That decision reeks of cost-cutting. I'd rather go for a Mk7 GTI, which you can still buy new, and lean on the extensive VW aftermarket to close the gap between a Mk7 and a Mk8 GTI from the factory. ... View more

Expectations are a reason why a Mk7.5 GTI is not in my driveway currently. I thought about buying a new GTI this year because I could smell the cost-cutting in the Mk8 Golf from across the ocean, the GTI comes highly recommended, and I figured by now VW has ironed out all the bugs on that platform. Yet the GTI did not live up to expectations. The GTI just felt like a nice, faultless car that would acquit itself well on a good road, not the 4-door sports car I was expecting it to feel like. Between that, and the fact that you have to have a sunroof - the Achilles heel of the Mk7 Golf - if you want the nice interior, I crossed the GTI off my list. ... View more

Now is a great time to trade in your vehicle, but only if you have a good idea of what to trade it in for. While this tip won't help the LW, the new car market is much friendlier than the new light truck market. The Honda dealer offered me an Accord at invoice, and I bought a Mazda 3 Turbo for $4K off MSRP. ... View more

How was the noise and vibration from the engine? I've heard that the new Toyota 2.5, while a marvel of efficiency, is a bit Metal Machine Music when you ask for power. Adding proper power in the form of a mini-amp + DSP, such as a Kicker KEY, can really wake up these poor stock stereos for people who don't want to pay the luxury brand tax for a decent stereo. My Optima went from sound quality that was worse than those earbuds Apple used to pack in with iPods, to passable when I added more power for the stock speakers. ... View more

The basic idea of a Caterham, which is to be a sports car so committed to the idea of light weight that it's miserable to drive every day, is one that won't survive the electric revolution. EVs make sense for most cars, such as your average 4-cylinder Chevy or Kia, but not this type of car. It's why I'm of a mind to buy a new 86 or Miata in the next decade. ... View more

The Telluride with its panache is the one vehicle that would make me think twice about taking the Toyota pill in an otherwise dreary segment. The 6-cylinder Hyundai/Kia engines have also been pretty reliable, unlike the 4-cylinders. I also think the Kia dealers - which are the one real demerit against the Telluride - have finally stopped marking up Tellurides too. ... View more

C4s are cheap because the C4 was a transitional car that doesn't get any respect. The C5 at least has the LS motor, and road-racing pedigree even if every conversation about a C5 begins with "sure, the interior's terrible." And the Miata has 30 years of the automotive world singing its praises, i.e. Miata Is Always The Answer. Because of this, and C4 sellers not having the brain damage that C5 sellers have, you can regularly get a nice 1989+ C4 for under $10K. ... View more

I think what got enthusiasts hopping mad about the Mk5 Supra wasn't just that Toyota, an automaker as large as General Motors and Volkswagen, decided to outsource the development of their most iconic sports car. It was who Toyota outsourced that work to: BMW. I can't think of two traditional automakers whose core values are more diametrically opposed than BMW and Toyota. If the Mk5 Supra had been based on say, Mazda's new RWD platform and inline-6 that Toyota is likely throwing some money behind, enthusiasts would have been far more accepting of the new Supra like they are of the 86. ... View more

I get the Ranger being bigger today, as it's in a fundamentally different size class. Still, that size class sucks. There's not enough interior room to be useful for things like child seats, but just big enough to be unwieldy to park. Something I've noticed is that heavy-duty trucks have become much taller in just one generation. Some new HD trucks with their factory 4x4 packages are too tall to tow a fifth-wheel trailer, which is the raison d'etre of an HD truck. ... View more

I don't think GM would've done anything better with the Bolt money if they didn't have anything to spend it on, because the story of GM for the last 40 years is a company that fails to make the most out of their resources. The Bolt would've failed on the market if it had a regular engine. It looked like a dorky European mini-MPV, it was smaller than even a VW Golf which is explicitly designed with the size constraints of European city centres in mind, and the interior, especially the seats, was a classic example of GM cost-cutting. What modern GM shows us is that a car is more than its powertrain and chassis. If that's all that mattered (which according to Car & Driver that is all that matters) everyone would be driving around in Camaros instead of Mustangs and Challengers when in reality, the opposite is true. ... View more

