After years of testing, approval, contract awarding, and final construction, the first Joint Light Tactical Vehicle—of the initial 16,900 unit production contract—has finally been delivered by the Oshkosh Corporation to the two branches of the armed forces which will make use of it; the Army and Marines.
Read MoreA war started Monday night between two countries with arsenals full of nuclear weapons, and you probably haven’t even realized it. India and Pakistan are absolutely slugging it out again, and this is what’s going on.
Read MoreThe United States may or may not be getting a Space Force, but while President Trump is all-in on the creation of a new branch of the U.S. Military—and blowing up the military bureaucracy—it’s worth keeping in mind other countries have their military space programs. A recent DIA report shines a light on how the U.S. views these programs, particularly those of Russia and China, neither of which seem particularly threatening—for now anyway.
Read MoreThe Russian Embassy in the United States has a history of tweeting out threatening, bellicose, and frankly weird shit. But this one, threatening the F-35 with propaganda videos about Vietnam, is certainly up there.
Read MoreThe U.S. government is currently overstocked with Internally Transportable Light Strike Vehicle (ITV) “Growler” off-road vehicles and Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement 7 Ton (MTVR) cargo trucks and is about to pass the savings on to yoooooooooou!
Read MoreThe Russian Navy is in trouble. After years of coasting on the largesse of the Cold War, Russia’s navy is set to tumble in size and relevance over the next two decades. Older ships and equipment produced for the once-mighty Soviet Navy are wearing out and the country can’t afford to replace them.
Read MoreOne of the most mysterious and little known aspects of the military is how the nation’s fleet of nuclear submarines work. Submarine warfare, with its emphasis on stealth and secrecy to ensure survival, tends to result in less information about how the submarine community goes about its business. But this video is a great explainer on the basics of modern submarine warfare, both how submarines operate and how subsurface sailors go about their lives, often for months at a time, in a steel tube und
Read MoreThe Second World War ended in 1945, but you wouldn’t know it from the look of some navies. At least eight countries still operate warships built for service in World War II—and in at least one case much earlier than that. Ships that served in the D-Day invasion, or even the Russian Czar’s Imperial Navy are still plugging along, up to a century after they were first built.
Read MoreAs I have outlined to you multiple times before, traveling in cars really isn’t my speed. Oh, I like owning them just fine, don’t get me wrong. Especially when they are covered in diamond dust—but I much prefer transit by submarines and planes. It’s gotten to the point where if I absolutely have to use a car to get to places, thanks to those bullshit FAA regulations or there’s no body of water nearby, I do so in this armored Cadillac Escalade. Doesn’t everybody do that already?
Read MoreThe Chicago Department of Transportation closed a northbound stretch of the city’s famous Lake Shore Drive today, due to some sudden and severe structural damage to a roadway leading to Lake Shore. And by severe structural damage, they mean, holy shit the road is cracking.
Read MoreOne of the major accomplishments of the Cold War is on life support. The Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear missiles, is currently in a coma and two of the signatories, the United States and Russia, are bickering over who is responsible. Barring major action, it is set to expire in just under six months The absence of the treaty could make the world a much more dangerous place, needlessly restarting an arms race that nobody wants. And this whole thing
Read MoreFew things besides being on the terrifying receiving end of the near-infinite might of our awesome missiles and guns illustrate naval power better than a good chart, and this handy infographic illustrates why the U.S. Navy is the largest and most powerful in the world. While other navies, particularly the Chinese Navy may be getting a lot of attention, it’s worth keeping in mind that the U.S. Nav has nearly one hundred guided missiles cruisers and destroyers, far more than any other navy on Eart
Read MoreAs the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons looms, and the fate of international war and lives hang in the balance, it’s good to remember the extraordinary lengths states will go to if diplomatic efforts fail and so-called “rogue states” attempt to build atomic weapons.
Read MoreWatching this video of the 5,998-ton Seagrand, a Russian cargo ship, slowly (we sped up that GIF up there, for fun) crash into the Gwangan Bridge in Busan, South Korea earlier today is one of those kinds of things that makes you want to yell at your screen. How does something like this happen? Everything involved is huge and either slow or stationary. What does it take to fuck up in such a grand and preventable manner? It seems a drunk captain helps.
Read MoreThe 2020 Kia Soul is back for a third generation with more trims, higher prices and a mean face that’s oddly reminiscent of the current Chevrolet Camaro. And while it might not have the sport creds of a Camaro, even in its sport trim, the new Soul has a trim lineup with more flavors than your local ice-cream shop—and almost as many mood-lighting modes.
Read MoreThe Fiat 124 Spider, a lovely little Mazda Miata-based roadster, comes in both a manual and an automatic transmission—the former being an obvious source of years of smooth-shifting fun, barring any discomforts with a stick or a clutch. And, for one more day, that manual has an extra perk: $1,500 off of the car.
Read MoreA cold raindrop splattered against the back of my neck and immediately soaked into the collar of my hoodie. I shivered. “Should we put the top up?” my driving partner asked, but I shook my head. “Hell no! We’re here to drive a damn convertible.” Overhead, the chalky Arizona sky darkened more ominously as the rare rains whipped down toward the rust-colored earth. To keep ourselves dry, we just went faster.
Read MoreA few weeks ago BMW dropped the X3 M and X4 M: crossovers with up to 503 horsepower, a zero to 60 mph time in the low fours and all-wheel drive. And they were met with a good deal of derision from enthusiasts. “We are powerless to stop these,” we declared. Crossovers—considered inherently compromised—will branch further into extreme performance with the price tags to match, potentially eclipsing the sports cars and sedans we so love.
Read MoreA spread of digital screens and soft-touch surfaces makes this $132,000 2018 Range Rover Sport SVR’s cockpit feel pretty futuristic. But the real appeal of this car is purely primal.
Read MoreEven though a lot of buyers prioritize getting the latest technology in their new car purchase, reliability should still a key factor. Thanks to the internet, you don’t have to personally kick the tires on every car in every lot in town just to find a reliable ride. A good place to start is Consumer Reports, which just released its list of the most and least reliable cars.
Read MoreIf your idea of performance driving is occasionally making aggressive passes or zipping from stopped to 40 mph at green lights, the four-door all-wheel drive 2018 Mini John Cooper Works Clubman All4 will suit you just fine. The car looks fun, it’s practical, and whatever Mr. Cooper’s people did with the exhaust gives this variant a real nice presence. But driving it hard makes it feel unsettled in the time it takes to get a tea kettle boiling.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing getting the best price on a car that hasn’t yet hit the lots, buying a reasonably priced car that will appreciate in value, and whether or not it’s crazy to buy an old Volvo 1800
Read MoreIt seems that Evan’s beloved 2004 Ford Ranger has finally succumbed to winters in the Northeast and may not pass inspection due to the rust. It’s time for another vehicle to haul stuff and do light off-roading. What car should he buy?
Read MoreMercedes-Benz has AMG, BMW has M and Cadillac has V-Series. Surely McLaren of all companies has transcended this need for even sportier and more exclusive versions of already very sporty and exclusive cars? Evidently not, because its Longtail-treated models exist, the latest of which is the 2019 McLaren 600LT Spider.
Read MoreJapan likes to do things differently. While the rest of the world is obsessing over crossovers and SUVs, the humble minivan is still very much a family favorite here. It might be a dying breed in other markets but the minivan is still going strong in Japan. The van culture in Japan is unlike any other, perhaps with the exception of Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Read MoreThe sad truth about living in a country that has no real serious commitment to mass transit is that if you don’t live in New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., or the Bay Area, you need a car to live and work. Cars are great, sure, and we love them, but the shocking rise in delinquent car payments shows the major downsides to car-centric economics.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help people out. This week we’re discussing the risks of buying a car in the first year of production, certified pre-owned cars being sold “as-is,” and why it’s so hard to search for cars with specific features.
Read MoreThomas is an architect in the midwest looking for a comfortable crossover that can haul his two boys, have a reasonable carbon footprint, and not send the wrong message to his potential clients. What car should he buy?
Read MoreThe sedanapocalypse, it must be acknowledged, is upon us. We’re all getting bloated crossovers and SUVs because they are “just as good” and yet have “all-wheel drive” and “extra ground clearance.” But while crossovers have more advantages for some buyers than a lot of enthusiasts would like to admit, we don’t all need to go down that path. We have choices. And the 2020 Volvo V60 Cross Country is proof.
Read MoreThere was a time when nearly every luxury sport sedan could be had with a manual gearbox. Now both BMW and Audi have abandoned that market, and a scrappy newcomer called the Genesis G70 carries the row-your-own gears torch. There’s not many out there, however. Get one while you can.
Read MoreMore often than not a pre-owned model will offer more value than a new one, since it’s already taken the depreciation hit. While some cars don’t quite suffer from the same drop as others, a new study from iSeeCars.com reveals the vehicles with the most dramatic savings versus their new counterparts in 2019.
Read MoreRemember back before the economic crash of 2008 just over a decade ago? One of the heralds of that massive worldwide economic crash was the fact that more than 5.5 million Americans couldn’t pay their car note, and were more than 90 days behind on the bill. According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, we’re heading toward a critical mass with more than 7 million car loans more than 90 days past due.
Read MoreElectric cars may be the solution to some of our problems, but if they’re going to be our main source of transportation they need to work everywhere, all the time.
Read MoreTo an off-road enthusiast, the 2018 Suzuki Jimny seems too good to be true. Tiny body-on-frame design, beefy solid axles, small overhangs, low curb weight, low-range transfer case, rugged looks, reasonable price—on paper, it seems perfect. I just drove the little off-roader and can confirm: It is the real deal.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing taxes and fees when buying out of state, what “dealer prep” means, and the need for insurance on a car with a loan.
Read MoreSteven cruises around in a humble Nissan Versa while his better half rocks a Corvette Stingray. He likes the fuel economy and low maintenance, but it can be a bit embarrassing when clients spot his ride. It’s time for something a little nicer. What car should he buy?
Read MoreThe 2019 Acura MDX A-Spec sounds sporty, but don’t get your hopes up for Porsche Cayenne-pushing performance. It’s an aesthetic treatment. That doesn’t mean the MDX isn’t nice to drive, though. And I should know—I put about 2,000 miles on this vehicle cruising all over Texas.
Read MoreOnline car shopping should not be difficult, but some dealerships continue to sabotage the process. One of the more frustrating phrases is when a dealer puts “call for price” on their ads, but I found a new one that is even worse: “call for mileage.”
Read MoreIf you’re tired of electric cars that seem like they’re trying too hard to stand out, the 2019 Kia Niro EV goes the opposite direction with humble performance, practical packaging and the styling of a middle-aged Kia Soul.
Read MoreEnthusiasts have long since taken advantage of the fact that manual options on cars are generally cheaper than their automatic counterparts. We’d pay less money for more fun, especially if the car in question was a hatchback. It was a bulletproof deal, but now it seems that prices for these manual hatchbacks are starting to creep up. This sucks.
Read MoreToday, we got an email from a reader named Chris spec’ing out what I’m guessing is their dream 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat RedEye. In doing so, they noticed that the “Lightweight Package” is sort of, um, curious. I decided to look into it a bit more, and from what I can tell, this might just be the most useless “Lightweight Package” ever offered on a car, since it sure as hell seems like it’d make the car actually heavier.
Read MoreThe 2019 Jaguar I-Pace is advertised as an SUV, but it’s really more like a hatchback. And a luxury sedan. Actually, the design that makes it hard to classify also creates one of the most versatile vehicles ever. The fact that it’s electric makes it slightly annoying to own, but quite satisfying to drive.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing negotiating an order on a new Volvo V60, tuning a Honda Civic and importing a car from Canada for one minor option.
Read MoreTesla’s newest claim might be its most bold: “Tesla is shifting sales worldwide to online only.”
Read MoreThe Ferrari F8 Tributo made its debut today, a new mid-engine V8 Ferrari road car. Except it’s not all that new, as the bones of the thing go back to when everyone was getting laid off in the Recession.
Read MoreA member of the Tesla Motors Club forum posted a photo this past Tuesday of a burnt shell of a Tesla Model X, which was curiously parked on top of a frozen lake. At first it seemed weird that a car could be so burnt and not melt through the ice, but apparently sinking was the least of the Tesla’s worries.
Read MoreThe Audi R8, a car rumored to either be discontinued or drastically changed in the next few years, holds the top spot as the most desired modern supercar, according to data collected from search engine inquiries. It joins models from Bugatti and Lamborghini as the most-searched supercars.
Read MoreSometimes when you don’t have a wheel or you do have a wheel but for whatever reason it won’t mount, but you still need to move your vehicle, there’s little choice but to resort to “creative” measures. We’ve already seen the floor-jack method, but this one—simply dragging the broken vehicle, in this case a bus, on top of a log—is by far my new favorite.
Read MoreThe newly redesigned Mercedes G-Wagen, the expensive body-on-frame off-roader that for the first time ever has independent front suspension, was crashed tested by the European New Car Assessment Program, and the results are exemplary. Just watch as this boxy fortress shrugs off barriers and avoids pedestrians with ease.
Read MoreThe new Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 has arrived, complete with sporty looks, an interior woven with red stitching, a powerhouse engine, an advertised cure for turbo lag and an introduction that uses some form of the word “dynamic” 25 times. But don’t get too excited, because it won’t be in the U.S. for a while.
Read MoreIt’s no secret that I have an irrational and deep affection for that most humble corner of the automotive universe, the realm of the microcar. I love the cleverness of design, the austerity, the weird mechanical solutions, and the often strangely adorable result. That’s why I was so excited to find that Beau Boeckmann has a surprisingly rich and varied collection of microcars over at Galpin Auto Sports, and, more importantly, he was willing to not just let me drive them, but drag race them again
Read MoreI never meant to go to a car show and fall so deeply in love. I am, after all, married. But we can’t control what life presents us with sometimes, and this time, life walked right up and handed me the bright, shiny gift of the most incredible 1993 Mazda Miata I have ever seen.
Read MoreRivian, the startup electric vehicle company developing an electric pickup capable of up to 400 miles of range, has apparently been doing much of its road testing in Detroit under the disguise of the Ford F-150.
Read MorePolestar is Volvo’s new all-electric brand, and while the Polestar 1 coupe was a striking design it’s just a limited-production model. Now, meet the big gun—the Polestar 2, a mass-produced five-door fastback aimed directly at the Tesla Model 3. We know this because Polestar even says so.
Read MoreHave you ever considered something sort of shitty from the past, like, say, how 8-Track tapes would sometimes pause and click and switch tracks right in the middle of a song, and wonder “why the hell were we okay with this?” If you haven’t you should, because it’s weirdly cathartic, and I suggest starting with this: the profoundly shitty plastic rear windows almost all convertibles had up until pretty recently.
Read MoreComedian Jerry Seinfeld said goodbye to $22.2 million worth of his cars at auction in 2016, but it wasn’t really goodbye. A 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster Seinfeld sold is back in his life in the form of a lawsuit alleging it could be a fake, and now, he’s suing the dealer it came from for the same reason.
