I'm a suburban dad-of-two who admires the Volvo C30, wears 30X32 slim fit jeans and likes listening to Vampire Weekend, and I love this truck. As all red-blodded American men should.

$41K base is a lot for an F150, but actually a pretty damned good deal when you consider what you're getting. I imagine it would cost many thousands more to duplicate the specs of this truck as a one-off.

I like almost everything about the Golf, but you forgot to mention the biggest demerit for VW: their perceived lack of reliability. I can't speak from personal experience, but VW's always rank low on any third-party measure of reliability. They're also relatively expensive to fix and maintain. Anecdotally, everyone I know who's every owned a VW of Audi has had problems with it and has spent a lot of money to maintain it. These are serious problems, expecially for a small, practical commuter car like the Golf. In the US, long term quality trumps all.

I don't quite understand it: in Europe, VW is considered to be a rock-solid standard bearer of quality. Here in the US, they're down there with Jaguar and Land Rover in terms of long term reliability. Maybe we drive more here and wear cars out more quickly? Until they fix the problem, most people are going to stick with a Corolla/Civic/Fit/Xa/Cube/etc.

I like Top Gear, but their general condescending attitude towards all things non-British to often crosses the line from good-natured banter to genuine nastiness. They often have a distinctly "colonial" attitude about Johnny Foreigner while hypocritically claiming to be uniquely cultured and worldly that can be extremely off-putting. No American show would get away with the same crap if it were broadcast in the UK.

Note james May is a possible exception to the above comments...

Warm the syrup!

Yum!

Goddamn, that picture makes me cringe. My fellow Americans: please, for the love of all that is holy, lose some weight. If you can't lose weight, don't wear a tucked-in polo that's tighter than a sausage casing and blinding white sneakers. Just. Don't. Do it.

The soundtrack is already out:
http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/neonneon/stainlessstyle

As other have said, this looks to me like the rebirth of the early eighties Chevy LUV or Mazda B-series... simple, durable machines that did what it said on the box. I actually really like the looks of this truck, it's twenty five years behind the times, in a good way. It has also got a good amount of torque, high capacity for the class and good towing ability. If it's durable and easy to service, it looks compelling to me.

Cord 810
BMW 507
Ferrari Dino
Lamborghini Gallardo (the current one)
Porsche 917
Jaguar D type

I've rarely lusted after a car as much as I lusted after the Wiesmann Top Gear reviewed a few years ago. Everything about these cars from the Gecko badge to the modern engineering to the obviously high quality seems about perfect. Of course they chage a completely absurd amount for them. Also, a Miata is probably better from any practical or driving standpoint while costing a tiny fraction of a Wiesmann's sticker, but none of that really matters, does it?

Just wanted to point out that, if Top Gear is reliable at all (which is admittedly doubtful), the 8C is also slow as molasses, doesn't handle all that well and has a questionable interior. I think car and Driver came to essentially the same conclusion. Of course, when you look like that, it doesn't really matter... at all.