The competition the Golf R really needs is a Civic Type R with an Acura badge that doesn't look like a gamer laptop on 4 wheels. I'd be far more bullish about the new Golf R if Audi hadn't vetoed the RS3's very special 5-cylinder engine from going into the Golf R. The new Golf R is pushing $45K, which is very close to a TTV6 Genesis G70, or a Model 3 Long Range. Both of those cars don't have the baggage that the Mustang GT or Camaro SS have (all the Golf R owners I've known vetoed those cars from the start), and are something more than the incremental progress the Mk8 R seems to represent over the Mk7 R. ... View more

There may be bigger gaps in price, but I don't think there's a bigger gap in quality in any showroom than the one between this $100,000+ Grand Wagoneer, and a $22,000 Jeep Compass. ... View more

I understand how you've arrived at this point with your old 911 as to everything there is a season. The season of the Porsche is over for you, but you still have to be its caretaker as it will kickstart a new one in your son's life. Unfortunately I have a feeling the new buyer of your 911, if that's the path your son chooses, won't drive the hell out of it like you did. Now that 911s are worth real money, they don't get driven because "muh value." To get a great new 911, i.e. a GT3, you have to establish a relationship with your dealer, which is the most nauseating thing to me. It's sad as 911s especially were meant to be driven, not a part of your investment portfolio, or a discussion topic to namedrop when you have friends over. ... View more

I could be sold on the idea of an electric convertible, even if part of the point of a convertible is to better hear the engine. Sometimes you don't want to draw attention to yourself. But this isn't it. This looks like the European T-Roc SUV convertible, which isn't good-looking to begin with, and it's saddled with those ugly EV wheels that the Germans insist putting on their EVs. ... View more

The $60K starting price for a V8 Grand Cherokee L is what popped out to me. IIRC that's $15-$20K more than what the V8 starts at today. $60K is also where the Genesis GV80 and Lincoln Aviator live, and those are seriously impressive SUVs. I think this upmarket push will work because Chrysler can build legitimately nice interiors these days, but it's still surprising to me to see a regular, non-performance Jeep at that price point. ... View more

Good on Lexus for making the car we've all wanted Cadillac to make for a decade. ... View more

Correction I meant to type QX50 instead of QX60. Stupid alphabet soup. ... View more

This has unintentionally showed the decline in NASCAR's product over the last decade. At least with F1 it's 2 hours or less, and I get a soap opera in exchange for putting up with hearing the British anthem followed by the German anthem after every race. The last generation of NASCAR drivers I cared about are now in the booth or in management, and the current product isn't compelling enough for me to spend 4 hours watching every Sunday. ... View more

The big question for this vehicle is why would I buy it instead of a Kia Telluride? The newest Infiniti product, the QX60, has a woeful tech experience, and the interior ambiance isn't that much better either. The way Infiniti currently moves QX60s is leasing them for the same price you can lease a Highlander for. But this probably won't work with the new QX60, as it's not on a fully amortized platform like the current QX60 is. ... View more

I'm glad that marketing was able to get a third pedal added as an option for these cars. The CT4-V Blackwing will likely win the comparison test between it, the Audi RS3 and BMW M2 but it feels like an also-ran because of that V6. It's a letdown when compared to the Audi's 5-cylinder and the classic BMW straight-6. ... View more

I feel like the only people who bought mild Golfs in the US bought diesels. Once Dieselgate killed the diesel in the US, so went the mild Golf. ... View more

I get the feeling. My desire to own a fancy watch evaporated when I came across the online watch community, which is an insufferable world governed by Worthington's Law. ... View more

While depreciation is generally held against the Genesis vehicles, I've seen that the G90 trades at a higher price on the used market than a similar CT6 or Continental. In addition to outshining the American pretenders, the G90 also bests the latest Lexus LS. The G90's interior space and user-friendly controls are a marked difference from the latest LS. I remember sitting in the driver's seat of the LS500, and marveling at how Lexus made such a big car with so little interior space. And I have no idea how the traditional LS buyer would be able to operate the GPS, or turn on the seat heaters with how fussy the controls are in that car. You can also get a V8 in the G90, which is unavailable at any price in the LS anymore. It makes sense that I've seen about as many G90s on my local roads as I have LS500s. ... View more

