For the most part modern cars look pretty, well, modern. There are some that are presently in production however, that do seem like they are travelers from a past era. I’m not going to call out the ones that I think are so old school they’re still clapping erasers after class, I’m going to just leave it up to you and I expect that I’ll see them representing among your nominations.
What do you think is the modern car that just seems so old?
Image: Classic Cars For Sale
Hooniverse Asks- What Modern Car Just Seems so Dang Old?
About
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<img src="http://autostype.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Acura-NSX-2015-release-date.jpg" width=500>
It's a 7 year old design that hasn't gone on sale yet. Shoot they're 3 years into advertising this product already thanks to that Superbowl ad with Jerry.-
Time for a refresh already! GM did the same thing with the fifth-generation Camaro. The thing was so overexposed that by launch time, it was met with a yawn.
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And it says nothing about either car. I'm sure it will be amazing. But Acura's handling of the NSX overall could be a case study in looking a gift horse in the mouth. The first gen was something special. I enjoyed piloting one once and it changed my life on HP numbers. Those 320 were all it needed, the car was just so damn good. But then Acura sold it for 13 years with only minor updates. Then comes the 2nd gen and everyone gets all riled up and then that boil is turned down to simmer as we have to wait 7 years to see one on the road.
It's like the engineers responsible for the first one were shifted to SUV design and weren't allowed to work on new product development and since they were out of the cutting edge technology department for 5 years, they had too much to learn to catch up, so they just never tried.-
I think that the history of the NSX is the history of the battle of Honda's soul as a company. It was developed when Honda engineers were race-bred, and that showed in every car they produced. After Sochiro Honda died in 1991 the first battle came when Honda got caught flat-footed by the CUV/SUV craze,can't the company didn't have one. At the same time there was a sharp rise in value of the Yen, affecting prices. The pragmatists won control, and the engineers' seat at the table was given to the book keepers. Why spend all this money on double wishbone suspensions when American moms are perfectly happy tooling around in a K-car with a packing-crate-square body slapped on it? (Yes, I know the Caravan was really a decent design).
The on-again, off again fate of the NSX shows attempts by the engineers to push there way back to the table over the years. It looks likes they are in power again, noting Honda's return to Formula One, and the awakening of the Sleeping Beauty NSX.
Hopefully they will stay in power long enough to build another generation of great cars. The last 10 years or so have been adequate but boring.-
I hate my iPad's auto correct feature. I do know the difference between their and there but my iPad just uses some random factor to choose which one to print. It also managed to turn 'and' into 'can't' somehow.
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The edit function is one of the finer reasons to sign up as a commenter…
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Watch Toyota do it with the Supra next.
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<img src="http://www.ubersox.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/wrangler.jpg"width="500">
In the Wrangler's case – this is a good great thing.
It IS old
<img src="http://www.drivingtalk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mercedes-G-Wagen.jpg" width=500 />
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got stuck behind one of those today, shame of it was it was getting driven like most of the mercs round here…..abominably
i figured that the G in its model name stands for "Gee, why didn't you buy a Range Rover, at least everyone expects you to drive like a dickhead in one of those"
<img src="http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2013/12/16/15/27/2014_nissan_titan-pic-8016669577733005051.jpeg" width="600">
/end thread
I suppose my 2014 Acura TSX Sportwagon can be considered old as Honda didn't do much to update it while it developed the TLX. But, it was my 2007 Audi A3 with a cassette player. Got some of my Dad's old tapes to play, but mostly I used a adapter to play my mp3. Both are great cars otherwise
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2007 car with a cassette player? Sounds like you were pranked by Audi, just that nobody checked the hidden camera's batteries first…
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Livanov-cab-park-2.jpg" width="500">
The Scion xD has been languishing in showrooms since 2007, but I thought it was much older.
I'm sure it's a fine and useful inexpensive-to-operate car, but this base picture really makes me sad:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/aXPokM2.jpg">
Yes, this is the car that will stir the souls of the youth of America, I assure you.
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I sold these, so I have time behind the wheel of these.
