Frisky Dingo

Someone just put them out of their misery.

This will be a sales flop.

The 2-DR GTI will only be missed by stance bro's who want to bag their cars and put 20" Bentley wheels on it, and fanboys who are delusional enough to think the GTI is some almighty sports car. In reality, they forfeit the inherent practicality of the 4-DR hatch, suffer from uglier looks thanks to their strange proportions, and offer no compelling reason to buy over the 4-DR- they're not even cheaper. VW needs to get the Scirocco over here. It's gorgeous, and would actually give people a reason to buy it over a 4-DR Golf or GTI, if passenger-hauling is a low priority. I mean, just look at it- vs

Yeah, I understand. It's still BS. The only people that care that VW lied is the government and EPA. TDI owners loved their cars' performance, and the only reason the overwhelming majority of them are letting go of their cars is because the buyout is such a ridiculously good deal. Our diesel regs are garbage anyway. There were far bigger issues to focus on. They're picking something that's an easy target.

So that's FCA's excuse. What about Takata and GM? They knew about their issues for years. They ignored them and then tried to cover them up. And you're right, we won't ever know how much VW's emission cheat affected the environment. Our species may not even last long enough to see them. Either way, they're nowhere near the contributor that a multitude of other sources are. Corporations the world over are practicing tactics and methods that are negatively impacting the environment. All for a quick buck. But we turn a blind eye to them.

It's still a scenario with far worse consequences.

So if someone accidentally kills someone, they should get in less trouble than someone who intentionally littered is what you guys are saying. Got it.

Eh, since it's just human lives and not environment related, it'll be fine. They should be happy they just killed people instead of polluting too much.

The X3 is easily one of the best models BMW builds right now. They drive well, they're fun (for a CUV), they're practical, and reasonably priced. I'd tell her to go for it.

Therefore the prices could be more aggressive, while GM still made money.

Yes, but it is obviously costing them sales. Neither Chevy store I've worked at in the last 2 years sell Camaros for crap. Not even much interest in them. There's no markup in them. The incentives are terrible. The back seat is now almost unusable. The visibility is still poor. And Ford is selling Mustangs hand over fist. And I'm a GM guy.

