Perhaps more than any other car in the lineup, the new, finally-for-America 2020 Audi RS 6 Avant embodies the classic Audi approach to performance. Yeah, the RS 3 has the magic number of cylinders (five) and the R8 delivers genuine supercar chops, but the RS 6 trounces both with a swaggering, confident incongruence.
Read MoreThe 2020 Audi R8 is kind of the ultimate mass-appeal supercar, but that feels like an undersell. It’s really fun to drive and ride in regardless of how talented or “into cars” you are, and somehow it manages to be imposing without being intimidating.
Read MoreIn the on-again, off-again undeclared war between Russia and Ukraine, this has to be the most petty incident yet. Russia recently returned three Ukraine Navy ships captured in 2018, with just one catch. The toilets were missing. Ukraine, at least, appears to be taking it in stride.
Read MoreLast week, Senator Chuck Schumer wrote the U.S. Army to ask it to think twice before using TikTok for recruiting purposes. Schumer cited TikTok’s Chinese origin and laws that required Chinese companies to assist with Chinese intelligence operations. Schumer’s letter dropped just as the U.S. Army was exploring new ways to use social media for marketing and recruiting, and the U.S. government opened a national security review of the popular app. The main question is: Can TikTok be trusted to safeg
Read MoreA few hours before Elon Musk debuted the delightfully deranged Cybertruck, he tweeted something less delightful but equally deranged. When a Twitter user asked him about getting some Superchargers in Ukraine, Musk replied, why stop at Ukraine?
Read MoreWhen the robot uprising ends and the beaten remnants of humanity are put on trial, Exhibit A will be the day the Marines invented CRABS. CRABS, or Crawling Remotely-Operated Amphibious Breacher, will be autonomous robots designed to operate in the dangerous surf zone, under hostile fire, dismantling formidable beach defenses with tools and, very likely, their own bodies.
Read MoreIf you’ve ever felt yellow lights aren’t long enough, you aren’t alone. The length of the light varies from place to place and it’s sometimes confusing for drivers driving somewhere new who are used to a certain duration at home. A Swedish engineer named Mats Järlström is fighting the good fight in trying to make yellow lights longer.
Read MoreFrom across a table crowded with wine bottles, my friend, Mitya Sokolov, announces that he’s flying to the middle of nowhere in less than twelve hours. That is, to a part of Russia bordering Kazakhstan—nearly 1,800 miles from the Saint Petersburg kitchen in which we’re drinking—where he’s “going to buy a Daewoo.”
Read MoreOn March 15, 2018, a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed, crushed the cars underneath, killing six people and injuring 10 others. The tragedy was the result of a litany of errors by the contractors designing the bridge, an independent reviewer supposed to catch those errors, and the contractors’ dismissal of obvious structural defects prior to the bridge being put over the roadway, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in their their report.
Read MoreCarriers are really, really big. Everyone says it, but until you see the whole carrier, sitting high and dry in an empty dry dock for the first time, you really can’t comprehend the true size of the world’s largest warship.
Read MoreRejoice if you look towards the dystopia of the Star Wars universe, for laser weapons have finally, at long last, arrived. The laser, a weapon system perpetually “ten or fifteen years away” from operational use, is off the development treadmill and entering the field. In addition to the smug banter of science fiction video games, you can now have the weapons too. Here’s how they work and how they’ll change warfare forever.
Read MoreYesterday, my esteemed colleague Erin Marquis ran a blog about a rock in an Omaha parking lot that has claimed multiple SUV victims. The rock, plainly visible in a landscaped median, has been run over by more than a dozen SUV drivers who, some say, could not see the boulder because SUVs have notoriously poor visibility by the front wheels.
Read MoreThe U.S. Air Force’s X-37B returned to Earth this week after more than two years in orbit. The unmanned space plane keeps breaking records, this time spending 780 days circling the planet before gliding to a stop at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft is a key part of the Pentagon’s plans for space at a time when NATO is set to declare space a “domain of warfare.”
Read More“Wait a minute. Holy shit,” I said out loud in near-total disbelief as I walked up to my friend and Jalopnik contributor William Clavey as he started up the new BMW M235i Gran Coupe. I was not expecting a bellowing and cracking exhaust note I could hear from 20 feet away. “That was you? That’s what it sounds like?”
Read MoreThe best thing to do when you sell a vehicle is to never see it again. I know, because I just sold my $500 Postal Jeep and yet I’m still seeing it daily and even cruising in it. And it’s driving me crazy.
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 the timing of buying a new car around retirement, dealers that won’t sell out of state, and the best low-cost but high MPG manual car.
Read MoreVlad just landed an adult job, so he is looking to spend adult money on a car. But he’s a young guy and he doesn’t want to be too mature about it. He is looking for something nice but flashy, with enough power to lay down some rubber in a straight line. What car should he buy?
Read MoreDeep within the dark and wild forests of New England, an ancient beast awakens. Its fierce growl unmistakable, it emerges from the mist-heavy woods hungry, searching for fuel for its infernal heart below cold, indifferent stars.
Read MoreI saw an article recently documenting how Tesloop, a Southern California car shuttle service that only operates Teslas, has some of the highest-mileage Teslas in the world, with many having over 300,000 miles on the clock. The important part here, though, is that maintenance-wise, the cars are doing fantastic, way better than a combustion car with similar mileage. Mechanically, any electric car—not just Teslas—should be equally long-lived. That’s precisely why in order for electric carmakers to
Read MoreWhen the Mini Countryman crossover first appeared almost a decade ago, I remember thinking it would be a failure. After all, by definition, a crossover—something big—is like the Anti-Christ to Mini’s rabid fanbase.
Read MoreThe Genesis luxury sedans were pretty nice even when they were still badged as Hyundais. Since then, the label’s only gotten more refined and impressive. The 2019 Genesis G80, in its top trim with a 5.0-liter V8 and all-wheel drive, feels fancy without getting pretentious. It’s still catching up to the Europeans in elegance, but there’s a lot to like here.
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 how to budget for a car based on a percentage of your income, smallish SUVs for taller folks and buying an extended warranty on an old Acura.
Read MoreDan used to write for the best sports blog on the internet. And, being someone who knows what’s good and what isn’t, he knows when to get out when things turn sour. Now he’s returned to the freelance life, and sharing a car with his fiancee just isn’t cutting it anymore. He needs an affordable ride that is both easy to park in the city, but good for long trips as well. What car should he buy?
Read MoreFor decades, diehard Jeep CJ and Wrangler fans in the U.S. have prayed for the low-end torque and high(er) fuel economy of a diesel engine, and for decades they have been denied. That is, until now; the 2020 Jeep Wrangler EcoDiesel ends the drought by bringing absurd off-road capability and the best fuel efficiency ever seen in a Wrangler. But it comes at a dear cost.
Read MoreI bought a Toyota 4Runner recently. I haven’t written about it yet because it’s hardly the most exciting thing in the world, but so far I like it a lot. It’s a 2002, a Limited, it has some really great equipment and drives like a nearly new car at 200,000 miles. (This is what happens when you get burned out on old BMWs.)
Read MoreWhen I spoke to Toyota performance boss Tetsuya Tada at the launch of the 2020 Toyota Supra this summer, I had to ask him the obvious: why not use a Toyota platform and engine for the Supra? Why go with BMW guts for such an important car? Why not—to put it simply—do it yourselves? I wanted to hear his answer, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking about the Lexus RC F.
Read MoreFor as long as I can remember, I’ve been spending most of my weekends fixing what has swollen into an overwhelming fleet of nine automobiles. This has required serious sacrifice, and it’s just not sustainable, which is why I’ve been trying to sell my 1948 Willys CJ-2A and my beloved Postal Jeep. But I’m really struggling with it.
Read MoreThe 2020 Polestar 1 is so fast, so agile, and so satisfying to drive with its hybrid-electric 619 horsepower powertrain you would almost never believe it weighs as much as a Bentley Bentayga, or a Tesla Model S, or a Porsche Taycan. Almost.
Read MoreIf there was ever a car designed specifically to print money, it’s the Mercedes-Benz GLC. They are the Toyota RAV4s of luxury, and they are everywhere. But that’s not the only result of people mindlessly buying a Benz just because (OK, some do). The GLC is legitimately good, and comes in a variety of trims to make everyone happy. Especially the AMG 63 S. That one made me very happy.
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 shady test drive procedures, delivery miles that were more than promised and treating yourself—to a reasonable car.
Read MoreIt’s common knowledge that the oldest gasoline-powered internal combustion automobile is a German one, the 1885 Benz Patent-Motorwagen. That’s all great, but if you want to drive it, you better head to a private track. That’s because it’s not only a priceless piece of history, it’s also not street legal. If you want to drive a truly old car down your local eight-lane highway, you’re going to need this 1894 Benz Victoria.
Read MoreMercedes’s parent company, Daimler, made €7.6 billion (or about $8.4 billion) in profit last year. But as we’re all in the midst of an electric car revolution, Daimler has apparently decided that some heads must roll, and it’s cutting at least 10,000 jobs to facilitate the switch.
Read MoreGenerally speaking, I like most of the stuff BMW is putting out these days. The new Toyota Supra is excellent, the 8 Series is a delight and even that little 2 Series Gran Coupe proved to be a nice surprise when I drove it in prototype form. But if you can’t get your bread and butter right, what’s the point of everything else? I’m about to see if the new 3 Series is any good.
Read MoreBMW introduced the i3 REx range-extending hybrid hatchback back in 2014 to offer a longer-range alternative to the fully-electric i3's measly 80-mile range at the time. A few short years later, the company confirmed it’s done with range-extending hybrids for good.
Read MoreThe Detriot-built not for street use side-by-side called the Mahindra Roxor is a favorite around here because it delivers on the promise of an old-school back to basics off-road experience. It does that by cribbing most of itself from a Willys Civilian Jeep, though none of the Roxor’s dimensions are exactly Willys, and none of the parts are carry overs.
Read MoreHappy Thanksgiving! As you may have suspected, one of the biggest things I’m thankful for is you, all of you, you glorious loons who read what I write and comment and engage and argue and delight. That’s why I want to try and lend a hand here. I know Thanksgiving means, for many of us, interactions with relatives with dramatically opposing views on many things—politics, religion, life choices of all sorts—and talking to them can be, well, hell. So, I’m offering you this: a taillight mystery that
Read MoreI don’t always like high-tech whimsy, but when I do, it’s artistic and absurd like the lighting setup on this 1991 Nissan Skyline.
Read MoreI am a big fan of esoteric knowledge. The kind of stuff that nobody really needs to know, that doesn’t really matter, but makes for a good talking point. And with the holidays coming up, I need some conversation pieces to distract my family from asking me when me and my husband are going to have kids despite the fact that we still live in two separate countries. What are the weirdest, most obscure racing or just general automotive facts you know?
Read MoreWhen I first laid eyes on the 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S, I was mildly affronted. I didn’t find it particularly attractive, and because I’m shallow, a car’s looks absolutely factor into how I feel about it. However! After about two days with it, I regret my chair-side dismissal immediately. The car is good. It might even be great. What do you want to know about it?
Read MoreThe kidney-to-Audi-RS6-Avant markets have been fluctuating lately, and as of the closing bell this afternoon kidneys were valued a significant ten points less than what they closed at yesterday. Compare this to RS6 Avant futures, which are ballooning beyond valuation expectations.
Read MoreCadillac’s new crop of V-Series cars is a lot more diluted than the outgoing one—although we’re now promised that bigger and better is on the way—and, in a logical world, weaker cars mean weaker price tags. That’s exactly the case, since the 360-horsepower 2020 CT5-V will run anyone interested just under $50,000.
Read MoreThe 2020 Chevrolet Corvette just debuted with the engine in the middle for the first time ever in production form, but General Motors has wasted no time telling us there’s room for more performance. But what form could that take? Thanks to documents obtained by Jalopnik, we actually have some details on how the Corvette team might electrify its mid-engine sports car for even greater performance—and add all-wheel drive.
Read MoreI know it feels monumentally dumb to call any AMG “underappreciated” but that’s exactly what the Mercedes-AMG SL63 is, in today’s Mercedes lineup. It’s not quite the flex that, say, a G63 is, and it’s not nearly as fast as an AMG GT. And that’s what makes it great. Anyway, it’s dead now.
Read MoreMy unofficial mission for these videos is to talk about stuff that, normally, I’d be too embarrassed to discuss with any normal, well-adjusted person. My obsession with this dirt-common, unremarkable taillight absolutely fits that category. Here, where you’ve made some sort of ill-considered choice to click on that video, it’s okay. But I think if I cornered some poor bastard at a party and started ranting about this, I’d be told maybe I really should be getting back home to check on my, oh, any
Read MoreThe Volkswagen GTI is a signifier of good taste in cars. As one of the most well-rounded hot hatchbacks on the market, when you see one, you can safely assume its owner likes to have fun behind the wheel. Now that a new Volkswagen Golf is out, it’s no great surprise to learn what the next GTI will look like, but we’re happy to see it anyway.
Read MoreI lived in Los Angeles for close to 20 years, and while I’m certainly not blind to LA’s many troubles, sweet mother of noodles, does that city have some fantastic cars. You can’t help but notice that while you’re just driving around, but just in case you’ve somehow been in an interesting-car-blocking fog, all you have to do is find one of the city’s Cars and Coffee meetups at any given morning and the sheer car-quality will just slap you in the face like a soaking wet towel.
Read MoreI can’t say I totally understand the epoxy crafts trend that’s been sweeping the internet (if you haven’t been plagued by millions of videos of this shit on Facebook, don’t start now), but it was only a matter of time before someone actually had A Good Idea and decided to build a wheel out of clear epoxy. And the thing actually holds up under pressure pretty damn well.
