Sporty sedans may not be getting as much consumer love as they deserve these days, but there are still a few good ones tooling around. Namely, the 2020 Audi S4. It’s still little(ish), still fun, still lithe, still puts a smile on your face. These are all things a good sport sedan is supposed to do.
Read MoreFinally, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration announced that the city will be shutting down streets to car traffic to help with social distancing in these days of coronavirus. All of 1.5 miles across the entire city. A few blocks each in four boroughs. For four days only. This is a joke.
Read MoreElectrify America and Envision Solar have joined forces in an attempt to bring electric car charging to routes through rural areas without steady and reliable access to a power grid. The initial test will involve thirty of these “EV ARC” units deployed throughout California’s Central, Coachella, and Imperial Valleys to help EV drivers traverse parts of the state that had previously been difficult or range-anxious to reach.
Read MoreThe USS Gerald R. Ford is a technological marvel. Its nuclear reactors can enable it to move for 25 years without re-fueling. It uses powerful electro-magnets to hurl aircraft into the sky. It has toilets designed so incredibly poorly that the entire system needs to be unclogged and flushed out with acid, yes acid, on a regular basis, at the cost of $400,000 a pop.
Read MoreIndian Motorcycle’s FTR1200 has been a godsend for fans of upright, sporty riding and a big brutish V-twin. It’s comfortable, quick, and packs modern flat-track style into a great chassis. With the help of Ex-BMW Motorrad designer Ola Stenegärd, Indian has started making tweaks to the FTR to make the same base bike appeal to different market segments. The resulting FTR1200 Rally is a style king that rides like a dream.
Read MoreIn a city like Moscow, where flashy armored vehicles and flouting traffic laws is plenty common for the city’s well-off, you’d think Batman would have no problem at all with the Batmobile. Turns out he doesn’t have it so easy.
Read MoreThe cruise ship industry, where outbreaks of covid-19 in Japan and California started, are (justifiably) hurting right now. Nobody is traveling, people are social distancing and that’s resulted in canceled trips and empty ships. But they’re not getting a cent of the economic stimulus package because their grand scheme of offshore headquartering has seemingly backfired. Oh, well.
Read MoreAs far as mild refreshes go, the 2020 Audi Q7 is indeed mildly refreshed. From the outside, I wasn’t able to tell the difference between it and the previous version until someone from Audi put two photos side by side for me. No, all the changes are within for this one, which is perfectly fine. That’s where you spend most of your time anyway.
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 private sales during Coronavirus, buying a car without a dealer-installed alarm, and checking dealer inventories for deals.
Read MoreWhen BMW canceled the 6 Series coupe, convertible, and Gran Coupe, and then sold a car just like it, in every configuration, but with more luxury at a higher price point, the writing should have been on the wall. But dealers are still upset that the current BMW 8 Series isn’t selling so hot.
Read MoreJake lives in San Francisco where parking is a challenge he wants a compact city car that can squeeze into tight spaces, but there is just one problem: He is 6’5.” Most things feel a bit claustrophobic for him. What car should he buy?
Read MoreThere are some people who know exactly what they want. An NB Mazda Miata, for example, is a perfectly fine car to lust for. Others, mainly Michiganders, have brand loyalty to some specific company, usually Chevy or Ford but also sometimes Buick. Others are happy to be able to afford whatever shit box they are currently running, no matter what it is.
Read MoreThe Opuwo airstrip had to be cleared of goats before our Beechcraft turboprop could put down on it. The presence of an airplane at all was unusual enough to draw a crowd of spectators to the landing. As the propellers spun down, dust settled around a waiting convoy of overland-kitted 2020 Land Rover Defenders. I still wasn’t sure how the vehicle would handle real off-grid off-roading, but we were going to find out.
Read MoreI want to preface all of this by saying that I really try not to be a hypocrite, which means that the automotive lifestyle I so freely espouse and blather on about is how I actually live. That’s why my daily driver is a weird little right-hand-drive 53 horsepower lump of charm, and I hold on to my old Beetle and have a Yugo—these are cars that delight me for whatever reason, and that’s enough. So when it came time to get a car for my wife to replace our old Scion xB, I wasn’t in a position to ju
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 social distancing and test drives, using your credit to leverage low APR financing and potential Mad Max cars.
Read MoreTodd lives in New Hampshire and needs a vehicle that can do it all including light towing and hauling the family, but it also needs to be fun and somewhat reliable. Even with a relatively healthy budget of $40,000, this is a bit of a challenge. What car should he buy?
Read MoreI’ve a thought about the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette and it’s this: the car is really great at a lot of things, but perhaps its biggest draw is that it’s a 500-horsepower, V8 midship sports car for under $60,000. There’s just one problem. It doesn’t seem like there are any for that cheap anywhere.
Read MoreThe Car Allowance Rebate System was a $3 billion program to spur the sale of new, more-efficient cars and rejuvenate a depressed economy, which lasted from July of 2009 through late August of the same year. Though the program lasted less than two months, it had long-reaching effects in automotive culture and the used car market that lasted years.
