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Yes, taken this morning at his shop. That's the original paint, they buffed it out, waxed, etc.

Got a call today from my auto mechanic that my '87 Mustang GT is done and ready to go. Plan to go pick it up next week. Looks good after 20+ years in storage--been thoroughly cleaned inside and out (original paint, 64k miles). Went through it mechanically and replaced a lot of seals, gaskets, hoses, etc. Looking forward to getting it home and enjoying it again like I did in Colorado in my 20s.

Does this qualify as mid-life crisis? Even though the Mustang is yours since 40 years ago?

I am such a Depeche Head, Loved them since my first concert with them in Japan. Depeche Mode Music for the Masses Tour 1987 to 1988, Japan Leg. This is memory lane of an amazing time in my life. Depeche Mode "Music For The Masses Tour" 1987-1988 (depmode.com)

I think so. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve driven it more than 50 feet. It sat most of the last 20 years. And I’m at a Depeche Mode concert tonight, and going to a Geddy Lee event where he tells stories from his autobiography next week. So I’m really indulging in 80s nostalgia.

Are those the pictures he sent ya? WOW that is very sharp indeed.

Stretching the dollar (in addition to Cafe 150): I don't really like Burger King, but, on Whopper Wednesdays, their regular and meatless Whopper are $3 through the app, so I went in, used the app for an Impossible Whopper, and it adds points to my account for future redemption. Bonus offers can kick up the points faster, so those need to be penciled out in my head. I last went in to redeem most of my points for a customized BK Big Fish sandwich. That was free. I saw their slice of chocolate pie that looks way better than a Mickey D's apple pie and got one. Because I had to wait a bit, I picked up my 2 bags and saw that the kid had put a small order of onion rings in there. I looked perplexed and he sort of motioned not to worry about it. This was starting to look very caloric, but I ate those onion rings anyway because I rarely do. I put the small balance I owed on my credit card, where lodging and restaurant purchases (obviously in addition to airline ticket purchases on the airline sponsoring the card) get twice the miles.

Congratulations, becoming a parent is an amazing journey and I wish you and your wife all the best for what a rewarding and challenging journey of parenthood will be. Names while many will say go common and US based can still be a beautiful thing to also think of places or trips you and your wife did. I remember a friend who played trumpet with me in jazz band and until now have not thought of her as we drifted apart once our careers took off and we got married, but I will never forget her as her parents named her after a garden they always went to and where he proposed to his wife, the garden was a Rose Garden here in the UW botanical garden. As such Rose grew up to be a great trumpet player and eventually went to college and works in the medical field. Names can mean many things, so do not feel you have to stay mainstream if it is an important meaning to you and your wife.

Today was a day of change, for almost 2 months I have been on a family home remodel project for my son and today he wanted to go check out the Kia EV9 that is making the rounds of the local Kia dealerships. My first impression was that Kia has nailed the traditional brick on wheels style of SUV that Americans should appreciate. I started at the front of the EV9 wanting to see the Frunk. Surprise, not as big as the F150 Lighting or GM's EV pickups but double, maybe even triple the size of what Tesla offers. While not real deep, you could have two bags of groceries on their side. Observation is under this frunk is where the 12V battery is located. From the back is where the cabin airfilter is located and I noticed it was a HEPA filter. Funny thing is that you can see on the left hand side an whiteish lever. This is an emergency frunk lid release. Not sure why they have one as I cannot think of any way a human could fit in this frunk even if they were part of the tiny or dwarf size humans. Interesting note that I wish I had taken a picture of was that in the very front deeper section, they had a NACS to CCS adapter. Surprised to already see one built by Kia. My son opened the front driver's door and I wished now I had taken a video of this as the steering column auto moves up out of the way and then after you get in and close the door, it returns to the position that is set. Very cool, I love this kind of tech where I do not have to adjust things once it is set. I did as you can see in this picture observe the issue that many folks have complained about on touch screens and that is all the