Read MoreIf I had to rank unpleasant things in human life, I think I’d probably stick Homeowner’s Associations (HOA) somewhere between groin rashes and eating a chunk of mold you thought was cheese. They’re awful. In case you don’t believe me, I have some piping-hot, fresh evidence for you: A Tennessee HOA tried to fine a woman because her Honda left a sort-of dick-shaped shadow in a light dusting of snow while it was parked. I wish I was kidding.
Read MoreWhen the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company was refining rare earth elements in the 1940s and 1950s, it did the responsible thing with all of the radioactive thorium waste it produced in the process: It dumped it into the sewer.
Read MoreFiat Chrysler just announced a $4.5 billion investment in Michigan manufacturing facilities, including a new one in the city of Detroit set to build an “all-new three-row full-size Jeep SUV,” as well as investment in five other plants, one of which will build the next-gen Jeep Wagoneer and Jeep Grand Wagoneer—both with electrified variants.
Read MoreThe Porsche Macan is a good car. It feels more like a sports car than a crossover and it doesn’t look bad, either—kind of like a tall 911. It was Porsche’s best-seller last year worldwide, and now there’s confirmation that the entire next generation of Macans will be all-electric.
Read MoreOf all the wacky car experiments that the popular Russian YouTube channel Garage 54 ENG has conducted, prepare to see the Magnum Opus: a Lada with its inline-four bolted to a second inline-four hanging out of the front of the car. And the homemade straight-eight actually works!
Read MoreVolkswagen’s partnership with Chinese automaker First Auto Works (FAW) started in 1991 with the building of a Volkswagen Jetta. Since that time, the FAW-VW partnership has been very busy, cranking out not just Jettas, but Audis, Golfs, Sagitars, T-Rocs, and many other popular cars. Now, they’re going back to their roots with the Jetta and spinning it off into its own sub-brand, primarily targeted at younger Chinese buyers.
Read MoreTesla CEO Elon Musk has a history of extremely bad tweets, and now the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants a judge to hold Musk held in contempt over a tweet about Tesla’s 2019 manufacturing output. Elon, who has said he does not respect the SEC, may be about to change his mind on things.
Read MoreTexas is known more for its disproportionate amount of huge trucks than its deep, rad car culture, probably because the former blocks everyone’s view of the latter at stoplights. But Texas’ car culture showed up for Radwood Austin over the weekend, and the day was about as rad as it gets.
Read MoreAustralia is home to many great things in the automotive world: Supercars, Bathurst, Daniel Ricciardo. But now they’ve had to go and ruin all that hard work by allowing drivers put put emojis on their license plates.
Read MoreAs with anything, if you’re going to drive a crossover, it may as well be something fun. But it feels like there’s a real dearth of truly fun and powerful crossover options until you start branching into the expensive luxury stuff. Meet the 2019 Volkswagen T-Roc R, the 296 horsepower compact crossover that’s here to fix that. If you need a small people-hauler, you could do a lot worse than this.
Read MoreWhile we weren’t expecting deliveries of the 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC in the U.S. until next year, full production planned to start this summer has reportedly been delayed three months due to issues producing battery packs, according to Handelsblatt.
Read MoreWhen you have a small collection of extremely valuable vintage race cars that you’ve assembled into a public museum, presumably for the tax benefits, the least you could do is occasionally take those vintage race cars out into the parking lot for a rip around and allow the proles to line up for the opportunity to view a car they’ve only previously dreamed of. Thankfully, that’s exactly what the Simeone museum does. And they do it no matter the weather.
Read MoreSafari 911s are a modern trend in a similar way that slant-nose conversions were a distinctly ‘80s trend. There are a ton of shops out there building these jacked up Germans, and some of them don’t do a very good job of it. Only a handful of shops are building Safari’d Porsches in a way that would make them actually desirable. Kelly Moss has built some high quality Safari cars, and they usually take them to a level that isn’t seen in other builds. This one has everything necessary for a weekend
Read MoreThe 2020 Volvo XC90 has been updated with new safety features, Android Auto, a new wool blend interior option, a new mild-hybrid trim level, and apparently refreshed looks. That last update is a little hard to spot, though, so give it your best shot.
Read MoreToyota unveiled its sport-oriented GR performance line back in 2017 and since then, we’ve been treated to GR-ified Centuries, Yarises (Yarisi?), Mark Xes and, most recently, the GR Supra Performance Line Concept TRD. And as for a Toyota Corolla GRMN hatchback? It could happen.
Read MoreI’ve heard from people who want to dump their cars after the clock hits 80,000 because it “just has too many miles on it.” Pish-posh! Tons of modern (and older) cars can last far longer than that with the right amount of attention and even a little luck. Can they make it to one million miles like that Lexus LS400 just did? Perhaps more of us should be trying.
Read MoreI’ve always wondered what it would take to build a 6x6 drivetrain, and as this YouTube video shows, it’s actually not too hard! All you need is two ordinary run-of-the-mill transfer cases, a bunch of driveshafts, and a bit of fabrication skill, and you can power all six of your vehicle’s wheels for maximum traction.
Read MoreIt feels like only yesterday we were driving the 2020 Porsche 911 for the first time, and now we already have what appears to be an early peek at the upcoming Porsche 911 Turbo. The wing looks bigger, the rear bumper is a little more featured, and it miraculously still manages to look good in grey.
Read MoreConsumer Reports has taken back its recommendation of the Tesla Model 3 following multiple reports of reliability issues with the car’s bodywork, paint finish, trim fitment and that giant touchscreen inside.
Read MoreNormally, when I hear that some Toyota marketing campaign is talking about something called “Toyota People,” that’s usually my cue to run, since I’m not sure I can take hearing another “real person” saying something about cars being grounded to the ground. Incredibly, that’s not the case here. This time, there’s a real person with a real Toyota and they’re admirable and interesting and I’m delighted to hear about them. I’m stunned, too. Meet Gemma Wade, restorer of an adorable 1976 Toyota 1000.
Read MoreThe Mid-Engine Corvette is already burdened with the curse of being an expensive American car. That means it will go on auction early in its production run, and Boomer money will pile onto it and relegate the thing to “collector” status before a tire ever hits the road.
Read MoreWay back in 2014, Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire bought a 1996 Lexus LS400 with 897,000 miles on it as a joke/just because/to try and get the odometer to seven figures. Thanks to the help of a whole lot of other folks, and I guess some absurdly good engineers who worked at Toyota in the 1990s, he finally succeeded.
Read MoreThere are lots of wonderful car shows in the United States of America. Also, there are wonderful American car-themed shows outside of the country. But let this be a reminder that, yes, we do have shows that are as outstandingly, wonderfully bad as this.
Read MoreI do realize that often we end up publishing things that don’t exactly cast humanity in the best light. It’s possible that an unpleasant portion of stories can be used as misanthrope fuel, and sometimes that gets me down. But not today. Today I’d just like to relay to you a simple story of people, kindness, and tires.
Read MorePicture this: you’re in the middle of a deep explanation of hybrid ZF eight-speed transmissions on the floor of the Detroit Auto Show, and the engineer describing how a clutch disengages the hybrid drive of the transmission asks you if you’re aware of a certain feeling you get when “you WOT it,” but you have no idea what she just said.
Read MoreBack in the 1960s, Chuck Miller was on the cutting edge of car customization. He created absurd and cartoonish hot rods that were more like caricature sculptures than automobiles. This “Fire Truck” is one of his most famous works of art, and it’s drivable! Sort of.
Read MoreMany car enthusiasts consider Germany’s Autobahn the holy grail of high-speed highway systems, but it may someday get competition from California, as a senator there has just introduced a bill which proposes adding lanes without speed limits to two major highways.
Read MoreThe 2020 Mercedes-Benz SLC isn’t going to make it beyond this generation, so to celebrate its 23 years with us, it’s returning to its yellow-painted roots and getting a special Final Edition.
Read MoreThere is a certain level of bad idea that takes the bad to a new level. Ideas go in a linear fashion from awesome idea to good idea to regular idea to bad idea, but ideas can get so bad that they go all the way back around to awesome again. That’s exactly what this Winnebago with 600 horsepower is. It’s a bad idea that’s so bad it’s great. Cram a boosted junkyard-sourced LS under the doghouse of your Winnie and hit the road to fun.
Read MoreJust when you think the LEGO craze can’t get any more over-the-top, some absolute genius out there finds a way to one-up everyone and build something even more ridiculous out of the plastic bricks. I thought the LEGO Bugatti Chiron was the epitome of cool. . . and then I saw the LEGO Volkswagen T2 Camper.
Read MoreMy emotional journey with the newest generation of the Toyota Prius went like this: I hated it for being ugly, then I liked it for being different, and now I’m back to pretty much hating it. But the good news is that fuel economy figures for the 2020 Toyota Corolla Hybrid are just as good, and that car looks way better.
Read MoreThe SUV and crossover market in the U.S. is white hot, and to remain competitive, automakers have been rolling out new turbocharged powertrains, more gears in their transmissions, and often a variant that at least appears to have some semblance of off-road capability. So that’s what GMC’s done with the new 2020 GMC Acadia.
Read MoreWhy does it seem like everyone is just collectively terrible at driving all the time? I can’t go anywhere these days without someone doing something so incredibly infuriating that it makes me question the whole “driving is fun” thing in the first place. How can driving be fun when terrible humans who can’t maneuver a basic lane change suck all the joy out of it?
Read MoreTraffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we’ll provide the jams.
Read MoreI get it, dude. I’ve been there, too. You want to Vmax your car just out of curiosity, just to see how fast it’ll really go. But Bonneville is 2,000 miles away and you’ve got a meeting on Wednesday, your local track has a nice straight but it’s not long enough, and for some reason your local airport got “mad” that last time you just asked them to “take the planes away for a while, I got this.” That’s what YouTube is for.
Read MoreIn December, I took a six-hour online defensive driving course on a Friday night because I am extremely cool. This was not because I’d committed some infraction on the road, major or minor, it was to get a discount on my car insurance and would save me about $80 a year. I told you I was cool.
Read MoreWith the amount of time we all spend on the road and the sheer number of people who have no idea what they’re doing, or even nature messing with us, it’s inevitable that some wild stuff can happen. Last week, we asked you to share your most unbelievable experiences on four wheels. And good lord, have y’all blown my mind.
Read MoreIt’s Presidents’ Day here in the United States, which means you may have the day off depending on your job. Here’s something else that won’t be showing up to work in America: the all-new Ford Focus ST, which is not destined to come our way on the heels of Ford’s decision to kill its entire small car and sedan lineup.
Read MoreGeneral Motors’ new e-bike brand ARIV will, ahem, arrive on the scene in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands later this year with two models, called Meld and Merge. Each is powered by a compact electric motor, which assists pedal power with four different modes to move riders up to about 15 miles per hour with a 40 mile range.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident Buick owner, I should probably have a little bit of sympathy for the death of the Cascada, as reported by Automotive News, but I absolutely don’t. While I absolutely adore my Regal TourX, I feel nothing for this compact convertible. It doesn’t mesh with the rest of the Buick lineup, it isn’t particularly good at anything, and the company has only sold about 17,000 units since it was introduced in early 2016. It deserved to die.
Read MoreThe Ford Mustang may be adding an engine option between the 310 horsepower 2.3-liter EcoBoost in the base car and the mighty 460 horsepower 5.0-liter V8 in the GT, friend of Jalopnik Bozi Tatarevic writes for Hagerty. This is according to his “sources at Ford” and appears to align with a VIN decoder document sent from Ford to NHTSA last week.
Read MoreWe’re all familiar with the 900-horsepower Reliant Robins that can come out of driving games’ “tuning” options, but can you transform an unlikely vehicle into a track monster in real life? That’s what three friends want to find out with the Range Rover they bought “after a drunken night of Gran Turismo,” according to Charlie Foley’s build thread on PistonHeads. It’s delightful.
Read MoreMichiganders from the upper peninsula—also known as as Yoopers—have me scratching my head today, as I just learned via Michigan news site MLive that a Rotary club is putting on a contest asking people to guess when a 1998 Saturn SL will break through ice and fall into a lake. And there’s even a live feed showing the car...just sitting there...on some ice.
Read MoreHere’s your scenario: it’s a bright, sunny Sunday afternoon and you want give your Honda Ridgeline a nice wash. You get everything ready, hose, bucket, sponge and car soap. I’m gonna go ahead and stop you there, though. That car soap might do more harm than good right now.
Read MoreDespite being rebuked by the people of New York City for an office nobody wanted, Amazon doesn’t seem to be feeling too bad. It’s moved on to Rivian, leading a $700 million investment round into the startup electric truck maker.
Read MoreWe’ve all had the dream where we somehow cobble together a couple million, invest it all in a fleet of exotics, and rake in the cash while dabbling in our dream garage on the side. It turns out it’s not like that. Well, it’s a bit like that, but it’s not what you think it is.
Read MoreThere is a switch in my 944 that says a/c on it, but when you turn it to the right, it only causes a belt under the hood to squeal and a noticeable drop in power output. It’s a great car otherwise, but why would anyone make a car with that kind of switch? Seems like poor planning on the part of the Germans.
Read MoreThe Buick Grand National is a prime collector’s item because it’s a cool version of a common car, it’s historically unique, and it’s pretty much universally respected by enthusiasts. An ’87 GNX is particularly special, and one’s getting auctioned off right now. With eight miles on its odometer.
Read MoreSome folks in economically-struggling Papua New Guinea weren’t thrilled when their leadership approved the acquisition of expensive Maserati Quattroportes and other vehicles to drive around foreign leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last November. And now that the event has long concluded, there’s a problem: Police are still on the hunt to get some of the cars back.
Read MoreBMW is set to release a pair of 500 horsepower compact crossovers upon the world. No use in fighting it, that is what people want. But buyers should be aware that the giant M button on the steering wheel that is supposed to give you MAXIMUM M, is a button of lies.
Read MoreIt has begun. Just over a year after the Lamborghini Urus and its nearly 650-horsepower twin-turbo V8 debuted as the world’s fastest production SUV, Bentley has an answer in this modern battle of the super SUVs: the Bentley Bentayga Speed, which Bentley says beats the Urus by a full 0.5 mph.
Read MoreI’m a real sucker for artists who use cars as their subject of choice—especially the ones who manage to do something unconventional with their ideas. The artist usually has a really neat process and a different way of looking at cars than the average enthusiast. And that’s where Fabian Oefner comes in.
Read MoreThe Geneva Motor Show is less than a month away, and Honda has big plans. You remember that incredible, retro-looking Urban EV Concept that debuted in Frankfurt in 2017. Well, a prototype “inspired by” that will show its face in Geneva, and Honda just showed off an image of its interior. Check it out.
Read MoreWho likes mystery cars? Trick question, because everybody, everywhere, forever does. And we have one here today! A reader named Lucas found an old picture of a distant relative who seems to have had some sort of racing career. He at least had a racing car, and Lucas wants to know exactly what it was. Let’s see if we can help.
