You can give the military an unlimited budget and over 14 years to make a good airplane and they’ll come back with the F-35: a fighter jet with 13 “must-fix” issues, 873 software issues, and a gun that doesn’t shoot straight, according to the latest Pentagon report.
Read MoreThe aptly named City Roads project is simple: Just go to the site, enter the name of your city, and software creates a map that exclusively shows roads. With no text or topography at all, the results are really quite beautiful.
Read MoreYesterday Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at U.S. forces based in Iraq. No Americans were reported harmed in the attacks. The salvo of missiles was in response to the U.S. assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed in Baghdad by a Reaper drone strike. The two countries stand at the precipice of war, prompting the question of just exactly how did we get here?
Read MoreAs 2019 rounded to a close, the United States tested a new missile that was up until just a few months ago prohibited by international treaty. The missile blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base and splashed down in a patch of the Pacific Ocean, signifying the end of an important arms control treaty signed with the Soviet Union in 1987. The end of the treaty, while not unexpected, represents a worsening of relations between the nuclear powers.
Read MoreAfter a few thousand miles of seat time in the Indian Scout Bobber, it’s painfully clear that the design brief was to make it as stylish as possible. Even if that meant a major ergonomic and comfort cost to the rider. Meanwhile, it’s low and mean to look at, and has the ability to turn a goober like me into a hardened biker type.
Read MoreFour hours. In total I spent four hours sitting, stationary, in a 2020 BMW X6 M50i, inhaling the musk of its rich black leather, fiddling with all sorts of random menu settings, adjusting the seat just so, and listening to the “caring car music” selection on the infotainment screen, on a random Tuesday in December. All because my nine-month-old boy, Benji, didn’t seem interested in waking up.
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 leasing on old but new inventory, expensive documentation fees, and
Read MoreSean’s wife commutes into Philadelphia from the suburbs and is looking for a luxury four-door that is comfortable in traffic, can handle bad weather, but isn’t the same old thing. They have a pretty healthy budget and a lot of options on the table. What car should they buy?
Read MoreYou might not need a refrigerator in your vehicle but if you do big trips, especially off-grid, it changes everything. After an overland adventure with Dometic’s CFX3 fridge and PLB40 power source in my rig, I can help you decide if a setup like this is something you might want to invest in.
Read MoreThe Jeep Gladiator was one of the most hyped cars in 2019. It takes everything you love about the iconic Wrangler and adds some pickup truck functionality. Of course, when the Gladiator first hit the scene deals were hard to come by. Now that inventory has built up, you can score one for a good price.
Read MoreThe 2020 Mini Cooper SE is a hack-job electric car with parts from the BMW i3 that somehow only gets an estimated 110 miles of range on a charge. It feels about five years late, but it’s also relatively cheap, well-equipped and a ton of fun to drive still.
Read MoreBack in April of last year, one of the world’s best collections of vintage Porsches, the Ingram Collection, was severely damaged when a natural gas explosion destroyed the building right next to the collection in Durham, NC. That collection had many rare and incredibly valuable old 356s and 911 and Speedsters and all kinds of amazing stuff, and a number of these cars were very badly damaged in the explosion. Now, they’re showing up on salvage auction sites, and, even beat to hell, are probably s
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 trading in cars for something similar but cheaper, Nissan Juke styling, and whether or not to bring your old car on a long-distance relocation.
Read MoreDerrek lives in Brooklyn and needs a car, but he knows that the city will not be kind to his vehicle and it will inevitably get dinged, scratched, and beat up. He wants something that still looks fine even after living on NYC streets. What car should he buy?
Read MoreMaserati didn’t have a very good 2019. Reports from both Autoblog and Car And Driver assert the Italian automaker only sold about 11,000 cars last year. So, to drum up some incentive, Maserati is now offering discounts on its 2020 lineup. It’s rare we hear about luxury cars getting cheaper as time goes on.
Read MoreMy 2019 Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S test almost didn’t happen. The car needed a set of special snow tires, shipped from Germany, before I was allowed to drive it. They took a while to arrive at the fleet garage. But I’m thankful they finally did, because it meant I got to tank 630 horsepower through a bunch of mud.
Read MoreDealer markups are usually a classic case of supply and demand. On specialty and performance cars like a Dodge Demon, 911 GT3 or even a Civic Type R, I get why this happens. But now folks are paying markups on Korean-made family cars.
Read MoreThe Mazda CX-5 diesel was a good idea that came out too late and was a bit too expensive. We found it to be a decent car but, with a starting price of around $41,000, it was a tough sell. It seems Mazda got the memo and some dealers are putting some heavy discounts on the hood.
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 pre-paid service plans, aftermarket warranty coverage, and a super expensive Aston Martin lease.
Read MoreFirst, let me be clear that I’m not being sexist—that “pair” I’m referencing in the headline there can be either testicles or ovaries, whatever genital pairing it takes to give the company’s American arm the courage it needs to stop floundering and finally do something about the perpetually dismal situation they’re in. And that something they could do is called the Delica D:5.
Read MoreOnce again our friends at iSeeCars, have crunched some data to find out which cars are likely to be kept for 15 years or more. This year’s list doesn’t look terribly different than the one from last year and is basically dominated by only two brands.
Read MoreWe’ve been hearing about the Mazda Skyactiv-D diesel engine for about 10 years. Now it’s finally, here in the 2019 Mazda CX-5 diesel. It’s a nice idea and the car itself is not bad to drive. I just don’t see many people buying it.
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 an interesting strategy for getting a car deal, test drives on an affordable performance car, and inspections on cheap rides.
Read MoreThe 2020 Jaguar F-Type SVR AWD Convertible is not a brand-new car, despite what its model year would have you believe. Merely, it is a revision on a six-year-old car. But, laden with the latest technology and safety features, it would probably be completely alien to people half a century ago. Yet, I’d wager they would have no issue driving it today. And it would be just as enjoyable.
Read MoreIvan moved from France to NJ, which I imagine is quite a change for him. He had a lovely Peugeot 406 back home and he wants something similar in the American market. He has a limited budget. What car should he buy?
Read MoreI’ve always had an affinity for grandpa sedans, especially fast ones. Ask anyone who knows me. I even drove my son home from the hospital in a ’74 Olds Omega sedan I’d souped up with a 383 stroker and some other choice parts. So when I got the chance to try out a brand-new Kia K900, it pushed all the right buttons, being a much nicer, much faster version of the ’65 Malibu sedan I also (foolishly) own.
Read MoreIf your car’s more than 10 years old and you’ve never lubricated its locks, I bet this cheap and simple job will make your keys seem to magically work better. So here’s a rundown of two common types of lock lube, and my findings after field-testing both.
Read MoreI have a few issues with the 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition, and one of them is that the name is too long. Another issue that I have with the 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition is that some dealers are asking over $100,000 for the special edition vehicle, according to Mopar Insiders.
Read MoreA few weeks ago, Mercedes made the decision to delay U.S. sales of its all-electric EQC for a year to “support the growing customer demand for the EQC in Europe.” Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of German sales as there have been only 55 of the heavily advertised SUVs registered in the country over the past two months.
Read MoreWelcome to the 20s everyone! That’s right, the 20s. Much better than the teens or aughts or whatever the hell we were supposed to call the last twenty years. It sounds nice. It’s also reminiscent of a glorious time in American history; a time when the stock market was unstoppable, movies, telephones, and automobiles saw wide-spread production, and everything seemed possible. We were sure it would never end, sure that we could beat on, boats against the current, blissfully unaware that we were a
Read MoreSubaru sold 40 percent fewer BRZs in the U.S. in 2019 compared to 2018, and December sales were down 62.5 percent from a year ago. In the BRZ/86 cars’ first few years, they were each selling about 8,500 units a year in the U.S. but Subaru only sold 2,334 last year.
Read MoreRyan lives in LA but prefers to spend time on the mountain. He daily drives a Civic Si but is looking for a cheap truck or SUV that can hold his gear, get him to the mountain, and possibly tow his Honda. What car should he buy?
Read MoreModern Minis are big, heavy, ugly, and expensive, so I was surprised to learn that 346,639 Minis were sold (to whom?) last year, almost as many cars as Tesla sold, according to BMW. Anyway, the lineup is due for a refresh, but that apparently has been delayed thanks to Brexit.
Read MoreHave you ever found yourself waking up in the middle of the night wondering about whether you should buy an imported 1992 Autozam AZ-1 or one from 1994? Have you woken up in the middle of the night screaming and holding a knife? We can’t help you with the second one, but we can with the first! We’re here to answer your questions in our new video series Ask A Car Nerd.
Read MoreI didn’t really need to go to McLaren’s car reveal party–I know, right?–but the probability of free coffee was high and the address was in a part of Beverly Hills normies like me are not often allowed in. So I called a Lyft (Sentra? Damn it.) and zoomed over to the other side of the tracks.
Read MoreEverybody wants to talk about the ridiculous specs with the new electric GMC Hummer, like how it supposedly has 1,000 horsepower and all that. To me, that’s meaningless. I want to talk about the new Hummer’s lights instead.
Read MoreA couple of days ago, our pals over at the Car Design Archives Facebook group posted a fascinating and mysterious picture of an odd little truck, and tagged us specifically. They were right to do so, because this image is fascinating, especially when you know just one bit of information about it: that truck started life as an amphibious WWII Volkswagen Schwimmwagen.
Read MoreMarking major milestones is important, even for car companies, which is why Mazda unveiled this very cool video celebrating 100 years of operation. Mazda has come a long way since its founding on January 30, 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Corporation by Jujiro Matsuda in Hiroshima, Japan, and you can watch the whole journey right here in one minute.
Read MoreIn the twenty days which have passed since Toyota officially unveiled the ridiculously rowdy GR Yaris with fewer cylinders than driven wheels, my world has lost its shine. This is no longer a technicolor life as I’m living in greyscale since I discovered the best car to ever be built in the history of ever, and of course it won’t be coming to the U.S. market. And then Toyota has the gall to twist the proverbial knife deeper into my broken heart by teasing us with this deliciously evil tweet.
Read MoreAs modern as they seem, electric vehicles have actually been around a very long time, since the dawn of the motorcar era at the turn of the 20th century. Even after losing out to gasoline vehicles, they’ve always been around quietly lurking in the background of automobildom. The way we perceive EVs has changed a lot over recent decades, and we’re on the cusp of what may be the biggest conceptual change to EVs yet, and it’s kicked off by this new EV Hummer.
Read MoreThe Tokyo Auto Salon is the epitome of the contemporary Japanese tuning scene, showcasing the very best and latest from Japan’s aftermarket brands and what the trends for the rest of the year will be. But, unlike in more recent years, TAS2020 had a couple of surprises up its sleeve.
Read MoreNot that I was holding out for this or anything, but Mazda recently announced pricing for the 2020 Mazda Miata. It’s slightly more expensive than the 2019 version, with the cheapest model starting at $26,580. That is too much money.
Read MoreI didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when Faraday Future invited me to their Gardena, California headquarters. I had heard jokes that it was located across from an animal cemetery, fitting for a company where it seemed the best automotive talent and their pet projects went to die.
Read MoreHummer is dead no more. It will be officially reborn as the GMC Hummer EV, GMC’s first all-electric truck, to be built at General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. And its numbers are unreal.
Read MoreIn a bit of shocking news, CEO Elon Musk just moved production and deliveries of Tesla’s second crossover, the Tesla Model Y, up six months sooner, breaking a bad habit of delayed promises.
Read MoreAs you can expect, there’s lots of strange bullshit trending on Twitter at the moment: World War Six, for example, the Corona virus, all kinds of miserable bullshit. There’s also another Tweet that’s generating an awful lot of likes—maybe not quite the scale of the global disaster ones, but still—and it brings up a question a child might ask, but not a childish question: was noted fictional hyper-intelligent mouse Stuart Little’s car a toy car, or a “real car that has simply been made to be very
Read MoreFord’s luxury brand Lincoln and newcomer electric vehicle outfit Rivian are officially teaming up to make a fully-electric vehicle that will be sold as a Lincoln. Which seems, actually, really cool.
Read MoreEverybody, everybody, get over here! Drop what you’re doing! Surgeons, fling those scalpels to the ground! Pilots, land wherever you can, immediately! I have super-important taillight news and shaming to conduct here, and everyone needs to pay attention! Everyone here? Good, because it has come to my attention that the taillight design of the 2019 and 2020 Jeep Cherokee has some severe design flaws, and, as you know, this is the sort of thing I can not keep quiet about. So let’s get to it.
Read MoreTraffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we’ll provide the jams.
Read MoreCars have locking doors for a reason. They are there to keep you in and other people (or bears) out. But there are still people who leave their unattended cars unlocked and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why.
Read MoreThe still hypothetical Mazda RX-9 is one of those cars that’s been anticipated for years, as it would be the latest in a long line of cars with a cult-like following: the Mazda rotaries. There hasn’t been a Mazda rotary-engined car since the last RX-8 rolled off the line back in 2012. The RX-9 was always assumed to be the heir to the big triangular rotary crown, but a rumor we heard today, from what we believe is a credible source, raises a lot of questions.