fingerprints. David Size test commenced, I set the front passenger chair for my comfort and 3 inches between the front of my knees and the dash. I then got out and into the back seat and WOW, roomy and comfortable. This wins the 6'6" 300lb David test. Plenty of head, shoulder and girth room. This SUV will be a winner for many folks due to the roominess of this EV. As you can see by my left knee is a USB C port for connection to charge and connect to the internal media system. The 3 levers you see on the side of the seat are for upper seat comfort adjustments. Now one thing I was happy about was the heated and cooled seats in the front and back. Kia did some smart thinking here and that is where would be a good place to put the controls? They put them on the internal arm rest and this arm rest had additional thinking as many times when you adjust the back of the seat for relaxing the arm rest in many current SUVs today have limited fixed positions. Here you can pull the arm rest all the way up, go all the way down and then in micro adjustments pull it up till it is comfy for the seat occupant. Controls for the seat moving forward, up, down lumbar, etc. are the same for all four captain's chairs. On the right side bottom cushion. Have to say that while Kia will have a basic all black interior, they are offering as an upgrade multiple two-tone interiors and I really like this brown/black one in this unit. I did sit in the 3rd row split-bench seat and while I could get back there and had headroom, leg room kept me to the middle of this seat. I could make it work for a short ride, but it really is not an adult seating area. The next thing was to check out the back for storage behind the third seat as this is an issue I have seen even in ICE auto's where you either have enough for 6 to 8 bags of groceries or you have pretty much nothing. Kia has actually given a decent set of space where you could get two rows of 8 bags of groceries in terms of traditional paperbags. It of course gets even bigger with the third row of seats down. If you look at the picture with both third row seat areas up, you can see the controller below the European plug and that is four buttons that allow you to open or close the second and third row seats. So, for those running to Home Depot or Ikea and need to put something large in, you can easily do it all from the back and not have to move around to the different sides to do each seat. Decent storage was under the back lift cover. Better yet, while this was clearly told to me by the Kia sales folks that it was a pre-production model off the assembly line that will be producing the EV9s for Asian and European area, the fit n finish was some of the best I had seen. No info on pricing, but I was asked if I was interested in putting down a deposit to save a place in line for the EV. End result is that this Kia EV has way better fit n finish than current production Tesla and I suspect it will really give a run for its money to Tesla and other EV manufacturers. I have always stayed true to my roots and bought GM, Ford, Jeep and Dodge. The EV9 is a strong contender for a possible next auto in my household especially since like GM they are by default offering bi-directional power so that with the EV9 plugged into the home charger, you could power your home if you wanted when you have a power outage. Ask away any and all questions. Happy to Answer! View full article

I have come to believe that you shouldn’t opt for the manager’s special or wild card to save some money on a rental car. If you order a specific type of car, it is usually set aside for you or an upgrade is possible. In this case, the agency's manager’s special indicated that it could include EVs. I called several days ahead and was told that getting a gasoline powered vehicle was likely if that’s what the customer wanted. When I got to the airport location, that wasn’t the way it was going to be. I was given the keys to a Tesla SUV, a twin motor Model Y. I was told that getting a gasoline powered car would cost me a fairly hefty sum, for which it seemed they made up the rules, and numbers, on the fly. I wasn’t given much in the way of instructions for getting the Tesla Model Y going, except for how to open the doors. The flat card style fob was sometimes temperamental in opening the doors. To start the car, one slid this card near the underside of the opening of the center console and the icons on the main screen came to life. The Tesla Model Y’s vibe, fittings, and styling seems to be minimalist chic, but there’s not much that’s minimalistic about operating it. I do not care for the strong upright jellybean look of this model and only find the model S offering, with the air slat in its front fascia and its more rakish roofline, to be their most attractive