as luxurious conveyances as they changed with the times. There was no successor to the Mercedes-Benz 600, Imperial died, Cadillacs and Lincolns were a shadow of what they were in 1965 by the '80s, and that left...the Maserati Quattroporte?    I think Car and Driver published many strong opinions that haven't stood the tests of time. I just saw a 1978 issue where each contributor picked what they thought was the best car in the world, and chances are you would only guess one of their six choices even if you could name 75% of the cars on the US market in 1978 off the top of your head. I'm also pretty sure that somewhere is an article where they pronounced the Bentley Turbo R to be one of the best reasons to get a real job.    I worked for a guy in the mid-nineties who had a Bentley 8 and a Rolls-Royce Corniche. The Corniche was 'triple white,' a combination we were told that they only built once a year, which apparently only caused me to question the choice.  This man was a billionaire when billionaires weren't fighting over every house on Carbon Beach. He had(has? I don't know. He still uses the same profile picture on his eponymous investment bank's webpage now as he did then) a plane that flew his second wife's horses between his various vacation homes, which is what I thought of today when I saw someone commenting on the 'ridiculous' auction price of a Honda children's toy from 1986. I couldn't see him buying a BMW Rolls-Royce, but he did have a few Lincoln Town Cars back in the day. I never saw him drive himself in one, although his wife gave a VCU girl I shanghaied and I a ride to the Shelter Island ferry terminal in one. Maybe I should reach out and ask what he's got in his garages now. He might remember me from our numerous conversations about applications for orthogonal polynomials and Coxeter groups in financial analysis while I was virtually catatonic because we were on a several-day ocean passage across sharks-tooth waves, and I had broken some ribs on the way out of port.  ... View more

Check out the video from China. I can't believe that the Porsche on decent pavement wasn't 20% faster. ... View more

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/commercial/2019/6/racing-driver-weaves-his-way-to-slalom-record-on-airport-runway-577954   The previous record was set in a two-ton Camaro on a pot-hole-riddled runway in China. I suspect this record will stand until precisely anyone catches wind of Porsche's publicity campaign and decides to beak it. ... View more

Citroen copied the layout of this car from Cord and Miller, who were Americans. The styling was from Ford, also American. But like Jay implies, Americans don't have any original ideas.  ... View more

Everything good about the 2020 Range Rover is present on the 1970 Range Rover. Everything vulgar and superficial about the 2020 Range Rover is new. ... View more

BMW used to make such lovely cars. Then they listened to some dark voices from people who belonged at fashion week and decided that they didn't want to make 'sausages cut to different lengths,' or cars that had a brand identity built on grace, surface tension, and the 1960 Corvair. Because of creepy art school types, BMW made ugly the new black. I'm thankful that I rarely see recent or current BMW sedans and their CUVs are invisible in a sea of Kias and Fords. Meanwhile BMW is calling the shots at Rolls-Royce, where they have no problem at all making everything look enough like a 2003 Phantom that you'd need to park them all next to one another to even speculate as to which model is which.  ... View more

I don't see how the car's investment value is going to be his problem. If you're in a position to buy one of them, take some test drives. How much longer will you be able to get in and out of a 300SL convertible than a 289 Cobra roadster? How much more comfortable will you be while you're driving it? The Ace/Cobra was always a car for athletic young racing drivers. The 300SL convertible was built to be a more comfortable and accommodating way for rich people to enjoy the performance of the Gullwing. Which group does the collector see himself fitting into today? ... View more

Gasoline is cheap and diesels are either incredibly complex and frangible or dirty.  A V8 Jeep would allow Fiat to sell another one to 70% of their existing customers. A V8 manual Jeep might make me buy one.  ... View more

Did you know that in 1989 Chrysler built a Lamborghini Daytona? It was called the Decepzione and used AWD to transfer 250 hp from its Jalpa V8 to the ground.    https://bangshift.com/general-news/car-features/mopar-car-features/random-car-review-1989-dodge-daytona-decepzione-ground-clearance-may-issue/ ... View more

The hearse that goes over the cliff looks like a 1949 Humber Pullman hearse to me. ... View more

Has Randy Pobst ever tried to catch anything that heavy once it is out of shape? Maybe he should count himself lucky and leave pushing the EV cars-exclusively-for-elites narrative to someone else.  ... View more

A neighbor bought a loaded Suburban 4x4 diesel in about 1984. It may not have been coveted by you, but they must have really wanted it for the total price at the bottom of the third page of the window sticker. I believe the Suburban and the Grand Wagoneer were the two cars with the highest buyer average household incomes, above those of Mercedes-Benz 380 SEL buyers and Porsche 928s owners.  ... View more

I regularly read EV shills claiming that the appeal of Teslas and Tarpons lies in their ICE exceeding performance, but I have yet to be so much as passed by one on the interstate. I glance suspiciously towards them in my side view mirrors before attempting lane changes, concerned that their drivers may harness their instantaneous torque to close the gaps I'm entering. It hasn't happened yet. I'm also still waiting to see one merge with authority, or jack-rabbit away from a stop light.    I used to have a commute on the I15 between San Diego and Escondido. The fast movers in the left two lanes covered ground at eighty to one hundred miles an hour in their Accords, F-150s, and Priuses. The slowest cars on the road were generally Tesla Models S. I assumed it was because they were commuting to Riverside and needed to avoid performance EVs' ability to drain their batteries in less than twenty minutes. I'm not sure that explains why they're never driven with the aggression often seen among German sedan and SUV drivers.   Eventually, someone with some testosterone is going to wind up behind the wheel of a Tesla or Toblerone. When that happens, I hope it has those planet-raping R-compound tires. Without them, they're five thousand pound SCUD missiles.  ... View more