Read MoreAs if personalized and vanity license plates could not get any worse, folks might soon be able to add emojis to them, if this new Vermont bill passes. And I always thought Vermont was such a nice place.
Read MoreAdmittedly, this one fell right into our laps. It was on our old boss’ desk, a gift from a reader he left behind after going out for cigarettes and not coming back. (He also left two pairs of cop sunglasses, which he can claim at any time.) But glimpsing into The Great Auto Trivia Book, by Mitch Frumkin, was enough to blow our minds.
Read MoreIn today’s announcement and accompanying press release for updates to General Motors’ semi-autonomous driver-assistance technology, Super Cruise, we were treated to a little glance at the rear-end of what appears to be the upcoming 2021 Cadillac Escalade. Whether inadvertent or not, this definitely seems like the real thing, as it was part of an official Cadillac press image.
Read MoreThe head of Bugatti, who used to be the head of Lamborghini, gave an interview recently with Autocar about how he doesn’t expect the W16 engine the company uses to go away anytime soon. But that’s not all.
Read MoreThe average American driver spends about 27 minutes commuting to work one way. In distance, that’s just over 12 miles. Most days you go to work and come home, maybe stopping at the grocery store or swinging by the middle school to pick up your kid on the way home. If you’re only doing 30 miles of driving per day for an hour or maybe two, why would you need more than the 110 miles of range that the Mini Cooper SE provides?
Read MoreThe Mercedes-AMG GT 63 S I had recently was a truly great car. It was fast, powerful, capable and technologically advanced. In fact, I had no real qualms with it—except for one bit of tomfoolery I noticed while sitting in it a few weeks ago.
Read MoreFiat Chrysler’s Uconnect infotainment software is a perennial auto journalist fave for its appreciated combo of user-friendliness and fun features. The latest iteration, Uconnect 5, was announced today with some specs and I have mixed feelings. Mostly: Faster processing good, Alexa in cars why?
Read MoreAfter months of uncertainty regarding General Motors’ “unallocated” Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit, Michigan, there’s finally official word on the plant’s future. Today, the automaker announced Detroit-Hamtramck will serve as its first, fully dedicated electric vehicle assembly plant.
Read MoreThe new TVR Griffith, which is decidedly a Good Car, has been hit with yet another delay. This is following previous delays, which involved some issues with the factory. Surprise—this most recent delay also has to do with the factory.
Read MoreSomewhere in London’s Docklands is an archive. It holds a lot of artifacts, documents, and images that tell the story of Sainsbury’s, a supermarket chain unknown to most of us but likely awful familiar to the Brits out there. But there’s more. There are cars. Well, pictures of them.
Read MoreBack in the ‘70s, waiting for gas wasn’t an uncommon experience, from what I understand. I wasn’t around back then so I don’t know for sure, but many of the people I know who were alive back in the ‘70s knew the experience all too well.
Read MoreThe Corvette has always stood as a symbol of attainable American sports car values. It’s got a roaring V8, lots of bare-chested torque, and handling that can compete with the Yurpeens for a lot less green. And since the C5 generation at least, it’s been able to do that while sucking down less of the dino juice than you might expect a big shouty American sports car to do. Even using largely the same engine as it did at the end of C7 production, the new mid-engine C8 Corvette somehow gets worse fu
Read MoreForgive us, oh Performance Gods, for we have forsaken thee! Shelby American sells about two and a half times as many performance-oriented F-series pickup trucks than it does Mustangs, according to a statement obtained by Autoblog. When something as glorious as Shelby’s 825-horsepower Super Snake Mustang exists, why would you even consider the F-150 a viable option?
Read MoreWhen Los Angeles traffic has you down, the best answer is always two wheels. Sure, it’s a bit more [okay, significantly more] dangerous, but you can lane-split and get to your destination in half the time. But what about when you want to have a little more fun with the journey? You could do what professional riders Robbie Maddison and Tyler Bereman do and hoon your way across LA, using every opportunity to jump over, through, and off of stuff.
Read MoreIt’s the fourth Friday afternoon of 2020, and traditionally that’s when we ask a trivia question about the iconic Mini, so far be it from me to get in the way of such a noble tradition, especially this one, which was started over 500 years before the Mini was introduced in 1959. The question I have for you is an easy one: the door pockets in the original Mini were designed to hold something specific. What was that specific thing?
Read MoreThe Aston Martin Valkyrie is a hybrid wonder that will make 1,160 horsepower. It looks like something from another time or planet and sounds incredible. It uses lightweight carbon fiber bodywork and even has optional gold—but no stickers. Aston Martin is apparently too good for stickers.
Read MoreThe Tokyo Auto Salon is a show that always delivers on bright lights, crazy builds, loud cars and occasionally loud egos too. TAS2020 was my sixth time at Japan’s biggest tuner show and in previous years it was the cars that grabbed the limelight. However, during the pack up after the final day of this year’s Auto Salon two of the biggest names in Japan’s aftermarket scene collided and caused a scene of which was unlike any I’ve seen before.
Read MoreSince you’re on this website and reading these words, I assume you also know cars are more than cold and lifeless lumps of metal. Among other things, they connect us together and bring a sense of joy through touch, sound and sight.
Read MoreIn keeping with this series’ overarching theme of giving you the experience of being cornered at a party by some wild-eyed loon who won’t shut up about some bullshit, I think we have a good episode for you today. It’s about a piece of automotive history, something that’s occasionally mentioned but I suspect rarely understood: the semi-automatic transmission.
Read MoreThe mighty Cadillac CTS-V is no more and in its place is currently... nothing. The 2020 Cadillac CT5-V, with its disappointing 355 horsepower, convinced no one it was a true CTS-V successor. Cadillac realized this, which is why more track-capable V-Series models are coming—and perhaps loaded with the dearly departed CTS-V’s batshit engine.
Read MoreA red, lowered GMC Sierra stopped in the middle of a busy road to rip a fat burnout. Right behind it, a plum-colored Ford Mustang followed suit, thick plumes of tire smoke erupting from its rear tires. A white Hellcat attempted a drift across a busy intersection during ongoing traffic, nearly slamming into a neighboring Nissan. All of this happened before a watching and (largely) cheering crowd, two of whom had a “FULL SEND” flag wrapped around their legs.
Read MoreI should preface this all by saying that I’ve yet to be able to absolutely confirm that this absurd email is real, though the original poster insists that it is. Fundamentally, it’s just a boring email from an HR department to an employee, but the content of the email is deeply insulting, reflecting the worst aspects of modern life, socioeconomic realities, culture, and perhaps even capitalism itself. And, of course, like all things that really matter, it’s about a car.
Read MoreIn an interview with CNBC, current President of the United States Donald Trump was told about Tesla’s recent valuation at an incredible $100 billion, and was then asked about Elon Musk. Trump’s answer praised Musk’s genius, a genius Trump noted needed protection, along with Thomas Edison and whomever came up with the wheel. Then he said that Tesla would be building another U.S. factory, something which Tesla has not announced any plans to do.
Read MoreJalopnik has been proud to establish that the correct amount of horsepower is 300. I would now like to forward something that I have felt in my heart for some time: the best size of wheel is 15".
Read MoreThe 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon was without a doubt the year of the Supra. You’d be forgiven for thinking “TAS” meant the “Tokyo All Supra” show. (SEMA in the States was no different.) Nearly every booth in all 11 halls where the Tokyo Auto Salon takes place had a new modified Supra of some sort, and some classic Supra for good measure.
Read MoreEven though direct-to-consumer car sales, Tesla’s preferred sale model, have been banned in Michigan since 2014, you can still spot a few Model Ss and 3s bravely traversing the state’s icy roads. Brave, because Michigan law bans Tesla from even opening up a service station. Michigan Tesla owners have been treking, sometimes towing, to Ohio to get cars serviced, but that seems to be ready to change.
Read MoreYou read the headline and then perhaps you read the byline. “How could this be?” you wondered. “How could Kristen, whose policy is to generally sportify everything, possibly reject the idea of a Honda E Type R?” Well, it’s true. This is a car I don’t want and nobody needs.
Read MoreOh yes. The proper way to do a good snowy donut is with a little three-wheeled Italian thing powered by a Triumph 675 Street Triple engine and a full boot of send it leaning on the throttle pedal. When you’ve got a zinger of a motor stuck on the back axle of what was originally a little trucklet built for European cities and speeds no higher than 30 kph you really need to give it the welly and make that motor sing.
Read MoreWhen people rationalize themselves away from buying the interesting cars they actually want and play it “safe” by buying a modern, soul-less SUV, often one of the commonly-cited reasons why is that they sometimes may want to haul big, ungainly things, and that’s why they need a big, ungainly car. I say this is bullshit, and I’m here to prove it, with my tiny Nissan Pao and a lawnmower.
Read MoreMazda’s “Holy Grail” Skyactiv-X engine is one of the most advanced engines we’ve seen in recent years. With fancy spark-controlled compression ignition and a mild-hybrid setup, it’s supposed to return near-unbeatable fuel mileage. But its arrival to the United States market might be delayed.
Read MoreAmong the go-to engines for affordable, reliable V8 swaps, you can’t really beat General Motors’ LS small-block engine. You can find the things in everything from Mazda RX-7s to classic Minis. A new video from Auto Guild walks us through an extensive history of the thing and the changes each subsequent generation brought.
Read MoreAll Americans should be familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But if you haven’t really thought about his life and times since you read about them in school, take a moment to think about the importance of the civil rights movement beyond “having a dream.” Like the context of this photo, for example.
Read MoreTraffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we’ll provide the jams.
Read MoreThis orange is a 1970s color. The Porsche it’s on is a 1980 model. But we’re not going to let that get between us and a few shots of a beautiful car, are we?
Read MoreEarlier this week, we showed you some pictures of what is likely the new Chevrolet Equinox. We weren’t all that impressed, and I’m pretty sure you weren’t either.
Read MoreThe first production Dodge Viper was sold at Bonhams’ Scottsdale auction this past week. VIN 00001 brought in almost ten times the typical price of a first-generation Viper. Not only is it the first, but it was also owned by Lee Iacocca who was the chairman of Chrysler when the car went on sale.
Read MoreOne of the most popular car and motorcycle spots in Southern California has been closed for over a year, and if you’re one of the many people hoping to hang out at The Snake on Mulholland Highway, don’t hold your breath.
Read MoreNo matter how much our parents might have yelled at us to go outside instead, the things we watched on television as kids can play a big role in our adult lives—as evidenced by the underlying commandments guiding this website and its regular visitors, who saw Fast and Furious as children and pledged their undying allegiance to the Toyota Supra and Honda S2000.
Read MoreSomething that was not mentioned this morning in the post announcing American Ricky Brabec as the first American to win a Dakar class, ever, in history, was that he rode a Honda to make it happen. For those not familiar with Dakar dynasties, Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM had won the previous 18 years in a row. There are whole entire adults who had never lived in a world where KTM wasn’t the defending Dakar motorcycle class champion.
Read MoreWhen former Jalopnik Editor-in-Chief Patrick George reached out in 2015 about potentially writing for some car website with a funny name on weekends during college, I was flattered. Motorsports were my specialty, but I could learn regular cars for this kind of opportunity. How hard could it be?
Read MoreA horse was found wandering around on the A48 road in Cardiff, Wales, in busy traffic, causing traffic slowdowns and even being struck by at least two cars and a van. Luckily, the horse was unharmed, but still very confused and, like so many horses today, didn’t seem to have a plan to get out of the damn road. So they stuck him on a city bus.
Read MoreProminent Criss Angel fan Alanis King has worked at this operation since it was low-key run out of a variety of shell companies based in Hungary and the Cayman Islands. Alanis didn’t know that when she signed on, but every new day, a little bit of that veil was lifted. And now, today, she departs. It is our duty to roast her, as we have done since those olden times. Luckily for us, we all love Alanis and her life is not dissimilar to a Blue’s Clues side character, so this should be easy.
Read MoreRoughly 160 million years ago, dinosaurs and the Nissan 370Z roamed the Earth together, in harmony. The dinosaurs have since died out, but the 370Z persevered. But its time might soon also be drawing to a close. New rumors have emerged about its successor, which I’m still personally doubtful will actually happen. But I digress!
Read MoreJust over two years ago I reviewed the car startups that mattered and attempted to predict their real chances of making a car. That is, producing a car on a mass scale, not just throwing together a concept with some duct tape and calling it a car. Let’s see how everyone is doing!
Read MoreHey, glad you could make it. I just wanted to reach out to you because I thought, on the off chance you haven’t encountered it before, you really should see what the inside of a Zimmer QuickSilver’s trunk looks like. I just felt that you had a right to know, because, look, I respect you, and I don’t feel right with you not knowing. Sound good? Great.
Read MoreNot nearly as important to the ecosystem of the American business, but absolutely vital to the UK and other Europeans is the short range delivery van. This commercial van is the lifeblood of small business deliveries all over the Kingdom, and Arrival is among the first to really apply BEV technology to the so-called white van. It hopes to have production up and running by 2021.