model, albeit an expensive one. The seats, console, and interior appointments are spartan in appearance but, for this kind of money, the fit and finish have to be good. The leather seats are firm and comfortable enough. Even with the rear seat up, cargo capacity is generous. There is also its frunk up front for some extra storage. This vehicle has a curved glass roof which is far more than what a sliding moonroof would be, and, inside, there wasn’t much in the way of felt heat gain. In front of the driver and the passenger, there is the dashboard cowl, albeit a low one, and the driver gets a steering wheel, too! However, the driver just looks out over the road and both the driver and front passenger only have subtly concealed air conditioning vents directly in front of them. Just about everything to operate this vehicle is in a large laptop-like screen that is in the center and above the center console, and there are a lot of icons. I was able to adjust the mirrors and the seats, but did not work with a lot of the ancillary settings. Nevertheless, I started to drive off and, soon, I was on the freeway. The Tesla Model Y is stable, firm, and fairly smooth. It would have been smoother if it had smaller wheels. I credit the large wheels and tire profile for not being as smooth as it could have been. It is very stable because it basically feels like a tank, but not in the old school American boulevardier sense. At almost 4,500 lbs., it is a heavy machine. This Tesla’s steering is fairly nimble and the handling is responsive. It feels at ease at high speeds, so much so that you may not notice how fast you might be going. Pushing down on the pedal gets a quick response. Being electric, the automatic transmission does not have gears. This Tesla just lurches forward on demand. Perhaps the strangest thing about this vehicle is that it does not coast when decelerating. It seems to rapidly slow down when one backs off the accelerator. Perhaps this has to do with power generation or saving. I was able to figure out several key settings, such as the air conditioner controls and even searching for a place to charge up the vehicle. I learned something that afternoon. Tesla has dedicated stations with their logo that are stations for “supercharging.” (Yes, the cost to charge the vehicle is less than that of gasoline fill-ups.) Getting the Model Y back up to the “restricted” 80% charge level at these stations took about 20 minutes. Even so, I don’t think that a range of 250 miles (+/-) is all that generous. Later, I needed to charge this Tesla again and went to a Tesla “destination” station. Here, it takes upward of an hour to charge it up, hence there was no one there. I had to drive to another Tesla location to charge it rapidly late in the evening. The reason for doing this is that I was now in another major city and was going to take it back to the airport to exchange it. And it wasn’t even about charging issues, but about some simple operations. I figured that sliding the card fob in the same place would inversely power off the vehicle. It did not. There was a search bar on the main screen and I typed in “shut down” to get no hits and then typed in “power off” which took me to a link! I hit that link and was able to see everything power off. Only then did I feel comfortable that the vehicle was turned off. Moreover, the rental agent at the return location had to hunt around a little to find the odometer reading. Other EVs supposedly resemble and operate more like a regular gasoline powered vehicle in the cabin and in their controls. That said, I’m for electric vehicles and the direction this technology is going. However, the operation of one should be more intuitive. That’s not what I found with the Tesla Model Y. There appears to be a learning curve. This vehicle, and brand, have an interesting reputation. It is supposed to enjoy a long service life in terms of miles because of the simplicity of the electric engine. However, some of its other quirks seem to bring owners to the service department for repairs. Tesla vehicle professional and consumer reviews are not faultless when addressing whether they are very reliable and hassle free. Also, different models have different ranges and, just like with a cell phone, the vehicle should not be overcharged … and this didn’t make for a range which impressed me, or even satisfied me. Incidentally, at the front of the console are two cell phone sized grommets where a person can insert their cell phone and it will be charged fairly quickly. I feel it would have been nicer to have more conventional controls and clusters, with some of the controls directly in front of me. There could be more than one minimalistic pod or screen. This vehicle may be compelling for some, starting at close to $50,000 MSRP before tax credits, but perhaps, like its creator, they seek to make a statement (in addition to using a greener and cheaper form of energy) and are willing to live with this Tesla’s unconventional side. I can only vouch for what I experienced with this Tesla Model Y. I picked it up in the afternoon and returned it just before midnight … perhaps so I wouldn’t turn into a pumpkin. I’m joking. I stated above why I returned it. That said, I can’t opine on how much I would like this vehicle if I could get used to it or, more importantly, if it’s a good vehicle. It appears that choosing a Tesla is a very personal decision more than anything else. - - - - - PHOTOS FORTHCOMING

