The Renault 21 Is Cooler Than I Ever Imagined
I am just as confused as you are but I am suddenly stricken with love and appreciation for a mid-level French sedan of the 1980s. The 1986 to 1994 Renault 21 has no styling, almost no history, and I adore it.
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I guess it started when I was looking at old pictures of a Renault 21 wagon (badged as a Renault Nevada) that I bumped into on the street one dreary and grimy day in Berlin a few years back. I can recall it was down the street from a Robur, and I think it was up the street from a clown studio, but I might be misremembering things. Unforgettable, though, was its clean almost lack of design whatsoever. It’s just a nicely-proportioned brick.
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I noticed a prevalent theme while perusing the comments on yesterday’s 1995 Callaway Camaro. That was begrudging respect for the car and its creator, coated in a caveat posited by many of you that it “wasn’t your cup of tea.” That got me puzzling over the question of whether Camaro owners are, by nature, tea drinkers. I’m going to go with a hard no, which not surprisingly, was also the response received by the Callaway’s $9,900 price tag. That earned a decisive 64 percent No Dice loss.
When you think “German hot rod,” those thoughts most likely swirl around Mercedes-Benz and the executive saloons into which the company has shoehorned some pretty burly engines. Of course, it wasn’t always the case that Mercedes could go it alone in such endeavors. Take, for instance, this 1992 Mercedes-Benz 500E. This model is the spiritual successor to the AMG Hammer, an aftermarket tuner car that, while not Mercedes’ first hot rod, is probably its best known.
Photo: Nissan
Elsewhere, the K14 leaned into the newer design language Nissan adopted in the mid-to-late 2010s and the bubble-era roundedness left from the K12 was lost. I was a little sad to see the happy headlights narrow down and the halfway parted grin turn to exclamatory jaws. The new K14 just looked a lot less happy.
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Screenshot: Nissan
The newly facelifted March isn’t quite as angry as the overseas K14, but it’s not as happy as the K13, either. I would say it expresses mischief more than joy, but I’m happy that the facelift retains the overall shape and spirit of the outgoing model. I would call it a K13.5 rather than a K14.
I Want An Audi RS6 Avant But I Have A $30,000 Budget. What Car Should I Buy?
Photo: Robert Perez II - Cali Photography (In-House Art)
Gus, like many of us, is thrilled that the Audi RS6 superwagon is now being sold in America. He would like to buy one, but also like many of us, he is coming up short on the budget by about $100,000. So he is looking for the fastest wagon available for “reasonable” money. What car should he buy?
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Here is the scenario -
Now that the RS6 Avant is finally available in the USA - I want one. But I’ve only got $30k to spend. Help me find the fastest breadvan possible. This car needs to fit a fair bit of crap at times. I want something quick, spacious, at least a tiny little bit reliable.but the last one is negotiable.
The 2021 BMW 5 Series is one of the best new BMW models on sale today because it’s one of the last sedans where the automaker hasn’t ruined the formula of an unassuming German sedan hiding motorsport-level performance. The new range-topping M5 CS has now leaked early, and it’s still thankfully reserved on the outside and brutal under the hood.