Read MoreDavid Assman, pronounced OSS-man if you must know, is a Canadian railroad worker who wanted a simple thing: his last name on his license plate. He was thwarted in this quest, but got revenge in the best possible style.
Read MoreI’m very excited about this week’s Jason Drives episode for two main reasons: first, at 122 years old, it’s the oldest car I’ve ever actually driven, and second, it’s another chance for me to remind the world about how badass the Bollée family was, at least automotively.
Read MoreSome think the Toyota Prius is the anti-car—a jellybean-shaped, slow, boring hatchback that does nothing to further car culture. But those people would be wrong, because this highly-modified second-gen spotted in Massachusetts proves that the Prius is a vehicle to be respected by all. Check out these sweet aero mods!
Read MoreEven as buyers flock to SUVs and crossovers, the hot hatchback wars have only gotten crazier in recent years. We live in a golden age when we Americans can buy once-forbidden fruit like the Ford Focus RS and Honda Civic Type R, to say nothing of perennial favorites like the Volkswagen Golf R. But what does Mini have to say about all this? Enter a new generation of Mini John Cooper Works GP, this time with a lot more power—and not many cars made.
Read MoreThere’s certain pictures that almost every Volkswagen obsessive has seen at one time or another, in big coffee table books about the Beetle from the 1980s and on sites all over the internet. I’m willing to bet that one of the most memorable of these photos is an image of a strange chimera: a half-Beetle, half-van that seems to have been built by the factory at Wolfsburg sometime during the war. While many odd variants of these early Beetles exist, this particular one seems to be a favorite, beca
Read MoreI’ll be honest, my finger must have slipped off the pulse of the automotive nation, because I was unaware that making your car look like it’s just driven through a slaughterhouse is A Thing, at least until I started seeing blood-spattered cars showing up various places online. I saw a post about them again earlier today, and decided to see what’s going on. All I really know is that this exists, and not in isolation. Turning your car into a giant used tampon exists.
Read MoreThe new 2020 BMW X4 M and BMW X3 M (along with their Competition variants) have arrived to answer the question nobody asked. Someone is going to have to put a stop to all of this, but I fear humanity no longer has a champion against the M-ification of all BMWs.
Read MoreUnless they live there, not a lot of New Yorkers interact with Greenpoint. Only one subway goes there, and it doesn’t go to Manhattan. The highway goes over it. The bridges do, too. But it’s one of the city’s most interesting neighborhoods, with some of the best bakeries, most interesting cars, and, oh yeah, a history of industrial accidents beyond what you can imagine.
Read MoreA fire broke out in a warehouse next to the historical collection of Seat, the Spain-based branch of the Volkswagen Group, containing about 200 cars at SEAT’s headquarters in the Zona Franca area of Barcelona. Luckily, I’ve been in touch with Isidre Lopez Badenas, the curator of Seat’s historic collection, and he has assured me that while there’s been some structural damage, all the cars, archives, and people are safe.
Read MoreGreat news for you Mitsubishi fan(s?) out there! A new 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport just showed its face for the first time today. But if, for some reason, you were expecting an all-new vehicle, there’s rough news: it’s essentially a refreshed 2011 model. But honestly, that’s not totally a bad thing.
Read MoreThe road is a strange place. When you put people from all walks of life into big machines and let them loose, some pretty wild stuff is bound to happen. People seem to forget all about the fact that there are rules or laws or even basic concepts like gravity, which can result in some ridiculous situations. And we want to hear about the most absurd, unbelievable things you’ve ever come across behind the wheel.
Read MoreGreen cars, as we all know, are good. But if you slap a set of bronze wheels on said green car? I’ll be on board with no questions asked. What I’m trying to say is I’m extremely here for this Toyota 86 British Green Limited. It can do no wrong.
Read MoreLunar New Year created a pretty impressive light show last week in China, at least for the the drone flying above the seemingly endless rows of brake lights. But I get a stress headache just trying to imagine sitting in literally miles of gridlocked traffic:
Read MoreMany of us owe our passion for wrenching to the Haynes Manual, a paperback book that walks us through, step by step, how to fix our beloved machines. Last week, its founder, John Harold Haynes, died at the age of 80.
Read MoreI know the Porsche 914 is, to many of the worst kind of Porsche snobs, not a real Porsche. It was even branded in Europe as a “VW-Porsche,” and, more galling, it had a Volkswagen engine. But, there was another version, the 914/6, that had the flat-six out of the 911. This is the version everyone seems to agree is the respectable 914, but when you actually look at the numbers, I’m not so sure.
Read MoreIt’s easy to mistake a 1977 Toyota Celica GT like this one for an old American car you can’t quite put your finger on. The original Celica was definitely a mild Mustang ripoff aesthetically, but it sounds like the car was not only great 40 years ago–it still feels vivacious today.
Read MoreI remember growing up with Xzibit hosting Pimp My Ride, which I would typically watch late at night in bed when I couldn’t sleep because my pre-teen self had one too many Mountain Dews that day. Today I found something both worse and better. I discovered the UK version of the show.
Read MoreWe’ve all seen jerks who, under the illusion that they’re some sort of reincarnated sultan who doesn’t need to wait in lines like all the lesser folk, will try to get ahead of a long line of cars on the road by driving on the shoulder. Sometimes they manage to do it. Other times, like in the case of this driver on the M6 in Britain last week, they’re thwarted by other drivers who are just not having it.
Read MoreTwo hundred and five mph is the claimed top speed for the new 2020 Alpina B7 xDrive, which BMW—the company that builds the new 2020 BMW 7 Series on which it’s based—introduced earlier today. It’s a big, opulent machine that makes giant, supercar-level numbers; here’s a first look.
Read MoreBMW has been graciously stretching out the death of the rear-wheel drive BMW 1 Series for years now, thankfully, but it’s nearing the end. The BMW 1 Series Finale Edition is anticipated to be the last rear-wheel drive, six-cylinder version of the model ever, and it’s only for the Australian market.
Read MoreIt’s unlikely that you or I or Lorde will ever somehow pull a Mia Thermopolis and become royals overnight. It’s similarly unlikely that we will ever be under the kind of public scrutiny that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, receives. Having crashed his Land Rover Freelander back in January, and only a few days later causing an uproar for having been seen driving without his safety belt, the 97-year-old Prince has decided it is time to hang up his keys.
Read MoreOn Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol’s Modesto team posted to its Facebook page a picture of a Ram 1500 squeezed tightly inside a box truck. It’s an impressive scene that left many commenters scratching their heads. Who did this and why? How did the driver get out of the pickup? Luckily, the Modesto Bee talked with the CHP to get answers.
Read MoreHow many times have you been forced to endure an ice cold car on winter mornings? Sometimes, no matter how long you let the engine run to get things heated up, you still find yourself wishing you had somewhere to plug in an electric blanket or three. Well, look no farther, because some incredible Russian car fiends-cum-YouTubers are here to show us how to make our lives on the road a whole lot cozier.
Read MoreNow that we know to expect successors to the Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ, and that both car companies have committed to them, it’s time to think a little further about where they should go next.
Read MoreI’m sure there’s many of you out there laboring under the mistaken belief that, regarding the subject of Volkswagen Beetle taillights, everything that can be known, is known. While I once may have believed this myself, I now no longer am able to believe this is true. I know this from past experiences, and even current ones, as this ad for some Belgian tail lights drives home.
Read MoreWhile some of you were cowering away from last week’s polar vortex, one pair of cousins was driving straight into it in a lovingly crafted replica of the burnt-out rental car from the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Just like in the movie, there was no fabric top left to protect them from nature’s worst.
Read MoreYeah, you heard that right. Ford Motor Company has teamed up with Italian fashion brand Versace as part of the latter brand’s Fall/Winter 2019 menswear collection. It might take y’all a while to grow to the possibilities of this new collaboration, but thankfully we at Jalopnik are here to guide you on your fashion journey. Trust us: you can wear these bad boys everywhere.
Read MoreFormer Rep. John Dingell, the longest serving representative in U.S. history and the last of a immensely influential generation of public servants, has died at age 92.
Read MoreAurora Innovation, the self-driving startup with leadership from Google, Tesla and Uber, just raised over half a billion dollars from investors, including Amazon.
Read MoreFormer Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, arrested in November on allegations of financial misconduct, is awaiting trial in a Tokyo jail without bail. The Lebanonese government even gifted a mattress to Ghosn last year, since he was reportedly sleeping on a mat. But oh, how different things were a few years ago, when Ghosn apparently got his company to pay for part of a Marie Antoinette-themed wedding celebration at the famous Palace of Versailles in France
Read MoreThe Bugatti Chiron Sport “110 ans Bugatti” is one of the only cars pulling off blue-on-blue in 2019, which is awesome, but I think the French flag rear spoiler is one of the funnest features I’ve seen on a supercar in a while.
Read MoreThere’s quite a few things I miss about Austin, Texas. Things like breakfast tacos, properly done brisket, Hill Country driving roads and comically cheap booze. But I’ve never missed Austin this much until now, because the fantastic 1980s and 1990s car show Radwood is headed there in two weeks. You should definitely come.
Read MoreThe Volkswagen GLI has always been fun. Lack of fun was never the issue. But it’s suffered from two problems, one long-running and one more recent. The first is that the more practical GTI hatchback exists, making the GLI a permanent also-ran. And the second is that, being a Jetta underneath, the last GLI rode on a dated, older platform when the rest of the VW world moved on to that sweet MQB goodness. Meet the all-new 2019 Jetta GLI, which has more power than ever and takes care of one of those
Read MoreI can remember the days when the Subaru Legacy was actually something of an interesting car, a rally-infused sedan or wagon with a manual option and turbocharged power—a kind of WRX STI for adults, especially in GT Spec.B guise. The Legacy sold the last few years has... well, it hasn’t been that car. But with a more powerful turbo boxer four option and better tech, the all-new 2020 Subaru Legacy seems to want at least some of its former glory back.
Read MoreTraffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we’ll provide the jams.
Read MoreFiat Chrysler is recalling approximately 573,876 Ram 2500s and Ram 3500s in the U.S. due to a “potential steering-linkage issue,” and 193,813 Ram 1500s are joining them so that FCA can “secure their brake pedals.” Here’s what’s going on.
Read MoreIt’s every child’s dream-turned-nightmare: Their little ride-on car has come to life, leaving the driver nothing but a mere spectator as they’re launched into a hellride. And now, this Christine-meets-Toyota horrorshow is real: Dream Campers are still running haywire even after the pedal is released, causing a recall of 44,000 plastic vans.
Read MoreWhen Mazda debuted the 2019 Mazda 3 at the Los Angeles Auto Show last year, Motor Trend reported that the company’s new Skyactiv-X engine with Spark Controlled Compression Ignition technology would go to countries with stricter emissions rules first, and the U.S. market would get it later. Now it seems we finally have an idea of the performance of the engine, at least in some markets.
Read MoreOver the weekend, a very niche group of people got together in Forestport, New York to enjoy the sun, snow and, especially, their Model Ts. It was the Model T Ford Snowmobile Club’s 20th annual meet up, and there were more Tin Lizzys on skis than you could shake your fists at. Not that you would want to threaten them with violence. Just look at how cute they all are!
Read MoreI think we’ve all imagined what it would be like to drive totally flat-out with nothing in our way at all. No corners, no other cars, no traffic, no stop signs... just an endless expanse and pure speed. There’s only a couple places on this planet where that’s even possible, and chief among them are the Bonneville Salt Flats in northwestern Utah. For the fourth season premiere of Jason Drives, we went there to try it ourselves.
Read More“No Music, No Life.” In the heart of Shibuya, home of Tokyo’s youth culture, there’s a massive multi-story Tower Records shop with that sign hung in the middle of it. Much like that outdated shop standing tall in Tokyo’s hip district, Tokyo’s lowriders have resisted fading away. The record shop is where they have their monthly meeting, and it can’t be a coincidence it happens there—many of these owners got into lowriders because of the American hip-hop musicians they listened to growing up.
Read MoreLike most other carmakers, Aston Martin isn’t stopping at just one SUV. Aston Martin was never going to stop at just one SUV. Meet the shadowy silhouette of the Lagonda All-Terrain Concept, an electric SUV set to debut in March, into a world already welcoming the Audi E-Tron.
Read MorePeople familiar with racing will know of the HANS Device—a Head and Neck Support Device that tethers a driver’s head to a raised collar in order to keep the head and neck rigid in the event of an accident. The creator of the HANS Device, Dr. Robert Hubbard, died on Tuesday, February 5, 2019.
Read MoreI firmly believe that what the world is missing is more adorable, tiny cars. Sure, we all love those hefty cars whose feats of engineering prowess generate the kind of speed that takes your breath. But there’s also something to be said for the gentle comfort of a small car that doesn’t demand anything of you other than that you enjoy the ride. And that’s why I miss Lloyd Motor Works.
Read MoreAt some point in my life, I had a one realization that would change things forever forever: It makes absolutely no sense to put on “real” clothes if you’re driving somewhere but not getting out of the car—or, in some of my cases, just driving across town to visit your immediate family.
Read MoreThe Tesla Model 3 has landed at the top of Consumer Reports’ subscriber list of the most satisfying car to own, despite the publication initially refusing to recommend the car to buyers last year due to numerous issues with their test car.
Read MoreJaguar Land Rover has been in some dire financial straits lately, but there’s no denying it does a few things very well, like sharp designs and that wonderful 550 horsepower supercharged 5.0-liter V8 engine. Now the Range Rover Velar gets this motor too, and all you have to do is put up with its name: Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition.
Read MoreDoing dumb shit with (and to) cars is a near universally enjoyed pastime. Where there is a vehicle, there is also potential—but unfortunately, that potential doesn’t always result in something to be proud of. If this sounds like it could be you, then this is your time to shine.
Read MoreAnother day, another poor XJ destroyed for entertainment. Such is the tragedy of being such a cheap, stout, high volume automobile. This time, XJ death came at the hands of some Hoonigans who inverted the steering, and struggled to wrap their minds around the “left is right, right is left” controls. Seriously, this looks terrifying.
Read MoreElectrify America, the Volkswagen subsidiary that’s tasked with building up America’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure ahead of VW’s plan to introduce a new lineup of electric cars, has made a deal to use Tesla Powerpack batteries in over 100 of its charging stations.
Read MoreThere are all sorts of conspiracy theories that find our way to us. Virtually all of them consist of “My Turboencabulator gets 100 mpg on pure water, but Big Car doesn’t want it to happen!” Virtually all of them are terrible hokum. Except one. It really did happen. Once. With the Tucker 48.
Read MoreIf we’re going to be brutally honest, the truth is that for nearly everything most people do with their cars, somewhere around 100 horsepower is more than enough. I know this is true because I do all kinds of normal car stuff with half that. But I also know horsepower is life-affirming and, as that clean lady says, sparks joy. It’s a big factor in a vast number of car purchases. And I think the way we currently rate it is broken. Luckily, there’s a good, relatively easy fix.
