Japan is a very prideful country notorious for ignoring it's own cultural (and historical) difficulties. Pretending that Second Life isn't G-rated enough for Japanese culture is a ridiculous excuse for the fact that Second Life is an American invention. The motivation behind Meet-Me is economic, not cultural. Anyone who knows anything about Japanese media should be able to figure that out.

The GLI is a nice sedan, but it's no sports car.

"1.21 jigawatts?!?!"

This list is weak sauce. There are lots of interesting cars that the U.S. doesn't get, but instead the author mostly chooses to name cars that simply haven't arrived yet. Lazy.

The 1-series is another anomaly, which the article even points out to itself. The author seems to think that it still fits because the U.S. market isn't getting the hatch, even though the rest of the car is the same.

What about the Ford Mondeo, European Focus, and the Aussie Falcon? Nissan Teana (better than the U.S. Maxima), and Mitsubishi 380 (better than the Galant)... thats just for starters.

The shift knob reminds me to ask, why are they still using a 5-speed?

>the options surrounding colors, materials and trim are virtually limitless.

I'm sure most will choose non-descript gray or black anyway.

why does "entry level" now require the car to be a hideous hatchback?

MR2: Toyota's Last Interesting Vehicle

I don't know... Linux is more like Subaru to me. Powerful and ugly.

Or I could buy a used 350 Z and have a *real* sports car.

Serously, the sport compact market has gone to hell with all these hideous hatchbacks. None of them look like sports cars, they look like econocars with bigger wheels and grilles. Oh, right. Thats because they ARE econocars with bigger wheels and grilles.

Platform sharing is fine, but this "everybody wants to be the next WRX" thing is just ridicules.