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I haven't seen an EV9 or EV6 in one of my shops so I don't know what the repair cost is like on them. Hyundais and Kias tend to have a high repair cost in general because their parts are expensive. A door on a Tucson is about $2400 compared to a Rav4 is about $900, any Subaru is about $800. Hyundais and Kias also you plastic radiator supports, they break almost always in an impact, compared to Chevy, Toyota, Subaru use steel. I did look up the price of an EV9 headlight, they are $2500. But it is only 1 unit. The Tucson and Santa Cruz that do the split headlight and signal lamp cost about $1600 each and usually if one breaks the other does too, so you are looking at about $3200 for the set. I had a '23 Tucson that needed a bumper, grille, the 4 lights and a hood, probably a rad support too from hitting a deer, fenders and structure were fine, and it was like $13,000 in damage. On a CR-V or Forester that is probably a $6,000 repair.

I came into Europe via Hamburg (DE) instead of Southampton (UK). I had never been there before. It's wild because they've got this really challenging language I would not readily choose to learn. And, then, you have way more immigrants than you might think. Turks are one of the biggest ethnic groups in Germany these days. So, it's amazing to see people from the Middle East and Africa who have managed to learn this language and are (close to being) fluent. I figure they knew they were going to stick around, not return home, and had to do that. Either way, Germany stressed me out because of the language (there is not much English signage, though most people speak decent English) and the UK would have stressed me out because they drive down the other side of the street and it takes a lot of mental adjusting just to cross the street. I don't think Hamburger Sparkasse (photo up above) was a food joint. I did not see tables and such. So, rather than try to figure out what a sparkasse is, I got myself to Southern Europe as quickly as possible. Here's another one. An important site and subway station is Rathaus. It means a city hall and theirs is fairly stunning. (It is not a decrepit subway station in a bad part of NYC where rats are eating pizza leftovers.)

Of all the fairly active members on the forum, I am probably the biggest torchbearer for the GM colonnades. I loved the (Grand) LeMans of this year, and especially those of '76 and '77 that went to quad rectangular lamps up front. What was so sweet about them is that you could get the fantastic dash and general feel of a Grand Prix in a more manageable package and, if one chose to, with smaller engines. However, the "pushed down" look of the rear trunk was a little polarizing. Maybe it was meant to be that way because a little bit of nick and tuck to "normalize" its silhouette and proportions could have cannibalized sales from the absurdly successful Cutlass Supreme and Regal of those same years. My 2 cents. Ditto on this one ... particularly fond of '75 to '77 ... and what a quirky treat when you saw one that was a coupe. I had to give these cars a nickname and - like a broken record - an Olds 98 of those years was "la cathedrale roulante," where the upright and pointed rear taillamps fins made it look like a Gothic cathedral.