This was the last of 3 rental at different locations in Portugal and a vehicle I never thought I’d be writing a review about. Again, I rented an automatic vehicle with one of the major agencies and the description indicated a Toyota Corolla Hybrid automatic or similar. Anymore, you go up to a kiosk, as if ordering at McDonald’s, to kick off your rental at major European airports. It’s important to have one’s data for the transaction ready. If there are questions or hiccups, agency personnel are on hand. I was doing this and then, at a certain part of the screen, a car description, including specifics like the license plate, appeared. I asked the agent what this was all about. I was told that a BMW Series 2 Gran Coupe was the car I was being assigned. I almost didn’t want it and asked if they had something else. They didn’t. I started looking at this smallest member of the BMW family in awe. I also sked my phone what its cost might be since insurance might have certain parameters. It appeared to come it at somewhere between 37,000 Euro and 42,000 Euro, depending on how it’s equipped. I could not form an immediate opinion of this car. I was in a stupor that I would be driving this car for 4 days. Also, its controls and settings are not that easily learned. I did learn most, while a few more obscure ones went unlearned. They do not correspond to the settings we know in American domestics, Japanese cars, or even VW-Seat-Skoda. As I got used to the BMW 2 series, what shone was how planted this vehicle was and how nicely weighted the steering was. This car was driven on city streets in or near Porto, on the tolled highways, and on 2-lane roads, with one foray into the twisties into and out of Parque Nacional Peneda-Geres. It fares well everywhere, but it really inspires confidence on the highway where, for its size, it’s sort of a small “bank vault” and on two-lane roads where it corners with agility and remains composed. I had only driven a college friend’s BMW 3 series with a manual transmission from Santa Barbara back to L.A.’s San Fernando Valley and it, too, shone for being nimble and planted, although they were not the most reputable as the years wore on. My friend eventually moved on to a new Ford Mustang with a V8. With this BMW’s good handling, the ride is also very controlled – firm and smooth. Noise suppression is also excellent and the maximum posted highway speeds, or slightly more than that, produced negligible wind or road noise. It’s a car that doesn’t wear on the driver for a long-haul trek. The engine was a twin turbo diesel and, when pushed, it responded very well and the engine produced more of a strong hum rather than the clanging sounds one would except of a diesel. It didn’t really sound like a diesel from inside the cabin. However, if standing outside the car when it was idling, it did sound a little like a diesel, but not quite like the old school Oldsmobile diesels that sounded like they were gargling with metal marbles. The car responded well to quick and defensive merges and prolonged grades on highways, which Portugal’s interior definitely has. The other part of the powertrain equation is the transmission. It was a geared automatic with 8 speeds. The truth is that you could barely feel any of the shifts, making me question if BMW could have sold out and gone the CVT route. That wasn’t the case. If pushed, the first few shifts could barely be felt, with changes into the remaining gears being imperceptible. This outshone the 8-speed automatic in larger Toyotas that I have driven a time or two and which featured excellent shifting. At this point, virtually all foreign manufacturers, and especially the premium ones, are adept at making automatic transmissions. We’re not talking about Smart cars and Opels from right around the New Millennium. There is no doubt that this small BMW is an attractive vehicle. For being a small sedan, it’s billed as a Gran Coupe and the looks are svelte enough. The rapport between the exterior volumes is pleasing to the eye and any sculpting and character lines work well, including the ones carved into the