>>The shooting brake class of a car is not something I'd buy, anyway. I prefer my 16-year old citroën saxo, 1,1l - it gets me everywhere, theft desirability around 0,1, nice color (dark blue metallic - not the ugly stovepipe gray) and maintenance still below 400€/yr (including, last 12 months, winter tyres, new ball bearings and clutch). And I use it as a two-seater, because every now and then there's a load of stuff to carry: the crates of tomatoes etc from our garden/orchard, casks of fresh brandy (made first batch for this year yesterday, sour cherry)...

I've been driving a 2000 VW Passat V6 4WD Estate I've had since 2000. Last of the German-assembled steel Passat wagons and great for 3 great dogs to slobber and crash around in the back. But it's getting weary, so I see the Shooting Brake as my last self-drive hurrah.

Agree re stupid key fobs, but that was car manufacturers masquerading as tech boffins and doing a lousy job. The self-drive is driven (excuse the pun) by highly competent geeks. Maybe less than perfect at first, but it's not difficult to do better than humans hurtling along roads bashing into each other. Sheesh, the latest European marques already alert you then brake when they detect stopped traffic ahead if you're too slow to react. They also warn you if you veer out of your lane without indication or if it risks a collision. Some keep an eye out for pedestrians or livestock on the road that may not be visible to human eye until the last moment at night. IOW a lot of machine safety already exists, now it just needs to be co-ordinated and taught to socialize with fellow machines so traffic flows better. After all, there's good research out of the US that 3 incompetent drivers can provoke traffic conditions/jams affecting hundreds of thousands of fellow travelers, along with anecdotal evidence that some congested cities could avoid multiple millions in road expansion by providing chauffeurs for a handful of useless drivers who screw up traffic flow every day. Self-driven cars talking to each other, can eliminate that completely.