Read MoreRemember how Mercedes-AMG promised a road legal hypercar with a Formula One V6 hybrid engine? If you don’t, you can be forgiven. The project was announced in 2017, and nothing much has come of it. But Mercedes is absolutely promising that the cars will in fact get delivered. Soon. In 2021.
Read MoreBook by Cadillac, the car subscription program shuttered by the automaker a year ago, is planning a surprise comeback next year as General Motors continues to try to figure out how to get people to like Cadillacs.
Read MoreEveryone thought it was going to be the cats that took over—not the machines, war, or any other apocalyptic threat. “Why are you a cat person?” people ask, reminding me that dogs have owners and cats have servants. “Don’t you know they’re just sizing you up for a coup?” But at least I’ll have the last laugh before our new overlords take over, because it won’t be the cats. It’ll be the dogs.
Read MoreTraffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast, and we’ll provide the jams.
Read MoreThere’s a new Lamborghini out. No, not the Sián from back in September, though it is related in some respects. It’s the V12 Vision Gran Turismo Concept and it’s going to be available in Gran Turismo Sport for PlayStation 4 next year.
Read MoreI love the product rumors you see in automobile publications, the wilder the better. It’s exciting when they turn out correct, even if it takes a long time to actually confirm, but it’s almost even better when they’re wrong, even if the rumored product was almost guaranteed to be amazing.
Read MoreIt took a few years for the new-for-1964 Ford Mustang to grow out of its awkward years into a proper muscle car. By 1967 it gained some musculature and body mass, with which it came to define the Pony Car era. With experience in motorsport, a lot of research and development, and a few years of growth, the Mustang became the car we all remember as being an icon.
Read MoreDepending on your skills as a driver, winter driving is either the best or the worst thing to happen to you. I’m someone who spent most of my driving life in Texas only to then move up to the northeast, and I decided that I hated driving in the snow enough to just marry a Canadian and let him do all the hard work for me. But if don’t have a permanent bad weather driver at your disposal then you’re in luck, because Team O’Neil Rally School has put together a great video explaining the basics of w
Read MoreTraffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast, and we’ll provide the jams.
Read MoreOverlanding is all the rage these days, which I know because it was all anyone could talk about at SEMA this year. Do you know what’s better than a rooftop tent? A tent that is an extension of your vehicle. One which can fold away and not hinder the aerodynamics of your vehicle, lest your (optional) 500 miles of electric range be reduced. Like this one shown on a Tesla Cybertruck.
Read MoreMost recalls through the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are for problems that aren’t great but sound rather normal, like rollaway risk, airbag issues, or faulty builds. But a new, nearly 560,000-truck General Motors recall sounds like something out of a Mad Lib: Seat belts in the affected vehicles could, in the right conditions, end up causing a fire.
Read MoreThe safari trend is an understandable one. Take a car that is low and sporty and raise up the ride height so it can be fast and sporty on rough roads or off them entirely. Porsches have been caught up (lol), Ferraris have been caught up, but there’s one notable absence and I don’t understand it.
Read MoreWe find ourselves in an odd time when automakers are putting out their own camouflaged “spy shots” of prototype cars to drum up pre-release hype. As an editor, I’m fine with this; it’s less freelance money I have to spend buying photos. But it is a bit of a strange practice, and most of the time I don’t really care. Unless it’s a new sports car from Maserati that seems to have very familiar bones. Then we care.
Read MoreIn the past few years, we’ve had both Rush and Ford V. Ferrari, two very great historically-based movies about motorsport that, for all their minor flaws, still kick so much ass that it’s hard not to wax a little poetic about them. But what other racing movies should we be getting out of this fast car kick?
Read MoreWhy do electric vehicles need to look like traditional cars? Why can’t new EV manufacturers make them look like whatever they want them to be? The batteries are in the floor and the motors can be configured in myriad different layouts, so why do they need a traditional two- or three-box capital-a Automotive design form?
Read MoreThe 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E’s online configurator is up, meaning you can now reserve five different variants: First Edition, Select, Premium, California RT.1 Edition, and GT. You can decide on rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, standard range battery, and extended range battery. Here’s the Mach-E I’d buy.
Read MoreGoogle Maps has (slowly) made strides to be more EV-friendly. Back in April, Google released plug availability for a few charging networks, but otherwise, functionality is still pretty sparse.
Read MoreBugatti caters to something of a niche market: very rich people who are interested in owning a fast, rare car. But that’s not quite enough to satisfy yet another growing sector of the automotive population: electric vehicle enthusiasts. Enter Volkswagen, who might just be funding Bugatti’s EV dreams.
Read MoreSpoilers are kind of a weird thing. Sometimes they really define the overall aesthetic of the car while other times they can seem like an awkward, tacked-on afterthought. Since I am dangerously close to 40 years old I remember a time when every 5th Honda Civic on the road had some giant and practically useless wing on the back. The effects can be even weirder when automakers design a car to have a useless and odd piece of areo straight from the factory.
Read MoreIt was his absolute, utter consternation with some speed limits in British Columbia inspired Chris Thompson, a video producer, to make a remarkably convincing video on the subject that went viral back in 2013. Now, Thompson’s back with a sequel. He’s still mad! And he’s not here for any of the nonsense.
Read MoreYesterday at the launch for the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E, Ford gave journalists short rides in prototype models. Here’s what that was like.
Read MoreThe 2020 Toyota Supra. Dun dun duuuuuun. The Goliath. The all-powerful, Japanese tuning legend, whose predecessor’s iron-heart struck fear and wonder into the quaking souls of Italian exotics. This is the new one, and it has some pretty big shoes to fill.Look, there are things we like and don’t like about the new Supra. Things we like include the looks. Maybe you hated it in photographs, but in real life, it’s striking. Its proportions up front are long and low to the ground, while it has great,
Read MoreFord sold a million and a half Mustangs between 1994 and 2004, so it may be a little unrealistic to assume that all of them have noticeable exterior damage. And yet, every time I see one parked on the street or driving next to me, there it is: a fender dragging on the ground, a big tear in the convertible top, huge areas of peeling paint, or some other major, noticeable damage. It’s not always the same damage, but every fourth-gen Mustang has apparently been wrecked or vandalized in some way. It
Read MorePress photos always make a car look prettier than it really is. They’re taken from all the optimal angles, with just the right lighting, and they likely go through a lot of post-processing. So if you want to know what the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E looks like in real life, you’ll want to check out this not-particularly-glamorous leaked photo. Update: We now have photos of the unique door handle and frunk!
Read MoreWe live in an era when 500 horsepower is no longer the exclusive purview of supercars. This isn’t a bad thing. There’s more performance out there than ever before, and it’s more accessible than it’s ever been. And this trio represents the really diverse ways to get to 500 horses.
Read MoreAs BMW is a company that made its name on fun four-door cars, it should come as no surprise that its first-ever electric sedan, the BMW i4, will perform fairly well. Maybe “fairly well” is understating it a bit. According to a new report, the i4 will be pushing a healthy 530 horsepower.
Read MoreMost cars are necessary. Lexus, for instance, needs to sell those compact crossovers and midsized sedans to compete in the luxury marketplace. It does not, however, need an opulent grand tourer. That did not stop the Lexus LC 500 from finding its way through production.
Read MoreI try not to spend much of my time thinking about how long we have left in the decade, but it came to my attention today that there are only 46 days remaining in this decade. Movies are a very important part of my life, and I like to record the passing of time in the movies I’ve seen. Like that scene in High Fidelity where Cusack reorganizes his record collection in biographical order. Am I the weird one?
Read MoreThe new Mustang Mach-E made its debut last night thanks to an accidental leak. We learned all kinds of things about the new car, including trim packages, 0-60 times, EV ranges, and pricing. We also got to see the thing without its camouflage on. It looks a little bit like a Tesla Model X that wasn’t given enough time in the transmogrifyer machine set to Mustang. The hips, grille, and tail lights are clearly Mustang, but the rest of it is just a little bit too... chonky.
Read MoreThere are many reasons to buy a Ferrari if you have immoral levels of cash, most of them good. They are fun to drive. They are stylish. The incredibly supple leather coddles your bottom like your mamma did when you were a newborn. But those are not the reasons one actually buys a Ferrari.
Read MoreAs you are no doubt aware, the worth of a carmaker is only as good as the amount of imagination and daring they are willing to put into taillight research and development. With this idea in mind, I think we can safely say that the Ford Motor Company peaked in 1965, with the development of the Video Pod. Look upon the Video Pod, ye mighty, and despair.
Read MoreThe headline on this blog used the word car “crashes,” not “accidents,” because words matter. That is the conclusion of a study conducted by researchers from Texas A&M and Rutgers University about how “minor changes in crash coverage can shift a reader’s perceptions of what happened and what to do about it.”
Read MoreIt sucks that we never got the current W12 Audi A8 in the U.S. before, as we were only left with a measly 3.0-liter V6. But now the A8 lineup is expanding with two new powertrains for those who want big beef power, with a twin-turbo V8 in the 2020 Audi S8 and a new hybrid model.
Read MoreNot everyone is keen on the idea of an electric Ford Mustang crossover, but the Mustang Mach-E is definitely happening anyway. If you’re one of the naysayers, maybe you’ll like it better when you see all the photos and specs—which you’re about to do.
Read MoreI totally understand getting riled up about trivial details in the automotive world. Many of us are car nerds, after all. But I still found the intense vocality of people who were mad about the Ford Mustang Mach-E’s name kind of funny.
Read MoreThe new Disney+ series The Mandalorian has proven quite fascinating for a number of reasons, but I think by far the most important revelation from the show has been our very first glimpse, since the series started way back in 1977, of a toilet in the Star Wars universe. For me, this is far bigger than the reveal that Darth Vader was Luke’s father, by far. I’ve been wanting to know how all those aliens and heroes and villains in that universe from a long time ago and far, far away peed and took d
Read MoreI get it. Really, I do. You’re Ford, building what looks to be an electric Mazda CX-5, and you want people to buy it. You’re worried that because no one has ever built an electric CX-5 before, no one will buy one, either. You’re worried your electric crossover won’t stand out in the endless sea of other new electric crossovers, very few of which are actually interesting to look at unless they have Falcon Doors. But people buy Mustangs. They love Mustangs. So call it a “Mustang” and you can quit
Read MoreIf your dream is of driving to the limit on a twisting road course, there is no car closer to that ideal than an original Mazda Miata, caged on sticky tires. And if your dream is of driving on a road course, there is no environment more hospitable to it than in the midst of Manhattan.
Read MoreOur beloved Alfa Romeo 4C, the Ferrari Dino successor we didn’t ask for but lovingly accept, is inching even further toward a fizzling demise. With the coupe already dead, the Spider has now been killed in Europe. The end is nigh.
Read MoreFord and General Motors, as you may have heard, are getting out of the small car business in America. Both say that this is because they need to invest in electrification and autonomy, and also because consumer taste has shifted. A new report says that brand loyalty for a huge chunk of buyers has also taken a hit.
Read MoreFord has been saying its new electric crossover is “Mustang-inspired” since last year’s Detroit Auto Show. And with the official name, they really, really went there.
Read MoreOnly just over 100 Alfa Romeo Tubolare Zagatos were built, many of them were raced, and every single one of them has a story.
Read MoreHow much do you think the Mustang brand identity is worth to Ford today? A hell of a lot, right? It’s a legit automotive icon, and the only non truck/crossover/SUV they’re still even willing to sell in America anymore, so you’d think it’s safe to say that the Mustang brand is considered a crown jewel of Ford. Incredibly, this hasn’t always been the case; in fact, at one time, Ford wasn’t even willing to pay the price of a top-spec F450 for it. I’ll explain.
Read MoreRemember the Santa Cruz compact pickup thing Hyundai trotted out at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show? The company’s executives do–because in spite of skepticism, it once again seems they’re still committed to making this mini truck a reality.
Read MoreThe Ferrari Roma’s smooth silhouette, long snout, and relaxed posture remind me of the Ferrari Maranello. That should be enough to get your attention since that super coupe was one of the greatest design triumphs of the 1990s. But it looks like the Roma will be pretty hot in its own right.
Read MoreOn Monday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was roundly condemned, including by this website, for telling Axios’s HBO show that the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government was “a serious mistake,” just like when Uber killed a woman with its self-driving car. Khosrowshahi then dismissed both incidents by saying “I think that people make mistakes.” And surely, people should be forgiven for their mistakes.
Read MoreAs many of you fellow dorks are likely aware, there is finally a Star Wars-universe television series that might actually meet or surpass the sublime quality standards set by the Star Wars Holiday Special. That series is The Mandalorian, the flagship series of Disney’s new scheme to take your money and make it theirs, the Disney+ streaming service. I thought the first episode was quite good, but it did leave me thinking about land speeders an awful lot. So let’s discuss.
Read MoreWell damn, you may as well throw your McLaren Senna right in the trash heap because the British supercar maker just bested itself again. The new 2020 McLaren Elva is lighter than the Senna, faster than the Senna thanks an 804 horsepower twin-turbo V8, and more audacious than the Senna in its lack of a windshield and windows.
Read MoreNot everything was great about the 1950s, but if there was one thing I could bring back about the era, it’s the frankly adorable commercial vans that used to tool around the streets of England. Thankfully, Morris is doing just that with its brand new all-electric Morris JE.
Read MoreThough crossovers and SUVs dominate the new car market as the Sedanocalypse closes in around us, some four-door cars will always be fine. The Toyota Camry is one of them. It may have lost its U.S. sales crown to the RAV4, but no one should worry about its future. Especially after today, when Toyota announced it should get better at handling poor weather.