front fascia and the rear taillamp assembly and bumper. One thing that was unexpected and make for a good chuckle is the frameless doors. I haven’t seen that in decades. Hello, GM colonnade coupes of yesteryear. I don’t know if I liked it or not. However, it probably helps give the car a sleeker look. The cabin was comfortable and there is suitable room for the front passengers. The seats are defined with bolsters and adjustable supports for the lumbar and the front edge of the cushion. The only other car with aggressive bolstering in its seats I’ve ever driven is the last Pontiac Grand Prix where the price point didn’t allow for them to spend enough money to thoughtfully design them. It appeared that this small BMW’s rear seat room was decent, though not ample, but the trunk was surprisingly roomy. I’m not giving this car a score of 100 or anything like that. It made for a few annoyances. I’ve already mentioned the slight difficulty with setting up and getting used to the controls. To that, add infotainment and climate controls graphics and operation which weren’t pleasing to the eye or user friendly. Graphics at night have orange/amber backlighting and Pontiac proves that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It, too, leaned toward this color for illumination, not to mention an often similar “twin kidney” grille up front. Unlike other cars, and less expensive cars, the infotainment center Bluetooth did not display my music collection with the additional graphics about the artist as less expensive cars readily have. The adjacent red and blue stripes often seen on the grilles of BMWs make their way into the lower part of the dashboard and extend onto the front door panel. This effect can be seen at dusk. The most irritating thing to me was the automatic transmission lever. It’s a standard lever. It’s not a push button or a round dial that some cars have gone to. It was easy to put it into drive and reverse, but there was a button at the back of the lever that parked the car, or so it seemed. This could lead someone to push the button and think they were free to go. If the lever was not returned to P, the car was not parked and would still be running. The build quality of the console and the levers and buttons appeared to be excellent, but operating it caused some head scratching at times. This BMW 2 series coupe/sedan is expensive to purchase and expensive to maintain, especially for the incomes and purchasing power in some of its markets. As time marches on, major repairs or replacing parts is expected to be expensive. That would require weighing how much one wants to own one of the “ultimate driving machines” vis a vis weighing the costs of ownership. As for one of its costs – fuel – that was surprisingly favorable, with consumption being sparse and diesel fuel being less costly in Europe. This was a serendipitous experience and a pleasant surprise. It was a lot of fun to drive this BMW and sample the confidence it inspired, be it on major highways or on challenging two-lane roads. I also find it humorous that with all the cars I’ve rented and upgrades I’ve been given stateside, I’ve yet to turn the key on a Cadillac and put one in gear. However, I got to drive a car and brand I would have never expected to. The price of the rental for those 4 days was reasonable (read: one helluva upgrade) and presumable priced in line for the anticipated Toyota Corolla Hybrid. I don’t know if I’d want to own a BMW 2 Gran Coupe overseas as its owner would have to contend with a lot of rambunctious drivers in “beaters” and on more challenging roads. However, if money is no object and one can afford the repairs down the line, or is leasing one, this could be a great way to go about motoring. - - - - - PHOTOS FORTHCOMING

I had never driven any Honda. I had rented a full size car for a week in a Southern California suburb. I saw some Chevy Malibus and Toyota Camrys on the lot, but was assigned an Accord. I would have preferred to remain in something I was familiar with, but was open to this experience. I’m glad I was. The Honda Accord was of the last model year before the current refresh. It’s a comfortable car with an easy to live in cabin. Both the front and rear seating areas are spacious enough, and the trunk is also generous. The seats have a nicer shape, even though the fabric was weird, with an unusual sheen. (In the refreshed Accord, the seating upholstery has reverted to being more conventional.) The biggest plus for the Honda’s interior was its attractive and symmetrical dashboard. With this, I’m referring to the lack of something like that unusual angled wedge where the Toyota Camry’s dash and console meet. In the Accord, the device cubby hole, console surfaces, gear selector, cup holes, and console box are nicely