Once upon a time, Detroit built cars that carried astronauts in ticker-tape parades and made teenage boys spray Aqua Net on their mullets. Sporting raucous and raw big-block V-8s, they were chrome-trimmed testaments to optimism. Meanwhile, Italy gave us Ferraris, red midlife crises that sounded like 12-cylinder angels. Germany engineered the Porsche 911, proof that you can mix math, beer and speed. And now, in 2026, Japan gifts us the Nissan Leaf, an electric commuter pod that looks like a platypus.

OK, maybe that’s unfair. Three inches shorter than the 2025 model, the Leaf looks much like a Nissan Ariya EV that’s been left in the dryer too long. And there’s some truth to that, given they share the same electric vehicle architecture. But park it next to a Ford Mustang or a Mustang Mach-E

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