Read MoreElon Musk announced during an awards ceremony in Germany on Tuesday and confirmed via tweet that Tesla will build its fourth “Gigafactory” in Berlin, Germany to build batteries, powertrains and vehicles. This will be Tesla’s fourth such project, following the ex-SolarCity facility in Buffalo, the Nevada Gigafactory outside of Reno (still under construction), and the China Gigafactory in Shanghai which just started producing its first cars.
Read MorePut a hot doggin’ sports car driver on summer rubber in the snow and even the best of us will have a difficult time. The cold temperature makes a sticky summer tire as hard as peanut brittle. The wide tread blocks sit up on top of the snow rather than dig in for traction. Similarly the shallow grooves don’t allow anywhere for the snow or slush to evacuate. It’s all bad. Which is probably why a new Corvette might be thrown into a wall as soon as the white stuff flies.
Read MoreHere in America, the Honda Prelude is remembered as a fun, sporty little car, a reminder of a time when everything Honda made was clever and reliable, and the Prelude was their way of having some fun without sacrificing Honda quality. People in America have fond memories of the Prelude, which is why finding out that it was a flop in Japan is so hard to imagine. What’s even harder to wrap your head around is part of why: it had a “pervert lever.” Wait, what?
Read MoreI had forgotten about Japanese automaker Aspark and its all-electric hypercar, the Aspark Owl, until today. It’s certainly a cool-looking thing with incredibly aspirational performance claims. But besides all that, I have this weird feeling Aspark (or whoever wrote the Owl’s press release) really, really wants us to bone this car.
Read MoreBack in October, Motor Trend wrote that, during its dyno testing, a 2020 Chevrolet Corvette had made horsepower and torque numbers well above the rated 495 horsepower and 470 lb-ft. The publication concluded then that the car “produces more power than what Chevy claims.” But now in a new follow-up, the team admits that it conducted the testing improperly. Here’s why the figures were so high.
Read MoreYou don’t need to spend $50,000 to have a legit overland SUV you can off-road in all day and sleep in at night. You don’t even need to drop $10,000. I’m about $5,000 into my 1998 Mitsubishi Montero so far; here’s how I’ve got this budget-friendly rig set up without sacrificing too much comfort or safety.
Read MoreResidents of Beverly Hills have one less thing to be concerned about, one less worry to add to the considerable pile of their difficult, hardscrabble lives: their streets are safe from prowling leopard-print sofas with tall, lanky Brits on them. But who is this long, snow-haired madman terrorizing the simple citizens of the Hills of Beverly on his animal-skin-clad motor-couch?
Read MoreBeing in the export and import business in Japan pays off. As sketchy as that might sound, Japan exports a little over a million used cars every year. Most of these cars are pretty unremarkable, bound for emerging markets and New Zealand. But a small percentage of cars leaving Japan every year are held dear by many enthusiasts in the country.
Read MoreYou may know Ken Block from such films as Gymkhana 10, or Climbkhana. The latter of the two was a wild sideways-and-smokey run up Pikes Peak with cinematography help from the legendary Jeff Zwart. Pikes Peak is dangerous when you aren’t drifting and showboating for the camera, which made that one perhaps Block’s most exciting film. In an effort for ever-wilder clips, the Hoonigan crew shipped off to China for a Climbkhana sequel, this time up China’s famous Heaven’s Gate road.
Read MoreI was born on March 6, 2007, when Maserati parked me on stage at the Geneva Motor Show. I, the Maserati GranTurismo. I, undying. I, a vision of design and excellence that remains indefatigable. You mean to tell me that the final GranTurismo has already been built, production concluded? I refuse to believe.
Read MoreI do realize that this trailer came out months ago, but for whatever reason I didn’t pay it much attention until now when I realized that the trailer is jam-packed full of almost-normal-but-still-alternate-universe cars. Which, of course, are some of the best fake cars. These fake cars appear to be part of a sort of fantasy-oriented world, so they have some subtle influences from there, like those crystal-shaped side marker lamps on that van there.
Read MoreIn what is very likely the smokiest, smelliest tribute to human freedom ever, a parade of around 65 Trabants, Wartburgs, and the occasional Barkas van trundled through a surviving gate between Thuringia and Bavaria, celebrating the fact that the people on the East side of that wall no longer have to buy cars like this. Oh, and freedom.
Read MoreLast October, Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul by the Saudi government. His body was dismembered with a bone saw under orders from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Saudi Arabia is Uber’s fifth-largest shareholder and the head of its sovereign wealth fund is a member of the company’s board. So what does Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi say about the killing? Well, simply, “people make mistakes.”
Read MoreThere’s a new GM electric vehicle that graciously isn’t some horrible marketing rip-off of an iconic muscle car. It’s the new Chevrolet Menlo, a compact electric crossover perfect for the U.S. market that will only be sold in China for no good reason.
Read MoreLet me preface this first by acknowledging that this is, by any rational accounting, stupid. Let’s just get that out of the way and let the reality of it wash over us. All good? Great. Now, here’s my question: when you’re driving, and mind is wandering, and you’re sort of half-pretending your car is a spaceship, how do you define the line between faster-than-light speed travel and sublight speed travel? I ask because I have a sort of little guide. Let’s talk about it.
Read MoreMaserati is in rough shape right now, but I’d be lying if I told you it was the first time. Now, as Groupe PSA gobbles up Fiat Chrysler and Maserati along with it, it’s worth remembering the last time Peugeot bought Maserati’s owner back in and sent the brand into turmoil, and the car that saved it. The Biturbo.
Read MoreSharing a ride with a stranger isn’t uncommon. If you use ride-hailing services, you’re probably doing it all the time. But for most people, riding with strangers conjures up images of traditional hitchhiking and all of the baggage that comes with it.
Read MoreMercedes-Benz has spent a lot of time convincing all of us that the newest generation of the G-Class would continue its legacy as an off-roader. That’s been mostly true, as it has walloped Jeep Wranglers and the sort. But that’s not why it sells.
Read MoreThe government of the United States of America, and those of individual states, have collectively determined it is fine to have people who don’t know how to drive large vehicles driving large vehicles. But among us are some heroes, heroes that refuse to accept this state of affairs. They are the hero rocks.
Read MoreYou read that right: in 2019's third quarter, electric vehicles outsold manual transmissions, Driving.ca reports, citing numbers compiled by J.D. Power research. I knew this day would come.
Read MoreAnyone who travels by air enough likely has a very specific set of pet peeves based on all the terrible things they’ve experienced while flying—but there are some things that go totally above and beyond small annoyances. You know, those things that you just cannot believe someone actually did, those things that leave you with a bad taste in your mouth and a vague feeling of horror at the human condition.
Read MoreIt’s come to my attention that many people out there aren’t thinking about copper, the element with atomic number 29, all the time. In fact, many people only think of it as that stuff meth-heads like to strip from the walls of houses, but it’s really so very much more. For example, it’s a fantastic conductor of electricity, which is why the Copper Development Association (CDA) bothered to make some interesting electric cars back in the 1970s.
Read MoreThis was my third trip to SEMA, and if I’ve learned one thing it’s that you have to really dig deep to find the truly awesome stuff on display. It’s not easy, but someone has to do it.
Read MoreToday, Rolls-Royce officially announced the Black Badge version of its hyper-luxury SUV, the Cullinan. Rolls-Royce’s Black Badge line is, as the company puts it, “a darker image that defines the taste of a younger generation of luxury consumer.” It’s also woefully inadequate in many ways.
Read MoreThe 2019 New York International Auto Show was largely a blur, but one car does stand out in my memory. It’s the sleek and gorgeous 2020 Hyundai Sonata, with a hood curvature that would stop even the fiercest of brand snobs. And you don’t even have to pay out the nose for one.
Read MoreThe ladies of Jalopnik, as you already know, get emails. It’s true we all get emails, but the Ladylopniks get really special emails that take very, uh, inappropriate turns sometimes.
Read MoreCarlos Ghosn, heard of him? Loves sushi, sported a new Louis Vuitton suit for every car show, had homes in Beirut, Rio de Janeiro, and Paris paid for by the company, and was allegedly quite corrupt.
Read MoreI know there’s a huge, huge distance between a render and what actually hits production. So if it does turn out the all-electric Volkswagen ID. Space Vizzion is a crossover in production form, then I’ll be sad. But until that happens, I’m going to call it a wagon because that’s what it damn looks like.Despite having a name that gives me hives when I type it out, the Space Vizzion looks fantastic. Its proportions are long and sleek and its face has a distinct Scirocco-ness to it. It is the sevent
Read MoreWhere were you when you found out that it was possible to have an electric car with a manual transmission? Maybe you sat down for a second like Rodin’s Thinker and said aloud to no one in particular “Maybe the future won’t be so bad after all.” like I did. Maybe it completely changed the course of your life. Or maybe that time is right now.
Read MoreI’m sure by now you’ve heard about the whole “Ok, boomer” trend, where all the people who are not Baby Boomers (that is, people born between 1946 and 1964) have decided that they need something dismissive to say to old gasbags when they won’t shut up about the Millennials and how they don’t do anything right and are always on their phones or whatever. I’m Gen X, so I barely know what’s going on, anyway, but I’m told this is A Thing. Well, now there’s a sort of car, targeted squarely at Boomers,
Read MoreShortly after I laid out my argument for why the SUV-defeating rock in Omaha, Nebraska is, in fact, a hero rock, a tipster from Columbus, Ohio, sent in evidence of their own hero rock.
Read MoreThe Audi R8 has had rear-wheel-drive models in the past, but they were limited-production examples or race cars. Today the company announced an Audi R8 RWD model and it’s just a normal part of the R8 lineup. That’s great... but is it only... the beginning?
Read MoreAfter weeks of rumors, it’s finally been confirmed that production of the first-ever mid-engine 2020 Chevrolet Corvette has been pushed back to Feb. 2020, following the six-week UAW strike.
Read MoreMore cyclists are dying on American roads. Last year, 857 cyclists were killed by drivers, a 6.3 percent increase from the year prior, even as overall road fatalities fell by 2.4 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.To try and reverse this morbid trend, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a series of recommendations. Most of them are beneficial if obvious ones: give cyclists their own road space physically separated from motor vehicles, desi
Read MoreOnly 50 of Mopar’s new Challenger Drag Pak will be made, each with a serialized plaque for the sake of collectability [Ewww]. This master of the 1320 is powered by a supercharged 354-cubic inch V8 through a 3-speed manually-shifted quick auto to a super sturdy Strange-built 9" rear stick axle. While Dodge didn’t say exactly how much horsepower it makes, or how fast it’ll go, or what kinds of times it will run, it is improved over the outgoing Drag Pak, which was capable of running 7.60s in the q
Read MoreA boulder in a Omaha parking lot has become a minor local celebrity thanks to the legions of SUV drivers who seem to want to do some off-roading in a quiet strip mall. Much like the infamous 11-foot-8 bridge (RIP), there is a quiet-yet-easily-avoidable menace, just sitting there, lurking, waiting to take out vehicles that are just slightly too large.
Read MoreI realize that to our readers still under the cruel, oppressive thumb of the British Crown, this may be old news, but to those of us who no longer live in fear of King George quartering soldiers in our rec rooms, I’ll admit I had no idea this was a thing. This thing I’m referring to is the fact that the Prince of Wales has an Aston Martin that is powered by leftover/possibly vomited wine and cheese making by-products.
Read MoreI think I’ve made it pretty clear that these little shows are going to be painfully geeky, and I assure you that this week’s episode will absolutely live up to that claim. Fundamentally, what I’m talking about here is something that I think is one of the greatest catalysts to creativity: restrictions. Specifically, the very significant restrictions of the old Atari 2600.
Read MoreI know there’s a whole category of car lovers out there for whom absolute perfection is the goal. I acknowledge this, and I can see the appeal of it, to a degree. To a degree. Sometimes, though, you get reminded about how absurd the whole pursuit of perfection can become. One of those times is right now, because Jaguar wants to sell people a shitty toolkit for nearly $1000 that I can pretty much guarantee will never be used by anyone, ever.
Read MoreIt’s not that I’ve never noticed this before, but I guess it’s never been brought to my attention that Mercedes has a habit of putting an embarassingly large star smack in the middle of the grille, and then plopping one right above it at the leading edge of the hood. Why separate badges?
Read MorePerhaps your opinion of the BMW 2 Series range has declined somewhat with the introduction of the new Ford Focus—I mean 2 Series Gran Coupe. Understandable! So if a Mini-based sedan isn’t your idea of what a 2 Series should be, consider this instead: the BMW M2 CS, the swan song for this great rear-drive coupe. It comes with lots of carbon fiber. Get excited.
Read MoreI’m sure you’ve all read articles about how very soon robots will be coming to take our jobs: self-driving cars taking our driving jobs, self-assembling machines taking our manufacturing jobs, self-eating food taking our restaurant jobs, self-internet surfing AIs taking our office jobs, and so on. I’ve always thought that I, a noted idiot who babbles about car stuff all day, would be relatively safe from this robotic replacement campaign. There’s a new article-writing AI that might prove me wron
Read MoreThe news of the merger of Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) and Peugeot-Citroën (PSA) has gotten many of us here on the USS Jalopnuts pretty excited, not necessarily for rational reasons, but more because the idea of any French carmaker re-entering the U.S. market is interesting, and the possible mash-ups of cars from such a merger are always entertaining to think about. My first thought is that the biggest possible beneficiary of this merger could be the venerable old Chrysler brand, so I decided to take one
Read MoreFifty years ago, Rod Hall and Larry Minor drove to victory at the Baja 1000 in Ford’s now-iconic red, white, and black Bronco with a blue roll cage. Today, in the middle of the hot Nevada desert, Ford unveiled its retrofuturistic successor, the 2020 Ford Bronco R, which in 15 days will take part in the 2019 Baja 1000.