placed. Setting the Bluetooth and other metrics was not too difficult. The instrument pod graphics were pleasing and simple. I always opt for the digital speed readout, which I find highly superior to the analog speedometer many of us teethed on! The only negative aspect of the interior was the power seat adjustment. I like to sit up higher and did not like the range of settings available to get me up higher, thus it felt a little more go-kart like. The Accord handles nimbly and it’s really amazing how far these once very basic cars have come. With a great feel from its leather wrapped steering wheel, the car also felt very centered on the road. Since the term Camcord is now ubiquitous and understood, the Accord is more nimble and less isolated than the Camry, though the Camry does convey enough of what’s going on through its front wheels. However, being more go-kart like and “appearing” to be a little smaller, the Accord isn’t as hushed as the slightly more isolated Camry. Of the Camcord, the Accord is more fun and at home in either city traffic or two lane roads, even those offering up a good dose of curves while the Camry is more serene and at home on the interstate. The Camry has that shovelnose grille that Toyota-Lexus seem to share and which has been criticized enough. The more conventional Accord grille is easier on the eyes, and has become even more appealing in the recently released model. On the other hand, the Camry greenhouse is a little more conventional and upright while the Accords is more raked, with large C-pillars. The Accord has that rearmost side window between the rear door and the C-pillar which hearkens to the Cadillac C5 via its shape and the overly thick chrome applique. I wasn’t a big fan of this. The Accord, however, has a pleasing rear fascia with light assemblies that minimally resemble the boomerang shape of the last-gen Buick LaCrosse. The difference is that the LaCrosse has a bigger canvas in its rump and did an excellent job with the boomerang design of the taillamps set into a more oval shape. As with the front grille, the taillamps and rear fascia of the Accord are also improved in the subsequent and current refresh. With all this said, in terms of styling, it’s probably a wash between the Accord and its Asian competitors. However, if adding Europeans such as VW’s Passat and Jetta to the equation, those would be the best styled standard sized sedans through their being more understated and timeless. Like the Malibu, the Accord uses a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder with a turbocharger. These “90 cubic inches of engine” are now up to the task of moving cars of this size and weight. They handle most situations well, but are not overachievers. The transmission is a CVT, which Honda has had for a good while and is incrementally becoming a more reliable type of transmission. There wasn’t that much of a launch gear effect with this car, and, thankfully, it didn’t spool up in rpms as much as in earlier CVT equipped cars I’ve driven. Mostly, it’s well behaved and the power is transferred fairly seamlessly. The Camry is the only one of this size and configuration continuing with an 8 speed automatic transmission, which I prefer. However, I can’t drive what the market offers. The fuel mileage was respectable, but I thought it would be a little better. Perhaps is that there was too much stop and go driving in Los Angeles and on Southland freeways. If a person finds it annoying, the automatic stop-start at idle feature can be deactivated. In summary, I wouldn’t say I was impressed, but rather surprised and pleased with a week in last year’s Honda Accord. It’s the kind of car a person gets used to very quickly and feels like they’ve owned for a long time. The car enjoys an excellent reputation for longevity and buyers in this segment are largely practical consumers. I’d pick the Accord over its competitors, edging out the Toyota Camry and the Chevy Malibu by a slim margin, but feel it’s a good bit ahead of the Nissan Altima and Hyundai Sonata, which I haven’t liked as much as of late. These days, the available choices for a full size sedan are a lot slimmer, even though all of these cars would have been considered midsizes, or even big compacts, when American boulevardiers ruled the road. - - - - - Photos forthcoming