Read MoreEvery hardcore automotive subculture defines themselves, at least in part, with their own idiosyncratic jargon. Cars and parts of cars have nicknames and slang terms, knowledge of which helps define who’s in the group, and who’s out. I know in the air-cooled VW community you can hear weird terms like “Pope’s Nose” and “crotch coolers,” but even those strange names for parts (a license plate light housing and quarter-panel vent, respectively) make some kind of objective sense. The Land Rover comm
Read MoreWhen it comes to celebrating events—anniversaries, conquests, the downfall of nemeses—I would say I am somewhat of an expert. There’s always much celebrating to be done when you are me, simply because I am so good at winning. And I must say, Morgan’s Plus 4 70th Anniversary Edition is commemoration done right.
Read MoreThere is a new Polaris Slingshot on the scene, and it has a bunch of improvements on a similar formula. Polaris says the new autocycle is 70% new parts, despite looking largely similar to the model it replaces. One of those parts really matters; the new engine. Gone is the GM Ecotec 2.4-liter that has powered the ‘Shot since 2014. It’s been replaced with a brand new Polaris-specific unit with more power and torque.
Read MorePorsche was today years old when it finally came to its senses and started to walk back the 718 Cayman and Boxster’s reliance on turbocharged flat-four power. If you don’t quite want to pony up the money for a Boxster Spyder or Cayman GT4, or you don’t want to deal with the harshness of their GT3-derived suspension, you can now opt for a GTS version of the Boxman twins with 4-liter flat-six power. Oh baby, this is good news.
Read MoreTo get to Roland George’s shop in Brooklyn, you take the A or C trains out to the Shepherd Avenue station, deep into the part of the city where the tourists don’t visit. But all the world passes through New York, and all the legions of Saab devotees up and down the Eastern Seaboard pass through Swedish Auto Service in East New York, the shop that Roland George has run for the past two decades. It is the last establishment in Brooklyn to specialize in Saabs: a rare beacon, for a dying breed.
Read MoreThe Toyota GT86 is getting long in the tooth and there’s been much talk of the next generation. This discussion concerns the next car’s name, and word is Toyota might drop the “GT” moniker.
Read MoreI’m not sure I fully realized how contentious this concept is, or how divided people are about this relatively simple concept: when you’re in a parking lot with spots that meet back-to-back, is it okay to drive through one empty spot and directly into the empty spot connected to its end? A question a child might ask, but not a childish question. Also, why are you letting that child drive? This is serious business.
Read MoreAh, the BMW i8. Every time we write about this car, the comments are filled with people who either hate it or love it. It’s great, some say (see also: me). It’s overpriced garbage, grouse others. Well, the debates could very well be coming to an end, as the i8's production will cease in April.
Read MoreOften while I’m out driving, minding my own business, I’ll see a burning mattress mounted on some bicycle wheels that gets pushed in front of my car, blocking my progress. Then, I’ll be accosted by a crowd of people who will drag me out of my car window, pin me to a wall, and demand I provide them with names for fictional spaceships or conventional naval vessels. Usually, they want names that are perhaps a bit offensive to famous people, or just a bit off-putting. I always try my best, and, in a
Read MoreKorean brand Genesis has unveiled its first in what is sure to be a series of luxury SUVs on Tuesday evening at a private event in Seoul. The 2020 Genesis GV80 is expected to go on sale later this month in South Korea and trickle out to the rest of the world shortly thereafter. Following a low-light glimpse of the SUV on the eve of the New Year, we’ve been in the dark ever since. Genesis is finally coming clean with the details on this machine.
Read MoreInspired by abstract expressionist painters of the 1940s, John Chamberlain moved his pieces into a third dimension by carefully bending, shaping, and welding old sheet metal into pieces of art that capture and reflect light in tremendous ways. He used automotive sheetmetal as a medium for his art from the late 1950s all the way through his death in 2011. His pieces were influenced by the aforementioned abstract expressionism, as well as neo-dadaism, pop art, and Marcel Duchamp’s objet trouvé sty
Read MoreYou’re lost in a wintry tundra, buried under a sheet of white. You use both of your hands to paw through the snow and ice that just cascaded down upon you, enrobing you in dark and cold. You’re disoriented from the avalanche, but you manage to discern which way is up and dig your way free to the surface, where the light is. As you regain your wits you notice two giant lumbering GMCs heading your way. Both pull up within feet of you and the driver door opens, beckoning you aboard.
Read MoreDon’t look now (nevermind feel free to look, it’s not my money), but Tesla’s stock is currently trading at around $545 a share, or nearly triple what it was trading at its lowest in June. This is mostly because its China factory is up and running and it had a profitable third-quarter. But, you know, we’ve seen this movie before.
Read More“This thing was the best car,” the man on the phone told us. We’d just found his name and number on a piece of paper, abandoned on the floor of a dead, red Pontiac Aztek and decided to give him a call. He sang it praises I’ve never heard anyone sing about an Aztek. It was unbelievable, it was mind-blowing. It was Detroit, in a nutshell. And it was only the tip of the great stuff we found after spending a day at a junkyard in Pontiac, Michigan.
Read MoreMazda’s new electric MX-30, targeted for Europe, makes the equivalent of 140 horsepower and has a range of 130 miles, while InsideEVs says it will go from zero-to-60 in nine seconds. “Unimpressive,” you say to yourself from behind the wheel of your 300-HP Camry, somewhat resignedly. But you know what? All three of those numbers are fine.
Read MoreI am disappointed. In 2018 this car set a new world piston-driven land speed record. It was the most incredible motorsport story of the last decade, fulfilling a family’s destiny and cementing a place in the record books. And now the record holder has told AutoWeek that he’s had to sell his family legacy in order to pay for it.
Read MoreOne year after the state of Michigan raised speed limits on certain roads, those stretches of highway saw a 17.2 percent rise in crashes and an 18.9 percent rise in injuries, as a new report from the state details. What’s interesting is that these are lower numbers than some critics expected, and they speak to challenges bigger than just changing a number on a few signs.
Read MoreAttention! Attention all automakers! Please shut down your various assembly lines and workhouses and gather your PR people out front to hear my decree! I will only say this once, likely followed by repeating it, over and over: you are to no longer use the term “active lifestyle” in reference to any of your products, or the people you may wish to exchange money for your products. This order is effective immediately and is non-negotiable.
Read MoreLast week, the world was made a better place when the Subaru Forester Ultimate Customized Kit Special edition (also known as the Subaru FUCKS) was unveiled at the 2020 Singapore Auto Show. Jokes were made. Laughs were had. It was a good time. And then I woke up today to see Subaru of America had done some heavy apologizing over the weekend.
Read MoreBoth The Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious prominently featured one of the best sports cars ever made, the Honda S2000. It was black in the first movie and pink with pink underglow in the second. But in reality, the two were apparently the same car???
Read MoreWe talk a lot about car brands, models, and badges here, but what about the marketing efforts that sell other motoring products? In specific, what about gas stations?
Read MoreShortly after fleeing house arrest in Japan where he was awaiting trial for alleged financial crimes to Beirut, Lebanon, former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn has already attracted new legal attention, this time for a business trip he made to his new neighbor to the south back in 2008.
Read MoreLike most of the writers and many of the readers here, I look for interesting car related things everywhere I go. Cruise-ins and small racing events are always great, especially in other countries. Car museums are interesting for some local history, although I did go to a great car museum in Spain that weirdly only had one Spanish car.
Read MoreThings at Aston Martin are looking a little touch and go right now as the legacy British automaker prepares production for its DBX SUV. The design and engineering behind the SUV has been incredibly expensive for the company, and everything hedges on its launch going well. If the DBX tanks, so too do the company’s profits. A rough European market for its cars has left the company down on its luck, reportedly taking in about half the profit it did in 2018.
Read MoreIn the latest and juiciest of Hummer-related rumors, the Wall Street Journal claims that “people familiar with the matter” say GM is bringing back Hummer as an off-road electric pickup model under the GMC brand. Set to debut in early 2022, the truck will be shown off by basketball genius LeBron James during this year’s Super Bowl, the news site’s sources say.
Read MoreIf you asked any automotive enthusiast their favorite part about a vehicle, their answer wouldn’t be something trivial like a “manual transmission.” It’d definitely be fed-in engine noise, which also happens to be a new feature on the 2020 Honda Civic Type R. Just kidding about that first part. But the latter is unfortunately true.
Read MoreIt’s finally here. The puffed-up, pissed-off, rally-inspired 2020 Toyota GR Yaris. And it comes with three pedals because of course it does. Perhaps there is a god.
Read MoreFormer Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is a big topic currently, considering that he escaped from Japan to Lebanon while on house arrest and has an Interpol red notice out for him. But there’s one thing people aren’t talking enough about, and that’s how Ghosn’s Lebanese home is being described as “pink” when it is absolutely not pink enough.
Read MoreWhoever cooked up Subaru’s “Forester Ultimate Customized Kit Special edition” for the 2020 Singapore Auto Show was clearly daring all of us to refer to it as the Subaru FUCKS, and I’m not one to back down from peer pressure, so here we are. Aside from the trolly name, the car’s actually pretty clean.
Read MoreInstagram, over the years, has morphed from that small corner of the internet where people weren’t constantly trying to fake it into that large corner of the internet where everyone is being paid to fake it. But there are still some bright spots, such as the comment sections of brand accounts like Bugatti.
Read MoreI happen to have access to an October 1968 copy of Autocar, and in that issue, they had an advertisement from AC, most famously known as the builders of the AC Ace, the car that, with the addition of a beefy Ford V8, became the Shelby Cobra. AC also built a handsome GT car known as the AC 428, a GT car with a Ford 428 cubic inch engine. This advertisement for the AC 428 is kind of baffling to me, though.
Read MoreBrake regen is typically associated with electrified cars, converting kinetic energy recovered under braking back into juice for the battery pack. Mazda, however, has been using a system it calls i-ELOOP on a few of its gasoline-powered cars like the 6 to recoup that energy to store in a capacitor and serve in place of the engine-powered alternator for an impressive increase in fuel economy and power. A few months ago this system was added to Japanese-market MX-5s, and this week it was added to
Read MoreDid you realize there are some cars that share their names with condoms? I bet most of you can come up with ‘Magnum,’ at least. I’ll admit, I am surprised there’s as many as I found. But, I guess it’s not that shocking, since the marketing of both products has a decent amount of overlap.
Read MoreJalopnik’s comment section is one of the best things about the site, maybe one of the best things on the internet, and I’d like to say a very earnest thank you to everyone who participates. But with the help of our tech team, I figured out who the most prolific Jalopnik commenter of the last decade has been.
Read MoreAs a motor-carriage operator, there’s a lot of laws that must be acknowledged and respected: no open flames in the car, try to keep any raptors or other birds of prey secured while driving, take down your big cardboard sunshade before driving, that sort of thing. While I’m not certain any of those example laws are actually real, I do know of three driving situations that are usually assumed to be illegal actually are not. Like it or not, I’m going to tell you about them, so prepare accordingly.
Read MoreYou feel it in your soul. You hear it in the wind. You might be working a desk job, but in your heart you’re a Jalopnik writer, you just know it! Well, here’s how to pitch us a story that we would love to publish on this website.
Read MoreAt first glance, James May: Our Man in Japan is yet another travel show set in a “foreign” and “exotic” Asian country that’s hosted by a white man. He eats some noodles, talks about samurai, and rides a train. But that doesn’t mean the show’s ingredients necessarily affect its final flavor, which is refreshingly honest, wholesome, and utterly delightful.
Read MoreCarlos Ghosn addressed the media today, the first time since he got whacked, axed, imprisoned. Also since he escaped. I had hoped that Ghosn would name names, and call out exactly the people involved in conspiring to lock him up. But Ghosn had more important things to discuss: the adoration of his loving fans, and the time GM offered to double his salary to poach him.
Read MoreThe animated and opinionated car reviewer Jason Cammisa has a new shakedown of the Shelby GT500 Mustang. It’s fairly cinematically impressive, but to me, the most interesting nugget of knowledge he shares is the origin of the original GT350’s name.
Read MoreBMW doesn’t really care all that much about electric cars. It produces the i3 and i8, yes, but it has never committing to a dedicated electric platform and overall just dragging its feet on the whole issue. And even after its former CEO Harold Krüger stepped down, old habits die hard. Some of the latest evidence: Its development chief says it’ll be making gas engines for “at least 30 years.”
Read More“I think I’m going to fly home. I can’t take this anymore,” Brandon mumbled as he sat slouched in the corner of a Denver bar. It was approaching midnight, and my friend was in shambles, his spirits having been crushed by 12 straight hours of extreme, high-intensity wrenching on the rare, manual transmission Jeep Grand Cherokee that I’d foolishly purchased sight unseen for $700. We were 1,300 miles from home, and I’d clearly made a grave mistake.
Read MoreFord’s plan to kill off its cars has been a perplexing thing since news of it came out in early 2018, and remains so nearly two years later. That’s underscored by Ford’s own sales reports, because even as crossover and SUV sales continue to skyrocket, the Ford Fusion sedan still pours out of the dealership lot.