Read MoreFord set up a bunch of 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500s with roll hoops/harness bars for our track testing and fitted them with six-point harnesses as well. As the nice Ford people helped clip me into the car for my run (it was like “wearing a backpack that’s strapped to a wall,” one Ford spokesperson remarked), I found myself wondering why all this was necessary. How fast would anyone actually be going? I certainly didn’t push the car hard enough to warrant such treatment.
Read MoreI can’t tell you how happy I am that people are talking about De Tomaso again. The P72 is gorgeous and striking, but let’s not forget the other gorgeous and striking De Tomaso cars that came before it. Namely, the Pantera.
Read More911 GT3s are detail cars. Each little technical facet is fine-tuned to make a rear-engined car nail corners on the track it shouldn’t be able to conquer, and every styling change from the standard car is carefully considered to attract maximum attention in the parking spots in front of fancy restaurants and hotels. That same attitude goes for taking good pictures of them too.
Read MoreIt’s good to play it simple. The true value of whatever you’re working with tends to shine through that way. Matt Hurst did just that and it really pays off in his new zine SEDAN, which features film-only photography of... sedans. And the photos? The photos are great. The cars are pretty sweet too.
Read MoreJonathan Ward’s Icon brand is not exactly known for simplicity and spartan interiors. That particular brand has built a name for itself by doing every little thing in an over the top fashion that leaves no knob un-knurled. This freshly-built FJ40 Land Cruiser takes things back to basics in the company’s new Roadster Edition.
Read MoreIt’s looking likely that Fiat Chrysler has finally found a merger-mate in Groupe PSA. If this new company is going to survive in this era of consolidation and changing market conditions, it’ll have to come up with some creative uses for the intellectual property and brand value it’s got at its disposal.
Read MoreFormula One is claiming that it wants to move to an 18" wheel and tire package for the 2021 regulations in an effort to remain relevant to the world of road cars. That might have been the case in 2004, but who really even offers an 18" wheel anymore? How much could 22" wheels cost, Michael? Ten dollars?
Read MoreBy now most of us have come to the realization that this fresh, new month of November we’ve just unwrapped is the month and year that the original 1982 movie Blade Runner was supposed to have taken place. In Blade Runner’s 2019 the automotive landscape is significantly different, arguably much more advanced, with flying cars everywhere. There was at least one car featured in the movie that does seem like it could exist in our 2019, and it’s one of the more under-appreciated cars of Blade Runner.
Read MoreThis week, the Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot merger was confirmed, finally bringing now-deceased former FCA head Sergio Marchionne’s dream to reality. The future of FCA’s brands are unclear, but a recent earnings call should shed some light on the situation.
Read MoreThe Tesla Model X went into production in 2015, and the future of 2015 looked bright. We’d all drive around in pods shaped vaguely like eggs, with gullwing doors that are smart enough not to hit other cars. The Tesla Cybertruck prototype debuted in 2019, and in the future of 2019, we all drive hulking, angular, Elysium monstrosities with indestructible doors and bulletproof glass. And all it’s making me feel is sadness.
Read MoreThe 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E is having the impact we all feared, and now some people with bad ideas are already assuming General Motors will want to do something as stupid as take a legacy performance model and turn it into something fundamentally unrecognizable with the Chevy Corvette.
Read MoreWhen I think of yellow headlights, I think of old diesel Mercedes-Benz sedans. Citroëns. Old European-market cars with a warm little twist to their lighting design. Well, the new BMW M8 Gran Coupe is bringing yellow lights back to America, thanks to endurance racing.
Read MoreI just want to be clear, right off the bat, that I love weird automotive design. I’m also quite fond of simple, possibly even crude designs. I’m not afraid of new, even strange automotive ideas. And yet, somehow, I still can’t even with this new Tesla Cybertruck, a truck that finally answers the question of what would a truck look like if it was designed on a Nintendo 64 and built in a country with zero ability to stamp steel. That’s a question, it should be noted, that no one fucking asked.
Read MoreHere’s what we know: Elon Musk loves Blade Runner, and that is why he has chosen tonight to unveil something called the Cybertruck. And we’ve seen—if you can call it that—some very vague and murky teaser shots of... something. Beyond that, we have few solid details about what Musk is up to tonight. So what do you want to see from this event?
Read MoreIn all honesty, an Aston Martin SUV isn’t the worst thing. I mean, my growing family of cats was really struggling to fit in the two-seaters, and we needed to add a larger vehicle to the family in order to all fit. Fluffy and Mittens also kept thinking the clutch pedal in the Vantage AMR was some form of whack-a-mole toy—making, as cats often do, once-simple tasks in life suddenly difficult.
Read MoreJust because car buyers seem to think that boring grayscale shades are the only appropriate colors to paint a car doesn’t mean Alfa Romeo agrees with the trend. In fact, the new Stelvios and Giulias are outfitted in some of the best 1970s-reminiscent shades around, and I am here for it.
Read MoreFord and GM both had the same job at hand: get a mass-market EV into production, something that people will like. Ford responded by making an all-electric sporty crossover with a name everyone will recognize. GM made the Chevy Bolt.
Read MoreOne of the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E’s most interesting design features is its lack of traditional door handles. There are actually no handles at all in the rear, and only tiny door “pulls” up front. You may be wondering, then, how do you open the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E’s doors?
Read MoreThe big news this week is, of course, Ford’s first mass-market battery electric car, the Mustang Mach-E, and their decision to call that car a Mustang. Whether you think the branding and styling of this electric crossover as a Mustang is a brilliant strategy or something close to a war crime doesn’t really matter, because it’s done. So let’s take a look at the the styling decisions Ford made, and try to get a sense of what we think of this new electro- “’Stang.”
Read MoreCitroën HY-vans are wonderful, charming, garden shed-like workhorses, and while now they tend to be most often seen as twee coffee and food trucks, they have a long history of doing Real Work, and, sometimes, that Real Work required some modifications. Those modifications often made an already flexible and useful vehicle into something even more clever, but this 1970 modidied HY van that’s for sale now takes it to an entirely new level.
Read MoreThe big-wheel trend is real. It seems as though with each year that goes by, bigger and bigger wheels aren’t just offered as options anymore, they’ve become the standard. And it doesn’t really seem like that’s going to stop, either. Not if General Motors vice president of global design Michael Simcoe’s prediction comes true, anyway.
Read MoreI don’t pretend to understand the capricious whims of Arpanettia, goddess of the Internet, or how she decides to elevate certain things at various times, but at this moment Brent Walter’s lovingly-built and devastatingly charming Beetle-fender scooters have been chosen. I’ve been sent links to these things so many times over the past few days, so I figured I should do my part as well. Let’s talk about some Beetle-fender scooters.
Read MoreI was just wasting a good amount of my afternoon reading about the Orca C113. Not familiar with it? Don’t feel bad, there’s a reason for that.
Read MoreIn general, the Kia Optima (K5 in Korea) isn’t one of those cars you generally think about too much unless you’re looking down at the rental car keychain to remember what they gave you. But that’s not really a fair assessment: the Optima has been steadily and stealthily getting better and better looking over the years since its introduction in 2000. The latest 2021 version actually seems like a car you can’t ignore anymore. Kia just released the first official images of the South Korean-market K
Read MoreI know it’s rude to throw shade on a sweet, innocent multinational carmaker on their birthday, but I don’t think it’d do anyone any good to hide it: Infiniti is a disappointment. I don’t actually think the cars it makes are necessarily any worse than those from Acura or Lexus or even BMW or Cadillac or anyone else in their general category; the reason I feel this way is because it started so strong, way back in 1989. Infiniti started with an actual, distinct vision and character, which then then
Read MoreOne of my favorite Dodges is the V8-powered, rear-wheel drive Dodge Magnum, a wagon that came out of one of the darkest eras in Chrysler’s history. It arose from the failed DaimlerChrysler merger, and its essential bones are still shared with the modern Charger. Does that mean you can swap the new Charger’s front onto the wagon? Hell yes, it apparently does.
Read MoreRumor has it that Subaru, after Toyota’s shares in the company increased from sixteen to twenty percent, could be teaming up with Toyota for the newest iteration of the WRX STI. Possibly even more interesting is the fact that the duo would be abandoning the WRX’s four-door body style to get back to the model’s first-gen roots.
Read MoreIt’s not every day that I actually fawn over a concept car, praying it goes into production instead of just remaining in teaser status forever. But that’s exactly what Mazda has done to me with its RX-Vision GT3 concept teaser. Honestly, it may just be the first car in quite a while to genuinely take my breath away even if it’s only destined to exist in the Gran Turismo video game series.
Read MoreChevy, a company that does not sell an all-electric mass-produced pickup truck despite being literally the best-prepared company on earth to do so, finally made one. Literally just one.
Read MoreLook, I get it. For many cars, snow is kryptonite. You lose grip, the weight transfer gets all funny and you can’t really steer or brake well. Each year, snowy conditions claim countless cars, and not even the C8 Chevrolet Corvette is godly enough to escape the snow’s wrath.
Read MoreEarly this morning, a Porsche crashed into the second floor of an office building in Tom’s River, New Jersey leaving two dead.
Read MoreRemember the old video game Spy Hunter? Or the old movie The Italian Job? Sure you do. You may recall that one of the most notable events in both game and movie involved driving a car up a ramp, and into the back of a truck, often while in motion. A Subaru Forrester driver in Northampton, Massachusetts appeared to have attempted the same move earlier today, but with significantly worse results.
Read MoreIf you’re going to race your father—a guiding figure in life who should be a moral grounding and invested in your general well-being—it should be obvious to avoid doing it in a tunnel, closed in by walls, underwater and surrounded by innocent people.
Read MoreIs your friend suspiciously interested in your 2000 Honda Civic? Well watch out—that’s the most commonly stolen car in America last year. Are you still sure you can call this person a friend now?
Read MoreThe United Auto Workers union is embroiled in a corruption scandal that has seen 13 people criminally charged. Today, things got even worse for the UAW, as GM filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler alleging bribery and corruption in union bargaining.
Read MoreA car-stealing couple (not kink-shaming, just letting you know) from Taylorsville, Utah started by stealing a BMW, then one of them stole a Jaguar from a gas station and was soon caught after a low-speed chase where the Jaguar broke down, stranding the thief and leaving him at the mercy of the police. See, sometimes that legendary Jaguar unreliability is a good thing!
Read MoreRaphael Orlove, watched the movie for the first time last week: With the recent smash success of Parasite, it is as good a time as any to re-visit (or watch for the first time) Bong Joon-Ho’s 2013 masterpiece Snowpiercer (it’s on Netflix!), in which an alternate-universe Captain America leads a class revolt up a train containing the last remnants of humanity in a frozen climate-changed world. I say masterpiece in that it is most certainly the most true-to-life depiction of the archetypal T
Read MoreFormer Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been full of bad takes over the years, from racist comments to suicide jokes. But he’s still at it, and the newest target of his annoyance is Greta Thunberg—an “idiot” teenage climate activist who has, Clarkson added, “killed the car show.”
Read MoreFord v. Ferrari, if you hadn’t noticed, is a tale of some of the most honorable things this world has to offer: capitalism, balls of steel, and men doing manly things. Vroom! Grunt! Rrrrrrrr! Perhaps the movie’s manly sentiments—sentiments we men are taught not to have in these sissy days, as they might be toxic!—scared you.
Read MoreLast December, we reported that Clarkson, Hammond and May would be giving their Amazon Prime vehicle The Grand Tour a bit of a facelift, scrapping the studio segments and putting the focus on longer travel films. A year later, the three have made good on their promise with a trip through the Mekong Delta.
Read MoreWhen I think of cars from the Fast and Furious franchise that I could drive in real life, not only would I rather take the bus than be seen in Tyrese Gibson’s purple and silver Eclipse Spyder from 2 Fast 2 Furious, I’d actually also rather be hit by said bus instead.
Read MoreWe’ve been hearing talk about an animated Fast & Furious spinoff happening for some time, but now that there’s a release date, a cast, and the loose outline of a plot, I guess we can say for sure that it’s really going to be A Thing. You’ll be able to watch it on Netflix starting Dec. 26, 2019.
Read MoreThere’s an ungodly amount of vehicles in the upcoming James Bond movie, No Time To Die, but out of all of them it seems like the new 2020 Land Rover Defender is going to get the most action.
Read MoreThe concept cars at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show were, for the most part, pretty tame. Sure, there were a few futuristic things, but they mostly followed those unspoken rules of pretend-future car design, like huge wheels and gullwing doors and a sleek, cyber-suppository shape. Mercedes showed one that was different, mostly because it was based on a car design that’s well over a century old.
Read MoreVolkswagen’s main concept car at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show wasn’t the most outlandish or flashy concept it has ever had, but was in many ways as much of a modern take on a classic Volkswagen staple as the ID Buzz reborn Microbus—just more subtle. It’s a wagon, an electric wagon, and the motor is mounted low in the rear, under the cargo area, just like the air-cooled VW wagons made in decades past.
Read MoreGoing through all the photos I shot from the 2019 LA Auto Show, I came to the sad realization that nothing really stood out this year. So many new cars were jelly bean-shaped things in various shades of gray, dark blue, white and gray. I suppose the best we can do is paint them in the most flamboyant colors possible and give them cool wheels. BMW certainly got that memo.
Read MoreWow. I have to really hand it to Ford; I’ve never seen an automaker keep a secret this big, this well. Ford has accomplished something very few others have—a one-two punch of automotive introductions, starting with the new electric Mustang Mach-e SUV/crossover, and now the reveal of the unexpected but impressive Mach-E Coupe.