The ride and handling balance sounds like a reflection of VWoA's philosophy to design and tune vehicles for the American market. This vehicle might make sense to lease in California, where federal and state incentives will make this vehicle cheaper to lease than a CR-V, and you get an HOV pass. Still, it's a difficult sell because you can't count on non-Tesla charging networks, meaning that this vehicle works best with single-family housing. And if you can afford a single-family home in California these days, you can afford a Tesla. ... View more

At least it sounds like there's a uniformity to driving standards in the GTA. There is no such uniformity in driving standards in Florida. I've dealt with hyper-aggressive drivers imported straight from a Caracas rush hour, to senior citizens who believe they have a divine right to go 20 under in the left lane. The footage from my dash cam looks like a mirrored version of those Australian dash cam videos. Florida's extremely lax roadworthiness standards, which while a boon to classic car owners, means there are some real **bleep**boxes on the road that even Finnegan and Freiburger wouldn't be caught dead in. Speed traps are seemingly ever-present on the good stretches of straight road, and the closest curvy road to me is Sebring International Raceway. Florida: a great place to own a car, but not to drive one. ... View more

Before you buy a service manual, your local library may have the Chilton manuals online for free. In my car's case, the manual Chilton has is the official service manual! ... View more

The Hellcat cars and trucks are very alive, albeit in a different way than a Miata. And the Hellcat makes sense in many parts of these United States where the only curved roads are race tracks. ... View more

The Solstice and Sky were British Leyland cars for the 21st century: clever engineering and design that couldn't overcome a sclerotic bureaucracy. For example, look at Bozi's article here that outlined how GM made owners pay to remove the shipping spacers for the sports suspension on these cars. A 2nd generation of these cars based on the Alpha platform would've been very interesting. GM almost always needs a second try to get things right. The Alpha platform's biggest weakness - its poor packaging - doesn't matter in a 2-seat roadster. You might've also been able to see out of an Alpha Solstice because it wasn't handcuffed to the past in the way that the Camaro's design is.  ... View more

Anthony Bourdain once wrote that brunch menus were so diverse because no new money was spent on brunch. A chef had to use what was on hand for brunch. The development of the Charger and Challenger in the last decade has followed a similar path. FCA hasn't had any extra money to redesign the Charger and Challenger because the company's real money-makers needed redesigns first, and Sergio Marchionne had a quixotic desire to see one last real Alfa Romeo. Dodge has had to get creative to keep the Charger and Challenger relevant, pulling in parts from the rest of the company. Thankfully those parts are great, from uConnect to the ZF 8-speed which also finds a home in BMWs and Aston Martins. While a Dodge Charger and a Nissan 370Z have platforms that are similarly aged, the Charger doesn't feel like a relic whereas the 370Z does. Finally, Dodge has done a good job marketing these cars. This is worth noting when Chevy has utterly failed at marketing the 6th-gen Camaro. The one place where the Charger and Challenger really show their age is the interior. Yes, it's a far cry from the cost-cut to hell and back interiors of the first-gen cars. But it doesn't hold up against the Pacifica and Ram that exist in the same showroom, for the same money. ... View more

While the C6 is my favorite modern Corvette design, I'm still a big fan of the C7 design. It is identifiably a Corvette but it isn't chained to the past like the modern Camaro. The base car is good-looking, and the widebody looks even better, doubling down on the aggressive nature of the design. Unfortunately the success of the C7 influenced the design language of the C8, and man, does the C8 not work visually. ... View more

While putting as much HP as a Bugatti Veyron in a vehicle that big and tall with EV power delivery might not end well for the first owner, it'll be a boon to hot rodders looking for a donor.  ... View more

I was hoping that the chrome unibrow would get deleted in the Accord’s mid-cycle refresh like with the Civic and CR-V but that’s not the case. Bummer. ... View more

Unlike BMW restricting manual transmissions to M cars, this is not a loss. Even in Europe today you can't get a manual in a Mercedes that you'd actually want to drive. I am curious to see if the EQS can finally be the car to topple the Tesla Model S, which is nearly a decade old. ... View more