Read MoreJanuary sales charts at Mitsubishi North America came to us last week with bad news: A total of negative three (-3) people bought a Mitsubishi Lancer, our old, discontinued friend, last month. That, as sad as it is, puts year-to-date sales on the world’s rally car for the road at negative three.
Read MoreFor the people here at Jalopnik—writers and readers alike—driving is, to put it simply, awesome. But it wasn’t always that way. We had to learn a hell of a lot to get there first. And last week, we asked y’all about those terrifying drives you had when you were just learning the skills you know now.
Read MoreToyota is already down 7.1% on North American automobile sales this year, as compared to January 2018, and Lexus isn’t far behind with a 2.8% decrease in volume. Only six Toyota nameplates outperformed their individual January 2018 volume, in fact. Corolla sales are up, as are C-HR and 4Runner. On the Lexus side, LS, RC, and ES sales are up. Every other car, truck, van, or SUV in the Toyota lineup experienced a not insignificant sales dip.
Read MoreBack in March of 2016, during Gooding & Co.’s Amelia Island auction, famed comedian and car collector Jerry Seinfeld sold off a not-insignificant portion of his Porsche collection, in the process netting millions of dollars. Of the 16 cars he sold during that auction, the above 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster was one. The car was represented and sold—with a hammer price of $1,540,000—as one of fewer than 60 aluminum-body four-cam Speedster GS/GT models ever built. The lawsuit alleges that this car is
Read MoreSouthern California hot rodders have been looking for an as-yet-unexploited advantage, whether it be in engine building, technology, or aerodynamic efficiency. Dean Moon’s aerodynamic wheel covers were popular with land speed racers, drag racers, and hot rodders throughout the 1950s and well beyond.
Read MoreLook, I get that things feel bleak right now. I know our country seems broken, it’s cold as a middle school prom rejection, and the climate may be boned for good. I get that you’re lonely and tired and the world looks gray and bleak and forlorn. I understand. And, more importantly, I’m not like all those other jackasses who are just going to place a hand on your shoulder and nod. I’m here to do something. I’m here to settle hash or shit or whatever it takes. I’m here to drive some ridiculous car
Read MoreWe’ve already heard that VW and Ford have agreed to “investigate collaboration on....electric vehicles,” but now a new report by German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel suggests that VW’s ideas on EV collaboration span well beyond Ford. According to the story, VW wants its MEB platform to become an industry standard.
Read MoreWhen people build a race car, they usually start off with a car. Not a rusty, wrecked heap of bolts that’s roughly in the shape of a 1950 Dodge Pickup. Putting it together in a couple weeks after the rest of your original team abandons the idea is pure lunacy. Continuing to race it after that? Congratulations! You’re our kind of maniac.
Read MoreFans of well-handling, chronically underpowered (to some) little sports coupes might have gotten a bit of a scare this week when reports came out that the next-generation Toyota 86 and Subaru BRZ may be canceled. But Subaru said everyone can chill, because it’s moving ahead with a next-gen BRZ.
Read MoreIt’s both an 1980s icon and the butt of more jokes than you can reasonably imagine. Even today, its name brings a curl of disgust to the lip, associations with other words like “dud” and “lemon” and “shitbox.” It’s the Yugo, fondly —and perhaps incorrectly—remembered as the worst car in the world. And author Jason Vuic leads us through the car’s complicated history to really understand why this tiny car has such a big reputation.
Read MoreKia’s new all-electric concept car, which will debut at the Geneva International Motor Show, finally addresses the issue so many of us have complained about for years: why are there no cars that have more screens than we have fingers and toes? Kia’s new as-yet-unnamed concept solves this problem (barely) and hints at some interesting evolutions of Kia’s design language.
Read MoreFirst, let me be clear that I’m not, in any legal sense, accusing anyone of anything. All I’m saying is that there’s been two recent patent filings from the electric truck-making startup Rivian that happen to be a hell of a lot like ideas from articles I’ve written in the past. They’re ideas that, I think, just make sense, so it’s very likely they came to them independently. Still, just let me have this for a little bit.
Read MoreBecause I am a cynical asshole, I can usually find a reason to be pessimistic about something. I’m also great to hang out with if you didn’t know this. But when it comes to top-exit exhausts? I’ll never have a bad thing to say about them because they are the purest embodiment of God’s will in automotive form. And the latest to have the blessed things appears to be Aston Martin’s upcoming 003 supercar.
Read MoreThere’s an extremely common design trend that may have slipped by right under your nose, slowly taking over seemingly ever new car on the road, one by one. It’s only maybe a couple inches wide at most, and at all four corners of the car. It’s purpose a mystery, until now.
Read MoreAn aesthetically unfortunate part of car ownership is that some states require you to stick a front license plate to your vehicle. Usually it’s fine, as modern bumpers are often designed with this in mind. But then there are cars like the 2020 Toyota Supra, which has a face that isn’t the most well-suited to have a flat piece of steel on its face. What then?
Read MoreIn the 2000 Toyota Avalon, the year is 2002, not because the Chamber of Secrets came out, Avril Lavigne entered the music scene or the camera phone became mainstream, but because the car’s calendar stops at 2018, forcing owners to either find a year with matching weekdays or be annoyed by their dashboard display for the rest of eternity—an eternity the Avalon obviously didn’t plan for.
Read MoreWhile on the McLaren 720S Spider drive last week, I was poking around in the cabin and noticed a little button nestled in the center console to the left of the button that electronically lowers and raises the roof. This, as it turns out, is the little button that controls the car’s powered rear window. Yes, you read that right: The 720S Spider has a powered rear window! This is extremely rad! Exclamation point!
Read MoreThe Subaru Outback, Subaru’s biggest wagon and the default car for coastal elites who think of themselves as athletic, will be getting an update this year, probably at the New York Auto Show, though maybe at the Los Angeles Auto Show, who knows. But it’s definitely coming this year, according to Car and Driver. Maybe it’ll be, uh, cool?
Read MoreIf you were asked to pick the car that was the most technically influential on the greatest number of modern cars, what would you pick? Would you go as far back as the Ford Model T, the real, widely accessible proof of concept of the automobile? An early Panhard, which defined the Systeme Panhard, the front-engine, rear-drive layout that defined cars for so long? Maybe you’d be clever and pick the BMC Mini, which, with its transverse front engine, front-wheel drive layout set the template for th
Read MoreIt was only a matter of time before the McLaren 720S got its roof chopped off. All supercars seem to eventually do that. In photos, the rear visibility on the 720S seems like it would be horrible because its designers included a head fairing-type design, the hump or humps you sometimes see behind the seats of a convertible like the Jaguar D-Type. But McLaren’s engineers were smarter than that and solved the visibility problem before it was even became a problem at all.
Read MoreWith concept cars like the Citroën Ami One and the Honda Tomo coming to the fore, the auto industry finally seems to have embraced the beauty of a functional, futuristic-looking car. But let us not forget about Honda’s 2001 Unibox concept, which might just be the forefather of the latest tiny car trend.
Read MoreIts name means “friend” in Japanese. It’s barely larger than a Mazda Miata. It’s the adorable electric ute prototype that 13 design students have imagined as the car of the future. Hell yes, it’s the Honda Tomo EV, and it’s the vehicle I want to see taking over garages across the world.
Read MoreIf you’ve never had the chance to eat at Eugene, Oregon’s Buck Buck Food Cart, which looks like it serves some exciting fried chicken, I’m afraid you may have missed your window. If, on the other hand, you’ve never seen a food cart spontaneously explode into nothingness, then I have better news for you, because that’s exactly what this mobile restaurant did yesterday. Luckily, no one was hurt.
Read MoreThursday was an interesting day for the Solano County California Highway Patrol, as a tractor trailer rolled onto its side and spilled a load of crushed cars—including that poor Ford Ranger you see above—creating what appeared to be a horrifying crash scene. Here’s a closer look at more of the poor twice-crushed automobiles.
Read MoreA tractor-trailer weighing many tons smashed into the side of a police SUV Monday morning on a slippery road in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin and dashcam footage makes it look like the cruiser just kind of disappeared. The crash looks pretty bad, but incredibly, nobody died.
Read MoreWhat appears to be the humble Geo Metro, a modern example of dependable, rugged quality (these claims could not immediately be verified), and I can’t think of a better example of its numerous superlatives than its capability of driving with only three wheels, like in this video from Houston.
Read MoreWas it a vision? A premonition? A prophecy? Or just something in the lyrics of Smash Mouth? Anyways, I hate the headline that I have written but this video is nuts.
Read MoreAs you may already know, dragstrips can be dangerous as hell. It’s a relatively small area with an insane amount of power, so when things go wrong, they tend to do so dramatically. Which is pretty much how it went down in Australia this past weekend, when a big block Chevy-powered Ford Capri got a stuck throttle and wreaked havoc on a Victoria, Australia drag strip.
Read MoreHere’s a situation that you may not have considered: you’re driving along, riding a little dirty. Cops pull you over, and find a substantial, but not crazy large, amount of contraband in your car. Say, less than $1,000. They arrest you, and then they take your car. Forever. Even if it’s worth a lot more than $1,000. But in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court has said that might not be totally kosher.
Read MoreI can’t believe that there are people out there who still need to hear this, but here it is again: The middle of an interstate is not the place to have your street race meet up. Unfortunately, some dicks thought the I-24 in Antioch, Tennessee was the ideal location to rip out a few donuts, leaving traffic backed up for miles.
Read MoreIn the vast panoply of things that can get thrown at your car, snowballs are possibly one of the least offensive. They rarely cause damage, they’re made of water, and, very often, the intent is more mischievous than malicious. That’s why the amount of raw rage and wrath seen here by this driver in Seattle is so confusing. It’s just a snowball.
Read MoreIn the kind of situation that would make anyone think they were imagining things, Houston-area resident Beverly Havard started noticing changes to her van each time she got in: An out-of-place seat, some adjusted mirrors—you know, things that could easily feel imagined.
Read MoreIn a plot that couldn’t have been scripted better in a Saturday-morning cartoon, an Alabama man failed to rob a store last week when a cashier didn’t take him seriously. Hours later, he tried to steal a Honda Civic and failed, again, because he couldn’t figure out its manual transmission.
Read MoreMonday night on a public road outside of Toronto, a 19-year-old took an Audi up to 246 kilometers per hour, or about 153 mph, all right in front of police, who pulled him over and promptly impounded the Audi.
Read MoreTop Gear, which I’m guessing is probably one of the most pirated shows, ever, has decided not to air on BBC America stateside for another two months, despite already playing on British televisions. I’m sure everybody stateside will be respectful and patient about this.
Read MoreA simple miscalculation of angle, speed and friction can be very bad news when behind the wheel. But for most people, wipeouts don’t happen on camera with all of our coworkers looking on. Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff is not in the majority. He makes up a small segment of the population known as Top Gear hosts, which makes this crash in a Subaru Brat extra embarrassing. Or good television, whichever comes first.
Read MoreAs you all already know, I am a Fast and Furious stan. I love everything about those stupid movies, but there is not one scene I love more than the vault-dragging scene from Fast Five. It’s a classic, breathless action sequence and finally I get to see it broken down bit-by-bit by its stunt coordinator.
Read MoreWe’ve only got one season left before the affable Rory Reid and Matt LeBlanc depart as Top Gear hosts, so I hope they make this one count. Season 26 returns on Sunday, Feb. 17 and I am so ready for it.
Read MoreToday I learned there are only three original cars remaining from the filming of the original 1969 The Italian Job movie, and sadly none of them are Minis.
Read MoreFerrari has just shown the first full pictures of its replacement for the 488 GTB, and it’s a mid-engined 710 horsepower angry red beast called the F8 Tributo. While still based on the 2009-vintage 458 Italia underpinnings, the body and interior are all new, and the drivetrain is essentially the same as the one in the bonkers 488 Pista.
Read MoreGinetta made headlines last month when they teased the silhouette of their new road-legal sportscar equipped with 600 hp and a whopping top speed of 200 mph. The wraps are off now as the automaker heads to the Geneva Motor Show, but I have to ask... where did the rest of the car go?
Read MoreYou know, I’m kind of glad that Dieselgate didn’t kill off all the cool diesels at Volkwagen. Obviously, the company did a bad thing, so it’s good that it’s now making things right and we’re still getting powerful diesel engines in its SUVs while it does. Like the new Touareg V8 TDI. Who wants to tow some stuff with this?
Read MoreFor most people, Hispano-Suiza hasn’t really been a relevant brand since we last went shopping for a new car just before the Great Depression. The Spanish company is a legendary marque, though, creating some of the most opulent and elegant cars of the era. Now, though, Hispano-Suiza is rising from the grave with an all-new supercar. Again. Twice. This may get weird.
Read MoreThe upcoming Geneva Motor Show is going to be packed with new electric vehicles, and among them will be this: A Kia electric concept car, whose face the brand just teased on its media site. It looks fantastic, but also mean.
Read MoreFerdinand Piëch is basically a godfather of the modern automotive industry, launching Audi into the luxury automaker it is today and turning the Volkswagen Group into a mighty car conglomerate. His son is taking the family name and building electric cars now, apparently.
Read MoreCars are the future, I increasingly think, especially in the U.S., where huge investment in mass transportation seems unlikely and the infrastructure is designed pretty much exclusively for cars. Which is partly why urban electric cars are all the rage, one of the latest being Citroën’s Ami One concept, a delightful puppy from the future.
Read MoreThe Geneva Motor Show is right around the corner, which means that it’s time for some shadowy teasers of the stuff that automakers will reveal when official press conference time comes. From Subaru this year, we’ll have the Viziv Adrenaline Concept. And guys, I might be going out on a limb here, but it looks like a crossover.
Read More“The 2019 Toyota RAV4 Gets Tough” was our headline when we first saw the new-generation Toyota RAV4 last year. And yesterday at the Chicago Auto Show, it became clear that Toyota is all-in on this push for aesthetic “ruggedness” when the company unveiled a 2020 Toyota RAV4 TRD Off-Road. Yes, seriously.
Read MoreCorrection: Friday, February 8, 2019, 10:45 a.m. ET: A previous version of this story incorrectly claimed there was evidence that Toyota plans to bring a diesel version of the 4Runner to the American market. Toyota denies plans to bring this or other diesel engines to the U.S. market, saying “diesel is presently not part of our strategy for North America. We are still bullish on conventional engines, hybrids and fuel cell technology.” We greatly regret the error.
Read MoreMazda is celebrating three decades of the Miata at the Chicago Auto Show, where the car first debuted back in 1989, with the 2019 Mazda MX-5 30th Anniversary Edition. Not with a hardcore racing setup, nor a limited run of hardtop coupe models, or anything wild like that. Just this orange color.
