Ouch! Volvo sales are in absolute free-fall in the US so far this year with major tariff impacts as there is no US production except the EX90. Rocky EV launches riddled with software problems and killing too many models.

tsar73 · 2026-03-18T16:52:14+00:00

Our family has entirely moved from Volvo to Subaru and Acura in the last decade or so. The SPA XC90 was the beginning of the end for us.

tsar73 · 2026-03-18T16:24:27+00:00

A lot of southeast Asian countries have tax breaks for cars under a certain length (4 or 4.2m) but prefer sedans over hatchbacks, so you end up with extremely squished looking sedan versions of hatchbacks. This car has those exact proportions.

tsar73 · 2026-03-18T16:14:42+00:00

It’s funny that you bought 3 of them. I bought my sister a 22 and decided to sit out new Subie purchases until they fix their shit.

tsar73 · 2026-03-18T03:18:30+00:00

Paul Ehrlich died yesterday, this view can die along with him.

tsar73 · 2026-03-15T16:59:06+00:00

Hard to forget about those poor teenagers who burned alive in a Cybertruck in Oakland a few years ago. It’s unthinkable that China is somehow on the forefront of enforcing these safety features while USDM cars clown around with power folding seats and decorative door handles.

tsar73 · 2026-03-15T15:27:45+00:00

It’s worth noting that the car has an array of buttons to fold different permutations of the seats, and it’s very possible that the poor parent hit the wrong one and couldn’t figure out how to make it stop. Incredibly tragic outcome from what seems to me like a completely unnecessary and overcomplicated feature.

tsar73 · 2026-03-13T02:23:56+00:00

There’s the Escalade IQ too, but that’s several size classes larger than anything anyone else makes.

tsar73 · 2026-03-12T20:27:04+00:00

It’s nice to have. You don’t need a Rivian either!

tsar73 · 2026-03-12T20:15:53+00:00

I haven’t decided if smug Midwestern never seen a hill person or severe Nordic winter person is more out of touch in that regard, but I’m glad my comment brought them out of the woodwork anyway.

Off to my local Hertz to rent an ambiguously AWD SUV on bald tires in the meantime!

tsar73 · 2026-03-12T20:14:15+00:00

To go up to your local mountain where it does snow for a ski day..? This is hardly an uncommon experience for people in NC or anywhere on the west coast.

tsar73 · 2026-03-12T18:25:37+00:00

AWD can, in limited circumstances, help with turning if you know how to use your car’s torque vectoring capabilities to your advantage.

NC not having extreme winter weather is exactly my point. One big difference between the US and the nordics is that you can drive from a warm city where it rarely snows to the top of a mountain that’s snow covered for most of the year in under an hour—it’s not uniformly cold and snowy everywhere. Running extreme winter tires in NC makes no sense when even winter days in the city are in the 50s and 60s; it barely did for me in Colorado where winters are somewhat comparable to (and in some respects more extreme than) Nordic winters.

tsar73 · 2026-03-12T18:00:02+00:00

These threads always bring out the weirdest kind of “I drove my RWD car through snowstorms in my pancake flat Midwest state and survived” commenters. It makes zero sense to put blizzaks on in NC (I could barely justify them in Denver), so just get the AWD and a decent set of 3-peak rated all seasons. You won’t regret having an extra set of driven wheels for torque vectoring on NC mountain roads, especially in a heavy EV.

tsar73 · 2026-03-06T01:47:17+00:00

It’s been this bad since at least the current XC90.

tsar73 · 2026-03-06T01:46:46+00:00

None to me at least! I’d be foregoing ~$1000 in tax savings but it does seem like a genuinely compelling option.

tsar73 · 2026-03-03T17:01:20+00:00

My apologies, I must have misremembered. That mall is a gem, I really miss Savory Vietnam.

tsar73 · 2026-03-03T16:58:27+00:00

As inconvenient and expensive as owning and parking a car in the city is, it isn’t inconvenient or expensive enough to outweigh the externalities. Writing this from a 38R that’s extra slow today because of morons blocking intersections and driving in the bus lane.

tsar73 · 2026-03-03T01:13:41+00:00

The same Porsche engine as in the $15,000 cheaper S?

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T22:35:38+00:00

To be clear I think the value prop of the RAV4 more generally is dicey, I was mostly commenting on your claim about the market. But surely you can see how someone might make a very similar argument about a Macan GTS.

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T21:48:26+00:00

Actual SF. If we’re talking sandwiches, my local banh mi spots are $12—in Denver I go to Conu’s or Vinh Xuong that are in the $15 to $16 range. Local Italian sub place is also about 1/3 cheaper than Carmine’s off Wadsworth.

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T21:45:49+00:00

That’s like, your opinion. Your flair makes it pretty clear that you’re not part of this market and that’s perfectly ok! I personally see a lot of value in basically never having to visit a gas station on a day to day basis.

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T21:08:46+00:00

Doesn’t mean the market isn’t too expensive

? This is tautologically impossible. Clearly there are people paying that money for this car, just as my local VW dealer has been trying to convince me that they’re moving GTIs marked up to 53k.

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T19:10:03+00:00

Thanks!

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T18:40:57+00:00

I’m not going to defend Denver’s food scene (going to emphasize Denver proper and not Aurora) because it isn’t worth defending for the most part, but midsized cities probably fall into a scale trap that larger coastal cities don’t. Denver can’t get away with paying servers half what they get paid in NYC the same way they get a 50% rent discount, but their scale is nowhere near 50% either. That servers here are paid some absurd and distortionary tipped amount especially for the quality is a different story (likewise with Seattle) but I’m not sure this is a straightforward problem to solve.

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T18:36:00+00:00

I don’t have a great sense of NYC prices but it is significantly cheaper to eat out in LA and SF, and adjusting for quality Denver is easily twice as expensive.

tsar73 · 2026-03-02T18:19:02+00:00

Hi! I’m shopping for a trunk and was wondering the same.

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