Read MoreA significant piece of legislation is currently making its way through the process in New Jersey right now aiming to make the Garden State one of the most EV friendly states in the union. The bill would aim to increase the number of electric cars sold in the state by giving buyers up to $5,000 in tax incentives and drastically expand the number of charging stations.
Read MoreIn the 15 years Jalopnik’s been online, we have watched all kinds of cars go into production, but let’s be real, some are more important than others. Our definition of “important” here is as simple as we can make it: significant on a grand scale in terms of impact on the auto industry, on car design, on culture as a whole.
Read MoreIt is the Lamborghini Huracán Evo RWD. That is to say, it is a new version of the Lamborghini Huracán Evo but with rear-wheel drive instead of all-wheel drive. That is to say, it’s the good Lambo but more better.
Read MorePoor Infiniti decidedly did not have a stellar year last year. Abysmal sales figures reports from October led us to declare the automaker was getting creamed. And after viewing its recently published, overall 2019 sales figures, we can unilaterally conclude that, yes, Infiniti got creamed.
Read MoreHenrik Fisker, the designer behind cars like the BMW Z8 and the Fisker Karma, has struggled to keep a car company afloat in the past. But he’s trying again with the Fisker Ocean, a 250-mile range electric crossover with a price that steeply undercuts the upcoming Tesla Model Y.
Read MoreIt doesn’t happen too often, but every now and then I’ll have a chance encounter with a car that I’d completely forgotten about. That encounter will usually have one of two outcomes: either a long, overly dramatic exhale and a some loud statement to the person (likely imaginary) next to me about how happy I am I hardly ever see those hunks of shit around, or a realization that the car in question is actually really cool, a realization so distracting I’ll often fall into an open manhole. Just a f
Read MoreYou know what was a great decade for cars? The 20s. The last one I mean, not this one that we’re half a week into. Lots of great cars came out of the 20s, and a few great car companies. One of those companies was Alvis, which began making cars almost exactly 100 years ago and successfully implemented groundbreaking technologies that are commonplace today.
Read MoreA few short days after former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn’s flight from house arrest in Japan to Lebanon was first reported, more details are beginning to emerge.
Read MoreThe Lexus LFA is a fascinating thing—a V10 supercar so unlike the rest of the company’s lineup, in both performance and price—and it has been since the car’s limited run of 500 units before production ended in 2012. But not all of those 500 units have been bought yet, and Lexus sold three new LFAs in 2019.
Read MoreThe Dodge Challenger is a muscle car that’s been around in its current form since 2008, and has roots in 1990s Mercedes-Benz architecture. But Dodge sold more than twice the number of Challengers in the U.S. market in 2019 as it did in 2009, when the car still qualified as “new.” That makes the Dodge Challenger a modern marketing marvel, both for its sheer sales numbers and for making us all perpetually forget how old it is.
Read MoreJonathan Leo loves his cars, but not commuting in them. He lives in San Diego and works for the Navy, so he takes the city’s trolley to work as often as he can. Then, on the weekends, he unloads his 2012 Mercedes Benz C250 on some of California’s best roads.
Read MoreI’ve been making predictions about the future of cars for a number of years now, and if you don’t count the ones that didn’t actually come to pass, my success rate is a staggering one hundred percent. As you can imagine, with that record, I can’t stop now, so clamp your buttocks firmly together and prepare yourself to get mind-scrambled with all-new predictions for 2020!
Read MoreIn the years since his death in the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Sr. has become probably the most well-respected driver in American racing. The Intimidator inspired a generation of NASCAR fans, and people continue to pay tribute by throwing his livery on all sorts of stuff, including this Tesla Model 3.
Read MoreI’ve always been more interested in the bottom end of the car market than in the upper ends. I’m not exactly sure why; perhaps it’s the same deep-seated insecurity and lack of self-esteem that makes me pick plastic cups over real glasses, because deep down maybe I’m not so sure I deserve to drink from glass, like a king or something? I’ll let my team of therapists figure that one out, but in the meantime we may as well compare the budget car options from 1967 to what cheapskates can buy today. I
Read MoreI last drove a two-door Mini in 2013 and it was the Mini Cooper Coupe—you know, the one that looked like a hat. But I liked that about it and it was quite fun, especially with the manual. I’m circling back on that idea now with the 2019 Mini John Cooper Works Hardtop Knights Edition. What do you want to know about it?
Read MoreAt the end of 2019, Volkswagen released a very charming and bittersweet animated tribute to the Beetle. While I think the video is wonderfully done, the fact remains the only car shown in it is one that hasn’t actually been built for 16 years, and I think the attempt to tie in modern Beetles to the legacy of the original is inherently flawed. I’ll explain why.
Read MoreAudi has already made two attempts to electrify the Audi R8, with it only ever going into limited production back in 2015 before abruptly dying against all good reason. The future of the R8 nameplate has been uncertain for some time, but Autocar is claiming we may see another electric version next year to kick off Audi’s performance electric transition.
Read MoreMy favorite automotive artist, Nicolas Hunziker, paints a new vintage racing-themed piece to celebrate each new year. It’s a fun and interesting automotive way to ring in the new year and show off his talents at the same time. This time he’s chosen to depict a scene of Jo Siffert jumping aboard the famous Porsche 908/2 Flunder. This year it’s even better because the 908 is my personal fave Porsche race car.
Read MoreEvery year we are afforded a day to re-think all of our priorities for the coming lap around the sun. I love celebrating the New Year, because it imbues all of us with potential. Before we proceed to screw up all of our best laid plans, before we fail to meet our goals, before it all goes to waste, for this one glorious day we are everything that we hope we can be. And to that end, we are the ultimate gearheads.
Read MoreThere is a new player on the scene with a full-sized three-row luxury SUV, as if the world needed such a thing. Korean lux brand Genesis has been building some incredibly well-adjusted automobiles, and its fans have been crying for an SUV model since the start. With a brand new RWD-based architecture, the GV80 looks ready to take on competitors costing far more, as is the Genesis way.
Read MoreI touched the seven-figure no-windshield McLaren Elva last night and it was like that scene in Ratatouille where the bad guy tastes food so good he gets transported back to his childhood. This car is like a Hot Wheels toy. One of the dumb ones that looks like a fish or something. Except, in real life, it’s so iconoclastic and absurd that it stands out even among other supercars.
Read MoreWhen enough time passes, what was once mundane can become interesting. The plastic-fantastic Star Trek-shuttle shaped Honda CR-V of the 2000s has now crossed that threshold. It was popular in its day for practicality, now I think it’s actually pretty cool.
Read MoreThe New Bronco has been coming for seemingly as long as humans have been connected to each other through the internet. Ford really likes teasing this one out, as people are excited by the prospects of an off-roady SUV from the Blue Oval with the kind of capabilities to directly take on the Jeep Wrangler. This spied Bronc’ looks 100% ready for a rumble on the Rubicon.
Read MoreWhen I was in middle school, an abandoned Citroën BX lived in a vacant lot a few blocks from my house. It had a profound effect on me.
Read MoreWe’ve been following the battle between FCA, who owns Jeep, and Mahindra, the Indian company that has been license-building Jeeps since the 1940s, over Mahindra’s off-road-only vehicle, the Roxor. Essentially, Mahindra is selling a non-street-legal vehicle in America that, because it comes from the same original source, looks a hell of a lot like a Jeep. Jeep is very unhappy about this, hence the legal battle. Today, Mahindra issued a statement about the International Trade Commission’s (ITC) cu
Read MoreByton had an unveiling at CES this year that went over, among other things, the partnered content it is going to shove into its massive 48-inch screen, and I couldn’t help but think that this is a step in the wrong direction.
Read MoreThe yellow splitter guards Dodge Charger and Challenger owners drive around with were never meant to be fashionable, as Dodge intended them as shipping protection to be removed by dealers. But they are, to the point that Dodge’s head designer said in October that a color change was under consideration.
Read MoreConsidering I still don’t know whether to take the Tesla Cybertruck reveal seriously or not, Tesla has revealed a new, refreshingly reserved design sketch in an effort to recruit design talent for its plans in China.
Read MoreOn any given day, the Chevrolet Equinox is as far out of my imagination as the likelihood that I will ever be completely free of debt. But today, the upcoming refreshed 2021 Chevrolet Equinox has leaked online in China, and it’s pretty terrible.
Read MoreThe 2021 Genesis GV80 debuted yesterday as the fourth model of the new luxury brand’s first real lineup, and the first SUV, which means they’re going to sell more of them than anything else. But why did Genesis copy Lexus’ weird handwriting input system?
Read MoreAuto design, like any fashion, comes in waves of trends, where certain looks and ideas gain momentum and swell, spreading around everywhere, before finally cresting, and then crashing. You expect cars to share certain commonalities of a given era. Even with that in mind, the similarities between these two styling concepts from 1962—one from Germany via Italy, one from Japan via, uh, also Italy—are really quite striking, and much more similar than you’d expect. I’m not saying anyone peeked at any
Read MoreSubaru showed off the new Subaru Levorg STI Sport concept wagon at the Tokyo Auto Salon and if history is any indication it’s probably almost exactly what the next Subaru WRX STI is going to look like. That’s a very good thing.
Read MoreThirty-odd years ago, some design hack drew a bunch of brown swooshes on the side of an RV in a move that would forever change the look of interstates and campgrounds everywhere. Overnight, the entire industry apparently decided that this was peak RV design and that no new designs would be needed aside from slight variations in swoosh size and color.
Read MoreSuzuki still makes cars, just sadly not for America. A good one is the Suzuki Swift Sport Katana widebody coming to this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, based on the recently revived Suzuki Katana motorcycle. I’ve just got one big problem with this widebody hatchback, though.
Read MoreIf there’s one thing we don’t talk about enough when we talk about cars, it’s that, of all of the paint options, gradient is the best paint option. Our lack of discussion of this very important fact is probably due to one reason: There is no discussion. It’s the best, period. The end.
Read MoreI suppose this shouldn’t really be surprising, but even though I almost exclusively associate the idea of pie-in-the-sky concept machines with the automotive industry, they’re not the only ones do this kind of thing. For example, the farm machinery industry has fun making wild futuristic concepts, too, as you can see here, with this menacing-looking Kubota autonomous electric tractor concept called the X Tractor. It looks like a pissed-off robot tarantula-puma.
Read MoreThe formula is simple: take your sports car, then raise it up with extra ground clearance and a wider kit for big, chunky tires. You know it. The entire vintage scene in LA knows it. And Alpine knows it, with the new Alpine A110 SportsX concept.
Read MoreHBO’s nearish-future robo-horror show Westworld is coming back, and its focus is moving from a synthetic Old West populated with sexy and deadly robots covered in biological skin into the mainstream world of the near future, which seems to be populated with not just sexy and deadly robots and people, but also cars. Friend of Jalopnik and noted automotive designer John Frye spotted some interesting vehicles on the street in LA, and it appears they’re cars for the upcoming season of Westworld.
Read MoreAt this year’s CES, which we didn’t attend because it conflicted with the Global Air Cleaners And Filters Show (GACAF) in lovely, erotic Lansing, Honda exhibited an interesting and charming-looking concept car that appears to have the goal of being a sort of bridge between human-brain-and-muscle-driven cars and fully autonomous cars. Sort of. They’re calling it the Augmented Driving Concept, and I feel like I need to explain it a bit more, for both of us.
Read MoreYou’d think that the really big window above the steering wheel on nearly all trucks would be useful for something, like, say, seeing other cars on the road with you so you don’t, you know, plow into them and shove them off the road like a Roomba pushing a wayward hot dog under your sofa. And yet, somehow, that’s what happened on Highway 401 in Ontario, Canada.
Read MoreI bought my first new car in 2008 after several years of proud shitbox ownership. I was coming from a $500 Honda CRX that was missing most of its interior trim and a bumper, alluding to some unknown past that probably had something to do with Grand Theft Auto. Not the video game.
Read MoreI know we all lamented the painful eight inches of cowardice that was added to Durham, North Carolina’s famous 11-foot, eight-inch bridge, in an effort to cause less sardine-canning of various trucks and trailers that foolishly ignore the height restrictions of the bridge. Thankfully, though, it seems our worries may have been short-sighted, since the now 12'4" bridge is still capable of administering bridgy justice on height-arrogant truckers, as you can see here.
Read MoreFor those keeping score, Detroit currently leads the 2020 Chevrolet C8 Corvette by one point to zilch, due to the fact that a street-parked, mid-engine ‘Vette just had its wheels stolen. That makes Michigan’s overall score over the Corvette two-nothing, as the first point was scored by snow.
Read MoreYamaha manufactures many things, including instruments and audio equipment, which requires large travel cases like the ones above. Last week the manufacturer issued a cautionary series of tweets asking people to not get inside of these large cases for any reason. I don’t know what anyone would need to get into a case like this for, but I’m sure if they did they would have a good reason.
Read MoreTwo General Motors employees were taken to jail earlier this week after the Kentucky State Police busted them for allegedly street racing C8 Corvette test vehicles. The incident involving two company-owned Corvettes that you can’t even buy yet took place this past Wednesday in Bowling Green, Kentucky, home to the Corvette manufacturing plant.