If you need a commuter car that has 0 issues with anything, a surprisingly good stereo while getting high 30s for gas mileage, a hatch to carry your stuff and you don't want to spend $2000 more to get the Mazda3, this is a screaming bargain.
That's why stingy old people love it.-
That is appealing. It should sell more than 7,000-8,000 a year, despite its design age. I honestly think that if there was a Toyota badge on it, they might sell 7,000 just to my Houston neighborhood. Marketing is a funny thing.
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Well the Yaris 5-door Hatch was what killed it. You can see the sales for the xD go from 27,665 in 2008 to 14,449 in 2009, the year the Yaris 5-door was introduced.
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Also the similar Kia Soul is a much better car
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"Much" is a stretch. It is better packaged. The Mazda3 and Honda Fit were "Much" better cars. The drastic drop coinciding with the Yaris 5-door is telling because they were in the same showroom next to each other, were roughly the same size, the 20-hp difference was lost on the group because the 1.8L was well-underpowered and the MPG and price were selling points for the Yaris.
Also, they could negotiate the Yaris deals (all $665 of profit built into them) and the xD was pure pricing. -
Just 665$ of dealer profit on the Yaris? That doesn't pay much electricity/salaries/ads…
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There's 2% holdback too, so the $665 is from invoice to MSRP. But yeah not a lot. Smaller Toyotas only have 7-8% markup in them as oppose to the Land Cruisers that had 9-11% depending on options and equipment. Combine that with a smaller MSRP, it was hard to tell people they were getting great deals on a stripped out Tacoma when you could only knock $500 off the MSRP.
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That's really interesting info. You have to sell and service a lot of cars then to make the business go round… The enormous dealer incentives of the Big Three then – how much of these discounts go out of factory and dealer pockets? You might have specific insight into Hummer, but I guess you hear rumours, too?
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Thankfully, the manufacturer incentives were a separate column on the ledger, those would get claimed and then paid back to the dealer, so in many cases, we made more money when the rebates were stronger. Our favorite (at Hummer) was when they ran their "Friends and Family" discounts. You would sell the car to the customer, without negotiation, it had to be a car on the lot, or inbound, so there was no swapping, or added cost, and the manufacturer would send the dealer a profit check of $750-$3000 depending on the vehicle cost.
So the sale took all of 30 minutes and we were clearing better money than when we were pricing competitively.
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Are these built on the Vitz platform, too?
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Yes, very minor differences. One being the 1.8L that the Yaris doesn't get.
Stingy old people also love the relatively high hip point.
This is also why a local Kia saleswoman said she only sells Kia Souls to 17 year old girls and 70 year old women. Same rough deal.
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Yeah, the high hip point cannot be underestimated.
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That makes sense: All the 17 year old girls I notice seem to have VERY high hips. And long legs. In short skirts.
It's nice to know that there is a car manufacturer thinking of them too…-
Stay away from my daughter.
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It's probably the interior lighting color change rheostat control — labeled "MOOD"
If only…
Could make SEMA history.
I bought a Kia Forte manual for $14.500 for most of the reasons you mention.
My parents have one of these. We get (got?) it in Europe with AWD, six speed manual and an 1.4 liter turbodiesel. It was badged as Toyota Urban Cruiser.
It's terribly cramped inside for a huge guy like me, and the mirror creates a 45-degree blind spot to the right. It is also plasticky and cheap inside considering the price tag it has after all those "factory upgrades" over the US spec xD, not to mention the usual "because F you" tax that the government in Finland slaps on all new cars.
BUT, it is fun to drive, especially in winter. The AWD system works really well. It also rides surprisingly well and gets awesome mileage. Oh, and exactly 0,00% of Urban Cruisers failed inspection last year. Every car passed.
Scion used to be hip.
Now it's more hip replacement.
Ford is the only maker who has done anything significant in Pickup design in years. The current Chevy Silverado dates back to the 1999 model year and that wasn't much of a change over the two generations before that.