I had rented a car in an Italian city on the Adriatic side - a small vehicle with an automatic - and once again, got upgraded. This was a substantial upgrade into a larger crossover SUV - a Seat Tarraco. The car is named after the Spanish city of Tarragona. I did not know what this model was, except that it was a SEAT product. Upon getting into the vehicle, one sees the typical graphics and appointments shared by the VW family of brands, which include SEAT and Skoda. It shares a lot of components with the VW Tiguan and is built at the same plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. I set up the car right away and learned the controls. It’s better to do this up front than learn it on the fly when the going gets rough. One of the most interesting things about this SUV was the main instrument pod. The navigation system, and it’s a fairly clear one, is smack in the middle of the pod. Gauges surround it and are readable. I was able to set it to also give me the km/h readout. The infotainment center “laptop left open” screen isn’t too bad because it’s partially engaged. It’s fairly easy to operate. The climate control panel below it is even easier to operate. It’s such a large vehicle that you know it will ride smoothly. And, as you pull out of the rental lot, it’s apparent that the maneuvering will be nimble. The ride is always controlled and road imperfections rarely come through, and neither does much road noise. With the size of the car, especially in a medium sized Italian city and the region around it, its being nimble was important. Where I didn’t push it was in cloverleaf ramps and mountain switchbacks. The higher center of gravity and its curb weight of a little over 4,000 pounds (~1,816 kg) discouraged that. The Tarraco was powered by a diesel. I’ve rarely driven diesels except maybe in moving vans. It, too, was quiet, almost like an ICE 4 cylinder we’d have in America or from Asia. Standing outside of it with the engine running, its being a diesel was more apparent. The displacement was 2.0 liters, or 2,000 cc to Europeans. A turbocharger was included in the package, and that’s what inspired more confidence in getting around in the Tarraco. When it’s the diesel and DSG combination, the horsepower produced could either be 187hp or 197 hp. The transmission was the VW family’s 7 speed DSGs, which operate in automatic mode. It behaved like most of the recent automatics I’ve been rented in Europe, a far cry from the automatics in early Smart cars and Opel Corsas that took long pauses as they changed gears under normal throttle. Shifts were almost seamless, with little rpm noise to convey that and best shown by the tachometer. There was one notable and impressive feature with this vehicle. When the accelerator is pushed to downshift, the uptick in rpms seemed almost “restricted” and not that pronounced like it can be in some automatics and in CVTs, but it’s enough to get the job done – pick up speed, pass, etc. That was probably programmed into the car’s electronics. Given that it was heavy and a diesel, I still didn’t take any chances with tight passes on 2 many lane roads and in the mountainous areas inland from the coast. The car’s seats were firm, and finish was good, but not something one would remember. The seats were flatter and the minimal bolstering gave a lot of latitude to drivers and passengers. The seating surfaces were also fairly flat and didn’t have much sculpting. The car had a lot of legroom up front and in the second row of seats, and there was even a third row that was pushed down and which the retractable cover concealed. The third row would obviously reduce the generosity of the trunk space. The Tarraco reminded me a lot of the Toyota RAV4 more so than something like a Chevy Traverse or other vehicles of this type that I’ve driven. The RAV 4 has a larger 4 cylinder engine (in the U.S.) sending power through Toyota’s slick shifting 8 speed automatic while this unit has 7 gears. The RAV4’s basic shape is probably what reminded me of the Tarraco. Someone at a service area, all of which seem to have an Autogrill (sort of a Denny’s with a mini-market), saw me taking some photos of it and commented that it was a nice car. It’s obviously a matter of context, given the typically smaller vehicles over there. I had it for a week and, frankly, I found it too big for what I needed and for the conditions, even though I managed. Finally, the Tarraco’s shining star was its fuel economy. I drove it for about 1,000 km, so about 600 miles, and, when I was ready to return it, there was a little less than 1/8 of a tank and the low fuel light had just come on. The week long rental included city driving, autostrada driving, and driving into the lower altitudes of the Apennine range. I’m sure that, since VW, Skoda, and Seat are producing increasingly popular and reliable products, it can be recommended, assuming you can deal with its size and want its capacity. It isn’t that thirsty, but with a bigger vehicle and more features, repairs and maintenance will likely be more costly than in smaller cars like VW Golfs and SEAT Ibizas. If this car, or the related VW Tiguan, have good reliability ratings, I believe I’d be inclined to choose it over the Toyota RAV4. - - - - - Photos forthcoming