Read MoreThe 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E is a huge deal. It’s the first high-volume Ford built on a dedicated electric vehicle platform, marking what could be a major inflection point for the company as the world shifts away from gas cars and towards EVs. I had a chance to talk with some engineers about the Mach-E’s tech; here’s what I learned.
Read MoreIt’s been 10 years since we saw the last Type S in the form of the Acura TL Type S. It was a good and handsome car, with subtle differences that made it obvious only to people in the know. At this year’s LA Auto Show, Acura brought out the very blue Type S Concept. We got to take a closer look at it.
Read MoreThe last thing the world probably needs is a go-fast crossover, but that’s what the people demand, and so that’s what we are getting. At the LA Auto Show yesterday, we were introduced to the Mercedes-AMG GLS 63—the AMG-ified version of Benz’s biggest and most luxuriant crossover. It has 603 horsepower, a 48-volt electrical system and... wait. Wait. Good Lord, those wheels!
Read MoreWhen the Trailblazer name left Chevrolet showrooms in 2009 it was replaced by the Traverse. Wednesday evening the Detroit automaker announced the name would be returning on a compact SUV to slot between the Trax and Equinox. That’s a full three sizes smaller than the current Traverse, and two sizes smaller than the Blazer. It is said to start “under $20,000" which undercuts the smaller Trax by at least $1300.
Read MoreToday at the LA Auto Show, Hyundai showed the RM19 Racing Midship Sports Car “concept,” and it was an odd debut for a mid-engine test mule that has been in development since 2012. The thing is, it sounds like Hyundai’s actually doing it, in some form or fashion.
Read MoreNissan has unveiled its 2020 Sentra at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show, and this thing looks slick. Nissan has eschewed the frankly ridiculous “new cars must be round and soft” practice that no automaker has been able to shake for sharper lines and sleeker tech—and honestly, I’m entirely here for it.
Read MoreHaving driven the 2019 Toyota RAV4, I can definitively say it’s a Good Car. It’s comfortable, utilitarian and good at just being a car. That said, with 203 horsepower, it was a little underpowered. Clearly, Toyota aware of the issue, because the all-new, 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid now makes 302 HP. YOU GUYS. I never thought I’d see the day.
Read MoreThe Volkswagen ID. Space Vizzion concept is the wagon that is not a wagon. Fully electric and previewing a potential production car for North America and Europe, the concept is very neat. I really hope Volkswagen doesn’t change much if it hits production.
Read MoreDespite Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer once saying building an SUV wasn’t in the cards for the company, we find ourselves here today to witness the unveiling of the first-ever Aston Martin SUV. Friends, meet the 2020 Aston Martin DBX, finally without all that camo.
Read MoreAudi unveiled Tuesday evening a new “steeply raked d-pillar” version of the all-electric quasi-SUV E-Tron called “Sportback” ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show. When properly equipped, this new E-Tron actually has an aerodynamic advantage over the standard version, offering a drag coefficient of 0.25 when equipped with the S line exterior package and the (Europe-only) exterior rear view camera package. This contributes to about 6.2 miles of added range on the WLTP test cycle. Neat.
Read MoreThe status of Karma Automotive, formerly Fisker and/or VLF Automotive, is a little confusing to me. But the current iteration of the company has dropped a long and low electric coupe concept that has me rooting for whoever’s trying to put the thing on the road.
Read MoreMini’s John Cooper Works GP models have always been a ridiculous caricature of a race-inspired hot hatch. The first GP was perfection, which explains their equally ridiculous resale prices these days. It takes just the right person to appreciate the JCW GP, but those who do hold them tight and treat them dearly. Only 3,000 will be made for worldwide consumption.
Read More“I’m looking at the Kia Seltos and I’m not sure it’s not a new Chevy Trailblazer wearing Groucho Marx Glasses,” my colleague Raphael Orlove commented when I mentioned the impending release of this car. He was thinking of the Brilliance V6, but yeah, the Seltos is pretty cookie-cutter. It’s not bad, though.
Read MoreThe 2020 Audi E-Tron Sportback, a somewhat lither version of the company’s fully electric E-Tron SUV, officially marketed as “e-tron,” will step on the scene at this week’s 2019 LA Auto Show. It will share a stage with a 5,000-pound SUV with eight cylinders, two turbos, and a Nürburgring speed record.
Read MoreThe look and some specs on the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E electric crossover have already been seen, but as of 6:30 p.m. pacific time Sunday, Nov. 17, the car and even more details have officially been released. Here’s your complete download.
Read MoreFor this year’s SEMA show, Ford rolled out something both very neat and very puzzling. The car in the photo you see above is called the Ford Mustang Lithium. It’s an all-electric prototype, makes big power and also has a manual transmission. But why?
Read MoreThe Nissan Kicks, I am sorry to say, is a car that I cannot bring myself to care about. Not only am I resentful it replaced the objectively funky Nissan Juke here in the United States, its name also promises something far more interesting than it actually is. Like calling cottage cheese Super Duper Savory Power Food That Will Make You Famous And Also Rich™. But the Nissan Kicks Street Sport that was just unveiled at this year’s SEMA show? That is the only good Kicks.
Read MoreIt’s SEMA time, so you all know what that means. Ridiculous aftermarket parts and hugely modified, one-off cars that we’ll never be able to buy or own ourselves. Like this Nissan Global Time Attack TT 370Z. At least it looks cool and makes a lot of power.
Read MoreBy now, it’s well established that I love old Jeeps. And while my love spans a variety of models, engines, and architecture types, there’s one Jeep that will always be my favorite: The Jeep Cherokee XJ, the true jack-of-all-trades Jeep. And of all XJs built between the 1984 and 2001 model years, there’s a very specific type that I consider “the holy grail.” And a pristine example just went up for auction and sold for over $16 grand.
Read MoreEverybody loves a good barn find. The idea of a cool derelict car that’s just been resting, waiting to be restored, is as tantalizing as buried treasure. But what about when the find... is the barn?
Read MoreThe Lamborghini Jarama was good. Like most good Lamborghinis, it wore lines by Marcello Gandini over the famous V12. That’s the basic formula. But the Jarama was more than that.
Read MoreIs a decent driver-grade 911 selling for a sane price a sign of consumer confidence levels, a portent of a downward trending economic environment, or just a buyer getting a great deal? Today on Bring A Trailer this silver Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 Targa—arguably among the most iconic sports cars of all time—sold for a price that I would call within the realm of sanity; $25,800. It’s been years since I’ve seen anything even close to this. It feels like the tides are turning.
Read MoreI am a self-proclaimed Hellcat Woman, which still surprises me. I’m into lighter sports cars, paying roughly six figures to thunder down the highway in a Dodge has never been on my radar, and I find that lower power numbers are more fun for street driving. Yet the absurdity of it wins me over every time.
Read MoreN’er before has there been a more important task for the readers of this site, as I want—nay need—one of you to trade [many] monetary units for this 1978 Porsche 911 Turbo, once owned by Formula One racer Kevin Magnussen. I am a self-described Porsche fanatic, a racing fanatic, and direct descendant of a Dane myself. This should definitely be my car, but sadly I do not have enough monetary units to trade for such a thing. Therefore it is your duty to buy it in my stead. And this is why.
Read MoreA royally-owned 1934 Rolls Royce, a unique Citroën SM, or a surprisingly well-kept Chrysler TC by Maserati: Which is the true representation of luxury? Only the intrepid Craigslist explorer can decide.
Read MoreIt’s 1996. Jurassic Park has made dinosaurs cool again. The Lamborghini Diablo has been very effective at terrifying everyone and hiding the fact hat it has Nissan headlights. Zagato has taken the Diablo, removed the safety systems, and supplied the power of a 5.7-liter V12 into the hand of one lucky customer through the knob of a six-speed manual.
Read MoreI was putzing around on Facebook Marketplace this morning when I saw this gorgeous, clean copper and black ‘76 AMC Gremlin X on sale through Classics Beyond in Wayne, MI. Since then, I’ve been in a tizzy trying to restructure my whole life into one that centers around ownership of this car.
Read MoreThe 1983 Jeep Cherokee was the very last body-on-frame Cherokee, giving way to the unibody XJ model that was objectively better in nearly every way. Still, there’s one area where the “SJ” Cherokee trounces its successor: styling. And you can bet that’s a big reason why this 1983 Jeep Cherokee Laredo sold yesterday for over 50 large.
Read MoreAlex Palmeri, a YouTuber with a penchant for buying neat old Mercedes-Benzes nobody wants, says he picked up a $1,000 C-Class that’s actually a rare and special tuner car. The RENNtech C38 wasn’t something I’d ever heard of, but it turns out this W203 does have an interesting pedigree.
Read MoreI’ll be honest. I don’t usually like the look of a totally slammed car. The wheel arches hanging over the tires just makes most of them look weird to me. This Toyota Corona that’s currently on Craigslist in Scottsdale, Arizona, though? It works. It really works.
Read MoreThe Honda Gold Wing has a reputation as an old rider’s bike, a plush and ponderous road couch for those who’ve finally unbent their beat-up bodies and settled onto something more accommodating to creaky knees and sore backs. But that doesn’t mean you have to be one step away from a rocking chair to appreciate it. Though it may help.
Read MorePulling off a J-turn, a driving stunt where you reverse at speed, turn the car around 180-degrees, and then continue driving forward, is easier than you think.
Read MoreWhen it comes to the various bits of infrastructure that help keep us safe while we drive, most likely the greatest cost-and-simplicity to benefit ratio has to be painted lane lines on roads. They’re just stripes of paint, but they make driving vastly safer and more manageable than it would otherwise be. If you don’t believe me, the next time you end up on a stretch of new road that doesn’t have lane marking painted yet, note how quickly everyone begins to start panicking and driving like loons.
Read MoreWhether you’re an evil international billionaire supervillain, seeking a new plot for your next Fast And Furious In Space script, or investigating a murder that has you wondering who exactly is in that “Starman” suit, you’ve likely thought about orchestrating an interstellar automobile heist to get your hands on Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster. It’s currently screaming across the cosmos, having launched from earth at the tip of SpaceX’s 27-engine Falcon Heavy rocket.
Read MoreVance & Hines Harley-Davidson FXDR rider Andrew Hines had a truly bizarre NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle season this year, which wrapped up last weekend in California with his sixth championship. Having won seven races from the first 10 Pro Stock race outings this season, he went into the series’ playoff segment, dubbed the “Countdown to the Championship” as the easy favorite. Then the stumbles started to pile up.
Read MorePeople will often tell you to ride your motorcycle like you’re invisible. This is pretty good advice because most people don’t see you. Many of them don’t see anything except the cell phone glued to their face and whatever their peripheral vision happens to catch. A lot of people do notice you, and many of them will make a little extra space for you. Some of them will make a lot of extra space for you, and while I appreciate the thought, I’m going to have to ask you to not do that.
Read MoreWe are a nostalgic culture. We like to look back and think about how good things used to be, to watch old movies and pretend like they aren’t really terrible. Auto companies know this, and that’s why they sell us the throwback designs. The look and feel of the ‘60s without the drum brakes and carburetors? Yes, please.
Read MoreIt is rare that a custom motorcycle tickles my fancy quite like the “Hasty Flaming Buffalo” here has. I am an absolute sucker for simplicity, motorsport inspiration, and old school cues. And this bike from LM Creations has all of that and absolutely nothing else. It is ostensibly a visual recreation of a 1910-era Indian board track racer, but with a modern Scout V-twin and lots of modern materials, like carbon forks.
Read MoreTuesday in concurrent events at SEMA in Vegas and EICMA in Milan, quirky Swedish electric motorcycle company Cake unveiled its second all-new electric two wheeler in the new Ösa. It is billed as a modular utilitarian commuter mobile which can provide power to your devices once you arrive to your destination. It is available in two different models, Ösa Lite and Ösa+. I was jazzed to get the opportunity to lay eyes upon this thing in person at SEMA today.
Read MoreIt’s Thanksgiving y’all! And if there is one thing this holiday is good for, it is sharing trash takes with the people you barely see but are legally required to love. Families just don’t share their awful opinions over holiday food enough. Especially the ones about the cars.
Read MoreLast week, GM sued Fiat Chrysler, arguing that corrupt union bargaining had forced GM to pay its workers more than FCA does, and put it at a competitive disadvantage. The timing of the suit was a surprise, but GM said it was running up against a statute of limitations. Still, there was a sense about the whole ordeal that the timing was, in fact, pretty convenient.
Read MoreIf you’re in the market for a crossover made by a British sportscar company but are concerned about whether your dog can come along, worry no more. Aston Martin had you in mind when they put together the new DBX crossover.
Read MoreThis week, Peter’s driving the Chrysler Valiant 770 Charger, which isn’t just a bunch of Chrysler model names after some time in the blender. It was a real car built by Chrysler for the Australian market. And it was fast.
Read MoreMy neighborhood is filled with great cars. Some of them, like the Datsun from a few weeks back, lead solitary lives. They park alone on a block with hardly another interesting car around. Others? Others are more social. Like these Dodges. The Brooklyn Dodges.
Read MoreWe first heard this rumor over a year ago now, but a new report says it’s been confirmed that the hottest version of the new mid-engine Corvette will be hybrid, boosting its output to 900 HP.
Read MoreNissan, the car company last seen in this space unveiling the new Sentra in addition to cratering profits, has a plan to turnaround its business. That involves going upmarket, making an electric crossover, and, uh, betting that there is still a market for sedans.
Read MoreThe Lordstown plant in Ohio was one of the sacrificial lambs of General Motors’ recent restructuring. The General sold the plant to an unlikely, recently formed automaker, Lordstown Motors Corp, earlier this month. And now Lordstown has both a vehicle and a site where you can pre-order said vehicle.