Read MoreHan’s back in the first full trailer for Fast 9, also titled The Fast Saga. Everything else looks pretty dumb.
Read MoreA replica Ferrari 250 GT California used in the 80s film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” sold at auction last week for almost $400,000. That seems like an awful lot of cash for a replica, especially considering it was one of three used for the movie, and it isn’t even clear which scenes this one was used in.
Read MoreI love a bad movie. Well, not a bad movie, but a bad movie. The kind of movie that makes you question how it got a green light, and how it was able to proceed at any step of the process. Movies that make you wonder if anyone, or everyone, involved knew how bad it was going to be. They must have known, right?
Read MoreKarma unveiled their SC2 at the Los Angeles auto show a couple of months ago and I forgot it existed immediately after seeing it. Yesterday, looking back through my pictures from the show, I remembered there was one thing that caught my attention: The door mechanism looks the same as the mechanism Koenigsegg uses.
Read MoreAt this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Mercedes-Benz presented a simultaneous throwback and a spectacular look at its vision for the future. Behold, the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR—a concept car that’s inspired by James Cameron’s 2009 cinematic smash hit, Avatar.
Read MoreCES has always been about one-upmanship among automotive OEMs. Who can show off the coolest, newest, tech-iest. Toyota has laid waste to the entire field of comers this year by announcing that it would build the biggest tech accessory of all time, an entire goddamn city! Toyota is calling its planned 175-acre city at the base of Mt. Fuji “Woven City” and it will be powered entirely by hydrogen fuel cells and photo-voltaic solar.
Read MoreSony surprised more than a few people in Las Vegas Monday evening with the unveiling of its new Vision-S concept car on the opening night of the consumer electronics show. The concept is meant to showcase Sony’s technology in the transportation and mobility segment, incorporating imaging and sensing hardware, onboard AI software, telecommunications, cloud computing, and in-car entertainment.
Read MoreJeep has already made a commitment to offer electrification options for all of its models, including a series of on-road focused models. The brand has not exactly been on the electrification end of the spectrum lately, but FCA is in serious trouble if it can’t bring down its corporate emissions numbers, so it is going to tackle the worst of the bunch first, I guess.
Read More“I really want to know what these dudes were smoking” reads a message from a reader named Nick, whose email—eloquently titled “uhhh what.”—includes a link to one of the wackiest automotive (ish) contraptions I’ve ever seen on Craigslist. It’s made of a bunch of vehicle parts bolted and welded and probably taped together—let’s see if you can guess which vehicles those parts come from.
Read MoreI still own my first car. It’s a 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ that I bought in college in 2010. It’s a vehicle that I crashed, hydrolocked, and ruined with a lift kit, and yet I can’t get let go. That’s why this “one owner” 1946 Willys CJ-2A is so fascinating to me. I get why somebody would want to own a car this long, but how? That’s just one of many questions I have about this mysterious machine.
Read MoreThere’s some kind of odd mystique surrounding the “first” model made of any material item, even though no one can tell the difference and No. 2 onward are likely a lot cheaper. If you’re into firsts, though, the first example of the sixth-generation Chevrolet Corvette Z06 to roll off the line is for sale for $79,000.
Read MoreThe 390 cubic-inch 1968 Ford Mustang GT made famous by a very good car chase scene in Steve McQueen’s not very good detective film Bullitt was sold Friday by Mecum auctions in Kissimmee, Fla. for a massive $3.74 million. Before the auction the rumors in the room claimed the car would hit as high as $5 million, but as bidding crested the 3 mil mark about 5 minutes after the car rolled onto the dais, parties lost interest.
Read MoreAt some point, Bring A Trailer evolved from a place you could buy a clunker on the nice(r) side to one where pristine machines that aren’t always terribly rare but with only a handful of miles on them changed ownership at tip-top dollar. It was only a matter of time, I suppose. Here are some of the more bemusing ones.
Read MoreWhen you find yourself at the Winn-Dixie on Pine Island, Florida, you do the sensible thing and you drop the $3.99 on the Truck Round-Up.
Read MoreToday I bring you a revelation: Germany is chock-full of absurdly cheap Chrysler minivans equipped with two coveted features never offered in the U.S.: a manual transmission and a diesel engine. Yes, I’m talking about the torquey and fuel efficient glory of a compression engine bolted to fun-to-drive transmission, all encapsulated in an efficient minivan body. Just look at these deals.
Read MoreSome cars are just good—not the kind of good that impresses a large audience simply by virtue of its badge or the expensive toys and electronics it comes with, but the kind of good meant to cater to a car enthusiast whose tastes are slowly disappearing from the market. The 2020 Honda Civic Si is one of those cars.
Read MoreThe 2020 Honda Pilot is a comfortable, user-friendly, inoffensively minivan-like SUV for large families. The 2020 Honda Pilot Black Edition, is, get this, black. Exterior, interior, wheels. It’s as all-black as New Zealand’s rugby team or a car from the motor pool for anonymous henchmen.
Read MoreWhen Indian launched the opening salvos in a V-twin cruiser motorcycle power war with its new 122-horsepower and 128 lb-ft PowerPlus engine, a 108 cubic inch engine found in the new Indian Challenger, Harley-Davidson was perhaps caught with its pants down. The Motor Company’s previous best engine just wasn’t good enough to beat the PowerPlus anymore. Time to introduce a new crate engine with an even bigger displacement and torque number to keep customers coming back to the Bar and Shield. Enter
Read MoreHarley knows what it’s future looks like with, perhaps by as soon as next year, more sales internationally than in the U.S., the continuation of a long-term trend. It’s desperately trying to prop up U.S. sales, but the LiveWire hasn’t been selling great, and its core demo is aging out. Revenue numbers for 2019 released today were also a lot worse than expected.
Read MoreWe like what Santa Cruz-based Zero Motorcycles does. It builds a good quality electric motorcycle for a good price, and it was among the first brands to really put their whole ass into electric two wheelers. By all accounts Zero’s newest sport electric—the SR/F—launched last year is quite a good naked bike with a good amount of range. Monday Zero teased its next bike in the series, the SR/S.
Read MoreHarley-Davidson showed off a scooter prototype at CES last year, and we recently got to see more detailed pictures of it thanks to designs submitted to the European Union Intellectual Property Office. While a scooter may not seem on-brand for the company, this wouldn’t be their first.
Read MoreHarley-Davidson desperately needs a change. It is working very hard to revamp its image in a more youth-friendly way, which includes a plan for a full lineup of electric-powered two-wheelers. For now, Harley has the very good [and very expensive] LiveWire, but has hinted that more electric bikes are coming to fill in the gaps underneath that. This new “middleweight EV concept” is the next one coming, and it looks like a really good time.
Read MoreI used to own a Honda RC51 that made the most wonderful noise. It sounded like Godzilla stepped on a Lego. I loved the sound of that bike, though I’m sure the neighbors that lived above my parking space did not. I wouldn’t call it the best sounding motorcycle, but it’s up there with the Yamaha R1 and its crossplane crankshaft and pretty much every Ducati.
Read MoreBMW currently makes something called the C Evolution, an all-electric scooter-ish vehicle that starts at $13,995 and is intended, I guess, for wealthy-ish commuters, since the range is only 99 miles. What BMW does not currently make is a proper electric motorcycle.
Read MoreSince it was acquired by Ninebot in 2015, the Segway brand has gradually been branching out into the consumer market with a series of electric kick scooters, and even a little EV gokart for kids. This year the American electric transport company is taking shit serious. It all started last year with the 185 lb-ft Dirt eBike based on the Sur Ron Bee, which rips. And did you know Segway has a series of hybrid powersports models?
Read MoreThe Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is the 38th-best highway in the New York City area, I determined in a highly scientific ranking a couple of years ago. It is, for the most part, three lanes on each side, and also, most times, a parking lot. And it’s in deep disrepair. For these reasons, New York City might make it smaller.
Read MoreThe 2021 Genesis GV80, a luxury SUV/crossover thing that was unveiled earlier this month, might low-key be the best luxury SUV on the market by the time it reaches customers sometime this year. Now we know how much it’ll cost, a number that on paper suggests it’ll be able to more than compete with cars like the Mercedes GLE or BMW X5, though price won’t be the only factor.
Read MoreDelphi, a parts supplier which used to be owned by GM a generation ago, went bankrupt, spun off part of its business, and then added the word “Technologies” to its name to (I guess) seem young and hip, is being purchased by BorgWarner, another parts supplier, a somewhat sad denouement for a company that used to be the biggest parts maker in the world.
Read MoreThe Toyota Century has always been a quiet car. Dead quiet. Silent. The kind of car for a captain of industry to relax in after a long day on the job. Or for a Yakuza boss to slink around the seedier parts of Osaka after a, um, long day on the job. At least, that used to be the case.
Read MoreBack before Peugeot last left the American market in the early ‘90s, they made one last-ditch effort to get buyers into their 505 STX sedan. Though the car was good, the competition was stiff, so Peugeot called in some backup.
Read MoreDo you want a Formula 1 car to take to track days but don’t want to bring an entire team of mechanics with you? Well good news, because for just $2 million, Tour-de-Force Power Engineering will sell you an F1 car that has been “expertly re-engineered for private use.”
Read MoreThe electric SUV market is getting crowded with Volvo confirming a previously announced electric variant of the upcoming third-generation XC90. The company is also reporting “strong early consumer demand” for its electric XC40 with “several thousands” of people placing $1000 deposits.
Read MoreYesterday, Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) announced recommended safety fixes for Tesla Autopilot. The recommendations include rebranding Autopilot to make it clear that it is not fully autonomous, and adding redundant driver monitoring to prevent users from tricking the system.
Read MoreMini is back to building an electric car. Like last time, the yellow-colored accents and two-door body style are back, but the drivetrain guts are all different—and mostly BMW i3 parts. And now it’s called the Mini Cooper SE.
Read MoreAnnual inspections are required in New York State, and I usually do this at my local dealer, since they are close to where I live and the service department is open 24 hours most days. This year, it came with an unpleasant surprise, or around $750 of necessary service work, which is right around the line where I might go elsewhere.
Read MoreIf your build is wanting for power and has to room for an upgrade (and sometimes even if it doesn’t), an LS V8 is usually the go-to. But what if you don’t want the obvious option? What if you need to stand out?
Read MoreThe first Dakar rally to be held in Saudi Arabia ended on Friday, and while Gazoo driver and F1 legend Fernando Alonso didn’t quite crack the top ten in his class, Toyota’s factory efforts largely killed it. Nasser Attiyeh and Matthieu Baumel were second-place finishers in their Hilux and the rest of the competitors driving for Toyota largely crushed it as well. Unsurprisingly, their efforts won them a heartfelt letter from the President of Toyota Akio Toyoda, who also signed as Morizo, Master D
Read MoreWith hot hatches like the rally-derived 2020 Toyota GR Yaris pulling more than 260 horsepower out of tiny 3-cylinder engines, it can be hard to remember what little pocket rockets were like just twelve years ago when power was low and weight was even lower.
Read MoreThe number of races in a Formula 1 season has been slowly creeping up since the first season which had seven races in 1950. The 2020 season will have the most races ever with 22. While still fewer than the hundreds of races that NASCAR’s top series runs each year (36, actually), the larger calendar has led to concerns about travel, and teams are exploring new plans to rotate team members.
Read MoreAustin runs a home remodeling business. He is looking for an affordable ride that can act as an advertising canvas but is also fun to drive. He has a modest budget of around $15,000. What car should he buy?
Read MoreMy neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant plays host to many interesting vehicles so it’s hard for me to get really worked up about something I’ve seen. But the other day I saw these two Citroëns unceremoniously street-parked a few blocks from my apartment and I lost it. I just lost it.
Read MoreWith a name like Oldsmobile, it’s hard to shake the air of stodginess. By 1989, GM was more than aware. By that point, though, it was hard to make a splash with new technology like front-wheel-drive. Everyone had seen that. But they hadn’t met most celebrities’ kids. And so that’s what Oldsmobile gave them.
Read MorePortuguese motorcyclist and 13-time Dakar entrant Paulo Gonçalves, 40, has died as a result of injuries sustained in a fall 276 kilometers into today’s stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia.
Read MoreI’m not a big fan of “patina”. The word I mean, not the faded and corroded look of an old car. It’s somewhere between the name of a bad teen pop star and a rejected pharmaceutical brand. It’s also seemingly exclusively used by people who are so insistent that their car’s patina is natural that it makes you sure it isn’t. “It has a patina but I didn’t sand it or anything, I found it just like that.” There’s built-in dishonesty to it, like when real estate agents say “cozy” or “potential.”
Read MoreThe UAW tried and failed for years to organize auto plants in the south; its leadership is almost cartoonishly corrupt; and now its new president is now reportedly under federal investigation himself, despite having promised to clean things up.
Read MoreThe first Takata recall for defective airbags began back in 2001, sparking a series of cascading recalls that eventually touched tens of millions of cars and bankrupted the company. Now, a new recall of around 10 million airbags to replace airbags that had already been replaced in previous recalls has been issued, though the end of the saga might finally be in sight.