<img src="http://images1.americanlisted.com/nlarge/1999-chevrolet-silverado-1500-z71-americanlisted_27701595.jpg">
<imgsrc="http://www.zercustoms.com/news/images/Chevrolet/th1/2014-Chevrolet-Silverado-1.jpg">
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From what I've read, the 2014 update is actually a new chassis, not just sheet metal changes. It really does look like the old truck, though.
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GM's styling on their trucks is just excessively conservative, they have a solid customer base and a desperate fear that they could potentially upset that base, so they always try to be as safe as possible in their designs.
I've read a few interviews where they basically say that in marketing terms.-
They're so in love with square wheel openings that I think they should add square wheels.
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Too bad the MythBusters already did it with a Ford.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/rR9gp5s.gif" width="600"> -
Yeah, and I still haven't watched it. Gotta search for it on Netflix.
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I wish that GM would, as an experiment, pick either GMC or Chevrolet to have round wheel openings. Then they could find out if their buyers would tolerate abandoning that unsightly styling element.
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I like the square wheel wells. Not saying they wouldn't look good rounded, too, but it is a bit of standard design language for Chevy trucks that goes back 40 something years now, and 40 years of momentum makes it hard to change.
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The 1999 GMT800 trucks and 2007 GMT900 trucks were substantial platform changes as well. I figure Lokki must be referring to the conservative styling.
To me, the new Ford trucks look like SERIOUSLY overgrown Tonka toys!! 🙂
Now that the Econoline has gone off to the great concert hall in the sky, Chevy's Express is the king of the old-school snub-nose full-size van world.
<img src="http://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/chevrolet/express/2013/oem/2013_chevrolet_express_passenger-van_ls-2500_fq_oem_1_717.jpg">
They change the grille every once in a while, but if you showed a picture of this to someone in 1975 they'd probably nod and politely recommend a good set of whitewalls.
I don't even really want to call this "old"; it's more gotten to a state of blissful timelessness.
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Yup, this is the one I was going to mention. It came out for the 1997 model year, and I think it's currently the oldest platform currently available for retail sale* in the US. While it was nominally a clean-sheet design back in 1996, much of the chassis is derived from the GMT400 trucks, which first came out for the 1988 model year.
Old doesn't mean bad, though. I own one of these beasts and I love it.
*in fleet sales, the 1988-vintage W-car lives on through 2016 as the Impala Limited, not to be confused with the legitimately modern regular Impala.-
And from the back it looks like a giant toaster. What's not to love?
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<img src="http://image.motortrend.com/f/roadtests/suvs/1402_2015_ford_expedition_first_look/62274182+w524+h339+cr1+ar0/2015-ford-expedition-front-side-view.jpg" width="500">
They can put all the new grilles on it they want, it still looks like it's from the '90s. On the other hand, look at those huge windows! Maybe more things should appear to be from the '90s.
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They launched for the 2003 model year, but they were light years ahead of GM, specs-wise, and even today, the large GM SUVs don't have IRS like the Expedition and Navigator.
The VW NSF cars look waaay backdated to me, the SEAT Mii treatment especially. It's like a joint GM-Toyota concept car from 1996.
<img src="http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/fit/730×700/media/5005342/SEAT%20Mii%20Yellow%20%286%29.jpg" width="500">
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The whole SEAT palette seems odd and undernourished.
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They are really fun though. Even with the automated manual transmission. Probably the most fun car I've driven after the 500C Abarth, and that includes several cars costing ten times more than these. It's really fun to flog these around backroads, and amazingly it's quite good for long distances too. Passing was no problem even with the puny 75hp engine, and after four hours of highway driving it was still fun and I wasn't tired at all.
One flaw is that they are pretty underdamped for spirited driving. Meaning that hitting a transverse rut/dip mid-corner at high speed would make the car bottom out and then jump sideways a tiny bit. It just adds to the fun, though. And nothing a set of new shocks wouldn't fix.
Wow, low hanging fruit, guys…
Morgan [Insert model here] (4/4 shown as an example only)
<img width=600 src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/2011_Morgan_4-4_1.6_Litre_front.jpg">
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To be far some have the new alloy chassis, new multivalve engines and different, modern suspension and look slightly different.