Read MoreThe 2020 Toyota Sequoia TRD Pro just showed up to the Chicago Auto Show, reminding all of us that the Sequoia apparently still exists. The new TRD Pro model has exciting upgrades like push-button start and off-road shocks.
Read MoreThe current-generation Toyota Tacoma has been with us since the 2016 model year, but with vehicles like the 2019 Ford Ranger and 2020 Jeep Gladiator now entering the segment, it’s no surprise that Toyota is stepping up its game to compete. Here’s a look at the refreshed 2020 Toyota Tacoma.
Read MoreThe Geneva Motor Show is next month, and with it we’ll see a bunch of new shit, including a new Mercedes CLA, an updated BMW 7 Series, and Volvo’s Polestar 2. We’ll also be seeing a new Hispano-Suiza, the first new Hispano-Suiza car in about 4,000 years. It’ll be all electric, Hispano Suiza says, a grand tourer inspired by the kind of things the company made in the 1930s.
Read MoreMazda has teased an all-new crossover for the upcoming 2019 Geneva Motor Show, which will be built on the same new Skyactiv platform as the 2019 Mazda 3 and feature the new “Holy Grail” Skyactiv-X engine.
Read MoreSubaru on Thursday announced that the new 2020 Legacy would be making its international debut at the Chicago Auto Show on the 7th of February. That initial announcement was made simply with a very dark version of the above image showing off the Legacy’s massive portrait-layout infotainment touch screen, automatic shifter, and a bit of very nice looking brown leather.
Read MoreMazda and NSU tend to get all the credit for Wankel rotary engines in cars, but Mercedes also did quite a bit of Wankel development, using the motors in SLs as well as in the legendary C111 experimental vehicle you see above. C111s are incredibly rare, and yet somehow, someone on eBay claims to have parts from one of the vehicles’ Wankel engines for sale.
Read MoreIt is a bit traumatizing to see the gorgeous Alfa Romeo 8C in such condition. This car was quite obviously crashed due to someone’s mistake, but prior to that the 8000 mile Italian had clearly been well cared for. It’s unclear how the car was crashed, but it is largely superficial damage and could likely be repaired by a reasonably well minded mechanic with very little elbow grease.
Read MoreAn old-school boxy Suzuki Jimny kei-car is a cool thing all on its own, but if you slap some Jeep Grand Wagoneer-esque vinyl wood trim on the sheetmetal and bolt on a bit of chrome, well, that brings it to the next level. That’s why this one for sale right now, with a top bid currently at only $900, has me deeply intrigued.
Read MoreFaced with a blank canvas of a car, very few create true art. But this Range Rover, with a six-speed manual out of a BMW M6, some brakes from a Porsche and some brakes from a Genesis, and a turbo for a snout, is definitely art.
Read MoreWith a Volkswagen Phaeton, a chop-top Jeep, Volvo C70 HT, Mercedes 420E or Nissan Xterra on the offering, the Craigslist in Los Angeles offers quite the cachet when the money is, in fact, an object. Let’s see what three grand will buy us in America’s most car-centric city.
Read MoreAlfa Romeo’s Sport Zagato is a weapon. I don’t mean that it’s good on track or particularly fast, though it’s no slouch at either. No, I mean it’s a weapon in the sense that it’s been well trained and it’s full of sharp edges. This thing is one of Zagato’s more holy-shit-1990s designs, and it all culminates in a car so sharp it could slice your honey baked ham just by looking at it. And for that reason alone, I really want it.
Read MoreThe 1950s were an incredible time of ingenuity in the motorsport world. Guys in sheds were building incredible contraptions that were capable of speeds never seen before. Take the Super Shaker streamliner seen here for example. It started life as a Cooper sports racer chassis, and then the original builder/racer Bill Burke put a Harley trike drivetrain in it, threw some quasi-aerodynamic panels over the bundle of tubes, and took it to 151.38 MPH. And that was in 1959!
Read MoreEarlier this month, stories began to pop up about the “last” 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon ever made listed in Australia for more than $320,000 ($450,000 Australian). That was surprising, considering that Dodge had already sold the last Demon, and it didn’t look like this one.
Read MoreThe CJ-10 is a hideous machine. It was the square-headlight Wrangler before the actual, controversial square-headlight Wrangler came out in 1986. But, when dressed up properly, it can actually look damn sharp like this one for sale right now. And when you look at what a CJ-10 actually is underneath, it becomes even more compelling.
Read MoreYou know what’s aged well, besides me? This 1992 Dodge Viper. As twins, we were separated at birth, but now that our third decade apart draws close, we are ready to be reunited. Won’t you help us out?
Read MoreI will say that I am biased. I have driven this 1975 Volvo C303. I have taken it through traffic. I have bombed the highway in it. I have attempted to go wheeling in it in a quiet corner of Brooklyn. It is military-grade and tough beyond measure. And now it’s for sale.
Read MoreThere is no reason why I should have a Porsche 928. But I hear it. A howl from beyond. It is this immaculate V8 speed machine, a thunderbolt from a future past.
Read MoreOh boy is there some good stuff for sale on my local Detroit-area Facebook Marketplace, and that’s bad because I’ve already got nine cars, and frankly I can’t buy another. At least, not now. But the solution is simple: You readers will just have to buy all of these from under me. Please?
Read MoreThere are a lot of things a person can do with $100,000, should that person be fortunate enough to have $100,000 at their disposal. They could use it as a huge downpayment on a house, put a kid through college with one transaction, or, if we’re being truly practical, buy a set of used Bugatti Veyron wheels.
Read MoreThe SCCA and CASC Canadian American Challenge, known colloquially as CanAm, was an incredible piece of the 1960s American motorsport landscape. The series had essentially zero rules regulating how teams should build their cars. Crazy lightweight open-top jobs started showing up to compete with all manner of huge American V8s powering the rear wheels, and drivers just brave enough to hang on while the throttle pedal did most of the work. These machines were crazy in the mid-1960s when the series
Read MoreFor a long time, there were really only two types of electric cars that were best exemplified by the distinction between a Tesla Model S and, say, the Chevy Spark EV.
Read MoreEV bike maker Zero Motorcycles has introduced a new flagship “smart” streetfighter motorcycle today called the Zero SR/F, which can be optioned with a max range of up to 200 miles in the city, and in its priciest configuration can impressively recharge from nothing to 95 percent capacity in just an hour.
Read MoreWithout doubt, The One Moto Show in Portland is among the best events I have ever attended. With an extraordinarily eclectic mix of bikes from all genres, acceptance of all styles, and intermingling of motorcycle enthusiasts from all walks of life, The 1 Show is an amazing piece of motorized vehicle culture.
Read MoreThe seat height of a stock Ducati Monster is about 30 inches. This custom racer, however, drops that down to about six inches. With a pair of Ducati-built 90-degree V-twin Monster S4Rs engines, this Super Rat racer has plenty of power to hit big speeds. Go hit the salt flats and see if you run out of throttle before you run out of balls.
Read MoreWith rain turning its dirt course into slop in San Diego on Saturday, the Monster Energy Supercross track crew put down a chemical drying agent to curb some of the mud. But while it was meant to help make the race safer, the aftermath wasn’t pretty—riders say they have severe rashes and trashed bikes because of the substance.
Read MoreThere are a number of new sports, classes, and segments being added to the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo next year, and if the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme has its way, Trial-E will be added to the Parisian Olympic Games in 2024. Riding up a rocky hill on an electric bike takes a lot of skill and strength, but is it worthy of being the first Olympic sport not propelled by gravity, wind, horse, or human power since motorboating was part of the 1908 Olympic Games?
Read MoreFrom 1985 until its demise in 2005, GM’s M-van platform mates Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari served the mediocre van buyer reliably. This Motorweek review from the van’s new-for-’85 launch could just as easily have been produced anywhere along the van’s lifespan and remained the same, as very little changed about this thing.
Read MoreThe Tesla Model 3 first entered “production,” if that’s what you wanted to call it back then, almost two years ago in 2017. But it’s been impossible to actually buy the long-promised $35,000 base model of the car that so many were hoping would to help them enter the electric future. Until now.
Read MoreTravis has a 2007 GTI and a 200SX but both have high miles and terrible gas mileage for his 80-mile commute. He is ready to trade them for something somewhat practical and reliable that won’t cost a fortune to fill up. What car should he buy?
Read MoreThe Polestar 1 is a hybrid sports car priced like a supercar, at $155,000; the Polestar 2 is an all-electric sedan priced like a Tesla Model 3, starting at $45,000. The Polestar 2 (which debuted this morning) is also cool as hell. Should Tesla be a little worried? Yes, Tesla should be a little worried.
Read MoreWe first saw Honda’s clean, friendly, and fun-looking vision for an electric city car back in 2017, when it was called the “Urban EV.” Very soon at the Geneva International Motor Show Honda will show the latest development of that concept, and they say it’s very close to production-ready. That’s good news, since it has all the simple charm of the original. This is an EV I’m excited about, even if it’s not coming to America and I’ll just be disappointed, as usual.
Read MoreIt’s a classic spiritual question: Could Mr. Hockey, Lord of All Things Icicle, build a rink so large that even he could not Zamboni it? Well, UPsupply.com, a company devoted to all things Upper Peninsula, might have an answer after they crunched the numbers the Earth’s largest* potential rink.
Read MoreBombardier Recreational Products recently purchased select assets from the now-defunct electric motorcycle brand Alta Motors, including intellectual property, patents, and limited physical items. BRP is the parent company for Can-Am, Ski Doo, Sea Doo, Evinrude, and Rotax.
Read MoreIf there’s a dumb thing you can do at a race track, particularly if it’s done at slow speeds, I’m one of the first people to jump up and volunteer as tribute. A number of years ago during an illicit middle-of-the-night golf-cart race around Road Atlanta, I recall dumping a little electric job on its side at perhaps no more than 25 miles per hour. I’ll drag a knee on a 50cc motorbike, or wind up on my hip with the bike sliding away from me for trying. And I would happily pick up the gauntlet for
Read MoreWhenever we see spy shots, or hear rumors, we like to hedge. Sure, a lot of places will proclaim a leaked image is definitely this or absolutely must be that, but we’ve got no way of knowing for sure. But Ford’s lawyers have helpfully confirmed that yes, this is definitely some kind of Ford pickup we’re looking at.
Read MoreThe Porsche Macan is Porsche’s best-selling vehicle, powered by an internal-combustion engine, a crossover that handles better than it has any right to. It will also be going electric soon, the Financial Times reports.
Read MoreLister is a strange company. While best known for building odd Jaguar-based race cars in the good old days, it primarily gets by building modified street car versions of current Jaguar sports cars and SUVs. The company, a few years ago, began offering continuation versions of its famous Knobbly sports racer, and it’ll even sell you a kit to assemble in your own garage. But a couple of days ago, Lister co-owner and CEO Lawrence Whittaker posted a rendering of a modern Lister Knobbly to Twitter.
Read MoreSaab might have been building its best cars when it was forced out of business. The last generation 9-5 was an amazing car, but more importantly it was an amazing Saab. The interiors are upscale, the exteriors are svelte and gorgeous, and the driving experience is luxuriously sporty. The 9-5 is a good car, and it didn’t deserve to run into that iceberg, but it proudly went down with the ship.
Read MoreAt the Geneva Motor Show next month, Mercedes will be bringing a host of new or newish cars, including the Final Edition of the SLC and, apparently, the S65 AMG. As Motor1 spotted in the penultimate graf of this otherwise boring press release, Mercedes casually revealed it would be showing the S65 Final Edition at Geneva, and its grand V12 too.
Read MoreThis is, without a doubt, my new favorite Ferrari. Somebody in [LOCATION REDACTED] street parks their Ferrari F40. That duct tape on the hood is when a Yaris backed into it. Concours d’Elegance this is not.
Read MoreIf a street has been barricaded for construction, it’s not wise to drive past those barricades, lest you injure a construction worker. There also might be a massive hole in the street, like this one, on Goodson Street in Hamtramck, Michigan.
Read MoreIf you were hoping to buy something with C2-generation Corvette good looks tacked on to an incredible modern sports car chassis with Japanese reliability and conveniences, you are out of luck. The good news is that legendary coachbuilders Mitsuoka had you in mind as their target market. The bad news is that all 200 of these suckers are sold and you’re out of luck.
Read MoreWith a new Corvette generation on the horizon, it should come as no surprise that C7-generation models are not selling particularly well. According to GM’s sales report, just 800 Corvettes were sold in January this year, which is a new record low month for this generation. While it might seem like a no-brainer that Corvettes don’t sell well in the winter, the Bowling Green plant is still busy pushing them out the door, and dealers are placing orders for them as often as ever. Once they arrive on
Read MoreWe received a message the other day from our pals over at Alfa Romeo, letting us know that, yes, the company will be at the Geneva Motor Show, and just in case we thought it was just going to sit in a booth on folding chairs, it let us know that not only would it be bringing their “award-winning lineup,” but it also had “something new.” Exciting, right? I mean, vague and useless as far as information goes, but still?
Read MoreA clutch kick is a brief stab of a manual transmission car’s clutch pedal, to briefly raise the revs when you need to tap into a little extra energy but don’t want to downshift. Wyatt Knox from the Team O’Neil Rally School explains how to do it, and why, in this video.
Read MoreThe BMW 128i doesn’t really get a lot of love these days, but it was a pretty decent car when it arrived. While it is considered BMW’s compact car, it shares most of its components with the E9x generation 3-series. It’s only slightly smaller than the 3-series and weighs just about the same. The 1er Coupe is actually an inch taller than the 3-series, and shares the same track width.
Read MoreFollowing yesterday’s confirmation that the Opel-based Buick Cascada would exit production, and the plant that produces the LaCrosse closing, Buick is down to only the Opel-based Regal and three crossovers to fill dealer showrooms. While sedans aren’t exactly netting foot traffic to dealerships, they are kind of Buick’s bread and butter. To have no full size quasi-lux sedans in the lineup is a travesty, and a first for the brand. In order to quickly fill those empty spaces in the lineup, Buick m
Read MoreThere was a point somewhere in the last two years that the folks at Bring a Trailer sat down, had a meeting and said “Screw it, we just sell the craziest shit you ever heard of.” and that has been their company mission statement ever since. That may be a slight dramatization, but I imagine a similar conversation must have occurred at some point, because they’re selling a damn Formula Drift Toyota Corolla now. And you know you want it, because if you didn’t you’d be an absolute damn fool.
Read MoreBigfoot was the epitome of rad when I was a young and impressionable child. This generation of Ford pickup was a clean and attractive design, and when turned into the rear-steer big-tire weirdo that is Bigfoot 9, it looked even better.
Read MoreSome people think Ford’s short-lived Edsel brand of the late 1950s died off because the cars were ugly. And while that was likely a factor (I, for one, think the cars were gorgeous—including the 1958 model above, which is either a Pacer, Ranger, Citation or Corsair; It’s hard to tell those apart), Time Magazine wrote at the time that the true reasoning had a lot to do with bad timing.