Read MoreThe Ferrari Monza SP was a fluke, the McLaren Elva made it a conversation, and Aston Martin’s V12 Speedster turns it into a trend. This trend of 7-figure supercars with no windshields or roofs prove that at least a marketable portion of rich people want to feel the wind in their hair and bugs in their teeth.
Read MoreExactly 31,514 Nissan Titans (sorry, TITANs) were sold last year, or 37.5 percent fewer Titans than were sold in 2018, when 50,540 Titans were sold. While some people might be waiting for the “refresh” on 2020 Titans, that doesn’t totally explain such a huge drop off.
Read MoreIf you ever manage to take a peek inside the train operator’s compartment on the subway, the whole operation might strike you as kind of simple. There aren’t a whole lot of controls to work with. But that’s just an electric train. When it comes to steam engines, things look a lot more complicated.
Read MoreBack in 1934, Chrysler debuted the Airflow. The car was a revolution in that it brought wind-tunnel testing from the world of aviation to the car market. More than 85 years later, the name is back on a concept from FCA that will debut at CES this week.
Read MoreIn 2019, Toyota sold a hair under 70,000 Priuses in the United States. That’s a 20% drop off of the 2018's numbers, a whopping 70% fewer than the peak in 2012 and only a few more than its debut year back in 2004. That sounds concerning, but there’s some important context to consider.
Read MoreBack before 1957, getting from Boston to points west and south by car was a real challenge. Only narrow Route 9 and Route 20 stretched between the city and the bulk of the commonwealth to the west. But as road traffic grew, something new was needed.
Read More1966 marked the launch of the Oldsmobile’s Toronado, and to help get more people into the new personal luxury coupes, GM produced an advertisement mailer to familiarize the buying public with its new car. But this wasn’t a brochure. It was a record.
Read MoreThe ad for today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe S2000 says it should rightfully be called an “S6200.” That’s owed to the 6.2-litre LS3 it has seemingly swallowed. Let’s see if that swap makes its price something you might be able to swallow.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Land Rover is named the Discovery, and in converted camper form, it embodies the truest sense of that term. Let’s see what all this discovery should rightfully cost.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 650i rocks amazingly huge 21-inch wheels with rubber band tires. It also comes with a rare six-speed stick. The most important number for us, however, is going to be the price. Let’s see where that lands.
Read MoreWith over 200K on the clock, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Acura has certainly been around the block. Let’s see if its price and rare six-speed stick more than make up for those miles.
Read MoreWhile the rat rod fad may be fading, well-sorted cars that wear patina as their primary paint will always hold appeal. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Datsun is just such a car. Let’s see if its price makes it look like a clean deal.
Read MoreAn expanding family is the excuse given for the sale of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Audi RS4. Let’s see if this Canadian-located hot shoe’s price makes it worth adding it to your own family.
Read MoreIf you’ve long been hankering for a coach-built executive class SUV with easy to service American muscle under the hood then today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Laforza might just be your jam. Could that oddly specific wish fulfillment be worth the asking? We’ll just have to see.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Grand Cherokee is looking for a buyer who, in their words, will love it as much as they do. Before that can happen, we’ll have to find out if we love its price.
Read MorePorsche has adapted to a changing market over the years, a fact made plainly clear by today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Panamera four-door. Let’s see if it’s still a Porsche, and more importantly, a good used-Porsche deal.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Corvair hides a nice little surprise in its bed. Let’s see if its price hides any unpleasant surprises in addition.
Read MoreVenerated designer Henrik Fisker has attached his name to a lot of cars. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Karma is the one, at present, for which he’s probably best remembered. Let’s see if it comes with an equally memorable price.
Read MoreFew people bought Chevy’s SS when it was new, but as today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe edition proves, there’s still time to gain an appreciation. We’ll just have to see if its price proves depreciation enough.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Ferrari is being offered by a Mazda dealer who no doubt took it in trade for an equally desirable and sporty CX9. Let’s see if it’s priced to make one more trade.
Read MoreBMW’s K-series of motorcycles gained the nickname the “flying brick” for their block-like laid-down inline engines. At three cylinders, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe K 75 is the smaller of the series. Let’s see if this classic bike’s price makes it a perfect building block for future fun.
Read MoreFord enters 2020 without a single traditional station wagon in its U.S. lineup, an inauspicious start to the new decade to be sure. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Flex represents the last model they did sell. Let’s see if its price makes it a fitting bearer of that standard.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Jetta has about everything you could want in VW’s handsome small wagon, including the VR6 engine, manual transmission, and fancy leather seats. Let’s see if it’s priced to make you want it even more.
Read MoreThe ad for today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Jeep claims it to be one of the last Grand Cherokees to come with a stick. We like sticks, and we like Jeeps. Let’s see if we like this one’s price tag as well.
Read MoreHonda’s current Civic can be had in your choice of three body styles, a sizable selection in its class these days. As proven by this Nice Price or Crack Pipe Wagovan, that’s still a far cry from what they used to offer. Let’s see if this old school people mover is priced to make it the right choice.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 928S claims it to be a special order euro model and it does rock a color combo that’s pretty unique. Let’s see if that, and its condition, make its price seem pretty run of the mill.
Read MoreWith AWD, AWS, and a twin-turbo DOHC V6, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 3000GT is a tour de force of automotive acronyms. Let’s see if its price also makes it a turd de farce.
Read MoreThe dealer offering today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 2002 claims it’s a blast to drive. Let’s see if this old school Neue Klasse coupé’s price is worth blasting a hole in your bank account.
Read MoreThere’s probably no more iconic car than the ill-fated DeLorean DMC-12, and while today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe edition doesn’t look safe enough to hit anything close to 88 miles per hour, it’s the price might just make it an icon worth working on.
Read MoreLike light from an already-dead star, here’s Richard Hammond reviewing the Euro-spec 1998 200SX at just a few years and 25,000 miles into life. It is a very different experience.
Read MoreThere used to be lots of options for people who wanted an SUV with a removable top. The Ford Bronco, International Harvester Scout, Chevy Blazer, Dodge Ramcharger, and the Suzuki Samurai and Sidekick all had removable tops at one point.
Read MoreThe famous Rolls-Royce/Bentley L-series 6 3/4-liter V8 engine was introduced in 1959 and has been in continuous production ever since. The large, expensive, and emissions heavy V8 has been slowly phased out under Volkswagen’s ownership of the Crewe-based luxury car brand. The engine has been dead in the Rolls-Royce brand since it was taken over by BMW in the late 1990s. For nearly a decade the engine has trudged along in the ultra-lux Mulsanne, but now even that must come to an end.
Read MoreGo to any luxury manufacturer and you’ll find, right beside the top-tier luxury sedan, an even better one. The long wheelbase version of that top-tier luxury sedan. The current crop of LWB luxobarges is good. But the original Audi V8 L was better.
Read MoreI recently started writing up a new musical, Cars, in which a clan of disturbingly horny sedans and wagons compete through song and dance to be lifted via an electromagnetic crane to Junkyardside, but then this morning our fearless leader Mike Ballaban pointed out that that show was already written, but about Cats. That seems weird to me, but what’s even weirder is that the world of cars had collided before with this musical via a U.S. Department of Transportation public service announcement.
Read MoreFlying is already hell, and the fascists at the U.S. Department of Transportation want to make everything even more stressful by proposing some new rules “to amend the definition of a service animal in air transportation and includes safeguards to ensure safety and reduce the likelihood that passengers wishing to travel with their pets on aircraft will be able to falsely claim that their pets are service animals.”
Read MoreThe Boeing 737 MAX airliner has been grounded in America since last March, and was grounded in many other countries before that, thanks to two tragic crashes, one an Ethiopian Airlines flight, and one an Indonesian Lion Air flight that killed 189 people. That crash was blamed partially on a new flight-control system installed on the planes, and partially on poor pilot training and an unfamiliarity with the new system. Newly-released internal Boeing documents show that when Lion Air requested mor
Read MoreDismissed Boeing CEO Dennis A. Muilenburg helmed the American aviation giant through the biggest crisis of its entire history. A pair of 737 Max flights crashed, leaving 346 people dead, because cutting corners was more profitable. Since March of last year the jet has been grounded until it can be proven to safely fly again. Because of the decisions made by Muilenburg both leading up to, and in the wake of, the crisis, he was fired from his cushy executive position.
Read MoreThe Panamera Sport Turismo GTS is a freaking V8 turbo Porsche station wagon. Even if you’re just mildly into cars, that description alone should have you fired right up. I will say, this car is not exactly what I expected, but it is pretty fresh.
Read MoreThursday night Formula E tweeted out the above image teasing the “Gen 2 Evo” chassis, which is expected to be a facelifted aerokit for the Spark SRT05e chassis. This should be the car used for season seven (2020/21) and extend through the end of season eight before Gen 3 is introduced.
Read MoreWhen you are born into the Andretti motorsport dynasty, it is almost a foregone conclusion that you’ll end up racing for a living. Son of Aldo Andretti, Mario’s brother, it didn’t take long for John to follow in the family business. Not only was he pretty damn good at it, but he would drive just about anything with wheels and an engine. After a lengthy public battle with colon cancer, Andretti has passed away.
Read MoreExtreme E is the off-road electric racing series from the people who brought you Formula E, and the Odyssey 21 is the buggy-like SUV which will form the basis of the series. The folks behind Extreme E invited Head Hoon Ken Block out to rip around the Saudi desert in one of these for a one-day test and then enter the final stage (stage 12) of the Dakar outside of Riyadh. To give you some idea of how quick this electric monster is, Block finished third quickest of the day.
Read MoreMaking cars is almost as difficult as it is expensive. Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler is running on hard times right now, having reported a decline in 2019 profit of more than 50 percent. In addition to a desire to focus on road car research and development [because Daimler is pretty screwed on CO2 emissions right now], the company is looking for ways to cut costs and increase profits.
Read MoreSkijoring is a weird sport. It’s something of a cross between water skiing and downhill skiing, as you are towed on a pair of snow skis through a slalom course. Traditionally this sport has been led by a horse or team of dogs, but since at least the 1950s some more intrepid skijorers have towed in behind cars. Porsche in particular has a history with skijoring, but at this year’s second annual revival Ice Race GP in Austria, Bentley will be providing the skijor car.
Read MoreWith Kamui Kobayashi behind the wheel, the Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac brought home another win for the team at Daytona this year, keeping Cadillac’s record at the IMSA season opener at a cool four-for-four since 2017.
Read MoreThe 2020 Rallye Automobile de Monte Carlo wrapped up this afternoon, and it all ended with a thrilling win for Belgian driver Thierry Neuville in his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC.
Read MoreIn a Friday press conference at Daytona International Speedway, ACO president Pierre Fillon and IMSA chairman Jim France announced a plan to allow their top-flight classed competitors to participate in the same class [dubbed LMDh] across the two sanctioning bodies. For the first time in decades manufacturer-supported teams will be eligible to compete for the overall win at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the same year.
Read MoreStarting for the 2021 season Formula One is going to be maintaining a strict cost cap on the ten teams involved in the sport. Traditionally the teams that spend the most are the teams that perform the best, and by reducing that max spends the series hopes to close the gap from the frontrunners to the backmarkers. This dedication to a reduction in costs for teams has the potential to change the sport from top to bottom. Or things will remain exactly as they are.
Read MoreIn a qualifying session shortened by Ricky Taylor crashing his Acura into a barrier at the busstop Thursday, Mazda’s Oliver Jarvis topped the time sheets again to set pole time in his RT24-P racer. His lap time of 1:33.711 wasn’t quite quick enough to set an official new lap record at the circuit, just a tenth of a second slower than his record set a year ago. Even still, the lap was nearly half a second quicker than Juan Pablo Montoya, who will start the race from second position.
Read MoreOver 600 people have contracted the Wuhan coronavirus, and it has killed 17 people as of January 23rd. China is a massive international travel market with millions of people passing through its borders every year, and as a result of the virus’ ease of transfer the country is cancelling many large scale sporting events, including motorsport.
Read MoreThere is a four-wheeled creature which travels around the world inflicting its shouts upon the hills and dells of rural municipalities all over the globe. Right now they are shooting around the hills and forests near Monte Carlo shouting their tiny hearts out, zooming zooming zooming toward the horizon. They cry out because they are happy. These are the cars of big speed. They live and die for the feeling of rapidly crushing pavement, dirt, and snow. Do not fear them, for they are content and re
Read MoreThe Dakar Rally has been running since the ’70s, gone from Africa to South America and, this year, to Saudi Arabia. But it’s never been won by an American until 2020. Ricky Brabec is officially the first to do it, on a Honda dirt bike. Fellow U.S. dude Casey Currie was close behind too, winning the SSV class.
Read MoreNASCAR is testing a new car design scheduled to debut in its top-tier Cup Series in 2021, which would replace the sixth-generation race car that’s been run since 2013. In trying to get with the times, NASCAR is also testing a new transmission—a sequential in place of its long-run four-speed manual.
Read MoreThe women-only W Series racing division, which ran its inaugural season last year with Williams Formula One development driver Jamie Chadwick taking the championship, will be back for a longer second season in 2020. Not only will the second season be longer, but it’ll also pair up with F1 for two race weekends.