They seem to attract a newer style of driver. This Speedster is at the 2014 Goodwood Festival Of Speed.
<img src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02959/morgan-speedster-g_2959571b.jpg" width="660">
I was gonna say the Matrix, but Toyota just quietly killed it last year in the US and I didn't even notice. Also the Ford Taurus.
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The Matrix is still listed in Canada! Though I've met Toyota dealers who were convinced they weren't actually making them anymore.
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They still made the Matrix last year?! I thought that died about 5 years ago…
Porsche 911 is 50+ years old. Corvettes still are front engined rear wheel drive configurations. The SBC still is a push rod engine, right?
Harleys haven't changed much. Whatever…
The facelifted Lada 4×4 Urban introduuced in 2014 a.k.a. the 1977 Lada Niva… I love it!
<img src="http://www.carpictures.com/pics/640/14G0930022604112/Lada-Niva-4×4-Urban-2015-14G0930022604112.jpeg">
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Great thinking at Lada marketing. Add "urban" and everybody will think it competes with downtown London Rangerovers.
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Off course. That's why you can by these stickers.
<img src="http://pngimg.com/upload/car_logo_PNG1653.png" width="600">
<img src="http://www.ladaniva.co.uk/baxter/downloads/Lada_Niva.jpg" width="600">-
Consider my capitalist mind blown.
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![http://autostype.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Acura-NSX-2015-release-date.jpg"](http://autostype.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Acura-NSX-2015-release-date.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://www.ubersox.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/wrangler.jpg"width="500">](http://www.ubersox.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/wrangler.jpg"width="500">){kind=link}
![http://www.drivingtalk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mercedes-G-Wagen.jpg"](http://www.drivingtalk.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mercedes-G-Wagen.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2013/12/16/15/27/2014_nissan_titan-pic-8016669577733005051.jpeg"](http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2013/12/16/15/27/2014_nissan_titan-pic-8016669577733005051.jpeg"){kind=link}
![http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Livanov-cab-park-2.jpg"](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Livanov-cab-park-2.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://i.imgur.com/aXPokM2.jpg">](http://i.imgur.com/aXPokM2.jpg">){kind=link}
![http://images1.americanlisted.com/nlarge/1999-chevrolet-silverado-1500-z71-americanlisted_27701595.jpg">](http://images1.americanlisted.com/nlarge/1999-chevrolet-silverado-1500-z71-americanlisted_27701595.jpg">){kind=link}
![http://www.zercustoms.com/news/images/Chevrolet/th1/2014-Chevrolet-Silverado-1.jpg">](http://www.zercustoms.com/news/images/Chevrolet/th1/2014-Chevrolet-Silverado-1.jpg">){kind=link}
![http://i.imgur.com/rR9gp5s.gif"](http://i.imgur.com/rR9gp5s.gif"){kind=link}
![http://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/chevrolet/express/2013/oem/2013_chevrolet_express_passenger-van_ls-2500_fq_oem_1_717.jpg">](http://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/chevrolet/express/2013/oem/2013_chevrolet_express_passenger-van_ls-2500_fq_oem_1_717.jpg">){kind=link}
![http://image.motortrend.com/f/roadtests/suvs/1402_2015_ford_expedition_first_look/62274182+w524+h339+cr1+ar0/2015-ford-expedition-front-side-view.jpg"](http://image.motortrend.com/f/roadtests/suvs/1402_2015_ford_expedition_first_look/62274182+w524+h339+cr1+ar0/2015-ford-expedition-front-side-view.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/fit/730×700/media/5005342/SEAT%20Mii%20Yellow%20%286%29.jpg"](http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/fit/730x700/media/5005342/SEAT%20Mii%20Yellow%20%286%29.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/2011_Morgan_4-4_1.6_Litre_front.jpg">](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/2011_Morgan_4-4_1.6_Litre_front.jpg">){kind=link}
![http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02959/morgan-speedster-g_2959571b.jpg"](http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02959/morgan-speedster-g_2959571b.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://www.carpictures.com/pics/640/14G0930022604112/Lada-Niva-4×4-Urban-2015-14G0930022604112.jpeg">](http://www.carpictures.com/pics/640/14G0930022604112/Lada-Niva-4x4-Urban-2015-14G0930022604112.jpeg">){kind=link}
![http://pngimg.com/upload/car_logo_PNG1653.png"](http://pngimg.com/upload/car_logo_PNG1653.png"){kind=link}
![http://www.ladaniva.co.uk/baxter/downloads/Lada_Niva.jpg"](http://www.ladaniva.co.uk/baxter/downloads/Lada_Niva.jpg"){kind=link}
Toyota Crown Comfort, a.k.a. the Crown Vic of the Orient (because its main customer base is taxi operators).