Read MoreWe heard about this thing at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, but now all of the details have emerged. The first SUV bearing the Maybach name is here. This should probably be illegal on principle, but Maybach now joins Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and basically every other spendy marque in the world in succumbing to the SUV boom.
Read MoreGary Jones, the president of the UAW who took a leave of absence earlier this month, abruptly resigned Wednesday after the union’s executive board moved to remove him from that job and expel him from the union. Jones has been tied to a corruption scandal that has led 13 people to be criminally charged—but not (yet) Jones himself.
Read MoreThe Lexus LC500 is one of the best cars, bar none, on sale right now. That’s a shame because damn near no one is buying them, with Lexus getting fewer than 2,000 out the door in 2018. But none of that matters because now there’s somehow a car even better than the Lexus LC500. It’s the Lexus LC500 Convertible, and you know it’s a convertible because it says it right in the name.
Read MoreGray, white, black, and silver are far and away the most popular colors on cars, according to a new(ish) report. This is the kind of soul-deadening news I’ve grown accustomed to these days, even if those colors have been the most popular for a while. You know what color you should be getting? The answer is green. Disagree? Take it to Kinja.
Read MoreWe all love cars here, but there’s just something about the chaotic fiberglass origami they turn into during crash testing. It is undeniably beautiful and at times haunting. A Germans crash-testing company seems well aware of this particular aesthetic, as its latest set of crash testing videos were shot with the slowest of slo-mo cameras so you can revel in every tiny detail as it is flung from the body of a car.
Read MoreBefore the GT40, there was the Cobra Daytona Coupe, a car that Ken Miles believed had endless racing potential. Carroll Shelby and the Ford company disagreed.
Read MoreGreyhound used to be good. Whole songs have been written about how great it was for seeing the country. Now, though? It’s a mess and it’s hard to find a better example of just how awful the storied bus company than the regularly scheduled service between Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.
Read MoreIt brings me great pleasure to introduce the Jalopnik readership to the work of Peter Wherrett, later known as Pip Wherrett, Australia’s premier automotive television presenter of the 1970s. I found Peter’s work a few nights back on youtube and I immediately knew I needed to share it with all of you.
Read MoreAfter a big reveal in Frankfurt back in September, the electric Volkswagen ID.3 has entered production in Zwickau, Germany this week. The MEB platform-based hatch built there will be launched in many markets around the world with the notable exception of North America.
Read MoreThis is a GMC Envoy XUV. The roof over the load space opens like a Studebaker Wagonnaire and frankly, it’s a pretty good choice for a Bed-Stuy ride if you ask me.
Read MoreSupercars, these days, are boring. They are! They all follow a pretty standard formula, at least where the people sit. Lots of carbon fiber, switches out of a spaceship, and the sort of quiet desperation that screams “I have money, please love me.” There’s nothing funky or weird or genuinely cool, at least not in the way that David Bowie would think is genuinely cool. But maybe these plaid seats are it.
Read MoreSEMA is where garish, bold and sometimes barely recognizable cars come for their 15 minutes of fame. However, one slick 1,000 horsepower car almost didn’t make it to this city of bright lights and big dreams.
Read MoreIt’s a little unclear what the hell Ford is talking about when it calls its first all-electric SUV “Mustang inspired,” especially seeing as how it’s an all-electric family crossover whereas the Mustang, well, is not. But maybe seeing the thing in the flesh, caught almost completely uncovered, might help clear things up.
Read MoreBack in 2017, a group of geniuses in Italy designed a kit for converting Citroën Jumper vans into replicas of the legendary HY van, which went into production 70 years prior. The results are pretty legit but there’s one improvement that could be made. They could be available here in America too.
Read MoreYesterday I asked the esteemed Jalopnik commentariat for suggestions of product plans that Fiat Chrysler and Groupe PSA could put together now that they’re bound for marriage. I was not disappointed.
Read MoreWelcome to Little Car in the Big City, where we highlight fascinating cars we found walking around a town that is known for being bigger than everything else, but where every car is fighting to stand out: New York, New York.
Read MoreBetween the Rolos and the Laffy Taffys and the Jolly Ranchers, Halloween was rough. No need to panic, though. Dr. Giugiaro will see you right away in his 1989 Isotron. That’s right. A dentist’s chair. Giugiaro designed a dentist’s chair.
Read MoreWelcome to Little Car in the Big City, where we highlight fascinating cars we found walking around a town that is known for being bigger than everything else, but where every car is fighting to stand out: New York, New York.
Read MoreFirst responders have a lot of equipment on hand to help them do their job and keep people safe. But if you haven’t found yourself in need of professional help from an EMT, a firefighter, a lifeboat crew, or any other emergency service, you might not know just how much is at their disposal. Now, you can.
Read MoreBlack Friday may be the biggest shopping day of the year, but today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Z3 might prove that not everything’s a deal. Let’s see if this Fauxbra’s price makes it worth coming out of your post-Thanksgiving food coma.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Saturn has one of the greatest performance monikers of all time—Redline. It also comes with Recaro seats, a supercharger, and suicide back doors. What could all of that possibly be worth?
Read MoreIn the housing market, messing with classic attributes is typically described as “remuddling.” Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Honda is a classic bike that’s been remuddled a bit. Let’s see if that means its price needs some work as well.
Read MoreThe Maserati Ghibli may not be a great car, but could the price drop from new on today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe clean-titled 2015 mean it can still be a great deal?
Read MoreIf you’re familiar with the phrase “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” then you might very well be the target audience for today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Geo dragster. Let’s find out of this crazy quarter-miler’s price makes it a deal any day of the week.
Read MoreBaseball may be the great American pastime, but as exemplified by today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe TT, it was Germany that extended the sport’s aesthetic to the automotive world. Let’s see if this Quattro convertible’s price proves to be a home run.
Read MoreWith the debut of the Mach-E taking the Mustang brand in unfamiliar directions, now’s a good time to look back on another pony that flouted tradition. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Mustang II represents the most vilified of editions—at least so far. Let’s see if it, and its price, are really all that bad.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe E55 AMG offers to let you bring a mechanic round to check it out. Let’s see if its price demands you also bring along your accountant.
Read MoreHow many ponies do you think is too many to route through a car’s front wheels? Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Saab is claimed to rock around 350 horses and is FWD. Let’s see if that’s over the limit and whether its price is too.
Read MoreWith its Cummins 5.9 and 5th wheel hitch, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe D250 looks ready to pull just about anything. Let’s see if it’s nice enough to have you pulling for its price.
Read MoreIt’s very likely that the price for today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe VW Jetta GLI is about what the car cost new. It’s been renewed and looks to be... well, better than new. Could that all add up to that almost as-new price?
Read MoreIf you want to run with the SUV crowd but still seek to stand out, you might want to take a glance at today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Montero. It’s a Sport and comes with both 4WD and a stick which means it’s earned that name. Let’s see if it also earns its asking.
Read MoreIf you consider that all tangible things have finite lifespans then the mileage on today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe M6 might just give you pause. Let’s see if its price accounts for those miles allowing you to press play.
Read MoreThere’s a lot to be said for getting away from it all, and with today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Tundra you ought to be able to get away and back again no matter where away is. Let’s see if that rugged nature aligns with its urbane price tag.
Read MoreIt’s unlikely that any 7-passenger minivan is going to be the wind-cheating champ, and yet Ford named its ‘80s people-carrier the Aerostar. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe XLT sports a long back end and four-wheel drive. Could those enticements make its price a star too?
Read MoreThere’s a claimed 650 horses under the hood of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Corvette, despite which it’s claimed to drive as though stock. Let’s see if that Jekyll and Hyde personality is matched by a crazy-killer price.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe old-school Camry says it’s worth its weight in gold. That’s obviously hyperbole, but fitting since the car is gold, inside and out. Let’s see what exactly it might more realistically be worth its weight in.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Montero has a Delica diesel under its hood and 4WD for climbing its namesake mountains. Could that, and a bit of funky old patina, make its price perfectly palatable?
Read MoreWhile it’s important to stay hydrated, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe hot-shoe Neon went a little too far into the wet and now has an engine knock. The seller says that’s too much for him, but could his price be too much for us.
Read MoreResumes, orgasms, and enthusiasm are three things that people oftentimes fake. Right up there with them is Ferraris, as evidenced by today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Testarossa replica. Could this be one fake that’s actually better to buy and own?
Read MoreNew York knows how to put on a good parade. The New York City Department of Records has some photos to prove it. There is no better parade ground than the Canyon of Heroes.
Read MoreIt’s been 50 years since the iconic Concorde took flight for the first time. To commemorate this anniversary Aston Martin will build the DBS Superleggera Concorde Special Edition, the latest in a long list of aviation-inspired Aston special editions.
Read MoreGM didn’t know how good it had it in 2002. We were years away from the Recession, from the bailout, and Americans were clutching to consumerism like there was nothing else to grab hold of. It is in this environment that a couple of executives reportedly took a trip to England that would break my heart some 17 years later.
Read More“High quality, low prices, and sensible design.” That’s what the Saturn SW2 provides in spades, according to John Davis. And according to me. Isn’t that what so many of us seek from a new car?
Read MoreOnly one four-wheel-drive vehicle in history has won the Baja 1000 overall, and it’s this one. Driven to the victory by Rod Hall and Larry Minor, the story goes that in those early days of the race there were hardly any roads and certainly no useful maps, making it an incredibly difficult journey. To have done it in this rough-and-tumble rumble buggy must have been incredibly difficult. I got to ride in it for about five miles and it about shook me to pieces!
Read MoreFor an embarrassingly long time, I believed gender reveals were a euphemism for birth. Even though this was not correct in the strictest sense, I nevertheless maintain birth is the only true gender reveal. I also don’t get the point of the big showy ones that occur prior to birth that involve painting an entire forest blue or shooting yourself in the face with a gun filled with blanks only to turn the gun around and see IT’S A BOY written across the barrel. I assume it’s for the views, the likes
Read MoreIt was November 2, 1947, and five years after the project to create the world’s largest airplane began, the Hughes H-4, known to almost everyone else as the ‘Spruce Goose,’ lept off the surface of the water off of Long Beach, California for its first and only flight.
Read More“Our goal was to make the hybrid system disappear into the car. We wanted to do it the way Porsche would have done it,” Vonnen CEO Chuck Moreland said about his company’s 2013 Porsche 911. The car was heavily modified to be electrified but doesn’t feel like it. It does feel pretty damn good, though.
Read MoreThe end of the Formula One season is upon us, and it’s time to reflect on all the things The Powers That Be have done right and where things could be better. And because we are motorsport fans, let’s have a nice little chat about what F1 can do to making its racing all the better.
Read MoreThe NASCAR schedule is often criticized as redundant, as it regularly includes the same tracks at the same times of year, every year, without much flexibility. But new report indicates that may change as soon as 2021, and that NASCAR could toss in some street courses and temporary purpose-built tracks.
Read MoreThe 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of the most fascinating motor races in the world, so it makes sense why there has been a sudden influx of great new films about the event coming to the fore recently. But I think my new favorite has to be Le Mans 1955.
Read MoreOver the weekend, the new Ford Bronco (as the Ford Bronco R prototype race truck) took its first stab at the pinnacle of North American desert racing, the Baja 1000. It was a triumphant launch ahead of the return of the production Bronco, but the race didn’t end as triumphantly as it started. The Bronco R DNF’d after issue upon issue.
Read MoreYesterday, British driver Alexander Sims took home his first Formula E win for BMW in the season opener in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. It’s great news for Sims and a huge stage for one of the fastest-growing racing series in the world. But it’s hard to focus on motorsports when it’s clear that’s all just part of a whitewashing effort to help the country rebrand itself, even as it represses its citizens and even murders them.
Read MoreZandvoort hasn’t hosted a Formula One race since 1985, but it will next year as F1 seeks to piggyback on the popularity of Max Verstappen. There were immediately a couple of problems: Some pretty serious environmental concerns and a track drivers said could be bad for racing. Zandvoort is hoping some big banked turns might help fix the latter.
Read MoreThe sixth Formula E season kicked off early this morning with the Diriyah ePrix, and one of the biggest talking points was, how are newcomers Mercedes and Porsche going to fare when competing against some of the series’ more experienced teams? The answer, it turns out, is really fucking well.
Read MoreAutomakers love to remind us how “close” our electric and autonomous future is, while a lot of major racing divisions they participate in remain powered, at least partly, by internal-combustion engines. But Volkswagen is done with all of that, apparently. It plans to only race electric cars from now on.
Read MoreThe Dakar Rally, for the second year in a row, is running entirely within the boundaries of a single country. In 2019 it was Peru. This January 5th-17th, the race will change regions entirely to the deserts and dunes of Saudi Arabia. Thursday the race unveiled the 2020 Dakar route, which starts in Jeddah and ends in Qiddiyah across eleven days of competition with a day of rest in Riyadh.
Read MoreFormula E is embarking on its sixth season this weekend, and if you aren’t already watching, this is the perfect time to get in on the action. We can all use a little more motorsport in our lives, and what better way to get your off-season fix than with some eco-friendly open-wheel cars?
Read MoreLeading up to the NASCAR Truck Series’ championship race on Friday, where a title would be decided by the highest finisher of four drivers still in contention in that single race, the long shot this season, Matt Crafton, was asked about the potential for him to become the first winless champion in this era of NASCAR.
Read MoreHave you ever wondered what it would be like for a Formula One pit crew to take on a tire change in space? I know that I have, mostly just because I frequently wonder what it would the future of racing will be (hint: it is long-distance interplanetary racing). Red Bull Racing is ahead of the game—it’s already practicing its zero-gravity pit stops in the event that this very specific genre of racing takes off sooner rather than later.