Read MoreNearly a decade after the NASCAR Xfinity Series traded one of its best races of the year for a much less exciting one at the big oval nearby, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the series will move to the IMS road course this year. The switch comes a couple of months after racing tycoon Roger Penske bought the track.
Read MoreNASCAR introduced a new aerodynamics package for its top-tier Cup Series last season to mixed reviews, from both drivers and viewers. But one thing we could all agree on was how the package did at road courses and short tracks, which was really, really badly. Horribly. Every synonym for “unwatchable”-ly.
Read MoreWe often talk about crash tests for street cars, since those are the cars we drive and knowing how they’ll handle an impact is important. But race cars need to be crash tested as well, because safety in auto racing is more than just slapping on a halo or something similar and immediately calling it good.
Read MoreThe Dakar rally is nearing its close, and while it’s looking like traditional competitor Honda will take the motorcycle class, some new makes have joined the competition in the car and truck categories, and they probably aren’t ones you might have expected.
Read MoreKTM’s first Dakar win was in 2001 and the manufacturer has come in first place every time since. At the halfway point of the 2020 event, it’s looking like Honda may have a shot at dethroning the Austrians.
Read MoreTeenage me always thought the most magical place on a race track was on the other side of the fence, earning a paycheck doing what she loved. I stared at the infield during races when I was younger, wishing I had the status or credentials or teleportation ability to get myself down there from the grandstands, knowing I’d be the happiest person in the world when I did.
Read MoreWhen it comes to Formula One, we’ve all been under the impression that 2021 will be our year—well, maybe not our year, but the year that more than three teams will actually be able to compete due to new regulations for leveling the field. But Haas F1 boss Guenther Steiner wants you to know that the new rules won’t magically make smaller teams like his competitive for wins.
Read MoreModern NASCAR rules are complicated, often for the sake of entertainment—if you can get past the confusion. But new rules the sanctioning body announced on Tuesday seem more about logistics than entertainment, and they’ll impact pit stops at seven races across NASCAR’s two lower national divisions.
Read MoreThere is something very satisfying about seeing Fernando Alonso, the two-time champion in F1, where the driver is just a tiny part of a gigantic team of engineers, lying in the sand helping fix his busted Toyota in the Dakar.
Read MoreFor the second year in a row the Mazda team has come out on top in testing for the Rolex 24 at Daytona later this month, with ace driver Olivier Pla running a whopping half-second quicker lap than last year’s record-breaker. Pla ran fastest of all this weekend, setting an impressive 1:33.324 lap time. This is compared to his teammate Oliver Jarvis’ 1:33.865 pole lap time this time last year.
Read MoreIn a surprising upset, Vaidotas Zala became the first overall leader of the 2020 Dakar Rally, finishing the opening stage first in what was a top-three sweep for Mini. It was his first career stage win.
Read MoreThe new 5th generation Toyota Supra is, by all accounts, a good car but perhaps not a great one. Now is a good opportunity for Toyota to introduce a righteously riotous version of the Supra to go racing, thus extending the Supra’s legendary name. The GT4 version already exists, but on home turf the only series that really matters is Super GT. Lexus already holds a tight grip on the GT500 class, but the Supra will allegedly contest both classes in 2020. This is the GT300 version and it totally ri
Read MoreThe Formula One dream looked like it might be over for Robert Kubica at the end of last year, when his team let him go after he clawed his way back to F1 following a horrific 2011 rally crash that partially severed his arm. But it isn’t over yet, because Alfa Romeo Racing just named Kubica as its reserve driver.
Read MoreThe 2008 IndyCar reunification is, to this day, one of the most significant events in racing history. The infamous Split and continuous infighting had transformed the booming landscape of US motorsports into a few pithy little series that struggled to stand on their own two feet—and, as a result, the reunification was a lifeline for American open-wheel as we know it today. But what would have happened if a single-series IndyCar championship had never happened? What would the Indianapolis 500—rac
Read MoreI’ll admit, this is a sort of odd story, and while it involves a motorized, wheeled vehicle, that vehicle is a scale model of the Mars rover Curiosity, a kind of cartoonish take on the real thing, built by me seven years ago. It was in a YouTube video that’s oddly popular again, and has somehow ended up in the hands of one of the most recognizable planetary scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I’m telling you this as a reminder that, sometimes, objects have interesting lives.
Read MoreAfter weather-related delays yesterday, SpaceX has successfully tested the abort feature of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, clearing the way for the first manned flights later on in the year.
Read MoreSpaceX has delayed today’s planned in-flight abort test due to bad weather and rough seas in the recovery area. The company is now planning to launch tomorrow between 8 am and 2 pm EST. The in-flight abort test is intended to demonstrate the spacecraft’s ability to escape unharmed should the rocket encounter problems during ascent.
Read MoreThe American space program, I think we’d all agree, has its own very particular set of audiovisual signatures that immediately evoke all kinds of images and feelings. There’s a certain NASA look to the objects of space travel—that gold foil stuff, lightweight aluminum frameworks, white panels with American flags on them—that is immediately recognizable. The same goes for the sounds of NASA, a certain type of distorted audio, and, perhaps most evocatively, those beeps you always hear in transmiss
Read MoreDuring Tesla’s earnings call Wednesday evening Elon Musk mentioned that Full Self Driving tech is probably going to be released by the end of this year, and that the company may allow certain customers early access to a “feature complete” version of the software. Musk went on to clarify that this means the car will have some chance of navigating from home to work without driver intervention. Feature complete, however “doesn’t mean features are working well.”
Read MoreSince its launch in 2017, General Motors’ semi-autonomous driver assist system, Super Cruise has only been found in one car, the Cadillac CT6 sedan. But now it’s 2020, the CT6 is no more, Super Cruise has undergone some improvements, and Cadillac is finally ready to roll it out on other models.
Read MoreThe Volkswagen Type 3 was Volkswagen’s first real attempt to build a car a bit more up-market than the Beetle, and while it never sold in the incredible numbers that Beetles did, was still a mild success. It’s also interesting in that, in one really important way, you could argue it was the first truly modern automobile. Of course, in nearly every other way, it very much wasn’t, but let’s not be negative here. Instead, let’s talk about how this car was a real glimpse into the future.
Read MoreGM’s autonomous unit Cruise unveiled its vehicle last week, a supposedly autonomous van-like, steering-wheel-less, fully-electric thing, which Cruise said then would be as big of an innovation as the compass, trains, light bulbs, the radio, the internet, or cell phones. This week, Cruise is dialing the bluster back a little bit, saying that it’ll only be the next Model T.
Read MoreAfter the recent merger between FCA and PSA, it was announced that electrification would be a hallmark of Maserati by 2023. Now the brand has announced that it has begun testing an all-electric powertrain that will go in the next GranTurismo and its convertible version, the GranCabrio.
Read MoreImagine if half of the cars in traffic were gone. Imagine your glorious morning commute, zipping along at 70mph in what used to be gridlock traffic. You look out the window immediately to your left and see something you’ve never seen on your commute before: the scenery rolling past you at the speed limit. You look out the window immediately to your right and see something else you’ve never seen before: a window immediately to your right.
Read MoreEveryone’s favorite forbidden fruit cute-ute, the Suzuki Jimny, was given a fourth-generation platform in 2018, and it is already headed for death in the European and UK markets for being too heavy on its CO2 emissions. New regulations rolling out at the end of this year mean that the diminutive SUV’s 1.5-liter gasoline engine pollutes too much for European buyers, pushing Suzuki’s corporate average emissions above the 95 grams per kilometer cutoff.
Read MoreCruise Automation, the autonomous vehicle startup owned by a big bank and GM, along with help from Honda, seems to have a gift for hyperbole. In a tweet, the company suggested that they were aiming for their new autonomous shared ride van to have the same sort of impact as the “compass, train, car, light bulb, radio, internet, computer, and mobile phone,” which is, of course, eye-rollingly ridiculous. Still, the vehicle they unveiled yesterday, the Origin, is a significant step in the progress
Read MoreTuesday evening in San Francisco, California, GM’s Cruise autonomous car division unveiled the Origin self-driving mini bus. It has teased for weeks that this thing will be a move “beyond the car” and we’ve heard from sources within Cruise that there are plans to build between 50,000 and 100,000 units of this weird future shuttle
Read MoreJapanese tire giant Bridgestone is hoping to beat Michelin’s so-called Tweel to the airless tire market with a new model launching soon for semi trucks, according to a report from Automotive News. Bridgestone’s airless tires use a web of recycled thermoplastic instead of pneumatic pressure to keep a vehicle rolling. These new tires have been tested to hold upwards of 5000 pounds each, and provide a major benefit to truckers as they never lose pressure, and are completely puncture proof.
Read MoreCalifornia requires all companies that test self-driving cars on public roads in the state to report miles driven and the number of “disengagements,” or times a human driver takes over control. Cruise co-founder and CTO Kyle Vogt believes this reporting method is a poor metric for comparing companies, and is causing companies to test and demo in easier environments in order to reduce reported disengagements.
Read MorePalladium is one of the many metals used in catalytic converters to quell and contain internal combustion engine emissions, and now it’s getting hellaciously expensive. The price of palladium has been increasing drastically over the last four years, but has ballooned 25% in the last two weeks, according to a report from Reuters.
Read MoreGM’s Cruise self-driving car subsidiary is up to something. It completely wiped out its Instagram feed yesterday and replaced it with nine syncrhonized posts, each displaying a set of lat/long coordinates. Most of these locations correlate to something engineering related, but some of them are pure mysteries to me and everyone else I’ve asked about this.
Read MoreThere were a lot of words spilled when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claimed the 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo could only achieve an estimated range of just 201 miles, making it the least-efficient electric car on sale today. But it’s more powerful sibling, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S, is even worse.
Read MoreWe’ve seen just about every Tesla take on all sorts of cars, from other electric vehicles like the Porsche Taycan, to the best combustion engines have to offer with stuff like the Dodge Challenger Hellcat. But just how tight in performance is the entire range of Teslas against each other?
Read MoreIn any story Jalopnik writes, the goal is to provide insight and entertainment. While you can’t really help us improve the latter, you can help with the former, especially if you’re an auto engineer. That’s because many stories in this field can benefit from some level of technical discussion, since cars are inherently technical. But including such a discussion in as many articles as possible is going to require strong sources with genuine automotive expertise. This is where you come in.
Read MoreAs you drive your internal combustion car, the engine is drinking gas, gobbling up air, and farting out a continuous stream of carbon dioxide, among other things. This is bad, because CO2 traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a runaway greenhouse effect that will leave earth a barren hellscape. But, there is another gas in many cars that is over a thousand times more effective at hellscaping the planet.
Read MoreWhile modern agriculture is filled with very modern technology, farmers have been butting heads with some of the biggest farm equipment builders over tech issues, specifically the fight for their own rights to repair equipment they own. This has led to strange, maybe not-so-legal hacking of farmers’ own equipment with the help of Eastern European hackers, and, now, more legally, to farmers just avoiding all the high-tech headaches entirely and just buying tractors from the late ‘70s and 1980s.
Read MoreOkay, I guess I should be clear right up front that, no, I can’t technically prove that Bosch engineers read my article from about a year ago, saw my dynamic, LCD-based sun visor idea, and decided that, hey, let’s take this high-quality idea as our own and develop a prototype and show it at CES! I mean, yes, it’s effectively the same idea, but I guess it’s possible their engineers came up with it independently. Or, more likely, they’re monitoring my brainwaves via the ignition coil in my car. Ei
Read MoreThere’s some questions that, while their answers seem obvious, the act of empirically proving them is an almost irresistible draw. Questions like “will eat-drinking a full pound of hot mac and cheese out of a pitcher make me sick?” or “will this angry dog react well to being poked in the rectum?” or even “could you drive on square tires?” Some kooks handy with tools and with access to a big muddy field and some trucks decided to find out the last one.
Read MoreBack in September, California passed AB5, a law that, depending on who you talk to, either clarifies existing labor law to make the definition of an independent contractor clearer or perverts the entire concept of labor law in a gross constitutional violation. The one thing everyone can agree on is AB5, which went into effect on January 1, will have a profound impact on many businesses, most prominently gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft, by making it harder to classify workers as indepen
Read MoreThe top news today is probably a giant deal to save Aston Martin, but you should also read about Tesla facing potential delays from wolves and snakes, and I don’t mean metaphorical ones. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Friday, January 31, 2020.
Read MoreThings are good if you’re a Tesla investor, Renault is backing off its attempt to swallow Nissan, and Jaguar-Land Rover stumbles a bit. All that and more in the Morning Shift for January 30, 2020.
Read MoreBoeing had very, very bad year, Tesla had a very, very good year, and Nissan is asking for buyouts in the U.S. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020.
Read MoreAutomated license plate readers are cheaper and better than ever at what they do, expect a new Renault CEO and Tata’s push for a cleaner, greener India. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020.
Read MoreRivians may be a little less expensive, the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak is starting to affect the car world, and Ford offers to buy everyone lunch as an apology for selling cars with faulty transmissions. All that and more in the Morning Shift for January 27, 2020.