<img src="http://i.wheelsage.org/pictures/t/toyota/crown_comfort/toyota_crown_comfort_1.jpg" width="600">
Also: Back in 2003, Toyota Racing Development made 59 examples of the TRD Comfort GT-Z Supercharger, powered by a supercharged 2.0L four making about 160 horsepower. That hardly makes it a Japanese Marauder or Impala SS, but it doesn't make me want one any less.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/TRD_Comfort_GT-Z_Supercharger.jpg" width="600">
![http://i.wheelsage.org/pictures/t/toyota/crown_comfort/toyota_crown_comfort_1.jpg"](http://i.wheelsage.org/pictures/t/toyota/crown_comfort/toyota_crown_comfort_1.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/TRD_Comfort_GT-Z_Supercharger.jpg"](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/TRD_Comfort_GT-Z_Supercharger.jpg"){kind=link}
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You can still buy them new? How much, and why don't I own one right now?
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/1997_Toyota_Century_01.jpg">
Toyota Century Looks the same as it did in 1997.
The first gen didn't change styles for 30 years, so we can assume that it'll look like this until 2027.
![https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/1997_Toyota_Century_01.jpg">](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/1997_Toyota_Century_01.jpg">){kind=link}
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So…what's the Japanese thing with the mirrors on the front fenders? I'd imagine the right (RHD) A pillar has a tendency to get in the way? I have seen this on a few European cars, from the factory, but it is rare.
<img src="http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/plugins/PostviaEmail/images/1967_Volvo_123GT_For_Sale_Front_resize.jpg" width="600">-
It allows you to see more without moving your head. It used to be a requirement but stopped being so sometime in the 70s. I guess taxi drivers and chauffeurs like them, because you only see them on century's and taxis now a day.
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Makes sense. I have never tried one, so the A pillar thing might only be theory.
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![http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/plugins/PostviaEmail/images/1967_Volvo_123GT_For_Sale_Front_resize.jpg"](http://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/plugins/PostviaEmail/images/1967_Volvo_123GT_For_Sale_Front_resize.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/464063/2012-land-rover-defender-special-editions-photo-464064-s-1280×782.jpg"width="600">](http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/464063/2012-land-rover-defender-special-editions-photo-464064-s-1280x782.jpg"width="600">){kind=link}
![http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/0/3EA653B049607504CA2576150008D3F6/$file/Toyota_LandCruiser_70_Series_group1_large.jpg?OpenElement"width="600">](http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/0/3EA653B049607504CA2576150008D3F6/$file/Toyota_LandCruiser_70_Series_group1_large.jpg?OpenElement"width="600">){kind=link}
The 2015 Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun, if you told me this was the 1995 or 2005 model, I'd probably believe you.
<img src="http://www.themotorreport.com.au/content/image/2/0/2015_mitsubishi_pajero_australia_01_1-0911-mc:819×819.jpg" width="600">
![http://www.themotorreport.com.au/content/image/2/0/2015_mitsubishi_pajero_australia_01_1-0911-mc:819×819.jpg"](http://www.themotorreport.com.au/content/image/2/0/2015_mitsubishi_pajero_australia_01_1-0911-mc:819x819.jpg"){kind=link}
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