This entire article is hilarious

[Occhidiangela]

I'm not sure if Touran and Touareg have much in common (certainly lots of common parts from the big corporate box, like engine and electronics.

But the base from which the Touran is built is, IIRC the same as some French and Japanese minivans, while the Touareg shares the same base as a Porsche Cayenne (minus the overpowered engine and luxury equipment  ;) )

The Hyundai was for one reason first: I completely fell in love with the looks.
And when I compared the price and included extras (the V6 extra list is short: a Nav 'puter and a rear spoiler cost extra, everthing else - air condition, leather seats, aluminium finish in the cockpit etc. - is included) the math was easy: german car with comparable horsepower and equipment (and boring looks  B) ): 35.000€ and up. My Hyundai: 24.000€

AND: german cars having quality issues of late (my uncle's brand new Mercedes was at the shop 7 times in 6 months!), companies spending millions on silly prestige projects and huge management salaries while laying off workers made me quickly forget my patriotism  :P
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How disappointing. The Nissan, Toyota, and Honda theme of quality was an "in your face" assault on Detroit's indifference. To a certain extent, American car companies responded well enough to that quality standard. Hate to see German car companies fall into the Big Three mental trap. As buy American as I am, I still love VW's. My first ever car was a Bug. :D

I see the immense price differential, I get it. :) I would myself own a Toyota Sienna minivan were it not for an $8,000 dollar price delta between it and the Chrysler Grand Voyager we do own. Lucky for me, a "buy American" loyalty was able to find a car model that was pretty much an industry standard, but if Toyota had come down a few thousand, I think we would have gone with them. My sister swears by Toyota Camray's, as does my sister in law.

I am looking at Scion for a next commuter car, which I don't think is an American brand of Toyota. Intriguing cars, but the price just shot up on two of the models, locally, due I think to the price of gas going up. What I could have had for $13,800 last year will cost me just under $18,000.

New car just became a non option.

Cost plus is achievable in this area for some fuel efficient models, and a Toyota Prius Hybrid is hard to get one's hands on. But they are over $20,000 to start with, and thus out of my car budget.

Occhi