Better the mustachioed man be yelling honestly than shouting lies!

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

A lot of new cars are ugly.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

You seem to have the typically British gift for understatement. I noticed about 20 years ago that manufacturers were in a race to see who could design the ugliest car. They outdid each other yearly. I think that race has finally passed, but we are in a new age of ugly.

Some consolation:

1. When you're driving it, you don't see the exterior.

2. Power and fuel economy are coexisting to and extent never seen before.

3. As bad as that Toyota is, there are worse. The worst car I ever had to drive was a Dodge Caliber with the CVT. It was worse than my parents' K-Car. I've driven a Prius and it was better than either (but I'm still not buying one). Good cars are still out there, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Alfa 4C and current versions of the Lotus 7 come to mind. Scion FR-S, Mazda MX-5, and Porsche 911 are there as well. I wish I had the coin to try out the Ferrari 488, but I'll let others do that for me.

4. Forgo 4 wheels. Ninja 300. CBR500R. Ninja 650, Street Triple, Daytona 675R, R6, GSXR-600, CBR600RR, ZX-6R, GSXR-750, Speed Triple, Ninja 1000, ZX-10R, R1, GSXR-1000, CBR1000RR, S1000RR, and many more.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Jag makes some decent looking cars still, all the new Mercedes are ugly. I don't like their new fish styling.

I'd still take a new one, I'd just lease it though and not be as interested in washing and waxing it as I was with my W126.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Good thing they went with the name yaris instead of their first choice of "joseph stalin" in this case

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

That is true.

What's funny is that we first saw the Yaris in Finland, and the script of the "Yaris" logo read such that my mother thought that is read "Varis", which is the Finnish word for "crow".

I'm not sure which I would rather buy, the Toyota Stalin or the Toyota Crow.

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"Senior Luna, your sense of humor is still loco... but we love it, anyway." -rickymay ____ "Your sense of humor is still loco... " -MBeige ____ "Señor Luna, your sense of humor is quite järjetön" -Delibes

1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."