Read MoreJust months after failing to qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs for the first time in his career and days after the end of the 2019 season, seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson announced on Wednesday that next year will be his last as a full-time Cup Series driver.
Read MoreAny time I’ve ever had a big breakup, I usually just cut off all my hair, dye it a new color, and buy a spicy new wardrobe. That’s why I truly relate to Citroën’s decision to completely leave the World Rally Championship after its driver and six-time WRC champion Sébastien Ogier opted to leave them for Toyota. When in doubt, make very drastic decisions that place all the blame for relationship faults on the other person involved!
Read MoreWorld records, like rules or the latches on public restroom doors, were made to be broken. Again. And again. Red Bull Racing truly lives by this motto. They’ve just beat their own record of 1.88 seconds with a 1.82-second long pit stop. That’s four tires off and four tires on in less time than it takes to blink, if you blink extremely slowly.
Read MoreIn July of this year, Guy Martin, who holds Guinness World Record for the fastest Soapbox and highest speed on a Wall of Death, absolutely demolished the tractor world speed record with his turbocharged JCB Fastrac 8000 tractor. Back then, all we had was an incredibly brief clip of the tractor cruising at its record speeds. Today, Guinness gives us a deeper dive into the process of actually setting one damn cool record.
Read MoreEvery so often, race fans are gifted with a magical, beautiful moment that cuts through the rest of Formula One’s very frequent bullshit. We had one of those moments this past weekend at the Brazilian Grand Prix, when McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. drove from 20th place to a third-place podium position. Now you can watch the best parts of that drive without all the pesky other nonsense.
Read MoreHeading into the final race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead Miami, it was Joe Gibbs Racing (Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr.) against Kevin Harvick at Stewart-Haas Racing. But after his dominant start to the season, it was Kyle Busch who came back around to take home the title.
Read MoreMax Verstappen, for all the excitement he brings into any given Formula One race, has only started a race on pole once in his career. Today, after being dominant in every session, he extends that list to two. And the pole is the first for a Honda-powered car at Interlagos since 1991 when Ayrton Senna qualified first for McLaren.
Read MoreIn 2003, the series now known as the Virgin Australia Supercars was populated exclusively by fire breathing, V8-powered four-door sedans from Ford and Holden. The series is and was built around the Bathurst 1000, the biggest race in Australia, and few things mean more to a Supercar team than taking pole in single-car shootout qualifying for the Great Race.
Read MoreA vintage Porsche 911 RSR is a beautiful thing, but when it has the red mist in its eyes it can be vicious. Have you ever tried to get all up in your dog’s business when there’s food involved? That’s the kind of growl you can expect from a 911 RSR on the hunt for another target on the high banks of Daytona, its preferred feeding grounds, at night. It’s best to just leave well enough alone, else you might get your nose chopped off like this yellow 911 has in the video below.
Read MoreI wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about Ford V. Ferrari. I will always, always be stoked for big-budget movie about race cars, but having spent the past year or so researching everything about mid-’60s Le Mans (including the legendary 1966 event) for my own fictional novel about the race, I had my doubts that my thirst for accuracy would be appeased enough to let me sit down and just enjoy the thing. But I walked out of the theater last night knowing that this was the best racing movie I’d e
Read MoreWhen you compete at the biggest sports car race of the year, you go there with a purpose or you might as well not go there at all. Audi set out to prove diesel could work as a modern kind of engine. It worked. (Maybe too well.) Ford set out to prove that corporate America could crush Europe again, just a few decades after World War II. It worked and they just made a movie about it. And in the turn of the millennium, Cadillac set out to prove, uh, something. It didn’t go great.
Read MoreI often wish I were obscenely, disgustingly, filthy rich solely for the sheer amount of dumb stuff I could buy that would bring me an infinite amount of infantile joy. And one of those things is the slot car version of Abu Dhabi’s Grand Prix circuit, replete with wonderful little Formula One slot cars.
Read MoreThree-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo has announced his shock retirement following the completion of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. After a series of crashes, Lorenzo asked at his press conference, “is it really worth it to keep suffering?” Lorenzo has decided what many other riders haven’t: no, it isn’t.
Read MoreAnother year, another disappointing Formula One season for Ferrari, who can’t quite seem to get its shit together long enough to actually mount a significant challenge for the championship. And, according to team boss Mattia Binotto, that’s because literally every possible thing has gone wrong! Everything!
Read MoreGT1-style racing is making a comeback at Le Mans for the 2020/2021 season, and we highly anticipate entries from Aston Martin, Toyota, and now that hypercar manufacturer we all know and love... Peugeot.
Read MoreIn the battle between Ford and Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, there are a lot of icons from the world of cars: Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford II, Lee Iacocca, and Carroll Shelby. But director James Mangold focused on an unlikely and somewhat unsung protagonist for his newest film Ford v. Ferrari (or Le Mans ‘66, for those of you across the pond): British racing driver Ken Miles.
Read MoreNo one could ever forget Gene Simmons’ iconic I Am Indy promo song for the 2007 IndyCar season, but lost to the annals of time is the fact that another 1980s hair metal legend also had some ties with the American open-wheel scene. Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil did, in fact, have a brief stint as a part-time race car driver in the 1992 Indy Lights season.
Read MoreWhile the world becomes more environmentally conscious, motorsport overall has been susceptible to criticism for what is arguably a pretty extravagant use of resources. As a result, Formula One has released a sustainability plan that aims to have the series have a net-zero carbon footprint by 2030, with all events being sustainable by 2025.
Read MoreOne of the big selling points of Formula One’s upcoming 2021 regulations is the fact that the cars should theoretically have a reduction in the dirty air that trails off the back of the car. Basically, it should be easier for cars to pass each other. Except... the cars are probably going to have a lot more dirty air than we thought.
Read MoreThe world of motorsport was stunned when Mazda inked a deal in mid-2017 with long-time Audi prototype championship-winning backers Joest to help turn around its RT24-P efforts in IMSA. Things had not gone particularly well prior to the revamp, which saw major changes to the car, the engine, and the driver lineup. It all came good, however, when Mazda finally won races in the series earlier in 2019.
Read MoreWomen have only been legally allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia since June of 2018, but now that they are in the driver’s seat they are quickly been making up for lost time. Now, we can add Reema Juffali, 27, to the list as she sets out to become the first Saudi woman to compete in an international racing series in the Kingdom.
Read MoreWhen trawling through a Formula One paddock very briefly for the first time back in 2015, my first thought (after I got over the glamor of it all) was, my God there are a lot of tires here. Each team had stacks of tires lined up outside of their garage. Tires were being carted from a giant tent dedicated to fitting them onto rims off to their final destination. After a session, it was impossible to walk anywhere without ducking out of the way to avoid a puddle left by someone washing a tire, or
Read MoreWhen you were learning to drive, there’s a pretty good chance your instructor told you to never left-foot brake. I know mine did—it was one of his Big Important Rules, along with always locking your doors as soon as you entered the vehicle and signaling a full minute in advance of turning. But there is, in fact, some pretty good reasons as to why you should go ahead and left-foot brake on everyday streets.
Read MoreThe Formula One Series is over. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes ran away with the prizes and all we’re left with is a hole in our Sunday schedules. No worries, though. There’s plenty of other racing to see out there both today and tomorrow.
Read MoreYou know what they say about racing: if you want to make a small fortune doing it, start with a large fortune. This endeavor isn’t cheap and never has been. But there’s now a racing variant of the BMW M2 CS, and it seems like a pretty good value.
Read MoreWhat’s the first, most obvious, and most sensible thing to do when handed a budget that’s going to go into effect in the near future? If you answered “throw egregious amounts of money into a giant pile and light it on fire just for the hell of it,” then you might just be a Formula One team staring down the barrel of 2021's cost caps.
Read MoreThe newly revitalized Bloodhound LSR project has appeared back on the automotive scene in a big way. A year ago, this whole “make it to 1,000 mph” thing seemed doomed to fail. But now, the supersonic car has rocketed firmly over the halfway mark—and there’s a damn good chance driver Andy Green can actually take it all the way.
Read MorePlenty of people have been thoroughly annoyed by some of the latest Formula One graphics that have been popping up mid-race. Do we really need all this excess information about the probability of overtaking and tire performance? Do we really? But for as pointless as some of these new inclusions seem, they are at least better than the absolutely terrible excuses for graphics we used to have... if we even had them at all.
Read MoreDTM—also known as Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters—has introduced a 1,000 horsepower concept of the future for what will inevitably be an all-electric (or an all-hydrogen) series. That’s a pretty massive upgrade from the series’ current 600 HP combustion engines.
Read MoreWhen the news broke on Monday that both IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be bought by racing team owner Roger Penske, everyone knew it was big. Sure, sports teams get sold to families all the time—but not whole sports, and not a family that doesn’t already run one of the biggest teams in the sport. There’s a ton of nuance about why this whole deal is actually really important.
Read MoreWatching motorsport is one of those hobbies that usually comes with a story. For most people, racing isn’t as ingrained in family or local culture as something like, say, football. Many people end up seeking out racing all on their own. And I want to know how you got into it.
Read MoreThis picture distributed by Toyota is meant to show off two of its Supra race cars: the Supra stock car that competes in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series but does not have anything stock about it, and the Supra GT4 road racing car that actually has a stock chassis. In a way, it shows what NASCAR could be.
Read MoreAutonomous open-wheel racing is coming to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2021 as the result of a two-year competition to design a driverless Indy Lights car. IMS was a hotbed of cutting-edge technical innovation back in the day, so this is weirdly one of those times when “robot vehicles” aligns with the notion of tradition.
Read MoreImagine a racing program kept so silent that not even motorsport’s most inquiring minds would be able to figure it out. No leaked information, no teasers, no slip-of-the-lip. Dead silence until one month before the biggest racing event of the year. That could never happen in this modern era. But Penske, Ilmor, and Mercedes pulled it off in the early 90s in order to produce one of the most unprecedented Indianapolis 500 entries of all time.
Read MoreMotorsports in the U.S. are unlike most other sports, in that they’re not owned by a league made up of consortium of team owners, they tend to be owned by one family or one company. Because of that, whole leagues can be bought and sold pretty easily. And that has now just happened, as IndyCar (along with the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway) have been bought by Penske.
Read MoreValtteri Bottas might not have led the entire Formula One U.S. Grand Prix from pole, but he was out front on the lap he needed to be out front on: the final one. His Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton finished finished just over four seconds behind in second, which was enough to secure Hamilton’s sixth-career title.
Read MoreIf Valtteri Bottas so much as finishes second at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, his teammate Lewis Hamilton will wrap up a sixth Formula One title a full two races early. Luckily for Bottas—or he might just be apathetic about it at this point, who knows—he’ll begin that quest for the win on pole position.
Read MoreThe big racing news this weekend is supposed to come out of Texas, where Formula One and NASCAR are racing, but Nevada wasn’t going to be outdone. Out in Las Vegas, Brittany Force has broken yet another Top Fuel drag racing record.
Read MoreIt’s Formula One U.S. Grand Prix time once again, which means it is once again time for us to all meet up and talk about cars or whatever it is we do for fun. If you’re in Austin this weekend, you’re plenty welcome to join us. You don’t even have to be at the track to do so.
Read MoreFormula One is in Austin this weekend. If you’re in the area, maybe you’ll see us there later today. If you can’t be there to keep Formula One weird, we’ve got the details you need to keep up with the United States Grand Prix (and the rest of the races this weekend) at home right here.
Read MoreMcLaren has partnered with Arrow Electronics in order to launch a full-time IndyCar program for the 2020 season. There’s just one problem: everything seems like it’s been a complete and total mess. If you’ve missed one part of the drama, you’ve missed ‘em all.
Read MoreRacing is harder than it looks, and not even some of the best racing movies get it right. That’s why it’s handy we have Formula One drivers like Daniel Ricciardo out here to give us the what’s-what on some of film’s best racing scenes. And for those of you wondering where Baby Driver was in Team O’Neil’s driving scene breakdown video—it’s here.
Read MoreAs Formula One’s new regulation changes go into effect for 2021 and mandate wider, lower-profile tires, I can’t help but feel my heart break just a little for the series’ current thirteen-inchers. Let’s pour one out for the little wheels. We’ll never forget you.
Read MoreFor all the crap we give Tesla, they rightfully deserve to be lauded for the Supercharger network of fast-charging stations. You want to drive across the country in your electric car? Easy peasy, thanks to the ability to quick charge up to about an 80% tank of electron juice in about 20 minutes. Unless you and some of the hundreds of thousands of other Tesla owners want to use the exact same Supercharger station at the exact same time.
Read MoreIt’s the week of Thanksgiving at Jalopnik HQ, but even the biggest of holidays don’t cause Jalopnik HQ to completely shut down. Someone, after all, has to provide you all with blogs to read while you’re avoiding questions about when you’re having kids or ignoring your family’s bad political views that somehow always come up at dinner. That someone is all of us, and our blogs can’t really be tied to the news cycle because we are also avoiding questions about kids and bad political views, thus we
Read MoreIf you haven’t picked up on it yet, we writers here at Jalopnik travel pretty frequently. Whether it’s for a car launch, a race, an auto show, or just for the hell of it, we’re pretty much always on the move. And that is not particularly ideal when you think of the impact it has on the planet.
Read MoreHey there, car friends! You may be wondering how things are going out there, climate-wise. Every day we can’t help but think about our role in the way the world is burning down around us and I’m here to tell you that well, it could be better, I’m going to be honest.
Read MoreFor nearly 20 years, the Toyota Prius has been the car associated with environmentalism. Maybe it’s getting overshadowed a bit by pure EVs, but the image it projects is still very clear. If you gave even the slightest shit about the environmental impact of the car you drove, you get a Prius. And this lent an image of environmental friendliness to Toyota as well.