Read MoreJeep and Suzuki are breaking EU emissions rules, Uber is trying to butter up Washington, and VW is having a hard time focusing. All that and more in The Morning Shift for January 24,.2020.
Read MoreThe storm is coming for German automakers, the Fiat and Peugeot merger remains on track, and Toyota’s decision to side with the Trump administration could hurt. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020.
Read MoreTesla’s valuation would leave Dr. Evil quivering, bombs might get in the way of a new factory in Germany, the EU has to deal with Trump, airbags aren’t your friend, and more in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.
Read MoreWe’re finally to lay eyes on the GM Cruise self-driving car, Tesla calls BS on the unintended acceleration claims and a look at Subaru’s big emissions-reduction plan. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.
Read MoreSpeedy Teslas, GM invests $40 million in engines, and Fiat is partnering with the iPhone manufacturer to build, what’s that? Oh yes, cars, Fiat wants to build cars. With the iPhone manufacturer. All that and more in The Morning Shift for January 17, 2020.
Read MoreNews on Renault and Nissan’s contentious relationship, labor costs are expected to go up for the “Big Three” as a result of UAW contracts, automakers are investing in flying taxis and electric vans, and exciting 2019 sales results for Europe. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020.
Read MoreTesla critics are having a rough time, Harley critics are having a slightly better time, and Trump is making things worse. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020.
Read MoreA new study reveals millennials might not be killing driving after all, an update on poor car sales in China and a warning about musical instrument cases from Yamaha. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020.
Read MoreTensions between Renault and Nissan, Ford sales tanking in China, not-great U.S. sales numbers, Carlos Ghosn’s movie ideas, and Audi dropping out of the New York Auto Show. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, Jan. 13, 2020.
Read MoreJeep has to idle a plant to adjust to decreasing demand, Boeing knew the 737 Max was a bad plane, Carlos Ghosn lost his money and gets a video game, and all that and more in The Morning Shift for Jan. 10, 2020.
Read MoreWith each passing day, it’s becoming more clear that—and I hate to say this of someone who is cool enough to be on Interpol’s most wanted list—Carlos Ghosn wasn’t good at running a car company. All that and more in The Morning Shift for January 9, 2020.
Read MoreWhy fuel retailers are rushing to change their pumps’ payment systems, Elon Musk dances hilariously, Nissan names its dual-motor all-wheel-drive EV setup, and some fun talk about German car sales. All that and more in The Morning Shift for January 8, 2020.
Read MoreThe Carlos Ghosn drama takes another turn, Aston Martin isn’t doing so hot, and China might no longer be the saving grace that GM has long counted on. All that and more in The Morning Shift for January 7, 2020.
Read MoreThe Ford F-150 will never die, Subaru thinks it can sell even better in the U.S., and Nissan is trying to figure out how to do the same. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, Jan. 6, 2020.
Read MoreThe SUVs came for and conquered all our asses, Carlos Ghosn’s escape might be catching up with those who aided him, and Nissan’s going into cost-cutting mode. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Friday, Jan. 3, 2020.
Read MoreCarlos Ghosn’s great escape, what we all already knew about the planned Trump emissions rollback, Volkswagen’s Dieselgate settlements, Renault and Nissan’s bad year in stocks, and Hyundai and Kia’s low sales. All of this and more in The Morning Shift for Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020.
Read MoreLet’s face it: Nobody really wants to own a Toyota Camry, but everyone wishes their automobile was as reliable and trouble-free as one.
Read More52 years ago this month, a new set of futuristic subway cars called the R40s entered regular service on the F between Coney Island and Jamaica. The cars were designed by famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy and they were meant to symbolize the atmosphere of change the subway and the city were undergoing at the time.
Read MoreWhat happens when you take six brand new electric cars and drive them until they run out of juice? The delightful blokes at Carwow decided to put it to the test. There are so many questions to answer here, and the scientific method will provide. Obviously, by testing these cars in a real world environment they have to deal with the variables created by other humans. But, on the same day and in the same traffic, these cars can all be compared to each other fairly.
Read MoreIt seems impossible to someone living in the United States, but Norway’s done it. Speed limit laws and reducing the very presence of cars in the city center and downtown areas have resulted in a very aggressive, downward trend of traffic-related fatalities in the Nordic country’s capital city. There was only one traffic-related death in Oslo in all of 2019. Amazing.
Read MoreWaymo, the autonomous arm of Alphabet, which owns Google, said yesterday it was partnering with UPS to deploy an unannounced number of “self-driving” hybrid Chrysler Pacificas to deliver packages as part of a small-scale initiative in Arizona. The better news yesterday was that UPS was ordering 10,000 electric delivery trucks.
Read MoreYou may remember Karma Automotive as the company that, for some reason, decided they wanted to keep building slightly-updated Fisker Karmas, now calling them the Revero. In recent years, Karma has shown some battery-electric sports car concepts and updated Reveros, but now it looks like they’ve been woken up by the Tesla Cybertruck and the Rivian R1T and the Bollinger and decided they want in on the futuro-laser-sounds EV truck game. So they released this render of a futuristic truck in an inky
Read MoreGenerally, we think of altitude mostly when it comes to aircraft. For our wheeled vehicles, they tend to be pretty well tethered to the ground via gravity, that same magical force that also keeps your bathroom ceiling relatively free from urine stains. Wheeled vehicles can achieve near-airplane-like levels of altitude, though, if they can find ground high enough. And that’s just what a Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 5023 truck did, driving nearly 21,962 feet above sea level.
Read MoreHello, this is Andrew’s grandmother posting from his account. I want all you wingding hooligans to cool it with the fast-going. Kidding! It’s me, for real, with a thesis about slow-driving that actually only vaguely advocates for safety. Hear me out.
Read MoreWhile Mercedes is busy unveiling their new electric garbage truck, Isuzu is turning to Honda for clarity on their own alternative-fuel heavy truck future. That’s right. They’re going hydrogen.
Read MoreGarbage trucks are amazing. They work in continuous stop and go driving in every possible environment, from incredible desert heat to being cold-soaked in temperatures so low that it doesn’t matter if we’re talking Celcius or Fahrenheit. They’re driven on icy roads with the tires kicking salt and rocks up all over the complex hydraulically powered mechanical arms that reach out and grab trash cans no matter the weight or orientation on the curb. And they do it over and over, day after day, week
Read MoreThe new 2021 GMC Yukon reportedly has some surprising tricks up its sleeve, at least according to a talkative GM engineer at the crossover’s debut event earlier this week.
Read MoreIf you ever wanted a timeless collection of military vehicles reminiscent of any cheap action movie villain’s private military force, a specialist tuning company for Mercedes-Benz has an army of Swiss military G-Wagens for sale now.
Read MoreFor 2021, General Motors has updated the grille of its “premium” mid-size pickup, the GMC Canyon, to look like the monstrous face found on the Sierra 1500 and Sierra HD. On top of that, there’s a new “AT4" off-road trim for those who want to take a mid-size GM truck out on the trails, but who for whatever reason don’t want to buy the Chevy Colorado Z71 or the extremely capable but pricier Colorado ZR2.
Read MoreSultan Qaboos of Oman passed away at 79 on Friday and was laid to rest yesterday after a mighty funeral procession carried his body through the streets of Muscat. Perhaps unsurprising for an event in the Persian Gulf, there were cars. Lots of them.
Read MoreThere is still so much we don’t know about Ford’s upcoming Bronco, set to be unveiled sometime this spring. We’re reasonably certain it will have an Ecoboost V6, an automatic transmission, and independent front suspension with a solid rear axle. It seems largely based on the Ranger, which is further coroborated by the test mule looking little more than a Ranger with a cap on the back..
Read MoreUp until now, Harley-Davidson has slapped its questionable styling treatments on a special Ford F-150—through Ford up until 2013, and then after through an aftermarket vendor. But Harley is branching out, and you can get the same tacky treatment on a 2020 GMC Sierra now.
Read MoreAfter reading about my recent $700 “Holy Grail” Jeep, a Virginia accountant named Charles sent me an email titled “My one in a million purchase.” Attached were photos of one of the most soulful automobiles I’ve ever seen: a 1991 Dodge Ramcharger with a spectacular Rocky Mountain-themed art scheme featuring 14 (!!!) bald eagles. It is one of the most “Murica” machines I’ve ever seen, and it somehow only cost Charles $600.
Read MoreWe’re unabashed fans of the Suzuki Jimny here. It’s rough, it’s capable, it’s cheap, it’s adorable, and, most of all, it’s forbidden fruit for most of us over here in the United States. Because we don’t get to see them often, it’s always a treat to see one of these little Suzukis doing its thing. This weekend, we can give you a taste of that with ROAM Overlanding’s Botswana Adventure.
Read MoreMy teenage cousin once removed recently asked me if I preferred Chevy trucks or Ford trucks, and I wanted to tell him that was the most goddamn boring and played out car debate possibly ever had, but I didn’t because he is a teen. In any case, it’s also outdated, because Ram.
Read MoreOne of the worst realities of hashtag vanlife, or camping in general, is uncomfortable weather. At least, I sure think so. Granted, I don’t like it when there’s any temp delta between my bedroom and the outside world. And yet I choose to go camping. Hence, this video resonated with me.
Read MoreI feel like every time Volkswagen invites us to experience the latest version of their small camper, the most recent version of which is known officially as the Volkswagen T6.1 California, there’s a certain element of cruelty involved. That’s because this very clever and appealing vehicle isn’t available in the United States, despite the location they named the damn thing after and where they hold events to show it off. Then, we here at Jalopnik pass the cruelty on to our American readers with a
Read MoreI know there is a camp of you who don’t believe in washing your cars. And that’s fine! Cars live outside and you don’t really see a point in keeping them shiny and clean. It’s a wrong take, but I respect it all the same. But here today, I bring you a practical reason to wash your car. It has to do with money.
Read MoreLast month, I went through hell trying to fix and drive home a supremely rare, 260,000 mile, manual transmission Jeep Grand Cherokee that I’d bought sight unseen for $700 from the Middle Of Nowhere, Colorado. Ultimately, my friend Brandon and I pulled off a miracle, and the Jeep now sits in my backyard in Michigan. But just because it made the trip doesn’t mean The Grail is without flaws. No no, this Jeep needs lots of work. Here’s a look at what’s still broken.
Read MoreI didn’t start fixing cars until I was a freshman in college, and by then, the internet was filling with how-to DIY YouTube videos that helped me get up to speed in short order. Lots of YouTubers spend tons of time making videos to show the rest of us how to fix things, and I think they deserve appreciation. So here’s a bit of that.
Read MoreI was going to write my annual “New Year’s Wrencholutions” post wherein I lie about how I’m going to sell some of the cars in my oversized fleet, and fix the ones that are actually in decent shape. But this time, I’ll just hit you with the truth: I’m going to repair the most worthless, decrepit piece of junk I own. And solidly at the top of that list is my totaled 2003 Kia Rio. But before you declare my priorities out of whack, hear me out.
Read MoreIn years of driving old cars, I’ve picked up some habits, maybe superstitions, that I’m convinced have helped keep my decrepit vehicles on the road. For the sake of everyone else’s retirement-age cars clinging to survival, I shall impart some of my secrets upon you unwashed cretins.
Read MoreTime is but a social construct, but as we’ve all decided the 2010s are over, I guess a roundup of the best engines of the decade is in order. We’ve got V10s (duh, because it’s me writing this list), V12s, V8s and four-bangers galore.
Read MoreNew cars are born and old cars die every year. It’s just the way of things. This past year saw a departure of another round of sedans, little cars, convertibles and wagons. The list, predictably, is conspicuously lacking in crossovers and SUVs. Color me surprised.
Read MoreIn a few years, when much of the world’s highway system is dominated with electric cars, we’ll all look back upon 2019 as a pivotal year. Perhaps not the pivotal year, but an important one nonetheless in the automobile’s transition away from internal combustion. Let’s have a quick peek at what happened in the EV world in 2019.
Read MoreIn June of 2008, the very-wealthy co-creator of PayPal, Elon Musk, and then-California Governor (and actor) Arnold Schwarzenegger, confirmed codename WhiteStar. This was not the plot to an Expendables movie. This was reality, and the groundwork for the Tesla Model S had been set.
Read MoreTen years ago, in December of 2009, I walked into the SpaceX headquarters wearing a suit and holding four copies of my resume. I was there interviewing for a job at Tesla; at the time their Los Angeles office was co-located inside SpaceX. The receptionist took me to the cafeteria just outside of mission control to wait for my interviewers. A guy wheeled a rocket engine by me, making a turn to avoid the FroYo machine and a full-size replica of an Iron Man suit signed by the cast of Iron Man 2. Mi
Read MoreThe Year 2019 has taken a great many beloved things from us. Caroll Spinney, Deadspin, Patrick George. It also took Smart from North America, both in direct sales and via carsharing, which matters more to some people than others.
Read MoreSøren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, famously averred that “life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”As we move forward towards a new year and decade, it’s a good philosophy to look back on all the cars, trucks, and bikes we judged on Nice Price or Crack Pipe in 2019.
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