Read MoreI know there’s probably a lot of you out there that believe that choosing a minivan as a meh car is, somehow, unfair, like it’s punching down. I disagree, because I actually like minivans, and believe there’s no reason they have to succumb to the clammy, overly warm cloak of meh-ness. Unfortunately, it seems that meh-ness, like entropy, is a state that all vehicular systems can decay into, if no action is taken. A perfect example of this is the path from the Ford Aerostar to the Ford Windstar.
Read MoreThe 2019 Toyota Supra is finally out, but if you thought we were done with the seemingly endless teasers and concept cars, you were sadly mistaken! So here’s another one, called the Toyota Supra TRD Concept, which shows off all of the bits you can buy from the TRD catalog including a spoiler that exaggerates the car’s duck-tail rear-end even more.
Read MoreIf you’re looking for a way to shatter your left radius and ulna at the same time, this 600cc homebrewed go kart could be just the ticket. It looks like it would be an absolute bucket of good times and happiness, and it probably is. That is, until the eventuality that you get too comfortable in it and attempt something stupid like a full throttle sliding turn that grabs a rut and sends you tumbling ass over teakettle.
Read MoreWe’ve been ranting and raving about the new Mk V Toyota Supra for quite some time now, but it took until just now for me to realize that it’s actually quite an attractive design. The front-engine BMW-based Toyota coupe has good sports car proportions with a small greenhouse and wide fenders. It looks particularly good in this admittedly-not-real backdrop. It looks like a car from the future, and these backgrounds are like something straight out of The Matrix.
Read MoreBringing just a little bit of extra spice to the already totally awesome, if completely flawed, Alfa Romeo 4C Spider is the new Italia package, is effectively a bespoke paint color, yellow calipers, and some extra badges. This is Alfa Romeo’s big move for the Chicago Auto Show this week, showing what will likely be a send-off model to an aging low-volume sports car. If you love this shade, and I do, you’ll have to get your order in quickly, because only 15 of these buggers are coming to the U.S.
Read MoreElectric cars are the future, whether you like it or not, though if they are our future they’re going to need to get a lot better than they are today. The batteries, in particular, aren’t good enough, the latest confirmation of this coming in a AAA study released today. Electric cars’ range falls by nearly half on average in temperatures under 20 degrees, according to the study, a number big enough to spook some buyers I’d think.
Read MoreJust hours ago we told you about the Racing Orange MX-5 that Mazda debuted ahead of its official display at the Chicago Auto Show, and it’s already sold out. Only four hours after the deposit book opened, each and every one was accounted for.
Read MoreFor its three decades of existence, the Lincoln Town Car was not so much a thing that real people bought as it was a thing that fleets, limo companies, and taxi companies bought. That’s because it was huge, basically reliable, and replacement parts were easy to get. But limo converters liked it in particular for a more straightforward reason: its body-on-frame design meant that they were relatively easy to cut open and stretch out.
Read MoreThe TT RS has been punching above its weight class since it was introduced at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show. The current second-generation car, underpinned by Volkswagen’s MQB chassis, is a proper sports car that provides acceleration on par with many supercars.
Read MoreA delightful fact about this Porsche Carrera GT is that it is painted green. In addition, the wheels are painted gold. In addition to being both green and gold, the wheels’ rims are silver.
Read MoreAs far as Meh Cars go, you’d think the Buick Cascada would be pretty safe from inclusion into this miserable fraternity, at least on paper. It’s a convertible, a rare four-seat convertible, even! It’s supposed to be fun, it has weird extra taillights in the trunk—this thing should be meh-proof, right? Well, it’s not. It’s not at all. No, the Buick Cascada is a testimony to the true power of Meh, and how it can sometimes overcome all odds to really make a car no one gives a shit about.
Read MoreWhat’s the most frustrated you’ve ever been on the road? Don’t lie, it happens to all of us—you get annoyed at one little thing, and suddenly everyone else on the highway becomes a driver from hell. But chances are, you probably haven’t gotten so mad that you drove an ambulance off the road—or, y’know, threatened cops with a machete.
Read MoreBack around the end of 1973, with the fuel crisis looming, American carmakers were still optimistic about selling a few hundred examples of large-and-in-charge V8 machines to residents of the British Isles. As a result, the very English Tony Bastable rounded up the best of the American offerings in the UK for a discussion of their merits on Drive-in, a factual automotive television program at the time. Maybe it’s something of a precursor to Top Gear given its cynicism. The resulting six minute r
Read MoreThe Switzerland-based Sauber F1 team placed 8th in the Formula One teams points standings in 2018 with a total of 48 points. While that is nearly ten times as many as their single digit points haul in 2017, and it allowed them to move ahead of Scuderia Toro Rosso and Williams, that isn’t enough for the team that once had the distinction of being the third best team on the grid. Alfa Romeo hopes that with added resources the team can return to former glory.
Read MoreMore than four-thousand salaried staff within General Motors will be handed their walking papers Monday morning starting as early as 7:30 AM Eastern, according to reports from Automotive News, CNN, and Detroit News. This comes as the first move in GM’s plan to cut as many as 14,000 jobs this year, including the indefinite idling of five manufacturing plants. A plan which we first learned about last November.
Read MoreLotus on Monday confirmed that it would be partnering with Williams Advanced Engineering to share R&D resources in the interest of developing advanced propulsion technologies. While that is an extremely vague topic to collaborate on, Lotus says it brings expertise in lightweight structures and advanced materials to the table, while Williams has experience with battery technology from its four years as exclusive battery supplier for Formula E.
Read MoreThe Mount Panorama circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales is incredibly tight and complex as it winds its way to the top of the mountain, with long straights and sweeping curves down the other side. It takes a serious level of concentration, skill, and luck to put in a blistering lap time there, as well as a really good car.
Read MoreChevy showed off an electric Camaro at SEMA last year that was built in part by a Washington state shop teacher and his students, saying that the 700-horsepower beast was capable of a nine-second quarter-mile time. Well, it finally got to the track, and while it didn’t do nine seconds, it was close.
Read MoreMythBusters Jr. is a spin-off of the original MythBusters, but this time it features precocious kids busting myths and doing stunts for TV cameras. One of those stunts on last week’s show had an unfortunate victim: an AW11 Toyota MR2.
Read MoreThere’s a discrepancy in the ad for today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe VW. The description states it’s an automatic, while the pics clearly show it’s a much rarer stick. Let’s see if the seller’s been more accurate in setting their price.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Civic Si is old school and appreciably unmodified. Could that be reason enough to mod your bank account for its purchase?
Read MoreWhen you’re an auto maker with ridged traditions demanded by your buyers, it’s hard to move outside of that niche. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe i8 stands BMW tradition on it head. Let’s see what that rebellion might be worth.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Suzuki is a car that was never sold in North America, and emulates a VW bus that’s long been gone here. That makes it perfect, right? Let’s see if this grey market import’s price brings home the Canadian Bacon.
Read MoreAcura started to lose its way back when they decided to lose their model names. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Legend hails from the before-time, but will its price mean it’s quite the find?
Read MoreThere is perhaps no automotive name more reverent than that of BMW’s M3. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe E36 M3 droptop presents with a bit of a tarnished halo. Let’s see if it’s been priced accordingly.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Dale Earnhardt tribute Lumina describes the car as being a “head turner.” Let’s see if its audacious looks and rare five-speed stick can turn it into a deal.
Read MoreSerious off-roading means taking things slow, and nobody does slow better than today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Chevy LUV. Let’s see if its price could make for a contrastingly quick sale.
Read MoreThe whole idea of a “Hot Rod Lincoln” may be long in the past, but with Cragars and a big 460, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Mark III might just be an effective reminder. That is, if it doesn’t cost too many Benjamins.
Read MoreDo you remember Murilee Martin’s Project Car Hells? Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Corvette roller could have been stripped straight from their pages. Of course, it could also be an amazing opportunity. We’ll just have to see how it rolls.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Eagle is the second one claimed owned by its seller. His first did over 330K and thinks this one might do likewise. Let’s see if you believe that, and if his price makes it a Vision of loveliness.
Read MoreHave you ever pondered “If I love the BMW E30 enough to spend all my waking hours with one, why can’t I spend my sleeping hours there too?” If so, then today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 318i is right up your alley. Hopefully its price will be too.
Read MoreYou might not remember all the little cars Chevy sells, but with a six-speed and spritely turbo mill today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Sonic might be the one to know. That is, unless its price makes it eminently forgettable.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Bimmer gives us plenty of shots of its reasonably unblemished driver’s side, but only one of its less-pretty curb face. Let’s see if that, and its high miles, overcome a stick shift and a potentially low price.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe LX470 claims it was built to go the distance. We’ll just have to see how far you might be willing to go to buy it.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe car seemingly doesn’t know if it wants to be a Saab or a Subaru. Either way, what you’ll have to figure out is whether or not it’s a good deal.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Grand Wagoneer isn’t a woody, but its custom wrap is perhaps just as interesting. We’ll have to determine if that, and its price, might have you questioning “would I?”
Read MoreThe seller of todays’ Nice Price or Crack Pipe F150 says that it was renovated to give to his grandkids, but was turned down by the ungrateful little snots. Let’s see if it’s now priced to have buyers do the same thing.
Read MoreIf the references to Paddy Hopkirk and 33 EJB mean anything to you, then you’ll no doubt also get today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Mini MC40. That’s because it’s a homage to the Monte Carlo rally winning Minis of the ‘60s. Let’s see if you also can dig its price.
Read MoreAt one time, 200 horsepower through the front wheels was a big deal. That may seem quaint to modern eyes. As today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe RSX proves, quaint doesn’t need to mean free from fun, just as long as the price is equally enjoyable.
Read MoreWelcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, may I take your ooo–hell no, the Burgermobile has been reduced to a rusting hulk of sadness!
Read MoreLast week, on the heels of the massive Barbie Dream Camper recall, I learned—and don’t ask me how or why—that there are now Power Wheels ride-on cars for children that come with auxiliary outlets for their music devices. On a current Ford Mustang lookalike model, there is a touch screen in the dash to control performance settings—traction control and stability control being two of them.
Read MoreWe often forget what a landmark car the Subaru WRX was when it first came to North America. Spurred by intense demand from gearheads who fell in love remotely through anime and Gran Turismo, the early 2000s WRX gifted us the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and forced the entire sport compact segment to up its game from mildly warmer naturally aspirated sedans to the turbocharged monsters we have today. It even managed to hold its own against the expensive German stuff. But how does it drive now?
Read More1990s kids will remember–there was a time when “car-like crossover SUVs” were novelties. And automakers, trying to reconcile a new combination of “fun off-roadiness” with practical compact designs, came up with some wacky stuff. Here are seven of my favorites and their significance.
Read MoreBig wheels, bigger spoilers, and some of the most over-the-top bodykits ever designed. The early 2000s tuning scene is taken as a joke now, but this is what it looked like in the middle of the big-money, big-style era. Right at the heart of it all: VeilSide.
Read MoreNostalgia is a huge part of what makes owning a classic car fun. Driving an old vehicle is like operating a time machine; it creates a very tangible connection to the past. Studying old car print ads and literature is similarly satisfying, and gives us some context to better appreciate these cars with.
Read MoreThe original Acura NSX was unequivocally a really good car when it debuted at the Chicago Auto Show in 1989. This was an incredibly advanced car for its time, featuring an aluminum monocoque, titanium engine components, and super-advanced VTEC variable valve timing. It was a car that punched well above its weight class, making Ferrari sit up and head back to the drawing board. This car had an immense impact on the automotive landscape, and still makes my pulse quicken thirty years later.
Read MoreWhen I think about Aston Martins (Astons Martin?) inside my mind palace, I tend to skip over the 1990s almost entirely. I have my reasons for this. For one, James Bond was driving BMWs back then. And besides the DB7, there wasn’t much on offer besides the brutal Virage and Vantage. But even Aston Martin has had its share of concepts here and there, and one from the ’90s still sticks out today—even if it sat on a Ford Panther platform underneath its sheetmetal.
Read MoreA Virgin Atlantic flight making the grueling journey from Los Angeles to London yesterday hit a ground speed of at least 801 mph, thanks to a streak of fast-moving air in the jet stream over Pennsylvania. You’re probably wondering how, as breaking the sound barrier over land is illegal, but despite surpassing the speed required to break the sound barrier, there was no sonic boom.
Read MoreEvery aircraft suffers two deaths. The first is when it stops being built, the second is when it stops flying. The double-decker superjumbo Airbus A380 just suffered the first, with Airbus announcing its production line will close in 2021.
Read MoreThe Concorde, in case you were born after it retired in 2003, was the only passenger airliner to fly faster than the speed of sound. That very feature is directly responsible for its demise. It was too thirsty, too small, and the routes it could fly were extremely limited because it made an enormous CRA-BOOM as it flew overhead.
Read MoreKimi Raikkonen is a legend in the Formula One world for a reason. This is a man who just purely doesn’t give a damn about your high-brown racing politics or your standards of what a classy European racing driver should be. And now that he’s not at Ferrari anymore, he’s gone back to the basic basics: fixing his own racing equipment.
Read MoreSo you want to build a race car just like ten-time Constructors’ Championship-winning Formula One engineer Adrian Newey. You think there’s no better place to start than his book, so aptly titled How to Build a Car. Well, folks, I’m sorry to report that this book will not unveil all the tips, tricks, and trade secrets that make a successful F1 car—but you should read it anyway, because it’s still one of the best damn books about auto racing you’re going to find in bookstores today.
Read MoreIt’s a fundamental fact of life that with the appropriate amount of extra cash on hand, the only logical thing to do is go out and buy a hardcore professional race car—whether the plan is to make that race car street legal, take it to the track, or simply display it as rolling shell in the entryway of your home.
Read MoreSo, Fernando Alonso is retiring from Formula One. He’s cutting ties, moving on to bigger and better things like a full season of the World Endurance Championship and the pursuit of an Indy 500 win! Except—wait. He’s not?
Read MoreFormula One cars can look like some pretty wild Frankenstein-like creatures during pre-season testing. Whether they’re outfitted with giant grates or fluorescent neon paint, the cars can start accumulating some pretty strange looking additions while they’re getting ready for the new season. One of the more recent ones to pop up today? Horns. (Or winglets. Or fins. Jury’s out on the proper terminology.
Read MoreScientists* estimate that approximately zero percent of the population dislikes monster-truck shows, and that an incredible negative percent of the population dislikes when monster trucks do backflips. So, it is only healthy for us to share with you this video of a Monster Jam truck doing not one, but two, backflips.
Read MoreA new Formula One season is a few weeks away, meaning teams are out testing to see if this will be the year anyone can consistently compete with Mercedes. It also means that some cars have enough unfamiliar silver grating hanging off of them to remind to remind a person of their braces days, and for good reason.
Read MoreDrive to Survive, Netflix’s documentary about the 2018 Formula One season, is finally slated to hit TV screens on March 8—but, apparently, with some glaring omissions. Like, y’know, the entire championship battle between Mercedes and Ferrari.
