All Ford passenger cars. Man, what is WITH people and their love affair with large, clumsy, top-heavy vehicles? I understand for somewhere like here were deep snow is a frequent obstacle, but for anywhere where said obstacle is rarely/never seen, and also for the parts of the year when there isn't any, they are objectively inferior to a station wagon of the same length and power output, not to mention uglier. I was more willing to take my Sunbird off-road than the vast majority of 4x4 drivers. Once I get my Escort's shock mounts fixed, it'll be good to go as well. It's funny, you know. I've been thinking, my mother's Dodge Journey is actually really similar to a Lancer Evo that ate too much... and also got lame throttle programming and an automatic transmission. Take that thing, reduce the tire size and ride height by enough to get 3-4 inches of overall lowering, maybe chop the roof by another inch or two, cut out a massive quantity of sound deadening (seriously, they went so overboard with it that it even clogs the floor drain channels causing the carpet to be constantly wet), and install a quicker steering rack, and you'd have what that car should have been in the first place. I'd honestly rather have minivans be a thing than crossovers.
The problem is, a big and powerful station wagon falls under the gas guzzler tax, but a SUV with the same mpg doesn't.
Because they had worse performance and power for the same amount of money because they had to keep up with much stricter norms, while SUVs didn't.
Because they are family cars, not damn sports cars. A few centimeters more in the centre of mass are 100% irrelevant in the mall parking lot. The cul-de-sac isn't a hairpin in Monte Carlo and the thruway is not Mulsanne - you don't need super aerodynamics or rock-hard suspension there. Want fun? Just buy an used sports car.
The Navajo. About every single Mazda sport utility vehicle is an crossover or an CUV. This was about the only one from Mazda that was a actual off-road SUV. (It was a rebadge of the Explorer Sport, by the way.)
Pretty much, under either brand. [Although it'd be better as a Mazda, since Mazda is starting to give their line-up some variety (and doing well as of now).]
But that's what I keep saying. Minivans aren't sports cars either, but on the whole, they're a lot closer than crossovers. Until recently, a wide variety of fairly "ordinary" cars were produced in a state that left them only a few modifications away from being ersatz sports cars. Cars like my Sunbird were practical, reasonably fun, and not hideously ugly all at the same time. Like I said before, there's a difference between "enthusiast-oriented" and "enthusiast-friendly"; many cars used to be the latter even if not the former simply by default, and all cars should be the latter even if they aren't the former. What this means is: -Keep it simple. When I complain about touchscreens being a dangerous distraction, people like to bring up steering wheel controls. I say, if a car needs redundant controls on the steering wheel, or a menu-based interface either, then it has too many features period. Studies I'm too lazy to dig up have shown that most people never use half of that junk anyway. The specter of CAN-BUS, which tends to function as an impediment to extensive modification, would also not be necessary if unnecessary features such as auto volume compensation were left out. -Keep it light. Modern FF compacts can weigh over 3000 pounds, which is lip-flappingly insane, especially when an old Cavalier could have a cast-iron V6 and still come in under 2700. Some of the gain is saftey-related, but some of it is probably taken up by unnecessary features and excessive sound deadening. -Speaking of sound deadening... stop spamming it in ridiculous quantities. The Dodge Journey has so much of it that it clogs the floor drain channels. If this is standard FCA procedure, I guess it would at least explain why the FF compact Dart can weigh up to 3200 pounds. -It's time to stop downsizing. The higher an engine's factory specific output, the less tuning headroom it has. Also, inline-fours are about the worst-sounding engine type there is. -Make it easy to work on. Ford engineers, chasing the smallest possible outside dimensions, have designed an engine with the cylinder head and exhaust manifold cast as one piece, which means you can't even install a header (usually a beginner-level upgrade) without upgrading the cylinder head at the same time. And since I rate the chances of anyone making upgraded cylinder heads for that engine at approximately 0%, that basically means you have to be a full-time, does-it-for-a-living professional engine builder with a shop full of expensive equipment just to put freaking headers on that car. Seriously?
Explain: Honda F, B, and K series engines. The engine in the MGB The Ford Escort RS2000 The Alpine A110 The BMW E30 M3 The Fiat 500 Abarth The Ford Focus RS The Honda S800 .....And the Subaru WRX STI.
