With todays engine cooling, and new alloys, spark plugs last a very, very long time. Changing them on carbureted vehicles is kinda a with every other oil change for me (and the Vanagon) but on modern cars and bikes I’ve seen them last 60-100k mi.
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One the things I loooooved so much about my Saturn was I could change the oil, spark plugs, filters, and the belt if I wanted to hassle with it quite easily. The guys who designed that engine designed it for ease of access on top of being efficient and such. But anything that required more than a socket wrench I would take to the shop as I am not a gearhead.
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That and the Macan are their top sellers…
Edit to add - http://press.porsche.com/news/release.php?id=972
I didn’t like it that much when I first saw it, but it’s become a pretty sweet vehicle.
Did you see the Top Gear from this season (hard to sit through, admittedly with Chris Evans) where they took the Jag SUV, the Cayenne and Merc GLC up that road in South Africa?
Can’t say that I have. Most SUV’s don’t make it into that sort of terrain anyway.
I’ve got an extreme hate for the popularity of such monsters on the road, and frequently curse them spinning out into the ditch or the center divide first snow of the season because people that don’t know how to drive think all wheel drive = invincible.
The Pikes Peak hill climb still gets done with 911 variants, which is fun to watch.
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I hear you. Americans hate wagons for some reason… unless it’s jacked up.
I love German wagons (my second favorite car of all time was my 05 Passat) but Americans prefer SUV’s and the wagons all seem to stay in Europe.
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Yeah. That’s been a general gripe of mine for decades. That and when we do get the wagons, they’re never a manual. I live in Colorado and honestly an AWD turbo wagon with a stick would be an ideal vehicle for 99% of the roads you can get on out here.
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My dream car - RS4 Avant.
Depth may be an issue, one screw may be able to go into the door side, the other may need to go into the middle where the might be a transmission or wiring chase that cannot be penetrated.
It’s kind of like building a place where you have a box of 2" screws for some 2x4s except when you need to turn one of the boards 90 degrees and your screw sticks out the back. Not a big deal on a treehouse. Could be a big deal on a seatbelt of a sports car.
Again, pure speculation on my part, but I imagine they have their reasons for two screws for two different jobs.
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Hybrid hypercard? Part vehicle, part slide deck?
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Apparently the Bugatti Veyron requires an engine removal any time you want to replace the sparkplugs.
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We don’t get the good hatchbacks either. We’ve hung on to our ancient (well, 2002) SAAB because we can’t match its cargo capacity (50 ft^3) with any currently-available cars, and we don’t want to drive a van or SUV.
I know it didn’t need confirmation, but you are evil.
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On the upside, Volvo is bringing the v90 here- an honest to god full sized wagon!
Sadly it will cost a bunch.
That would have bothered me a lot more when regular driving meant you needed to replace your spark plugs twice a year or so. I wonder if any Veyrons have racked up enough miles to need a tuneup yet?
Yeah, they probably have super-exotic plugs that need replacing every 5,000 miles or so, don’t they?
Still, I like to think the average Veyron driver probably has a spare car or twelve, for when the Bugatti’s in the shop.
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While it is a totally ‘boring’ car the Prius is a hatchback. Though the newer ones seem to be more miniwagon than hatchback.
On a Veyron there are also a lot more spark plugs to change!
I enjoyed that Porsche does not just recommend changing the plugs after 40k mi (iirc) but also the coils at the same interval!
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Not much other than an SUV has a big cargo capacity, yea.
The VW Jetta wagon is pretty decent for the size.
The new V90 is pretty sweet. That’s also on my short list for when they start showing up CPO
Man, I would dig an E63 AMG wagon. 
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Yeah, I seem to remember that Volvo 960 had coils-on-plugs, and recommended that both be changed together.
Ach. Europe.
I assume they’re not gonna be rear-wheel-drive, are they? One of my favorite things about the RWD 960 was its turn radius: 15 feet 9 inches, which is Fiat 500 territory. Not bad for a sixteen-foot-long station wagon!
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