Read MoreWay back when you took your driving test and got your license, someone somewhere gave you a lecture about responsibility. Maybe it was your parents, the driving instructor, or the DMV tester. You were in charge of the car, and therefore it was your responsibility to not crash it.
Read MoreWe keep hearing that autonomous vehicles are coming soon, so very soon, but those of us who actually live and drive in the real world often smirk to ourselves knowingly, thinking about all the assholes that drive cars on a regular basis and what they’re like to share a road with. Good luck, robot, dealing with all those jackasses. It seems that MIT researchers have been thinking the same thing, because they’re developing systems to help autonomous vehicles determine, essentially, how big of an a
Read MoreThe new 760 horsepower 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 is an impressively long-named machine. But as production cars hit levels of power previously considered unreachable, we are coming to a point of diminishing returns. Our ability to create titanic power is outstripping our ability to put said power to the ground without massive amounts of electronic intervention. Intervention, which by its very nature, reduces power in order to maintain traction.
Read MoreWe’ve all heard the phrase “As aerodynamic as a brick wall.” I certainly have, due in part to the fact that I drive a lifted SUV with all the off-road accouterments, each of which is as aerodynamic as a small, accouterment-sized brick wall.
Read MoreThe next time you get a rideshare car in Los Angeles, keep in mind that you could’ve been in something with a 400 horsepower V8 and a stick shift instead of some Toyota RAV4. That’s how Corbin Goodwin rolls: picking up Lyft fares in a Cadillac CTS-V.
Read MoreA few years ago, Mustapha Harb realized there was a problem in his field of research about how autonomous cars will change the way people travel. The solution to the problem he settled on was as simple as it was revealing.
Read MoreMichigan recently saw its first snow of the season and I can’t tell you how many people I saw riding around on their summers or all-seasons, thinking it’s okay. I’ll give them the benefit if the doubt—maybe the first snow snuck up on them before they had a chance to change tires—but it’s undeniably winter tire season now. Should you buy the expensive ones or will a set of the cheap ones cut it?
Read MoreThe cost of car maintenance covers a pretty broad range. While it can be tempting to buy the cheapest products—brake pads, for example—to take a little strain off your wallet, there’s always the thought that maybe those more expensive pads might actually hold up better in the long run. But are they actually worth it? And, if they are, do you have to go really expensive to see any benefits to both your vehicle and your budget?
Read MoreLooking at a cutaway of the new 2020 Chevrolet Corvette shows us a lot about how engineers packaged many of the components, and one item that stands out is an aluminum block in the middle of the front crossmember. At first glance, it appears to be an ABS module, but all is not as it seems.
Read MoreI got my driver’s license toward the end of the 2000s, but even I caught on with the car cassette adapter. All my friends had them because we drove cars that hadn’t completely eliminated the cassette deck quite yet. Thinking back, wasn’t this one the most brilliant and enduring mainstream car hacks of all time? It all began with an electrical engineer and serial inventor named Larry Schotz, according to this very excellent Vice story.
Read MoreAlmost immediately after it was released unto the world’s population of properly-equipped Teslas in September, Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, which allows a completely unpiloted car to drive to meet the owner via a smartphone app, people were reporting a lot of less-than-optimal results. Some were just annoying examples of a confused car holding up traffic, and some had potential to be dangerous. Well, it’s still happening, as this recent video of a Tesla driving the wrong way in a parking lot sh
Read MoreSEMA is about more than just Supras with big wheels and roof-mounted tents on everything [“Overlanding is so hot right now,” I overheard someone unironically say]. It’s supposed to be a trade show, you know, where you show your new product to other people in your trade. When it comes to truly new product, this self-contained active aero wing is the only thing that really got me rev’d up. Victor Racing was tucked away in a lesser traveled section of the show, and they were more than happy to show
Read MoreWe here at Jalopnik and our sister sites have done our fair share of Autopilot-bashing; or, more specifically, bashing the way Tesla promotes Autopilot as “Full Self-Driving” when it is most definitely not, to say nothing of the people who blatantly misuse the technology by falling asleep at the wheel and committing other nonsense.
Read MoreAlaina Gassler is the sort of kid that, were my parents have heard of her when I was growing up, would have caused an immediate and unflattering comparison between myself and her, with lots of glancing back and forth between me, on the floor losing at some Atari game, and whatever newspaper article or TV segment about her and her accomplishments. It would have ended with a dejected sigh of resignation from my parents, their disappointment a tangible miasma in the room. That’s because Gassler doe
Read MorePreorders don’t matter, the screens are getting bigger, BMW doesn’t lay people off, a big Korean battery fight, and more in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, November 27, 2019.
Read MoreAs it turns out, making cars drive themselves may have been the easy part. The hard part is yet to come. Read up on that, the Ford vs Tesla truck fight, and something strange with Volkswagen and China and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019.
Read MoreAudi’s E-Tron is struggling, the Cybertruck is trucking, the National Transportation Safety Board is trying to figure out autonomous vehicles, and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, Nov. 25, 2019.
Read MoreGeneral Motors wants to be in the electric-pickup mix by fall of 2021, Carlos Ghosn gets to speak with his wife after a full seven months, and a whole lot of Fiat Chrysler news, because this is apparently FCA Friday. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Friday, Nov. 22, 2019.
Read MoreThe Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is a victim of its own success, Jaguar Land Rover might not merge for a little while yet, and BMW is emptying a bunch of money from its coffers. All that and more in the Morning Shift for November 21, 2019.
Read MoreAuto industry jobs centered around “traditional” powertrains are on the decline, electric SUVs are our future and a coup may be underway at the United Auto Workers. All this and more for The Morning Shift of Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019.
Read MoreEveryone who loves a good Lexus can breathe a sigh of relief, the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot may get a bit bumpy, and California stands its ground. All that and more in the Morning Shift for November 19, 2019.
Read MoreMore sources are coming forward with information about Uber’s self-driving technology that resulted in a fatal crash, Volkswagen has some electrified revelations and a ratified Ford contract with the UAW. All this and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, Nov. 18, 2019.
Read MoreDodge proves its reliability against thirty other manufacturers, city residents want us to rethink our relationship to cars, and China is bringing its first-ever electric vehicle into Europe. All this and more in The Morning Shift for Friday, November 15, 2019.
Read MoreAutomakers may be shifting their electric car marketing strategy from environmentalism to performance, car buyers are getting older, and Daimler’s got to cut about a billion in costs. All this and more from The Morning Shift of Thursday, November 14, 2019.
Read MoreFiat Chrysler is allegedly building too many cars that dealers aren’t asking for, Chinese automakers have big growth plans, Jaguar Land Rover is reportedly looking for a dance partner, and more UAW contract news. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019.
Read MoreYou ever wake up and realize that the past 11 years of your life have been treading water, and you’ve been in stasis the whole time? You’re not alone! Nissan will share a beer with you, and talk resolutions, too. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.
Read MoreFerrari has stabilized over a year after the death of Sergio Marchionne, the UAW is worried about a federal takeover, Tesla shows its first China-made cars, and a lot more in The Morning Shift for Monday, Nov. 11, 2019.
Read MoreGeneral Motors sells controversial Chevy Cruze plant to EV truck startup Workhorse, PSA Group isn’t planning on killing any Fiat Chrysler brands, that Boeing model that crashed twice is still having issues and a ton more in The Morning Shift for Friday, Nov. 8, 2019.
Read MoreThe United Auto Workers union wants to avoid a government takeover as corruption charges mount, Toyota’s pretty resilient in a tough market, China will make or break Tesla and more for The Morning Shift of Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019.
Read MoreA U.S. agency finds Uber’s self-driving software that led to the fatal Arizona crash last year had “flaws,” pricing for the big Aston Martin DBX is announced, SUVs continue to save BMW and more await you in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019.
Read MoreUber still isn’t doing great, the Fiat Chrysler-Peugeot merger could complicate talks with UAW, state governments are mulling data privacy in cars, and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, November 5, 2019.
Read MoreThe FBI investigation into the UAW seems to be closing in on its president, UAW asks members to vote on Ford contract, who will lead the new FCA-PSA group, and Elon Musk logs off. All this and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, November 4, 2019.
Read MoreThe auto execs of the world do all their top business at fancy lunches, as it turns out, so take that to heart and nab a couple hours to nosh today. All that news and more in The Morning Shift for Friday, November 1, 2019.
Read MoreWe’re getting to the point when you can’t really say “we’ve all seen that dumbass Tesla Cybertruck demo” because there’s already an absurd amount of them. This time, we’re specifically referring to that video of the Cybertruck supposedly pulling a Ford F-150 uphill. You’ve probably seen plenty of tweets debunking the whole thing already—but there’s actually a video going in depth about the whole affair that explains why, exactly, that video is so dumb.
Read MoreThe launch of the Tesla Cybertruck didn’t go completely as planned, unless you think Tesla CEO Elon Musk wanted two windows on the truck to smash in order to, I dunno, make himself seem endearingly fallible or something. At any rate, Musk posted a video late last night showing the front window not breaking after a steel ball impact. We can all go home now.
Read MoreThere are two things we should acknowledge off the bat, even though they’re beside the point. The first is that the Tesla Cybertruck is hideous, of course. That’s blatantly obvious to anyone who sees it. The second is that people don’t “need” pretty design, but even both of those points are academic.
Read MoreI couldn’t sleep much last night. My dreams were filled with visions of stainless steel triangles, glass cracking and electric ATVs flying through the air. The Tesla Cybertruck, she is a demon who haunts my nightmares and will not give me a moment’s peace! The thing is, after a lot of thought, I don’t hate Tesla’s truck. But I am perplexed by it, and not convinced it’s going to be the kind of volume-seller that can take on the Ford F-150 and the rest.
Read MoreI’ve been refreshing Twitter since the Tesla Cybertruck presentation, waiting for Elon Musk to drop a “JK LOL” so we can stop talking about the Participation Award-winning pinewood derby car design that was trotted out on stage. But I guess we’re doing this, so I guess we might as well look at some of the specs.
Read MoreWhat’s the next big thing for electric vehicles? Probably pickup trucks. Ford is doing it and so are startups like Rivian. But Elon Musk isn’t about to be outdone, and tonight at the Tesla Design Center in Los Angeles, the electric automaker unveiled something truly different.
Read MoreIt is the mountain that conquers us, every time. Though we climb it, it is the mountain that changes us, not the other way around. We look down on the rest of the world from its summit, but even in doing so the mountain itself looks down on us. There is no conquering a mountain. We can only hope to find some harmony with it, a give and a take. That is why the road that winds up Tianmen mountain has 99 corners, and that is why Ken Block ran sideways up it in a 914-horsepower twin-turbo Ford drift
Read MoreThe Ford Bronco R we saw last monday is only one half of the return of the legend of Baja 1969 to Baja. The other half of the story is the Boot. The Baja Boot. Steve McQueen raced the original Boot back in the ‘60s and it actually beat the Bronco at Baja back in 1969. Now, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus (SCG) has announced that a Boot will race again and they took some pictures to celebrate.
Read MoreBack in March when Tesla first launched the production Model Y the company hid the above image teasing a pickup truck in the presentation. According to an extremely online Elon Musk Wednesday morning, we would be seeing the launch of that electric pickup truck—dubbed “Cybertruck”—later this month. November 21st, to be precise, near the SpaceX facility in Los Angeles.
Read MoreNew UAW documents imply that the next-gen Ford Bronco will have at least a partially aluminum body. This would mean Ford’s new off-roader would ditch a classic characteristic of pretty much all Broncos ever built: rust. So let’s honor the five generations of Bronco that succumbed to the evil that is iron oxide.
Read MoreThe 2020 Ford Bronco will finally debut in the spring of next year, 24 years after the last fifth-generation truck rolled off the assembly line.
Read MoreEarlier this month, I drove my 1948 Willys CJ-2A through a deep mud pit, filling the engine with water. Worried sick that the motor might be doomed, I did what any logical person would: I ignored it and let the water freeze into a huge ice-block. Surely the Willys’ Go Devil engine, despite its World War II heritage, couldn’t survive this, I thought.
Read MoreWhen the world first saw the new Toyota Supra, the world wept that there was no Toyota-designed engine under the hood. Rather than some new 3JZ, there was a BMW B58 straight six. Well, everyone may dry their tears, as tuning legend Steph Papadakis got that stock Supra engine to the four-figure mark.
Read MoreA few months back, I purchased this late-1970s Scamp 13' trailer to use as an escape pod from the workaday monotony of living in suburbia hell. A few weeks ago I told you all about the process of making the damn thing look livable again, which took a lot more work than I expected.
Read MoreIf you want to dig a few hundred horsepower out of a junkyard to stuff in your project car, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better deal than a GM LS engine. These V8s are plentiful, relatively cheap, and there are aftermarket parts out the wazoo to crank out whatever amount of horsepower you want. But what if you don’t want to internally combust? What if you’re looking for some more environmentally friendly hot rodding? What then do you drop in your Karmann Ghia? Well, the answer to that questio
Read MoreOne of the very first two 2020 Toyota Supras to get engine swapped just got its engine changed again, this time from a Toyota 2JZ straight six to a V8. It’s not the LS you’d think it’d be, but it is an LS engine.
Read MoreThere’s a Polish couple that has been attempting to drive around the world in an old Fiat 125p wagon, and it looks like they’ve been having an amazing journey. It seems they’re currently broken down around Benbow, CA, and while the latest update seems to show they have parts and a willing mechanic in San Francisco, they need to get the car there. Any Jalops with a tow dolly in the area want to help some crazy adventurers out?
Read More