You see glimpses of the future today in how easily you can unlock extra power from modern turbocharged engines. Plug a handheld computer into your car to reflash the ECU, and bam, the 70 HP difference between your GTI and a Golf R has disappeared. ... View more

Removing the controversial grille makes you realize the rest of the car is as overstyled as a Civic Type R.  ... View more

I'd go SUV + trailer too if I had space for a trailer. You have more enclosed, lockable storage space, and you aren't confined by the limited bed capacity and high load floor of your average crew cab, short-bed pickup. You also avoid becoming "the friend with the truck." ... View more

If your son has a gaming PC for Fortnite, get him a racing wheel and a few games. Your son already has aptitude and interest in driving, so perhaps his time behind the virtual wheel would lead to him falling in love with cars through video games. Video games are a big reason behind my love for Corvettes, and more broadly, video games are why JDM Skyline values are through the roof. ... View more

Good on Nissan for doing what Toyota should have done but did not with the Supra: offer a manual transmission. The car looks pretty good, and ready for production except for the grille. I am aware that the grille is supposed to be a reference to Zs of the past. But here it just looks like it was slapped on in the last minute after the designers realized they were working on a traditional car, not an EV. ... View more

And as with everything else in American life, these rules won't apply to you if you've got the cash to splash. People putting their skin in the game is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for cars with personality to survive. Take the Ford Fiesta and Focus ST for example. Ford made a bet that there would be enough Americans to buy European hot hatches, and their bet paid off. Reddit and Jalopnik posters that are typically too cheap or too broke - depending on how charitable you feel - to buy new cars actually bought these cars new! But they died because there was a change of the guard at Ford, and the ST badge now just makes me wonder why that person didn’t just buy a Lincoln if they were gonna spend that much money. ... View more

Genesis have tried to get around the unpleasant fact of their dealer network with corporate initiatives, e.g. Genesis Concierge, Service Valet. But ultimately the dealer sells and services the car. It's a bit like claiming your website is mobile-optimized because you redesigned the front page but the rest of the site still doesn't have a mobile-optimized layout. ... View more

My first thought when I sat in a Genesis G90 was "oh, this is the car Cadillac and Lincoln should've built." That being said, I haven't reached the birthday where a copy of Steely Dan's Aja on vinyl is automatically mailed to your address, so the G90 is not the car for me.   The Genesis G70 is thus much more my style. I test-drove one recently and loved it. More than enough power on the street with the V6, good handling, and great ride quality considering the wheel and tire package it was on. Sure, the trunk space and rear seat is poor, which is a bummer if you have to haul around the gargantuan accoutrements of modern children. But those areas are very similar in size to the E46 3-Series.   I hope Genesis gets the time and space to succeed. It's very much an uphill battle for them despite their great product. They have to battle the mindshare that Tesla has in this part of the market, while also being saddled with Hyundai dealers to sell and service said product.  ... View more

I always enjoy a good rental review. Because the Frontier is so old, Nissan can throw cash money on the hood like a domestic full-sized truck. The Frontier thus sidesteps the problem that this segment has. You end up paying nine-tenths the price of a full-sized truck, but end up getting something that is half as capable and refined. Emphasis on the latter, as the American full-sized trucks have seen serious investment in the last decade that the global midsizers haven't. The Ford Ranger and Chevrolet Colorado are a decade old, the Honda Ridgeline looks like a minivan plus it's really only for Honda loyalists, and the Toyota Tacoma is quietly just as old as this Frontier but with zero slack in the out-the-door price. ... View more

While you weren't impressed with how the interior worked, how did it feel? The Silverado High Country I sampled last year at the auto show had an interior that felt much more Chevy Malibu than Malibu, California. The switchgear and leather was cheaper than the Honda Accord Touring that cost half the price. I am well-aware that these SUVs are the default in this segment, and that interior design has never been a strength of modern GM. Yet the interior was so mediocre in that $70K Silverado it made me think that GM could throw away their empire if it carried over to the SUVs. And damn, the Tahoe has gotten expensive. The top-trim GMT900 Tahoe, which is still newer than the powertrain in a new 4Runner, was $58K new when adjusted for inflation. Chevrolet has noticed the same thing your wife noticed judging by how they've priced this new Tahoe. To some, this smells like class warfare. I think it's the type of class warfare everyone here can support because I don't think the mid-engined Corvette would have been produced without it. ... View more