Read MoreOn February 22, 2019, news that 25-year-old Colombian driver Tatiana Calderón would be joining the Arden team for the 2019 Formula 2 season—thus becoming the first woman to compete in the modern incarnation of GP2/F2 that has run since 2005. And, like clockwork, outraged race fans took to social media donning their investigative journalist caps as they dredged up a history of Calderón’s race results to prove that she’s an unfit choice for the series.
Read MoreDo you believe in omens? I like to consider myself something of a skeptic, but some signs are just too damn obvious to pass up. Like McLaren’s garage lighting on fire ahead of the 2019 Formula One season.
Read MoreWelcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?
Read MoreIf you’re a car or racing enthusiast, or just someone who enjoys good films, you’re truly missing out if you haven’t seen the 2010 documentary Senna. Most racing documentaries are appallingly dry or vanity projects, or both, but that movie stands above the rest in capturing the human drama around the life and death of one of Formula One’s greatest and most tragic stars. Now one of that film’s executive producers is behind a new racing doc series on Netflix, and it’s called Formula 1: Drive to Su
Read MoreI, like a few of you I imagine, don’t really pay attention to Formula One in the off-season. Once the season is on, IT’S ON, but in the off season? It’s mostly just Kimi standing around looking awkward. I’m a racing man! Bring me the cars, at speed! So, when I saw the big flash of “MISSION WINNOW” on the back of the new Ferrari, I was confused. What is this company that I’ve never heard of being the title sponsor of one of the biggest teams?
Read MoreIndyCar has behind the game when it comes to cockpit safety measures. Most other forms of open-wheel racing have adopted the halo, which has proved to be as ugly as it is effective. After testing a windscreen and still struggling with implementation, the American series has opted for something entirely different: the AFP.
Read MoreFormula One is back, baby! It might just be pre-season testing in Barcelona, but that doesn’t mean it’s not time to start getting absolutely amped. All the teams have released their official liveries for the 2019 season, and we’ve finally got to see them (well, all of them except Williams) in action on the track.
Read MoreAlmost 35 years ago, the 1982 Mazda 254i Le Mans racer disappeared. The car, based on the RX-7 of the time, was one of two designed and entered in the legendary 24 hour endurance race. After a poor result there, it was thought that the company scrapped both cars in shame. But, against all odds, one 254i has been unearthed.
Read MoreBack in September, IndyCar announced that the long wait was over, and that America’s top open-wheel racing would come to Circuit of the Americas. Just over a month later, a couple teams took part in a quick tire test around the 3.4-mile course for the first time, and our appetites only got wetter.
Read MoreModern Formula One is much of the same every year. The same teams often come out with the same or similar car liveries, and the same performance gap in the field. But each year, there’s always a slight break from routine—in the form of special car liveries that never actually compete.
Read MoreBecause it almost never works out, most NASCAR drivers don’t want to be the leader going into the final lap in a race at Daytona International Speedway. But Denny Hamlin led the field to the green flag in a two-lap overtime shootout in Sunday’s Daytona 500 and made it work, playing the ultimate game of defense to win the race.
Read MoreMonster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing at Daytona International Speedway in the series’ opening week has been characterized by an abundance of caution—not cautions. Cars have mostly run single file, not risking much leading up to the Daytona 500. But this is the big day, and the big day means big crashes.
Read MoreThere are a few tricky aspects to racing in what have historically been known as restrictor-plate races in NASCAR, like tandem drafting, running in three-wide packs and slowing down by about 150 mph in order to hit pit road. Sometimes, it doesn’t exactly go as planned.
Read MoreNASCAR driver Corey LaJoie, who entered this year’s Daytona 500 with a team called Go Fas Racing and a car that looks suspiciously like himself, blew a tire a few handfuls of laps into the race. That’s when LaJoie just had to face the facts: His car was torn up, and he was about to lose some laps.
Read MoreMy favorite thing is seeing former Formula One champions racing in other disciplines. First it was Kimi Raikkonen trying his hand at NASCAR trucks, then came the big one when Fernando Alonso sat out the Monaco Grand Prix last year to put in a really epic showing at the Indy 500. Well, this week 39-year-old 2009 World Champion Jenson Button announced he’s upping the ante and heading for the deserts of North America.
Read MoreWhen I watch this video, I turn into a little kid again. It’s hard to fathom the ability to go this fast with this much attack, but Ronnie Bratschi seems to have a keen ability to go fast and not crash. This Evo VIII is fast. Like really fast.
Read MoreNASCAR isn’t as simple as trying to drive in a few hundred circles faster than everyone else, and hasn’t ever been. But that’s been the overarching idea for most of its history, up until the last few years, when rules overhauls introduced segmented races, a near algebraic points system and elimination playoffs.
Read MoreMichigan is about as close as you can get in the U.S. to the climate of Scandanavian countries. It makes sense that when you combine a long cold winter with bored car folks, they’re bound to build the wildest and craziest stuff possible. That’s exactly the impetus behind Cody Loveland’s 1993 Honda Civic. When you have time and it hurts your face to go outdoors, you tinker in a garage until you’ve built this mad machine.
Read MoreThe Ferrari Formula One team is back and ready for a new race season, full of opportunities to celebrate its 90th anniversary and likely finish second a lot. But the car Ferrari will race looks a bit different this year, and not just because of its new black accents: It’ll have a matte finish, for performance rather than looks.
Read MoreThe results are in. At long last, race fans will finally have a way to directly compare the speeds of Formula One cars against IndyCars. As IndyCar’s first testing sessions come to a close at Circuit of the Americas, it seems like as good a time as any to see how these two open wheel series compare.
Read MoreFormula One’s livery reveal season is upon us, and boy are things really starting to heat up. With testing taking place later this month, everyone is scrambling to show off their cool new outfits at the first day of school. But the teams that haven’t given us their first look at new threads might as well pack it up and go home, because Red Bull Racing is undoubtedly the coolest kid in class.
Read MoreWilliams has been one of the most dependable Formula One teams when it comes to the livery department. Since 2013, its cars have bedecked in white with the blue and red Martini racing stripes that have become almost synonymous with the modern Williams name. But things are about to get a shakeup for the 2019 season: Williams has a brand new title sponsor and a brand new livery to lead into their next era of racing.
Read MoreNaoki Nakamura is a talented pro drifter. Like, series champion-talented. Has a Facebook group dedicated to studying his technique-talented. So the fact that he’s absolutely tearing up the track here, wearing weird rubber gardening shoes, is just hilarious.
Read MoreIndyCar racers hit the track this weekend for the first time in 2019, throwing down test laps at a chilly and overcast Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca. Every team barring AJ Foyt Racing joined in the action, setting top-flight open wheel lap times at the Northern California track for the first time since Champ Car raced there in 2004.
Read MoreWelcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?
Read MoreThe 2019 Nitto King of the Hammers Powered by Optima battery is a spectacular off-road battle that combines technical rock crawling with high-speed desert racing. It’s going down all day Friday, which is right now, and the online livestream is free to watch and excellent.
Read MoreYou, dear reader, look like the kind of person who never wants to sleep again, perhaps because it’s time consuming and counterproductive. For that reason, we come to you with news: You won’t ever have to again, because as soon as you close your eyes, this image will be all you see, every time.
Read MoreHaas is back with a brand new look. With new backing from Rich Energy, the American-ish team has a fighting chance at owning the best livery of the season already, and this is the first 2019-spec racer to make its public display. It’s a good thing no Formula One team has ever used a black and gold livery in the past, or it might just be a cheap reproduction of something already deemed iconic.
Read MoreCertain people in this world are allowed to make a wide path around the rules, no matter how strict they might be. But when it comes to the current generation of the Ford GT supercar, not a soul is above the rules—not even the people who race the car for a living, or who have won their class at 24 Hours of Daytona in it.
Read MoreThe 2019 Nitto King of the Hammers Powered by Optima is a big deal in the off-road world and a week of festivities leading up to a main event are happening right now. Despite taking place in the California desert, this race has some of the best live motorsports coverage online and you can tune in here.
Read MoreI’ve gone to a fair share of races and feel like I’ve developed a somewhat reasonable game plan for almost every contingency. But this year’s Rolex 24—my first 24-hour race ever—was a whole new beast for me. I succeeded at watching the whole thing onsite, and so can you.
Read MoreNASCAR, which has long been against taking wins away from competitors who fail car inspection, announced this week that the era of going to goofy lengths to avoid replacing the name on a trophy is over. If a winning car is illegal after the race, it will get disqualified—something that hasn’t happened in decades.
Read MoreRally is a pretty down-to-earth sport. It’s not pushing the boundaries like Formula One tries to do, and it’s not introducing totally new concepts like Formula E. But FIA President Jean Todt is expressing his frustrations with how slowly technology in the World Rally Championship is progressing.
Read MoreFerrari has never been a road going car company, it’s a racing team that sells cars to fund its racing team. Well, that may not be the case anymore, what with the realities of business, but as long as Enzo was alive it was the gospel. This might be the best looking and sounding car the Scuderia ever produced. It certainly wasn’t the most successful.
Read MoreSome of the most breathtaking sports car racing of all time took place on Sunday in Australia as the young Aussie Matt Campbell put on an absolute masterclass in the closing hour of the Bathurst 12. After a strong and consistent run by his co-drivers Dirk Werner and Dennis Olson, Campbell took over for the final stint a bit behind the leaders, but on fresher rubber, and put an impressive stamp on Porsche’s win docket.
Read MoreThe figurative dismantling of the decaying Texas World Speedway, once a massive, high-speed oval that hosted the top tiers of U.S. auto racing, began when those tiers bypassed it for more convenient, better-located venues as early as the 1970s. Decades later, the actual dismantling has begun, as the first houses in a subdivision that will eventually pave the track over are under construction.
Read MoreIt seems like every year, something entirely unheard of happens when cars hit the track at Bathurst’s Mount Panorama Circuit. We’ve had horses and kangaroos on track, pit lane battles, and now: a fan battling a flaming car at the Bathurst 12 Hour after a bad wreck in practice.
Read MoreOne of the lesser-known achievements of the Cold War-era Space Race is the Soviet successes in landing probes on the incredibly harsh and unforgiving surface of Venus, which has temperatures that can reach a hellish 870 degrees Fahrenheit (465 degrees Celsius) and atmospheric pressures 90 times that of Earth. Despite these infernal conditions, the Soviets managed to land 14 functioning probes (the U.S. just managed one) and landers to the surface. Cosmos 482, however, was not one of these, becau
Read MoreWhenever I drive past a junkyard, it’s always a struggle to keep my focus on driving and not crane my neck sideways to scrutinize every interesting bit of twisted metal rusting in the yard. Sometimes, though, that instinct can pay off in big, unexpected ways. Like how this guy happened to notice a rocket motor from a Saturn rocket just sitting in a Missouri scrapyard.
Read MoreSo far, there’s only been three countries to send spacecraft to the moon: the United States, home of the Whopper™, the Soviet Union (now re-branded as Russia), and China, maker of all the crap you own. It’s possible that very soon another country will be added to this select group: Israel. Notably, Israel’s lunar lander will also be the only one to be funded by private enterprise as opposed to being a governmental project. Neat!
Read MoreI know it’s just a machine, but I’m not, and what I’m feeling is real: a bit of sadness at the idea that after 15 productive and incredible years of driving around Mars and poking at rocks and digging in the red dirt, the tough little robot Opportunity may have finally died.
Read MoreEverybody likes to talk about how electric cars like the Tesla Model 3 are much more cost-efficient to own compared to gasoline powered cars, especially when it comes to fuel costs. Comparing a Tesla Model 3 Performance to something like the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, the cost savings seem significant.
Read MoreThe 2020 McLaren 720S Spider is cool in many ways. It has a sci-fi instrument cluster, see-through buttresses and a powered rear window. But by far, the coolest thing about it is its carbon fiber monocoque chassis. And you can’t even see from the outside, which is a shame.
Read MoreJust in case you thought you could connect a couple of PalmPilots and cameras to your car and have it drive itself, I have some bad news: making a fully autonomous car is very, very hard. One of the people who probably knows this better than anyone is superboygenius Elon Musk, but that doesn’t stop him from promising that he’s got it all figured out. Like he did in 2016, 2017, 2018, more than once, and, yes, now. Oy, Elon, give it a rest, buddy.
Read MorePedestrian crashes are one of the more urgent transportation problems, since if you’re a pedestrian and you’re hit by a 3,500-pound vehicle it’s not going to go well for you. Increasingly, cars have adopted automatic emergency braking systems to prevent them, but according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the BMW X1's system barely works at all.
Read MoreSo in reading over the comments in the recent episode of Jason Drives, I was surprised to find something that was brought up several times, sandwiched between comments of confusion and dismay regarding just what the hell is going on with my hair. The comments were baffled that I referred to the Fire Truck’s 289 cubic inch (4.7-liter) V8 as “big.” It seems that there’s many people who don’t think a 4.7-liter engine is big. This was news to me, so I think it’s worth asking: How big must an engine
Read MoreFACT: The inline-six is the best engine. I’d say V8s come a very close second, but nothing beats the silky smooth just-right power delivery of six cylinders humming in a row. BMW knows this, Mercedes-Benz is getting back in the game, and the Toyota Supra... well, see what I said about BMW. But! Now one Jaguar Land Rover is getting back into the straight-six game too, and I’m thrilled to see where it goes.
Read MoreLane hogs are the worst. Whether it’s someone holding down the fort five under the speed limit in the left-and-middle lanes at the same time or a lover who forgets all concept of personal space when they doze off, lane hogs are hair-pulling frustrations. Unfortunately, there isn’t an effective solution for the ass in the left lane—but Ford is here to do something about the lane hog in the bedroom.
Read MoreIs there anything worse than the people who leave their dogs in their car during the hottest days of summer? (I mean, besides people who leave their kids in the hot car. Both are horrible!) People should know cracking the windows just isn’t enough when the temperatures start creeping up. So now Tesla, which is all about adding crazy over-the-air update features to its cars, is doing something to protect the pooches of the world. Meet: Dog Mode.
Read MoreAfter 2016’s first fatal crash in a Tesla on Autopilot the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated the Model S’s Autopilot and Autosteer functions. It ultimately concluded the system was safe. But a new paper says we shouldn’t trust the government agency’s research.
Read MoreA couple weeks back we got to see the new 2020 Toyota Supra’s BMW B58 straight six engine decoded, and pointed out that while this is a high-level sports car for Toyota, it was getting a mid-level engine from BMW. Well, now here’s the high-level version of that motor—the M division’s S58, good for more than 500 horsepower bone stock.
Read MoreEver since Amazon Basics announced it’s selling its own generic brand of synthetic motor oil, the big question has been “but how good actually is it?” Now, people to conduct their own at-home tests to see how Amazon’s oil compares to the big brands we know and love.