So I was bored yesterday, and being potentially genuinely interested in this car, I took a trip to the Ford store down the road from me. Magnetic Grey Sport sitting under the awning up by the showroom. Looks pretty slow, so I go check it out. Nobody comes out. I walk inside and find a sales guy. He doesn't introduce himself. Doesn't ask me my name. Doesn't as how he can help me. Awkward. I ask for the keys to the Sport. He proceeds to walk me out to it, let me in, and tells me precisely 0 about the car. Asks me exactly 0 questions. Is this this guy's first day? I ask for a drive, he goes and scans my DL, comes back with a D-tag and says, "There you go, see you when you get back." Perfect. I then took the car on about a 15 mile drive down a twisty back road nearby. The following are my impressions of it. Right off the bat, I'm not thrilled. I don't like the seats. I'm not a big fan of the center stack. It looks kinda cheap. The touchscreen in the center was kind of antiquated looking. Not as responsive as I'd like. Organized in a rather haphazard manner. Steering wheel rim was squishy and too thin. Strange. All of a mile down the road, and I no longer dislike the seats. I hate them. They are horrendous. They don't go low enough, so the seating position is weird, the lumbar doesn't go out far enough, and it's way too high up. There's no real bolstering. The cushioning and support is just so-so. Not looking good. The next few miles are better. Driving through traffic, I'm quickly digging the power delivery. Some slight lag down low (more than my GTI), but a nice, fat midrange that makes passing a breeze. In Sport mode, the automatic did a pretty good job of responding and shifting at the proper time and with impressive smoothness. The ride too, is impressively smooth. Bumps and dips were taken with general aplomb with little to no impact harshness. Damping seemed really well tuned. Really liked the brakes. Nice pedal feel, with a linear action. The factory stereo was actually pretty decent, as well. Shame about the seats. Out on the back road, it's quickly very apparent this thing is a bag more mixed than Chex. Sure there's the good stuff- the Chex cereal- but then you get one of the stupid little bread sticks or rye chips out of the bag and you can't help but be disappointed. In this case, the good stuff is the mostly the aforementioned attributes- brakes, ride quality, power deliver. The bad stuff is steering, body control, and handling balance. The steering is a touch too light, and making matters worse, it's a little slow off-center and almost entirely devoid of feel. The car skips a beat before turning in, changes direction, and ends up giving you this oddly disconnected feel as you make several minute corrections of the wheel to make your desired arc. It's just kind of unnatural feeling. Braked hard and turned into towards a tight apex, the steering goes comatose, and you're left fighting understeer. Ditto under under hard acceleration out of tight bends. The same soft damping that makes for a cushy ride has difficulty holding itself together over sudden elevation changes, transitions, and mid-turn road imperfections. It also upshifts too early, doing so on it's own some 300rpm earlier than you expect even while using the shift paddles. The shifting it does let you do on your own is rather slow, with a noticeable disconnect happening from when you pull the paddle, to when the gear change is made, to how quickly forward progress is resumed. While it will make it down a curvy road rather quickly and without embarrassing itself, it's certainly not overly enthusiastic nor enjoyable in doing so. To anyone who was expecting a more or less cut-rate Audi S4, this car is not it. I had hoped it would be, but it is far closer to standard Fusion than bonafide sport sedan. The power and acceleration is hard to ignore, and it does have a healthy amount of zest sprinkled on top of the base Fusion ingredients, but it leaves you wanting more. And it could have been so much more. You get the impression that there's room above this car for a Fusion ST with some proper performance credentials. The engine is a high point and even sounds good, with a nice throaty growl. The overall interior is quite good, with mostly nice materials and fit and finish. Textured silver metal-looking trim is spread throughout providing a an upscale look. The seats are near torturous imo, however, and they would be a deal breaker in themselves. Aside from that, what you ultimately have here is a nice, powerful family hauler that gives you a dash of sportiness in an overall competent, practical package. The AWD capability alone is a nice plus that makes it worth over a V6 Camry, Accord, or Altima that are only marginally cheaper. The car I drove listed for $35,489, and provided you can stand the seats, I'd much recommend it over the aforementioned V6 offerings it shares the segment with. That said, if you're wanting a 4 door sedan that has some serious performance chops in it's repertoire, you're better off with a CPO S4 or 335i X-Drive.

The new Camaro pricing has gotten awful ambitious.

I'm not disappointed, because the 1.8T is still a great little engine. I just wouldn't want to go down in power/performance. The 1.8 makes GTI numbers with just a flash/tune. And even in stock guise, they are more than adequate. Punchy down low, but without running of breath up top. Paired with the DSG, this is probably a quite enjoyable package.

Man, if this only had the 2.0T, I'd trade my GTI and wife's Rav in on it in a heart beat.

The Germans had a very disappointing showing here, especially the R8. 911 did ok for it's power, but to barely surpass a car that costs 1/2 the price is a bit of a sting. The Grand Sport did awesome. GT350 R beat out the M4 GTS for half the cost. The GTS is not worth anywhere near it's asking price. And yes, the 1LE's are monsters!

Here's the link- LL 2016 Discuss.

SRT Viper Shelby GT350 R Ford GT Cadillac Escalade ESV Ford Focus RS Challenger Hellcat Corvette Z06 Vert Chevy SS Sedan Bonus 2- Buick Avista Jeep Wrangler Sand Trooper

I'll allow it.

Nice!! The new Golf Alltrak looks like a pretty solid little package.

Curious to see who is going to compile the first list.

Oh, yeah. The buy back deals are way too good to pass up!! What do you have in mind as a replacement?

Acura and Lincoln themselves are not included. I made an addendum to allow for wagon variants. The CC sits at the top of VW's sedan line-up, therefore it is excluded.

You can have a 4 cyl choice.