If the current pattern of Ford CEOs holds, i.e. guys named Jim, I expect Jim Harbaugh to be the next CEO of Ford. Harbaugh can't do any worse than this chair salesman did. Maximizing Shareholder Value Was Job #1 for Jim Hackett, and he couldn't even do that. ... View more

BMW's singular focus on SUVs has paid off in my part of the country. The X7 has been more successful here than the 7 Series ever has been. It feels like the starters at BMW work on SUVs now, and the backups work on cars. The SUVs feel like a much more cohesive, thoughtful product than the cars. The big grill on the X7 is funny but it works in context. The big grill on the new 4 Series would work only if BMW could charge for all the hateclicks it has gotten. ... View more

Thank you for scaring me straight with the number your friend has spent on maintenance and repairs in the last 3 years. I'd rather spend time and money in Rome and Pompeii, or our National Parks, instead of the dinky waiting room of an independent Porsche mechanic.   The only requirement I have so far for my next car is that it has to be a good dance partner on track. I'd like to make the jump from being fast online to being fast in real life. An NC2 Miata will likely be a finalist, as it'll be inexpensive to purchase and run on track, and I can also get some topless action. The C5 was historic as it was the first American performance car that could compete on the world stage since Nixon left office, but C5 buyers think they're capital-H Historic, and thus have set delusional values for them. C6 and C7 sellers are more grounded than C5 sellers. Perhaps I could trade my daily in for a new sport compact, like a Civic Si or GTI, or a lightly used compact luxury car, like a Lexus IS350 F-Sport, or a Cadillac ATS. I may send in another email in a few months once I've done some driving to narrow down the list. ... View more

Europeans are being seduced by our invention too. Auto News EU reported that SUVs made up 39% of all vehicles sold in the EU last year, up from 29% marketshare in 2017. I believe that the coming push by European governments to promote EVs and ban traditional cars will only sell more SUVs, as the primary regulatory incentive that pushes people into cars over SUVs - CO2 taxes - won't exist in the Electric New World.   https://europe.autonews.com/sales-segment/suvs-crossovers-continue-grow-market-share-europe-anes-segment-segment-analysis-shows ... View more

While FCA generally gives the people what they want, it feels like the V8 Wrangler has been locked behind a pane of glass that says "In Case Of Emergency Drive Through Glass." FCA can do cheap and fast, but I would not expect a V8 Wrangler to be cheap. The Wrangler configurator today takes inspiration from the Porsche one in how easy it is to make the Net Price number go up. ... View more

I agree that the business case for the Bronco wasn't an easy one like the one for the new Chevy Blazer. But it's a bit tighter than you'd think. Ford got a taste of how good modern off-road money can be when they saw their dealers charge over MSRP for every new Raptor for the entire first generation, and the first few years of the second generation. Then they looked at the money the Wrangler prints for FCA, and then at Toyota, who has sold more 4Runners over the past few years than they did during the first SUV boom of the 1990s. The development costs can be better amortized since the Bronco is sharing a platform with the next-gen Ranger instead of having a bespoke platform like the Wrangler, or Mazda Miata does. Finally, the Bronco was a truck, not a car, so Jim Hackett didn't cancel it on sight because he needs trucks to fund a golden parachute electric mobility solutions powered by AI and blockchain. ... View more

I am very curious how the Bronco Sport will be priced in the real world. I thought Ford was coming for that Subaru Crosstrek money, but Crosstrek pricing stops where the Bronco Sport starts. Will Ford make up the gap with generous incentives after the launch rush?   Hopefully the Bronco's independent front suspension translates to on-road manners that can give the 4Runner some competition, because Toyota needs it. All of the 4Runner's natural competitors from 20 years ago have disappeared, or become soft-roaders except for the Jeep Grand Cherokee. And the GC relies on air suspension to do what comes naturally to the 4Runner. ... View more