Read MoreYou’re watching two legends in the American tuner landscape. One is Stephan Papadakis, the first person to put a front-wheel drive car past the 9s. The other is the Toyota 2JZ. You know its reputation of being an indestructible powerhouse. Now get a good look at why.
Read MoreIf you’re looking for ultimate practicality in your electric vehicles, you can always trust the Germans to take things a step further. Sono Motors has apparently been around as a crowd-funded project since 2012, when the founders of the company were still in school. The first few prototypes are now touring Europe with a few really cool party pieces to make it a bit different from all of the other EVs you’ve seen.
Read MoreLet’s establish some ground rules before we get into this: Climate change is real. The past four years have been the four warmest on record. Cars are not an insignificant part of the problem. Now that we all have acknowledged reality (whether or not you “agree” is irrelevant), let’s dive into the Green New Deal, and the claims that it means your precious gasoline-burning car will be taken from you.
Read MoreAs cars are loaded with more and more safety tech, they get more and more expensive to fix. Those systems, though beneficial, are oftentimes very advanced and require more calibrations to get right. Windshields are one part of a car that’s getting quite complicated to repair.
Read MoreBack in January, General Motors CEO Mary Barra claimed that her company had sold over 200,000 electric vehicles without having to replace a single battery pack. It turns out not only was that incredibly misleading and false, but one unlucky Chevy Bolt owner even had to replace their battery not once, but twice.
Read MoreNo matter what kind of car you’re driving, power likes to go to whichever drive wheels have the least traction. That’s a big part of why driving on slippery stuff can feel sketchy, and why things like limited-slip differentials and traction control were invented. This video shows exactly what different setups do on the same patch of ice.
Read MoreGoogle’s Waymo is, according to people who know these things, the frontrunner in the race to develop self-driving cars that actually work, even if they still have trouble with basic tasks. Jaguar and Fiat Chrysler have previously announced deals with Waymo, but on Tuesday Bloomberg reported that Waymo was in talks to add Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi to that list.
Read MoreRecently, a reader criticized a comment I wrote a while ago in which I claimed that it harms your engine if you hoon it while cold. While I stand by the comment, I’ll admit that it was unsatisfying and devoid of detail. So I reached out to a powertrain engineer to help me fill it in a bit.
Read MoreWind chill is one of those bits of information I’m never really sure what to do with. Whenever I’m even paying attention to it at all, I’m already cold as hell, so that’s that, right? But for your car, it’s a different story. Cars deal with all kinds of moving air, like, you know, wind, and wind chill is absolutely a factor in how it gets up to temperature. I’ll let Team O’Neil Rally School explain, because they did.
Read MoreBrakes are arguably the most important part of a car. Bugatti, a company that makes big and fast toys for very wealthy people, is testing out its 3D-printed brake caliper for production—and it’s actually wild to watch.
Read MoreAuto industry changes are making the German economy nervous, Hyundai may be making adjustments to a slowing market in China, Trump is happy with Fiat Chrysler, and Daimler and BMW are teaming up on autonomous cars. That and more in the Morning Shift for February 28, 2019.
Read MoreIt’s 2019 and for some reason people are just figuring out that maybe GM has been... not great. That and more in the Morning Shift for February 27, 2019.
Read MoreElon Musk is tweeting again, the Peugeot brand has been selected to lead Groupe PSA’s North American comeback, Ford has a steering wheel mixup and more on The Morning Shift of Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.
Read MoreMike Manley makes a whole bunch of money, Goldman Sachs thinks oil is going to go up, and Honda Civic production is leaving the UK. All that and more in the Morning Shift for February 25, 2019.
Read MoreSubaru and Ford score top placement with Consumer Reports, some emission testing concerns, a lavish (corporate?) weekend in Rio and more await you in The Morning Shift for Feb. 22, 2019.
Read MoreVW is sweating over tariffs between the U.S. and Europe, trade deals with China may finally happen, Lyft may go public, Apple talks autonomy, and all this and more in The Morning Shift for February 21, 2019.
Read MoreJobs lost, Nissan is moving for a separation, and the familiar refrains of “uhhh.... what I MEANT was...” This is The Morning Shift for February 20, 2019.
Read MoreHonda plans to close its only car plant in the UK, the European Union says it’ll fight back in a trade war with the U.S., Carlos Ghosn gets ready for trial, General Motors puts its money where its SUVs are, and McLaren stands by its anti-SUV mindset. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019.
Read MoreAutomatic Emergency Braking will no longer be optional, big changes at Ford, Sting holds a concert for embattled GM plant workers, the French government is investing in battery tech, and more for The Morning Shift of Friday, February 15, 2019.
Read MoreGM and Apple are struggling to realize their autonomous dreams, Nissan and Renault are still figuring out their relationship, Volkswagen is slowly but surely rolling out its ride-sharing business, and more for The Morning Shift of Thursday, February 14, 2019.
Read MoreTwo big companies might be getting serious about electric truck and SUV startup Rivian, luxury automakers fall behind “mainstream” ones in reliability, Tesla scrambles to send Model 3s to China and more for The Morning Shift of Wednesday, February 13, 2019.
Read MoreThe winners and losers are stacking up around Trump’s trade war with China, tens of millions are dropping here and there, and the unthinkable happened: Trump has pissed off car dealers. All this and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, Feb 12, 2019.
Read MoreSubaru’s success is draining its resources, Toyota has a pipe-dream autonomous car in the works, and the truck battles are hotter than ever. All this and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, Feb. 11, 2019.
Read MoreA glut of unsold cars sitting on dealer lots, penalties for Fiat Chrysler, reimbursements for a tacky wedding and more await you in The Morning Shift for Friday, Feb. 8, 2019.
Read MoreRocky times for Jaguar Land Rover and Daimler, more drama between Nissan and Renault, and recalls, recalls recalls. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019.
Read MoreThe Tesla Model 3 is even cheaper now, Elon did a tweet that actually benefits him, Trump talked about trade and infrastructure during the State of the Union last night, and more for The Morning Shift for February 6th, 2019.
Read MoreTesla buys a whole other company, GM hires some people, Ford moves some people, and Lucid does some stuff. This is The Morning Shift for February 5th, 2019.
Read MoreCanadian union turning up the heat on GM after plant closure announcement, 4,000 GM employees expected to lose their jobs, Brexit contributes to Nissan cutting X-Trail from UK production plans, MIT professors suing Ford and more in The Morning Shift for February 4, 2019.
Read MoreHonda is facing some tough headwinds, there might be some emissions issues in Porsche Land, General Motors is investing in Brazil and more in The Morning Shift for February 1, 2019.
Read MoreThe 2020 Toyota Corolla Hybrid is not a perfect car, nor is it a car without its quirks. But there is no doubt in my mind that it stands at an inflection point, it on one side, the Toyota Prius on the other.
Read MoreThe Amtrak train 11 Costal Starlight from Seattle to Los Angeles has been stuck since around 6 p.m. Sunday evening after hitting a tree that fell on the snowy tracks, creating a very special and boring sort of hell for the 183 passengers onboard. While food and supplies like diapers are on the verge of running out, for the most part people have been dealing with the situation remarkably well, not giving into Train Madness or resorting to cannibalism, not even a little bit.
Read MoreThe Minnesota Department of Transportation posted a video onto its Facebook page on Thursday showing six snow plows engaged in what is technically snow removal, but in this particular case, is closer to art. That’s because it’s a stunning coordinated effort that’s hard not to watch on loop.
Read MoreIt’s just another day in sunny New York City, where a visibly decaying piece of the elevated 7 subway train fell down and crashed through the windshield of a moving vehicle in Queens. Luckily, nobody appears to have been seriously injured.
Read MoreTrains can be a wonderful way to travel in comfort and style. The Train Suite Shiki-shima luxury train in Japan is probably as close as you’d come to experiencing train heaven. We’ve seen the pictures and now there’s video to take your breath away.
Read MoreThe 2019 Ford Ranger comes with only one powertrain option: a small 2.3-liter turbocharged four cylinder mated to a ten-speed automatic. And while we’ve already established in our review that it makes plenty of power, what we really needed to know is if the Ranger can rip donuts, and if so, how good are the donuts? Here we have an answer; the donuts are delicious.
Read MoreSheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan is pretty well-known for a car collection that goes way beyond eccentric–it’s downright bonkers. His “Dhabiyan” truck in particular looks hilarious from any angle, but especially the back where you can see, yes, that appears to be approximately one tenth of a Dodge Dart.
Read MoreJeep announced today that its new Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer are expected to launch in early 2021, so now it’s time to ponder what these machines should be. As an avid Jeep owner, I have thoughts and dreams. Lots of dreams. And thoughts.
Read MoreTrucks have long been a symbol, at least in the U.S., of the blue-collar class whose work starts before the sun comes up and ends long after it goes down—the idealistic portrait of a self-made American, proud of their dented, rusty, dirt-splattered and aging vehicle because of its testament to their hard work. It’s basically every truck commercial ever, you know.
Read MoreThe Ford Ranger just made its way back to America, but don’t forget it’s been around in other markets for the better part of a decade now. It’s been refreshed for duty here but it is, in fact, old. So it doesn’t surprise me at all that Ford’s working on an all-new one. Could it look this wild?
Read MoreTowing can feel pretty hellish if you don’t do it somewhat regularly. There’s a lot to account for, preparation steps, and driving adjustments you need to make. Well, unless you like crashing. Thankfully, new trucks, like Chevy’s recently redone Silverado, can help towing noobs so that (hopefully) doesn’t happen.
Read MoreThe pricing books for the 2019 Ram HD have just opened and they are sight to behold. Between the 2500 and the 3500, there are about 60 trims to choose from. But the important bit is that the cheapest one starts at $33,395.
Read MoreIn a twist that literally everyone saw coming, Rolls-Royce is working at capacity to fulfill orders for its new gargantuan SUV the 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Sales keep rolling in to dealers, so much so that Rolls has had to increase its staff to 2000 total employees (up 200 from last year at this time) to deal with the uptick in order sheets.
Read MoreThe 2020 Ford Explorer and its subsequent trims will be the most advanced (and sporty) Explorers to date, so I suppose it only follows that they won’t come cheaply either. They will be loaded with safety features and come with an ST and hybrid version, which will cause the price of the Explorer to jump by as much as $8,115. Updated with correct numbers.
Read MoreWe don’t know much about the 2020 Land Rover Defender other than the fact that it’s got the basic boxy silhouette off-road enthusiasts are fond of. But today, a clear picture of what sure looks like the new Defender dashboard popped up on Twitter, and we know that it’s real because Land Rover’s people are not happy.
Read MoreThe Suzuki Jimny is supposed to be cute—that’s how it’s always been, and even with the new G-Wagen-ish generation, that’s how it is today. But that hasn’t stopped Japanese tuning company Wald from building this monster: the Wald Sports Line Black Bison edition. Here’s a closer look at the tiny beast.
Read MoreThe 2019 King of the Hammers headline off-road event is raging right now, but earlier this week a 2020 Jeep Gladiator pickup successfully completed the 4WP Every Man Challenge Race at the same extreme venue. It wasn’t particularly competitive, and it wasn’t completely stock, but it did survive a beating in the hands of pro drivers Erik Miller and Robby Gordon.
Read MoreI have never in my life claimed to be a truck person. At least, not until I drove a Ford Raptor while hanging out in Detroit for the auto show. The height, the power, the feel, the glory—it all brought joy to my dark, lonely heart. I was finally Erica Lourd, Badass. I respected that truck. I thought, you know what, no Raptor can look uncool.
Read MoreRam just announced a new “multifunction tailgate” for its 2019 Ram 1500, and it is thoroughly odd. Not only does the tailgate fold down like normal, but it also splits into two unequally-sized pieces, which can each swing out. Here’s a closer look.
Read MoreI’m old enough to remember, barely, when a pickup truck’s default design was a two-door and crew cabs looked like freaks of nature. That will probably never be the case again. But as long as single cabs exist, they’ll always be the best-looking pickup trucks.
Read MoreThis is Joe Bosman’s 1965 Ford F-100. This vehicle is built for the desert, with giant tires and long-travel suspension for taking big whoops at high speed. What it is not meant for is autocross.
Read MoreScientists discovered a giant hole under Antarctica that will likely collapse a huge chunk of ice and dramatically raise global sea levels, flooding coastal towns in the next 50 to 100 years. Who cares, at this point, if you drive a giant diesel Chevrolet Kodiak C4500.
Read MoreChevy has finally revealed the full lineup of the 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD, which is now available with a 6.6-liter Duramax turb-diesel V8 with 910 lb-ft of torque and capable of towing a max payload of 35,500 pounds. Whew.
Read MoreThe 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD is getting revealed today in Michigan, so—presumably to take away some of the attention—Ford just released some basic info on the 2020 Ford Super Duty. There’s a new 7.3-liter gas motor, more power and torque from the 6.7-liter diesel, and a new 10-speed automatic transmission. Here’s a first look at the new heavy duty line of Ford trucks.
Read MoreA snatch strap is one of the most useful tools in an off-roader’s arsenal. It’s much lighter and cheaper than a winch, but can be just as effective when pulling somebody out of a bog. Unfortunately, people like to use them with tow balls. This video will show you why that’s a terrible idea.
Read MoreLast week, my brother and I were in a ski town in southern Germany looking for something to do. So we rented the cheapest car we could get our hands on, which ended up being a Volkswagen Polo with a tiny 64-horsepower engine. Here’s what it was like driving that thing through the Alps.
Read MoreEarlier this week, I wrote about my $500 postal Jeep’s rotted-out frame, concerned that it may doom the project. Now, to add to that setback, I’ve just discovered that the engine’s cylinder head has a major crack, and will need to be replaced. This and other new discoveries have made it clear that my postal Jeep has no desire to live on.
Read MoreIt turns out that there’s an extremely entertaining video series centering around a neglected 1965 Ford Mustang fastback that has allegedly not run in 44 years. Yes, 44 years. Get ready for some high-quality wrenching and a solid underdog story.
Read MoreI have under two months to get my $500 Jeep DJ-5D Dispatcher ready for a 3,500 mile road trip from Michigan to Utah and back, so yesterday I wrenched until I dropped. Not from fatigue, though, but from horror. Because my frame is toast.
Read MoreThrough some stroke of pure luck from the Jeep gods, I was able to get my $500 1976 postal Jeep running and driving, but my god was the only 6.6 mile trip I took terrifying. Here’s why this Jeep DJ Dispatcher is going to need lots of work before it’s ready to drive 1,700 miles from Troy, Michigan to Moab, Utah.
Read MoreOn my Facebook timeline yesterday, I spotted a post by a man stripping the paint off of his Jeep J20 pickup—and my gosh was he doing a fine job. “Which products are you using?” I asked. His response sent me down a rabbit hole of incredible videos showing paint being peeled from old cars with ease. Prepare to be mesmerized by some incredible stripping.
Read MoreChanging your car’s air filter, particularly if its airbox was intelligently engineered, may be the most satisfying aspect of automobile ownership. Maximum Billy Mays voice: I love swapping air filters and so will you!
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