Read MoreThe Coronavirus is now impacting almost every aspect of American society. With millions of people at risk for infection, many areas of the country are closing schools and businesses to minimize the spread. The economic impact of the virus is likely to hit a lot of people and some automakers are offering financing programs for those in need.
Read MoreLast month we reported about Tesla’s occasional practice of removing features like Autopilot and Ludicrous mode from used cars after they’d been purchased by people who bought the cars with those features enabled. While Tesla eventually restored the removed features to the subject of the original story, I’ve been in touch with a number of people with similar stories, and, perhaps even more importantly, with Tesla employees who have confirmed that often Tesla’s actions have been directly counter
Read MoreEverything seemed more vibrant while speeding down a smooth empty desert highway in a roofless Bentley. The scenery fell and climbed over the soft, leather-clad doors from empty sandy flats to sheer cliffs and back down again and, eventually, to the grandest canyon in the lower 48.
Read MoreAs Jalopnik’s resident car buying expert and professional car shopper, I get emails. Lots of emails. I’ve decided to pick a few questions and try to help out. This week we are discussing the impact of the Coronavirus on car prices, getting loan approval with bad credit, and is it worth buying an extended warranty on a well cared for Audi
Read MoreAndy is an attorney who has been driving old Subarus so he could be financially responsible. It’s time for an upgrade but he is having difficulty balancing a vehicle that is fun, somewhat fuel efficient, and good for his outdoor hobbies. What car should he buy?
Read MoreBuying a car from a dealer isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. Unfortunately, there are still some stores that care more about profit than happy customers and will even go so far as to do some unscrupulous and even illegal activity to make a buck. Here are some of the worst things you should be on the lookout for.
Read MoreI have a shameful confession to make. Until I started working here, I didn’t read much Jalopnik. Like, at all. I didn’t read it in high school, college, or really during my time writing for Road & Track. I realize now what a grave disservice I was doing myself.
Read MoreIt’s a lot harder to hire for this dang place than it looks. Sure a person can drive, but can they write? Sure, a person can write, but can they write well? Sure, a person can write well, but can they truly be Jalopnik?
Read MoreIt’s no secret that, generally, the consensus view of our site is that manual transmissions are a force of good in the world, and so along with that goes the use of one’s left foot. That means, generally, one’s full complement of feet are employed when driving. Most modern cars only demand, at most, that feet handle throttle, brake, and clutch. A reader named Sam, though, was unsatisfied with this and longed to know more, so much more, more about what feet could be tasked with when driving a car
Read MoreWouldn’t you know it, I wake up this morning and hear the servants whispering to each other about this so-called covid-19 virus. It’s a pandemic, they say. This is so fucking inconvenient. I had a lot of important shit planned this quarter.
Read MoreInclinometers, also known as tilt gauges, horizon gauges, land meters, pitch-and-roll gauges... do you know what I’m talking about yet? These little dongles ostensibly warn you when a car’s about to roll over. In reality, they rarely work. But they’re really fun and it is my pleasure to explain why.
Read MoreIt’s March 31, and first-quarter sales reports for automakers are just around the corner. Those reports won’t be apocalyptic thanks to decent sales in January, February, and some of March, but we will be able to extrapolate some of how bad things have gotten. And you can bet that extrapolation will be terrible!
Read MoreEveryone is (or, at the vey least, should be) trying to do their part in the fight to slow the deadly spread of COVID-19 and automakers are no exception. While GM and Ford race to re-tool plants and re-train volunteer UAW workers to build respirators, Aston Martin is doing what it can to keep National Health Service workers around its UK headquarters at their critical posts.
Read MoreFirst, Tesla CEO Elon Musk dismissed the spread of the Coronavirus that causes covid-19. Then he called the general alarm over the pandemic “dumb.” Then he doubted that there was a shortage of ventilators and said that children were “essentially immune.” He said that “false positives” could account for up to 80% of virus tests. Three days later, he said it was “messed up” that people were calling him a “virus skeptic,” and two days after that Tesla said two employees had tested positive with cor
Read MoreFor a while, you couldn’t buy a Mini with a manual transmission because the automaker took a hiatus from importing them. Mini estimated the hiatus to last into the beginning of this year. Now, it appears to have finally lifted with the introduction 2021 MINI Cooper S Sidewalk Edition.
Read MoreTraffic sucks, so why not start your morning off with some music? You provide the toast and we’ll provide the jams.
Read MoreToday, I wrote about how a thief in California stole someone’s Jeep Cherokee XJ within ~24 hours of another thief stealing another XJ in Missouri—all in the middle of a pandemic. It’s heartbreaking, and got thoughtful readers thinking about whether I had safeguards in place to protect my three XJs. Well, as Jalopnik reader sakim172 writes in his amazing comment, as a matter of fact, I do.
Read MoreProfessional drifter and champion Vaughn Gittin Jr.’s tuning company, RTR Vehicles, turns 10 this year. To celebrate this important milestone, it’s releasing a limited-run car called the 10th Anniversary RTR Mustang Spec 5. It’s a wide-body model with cool accents and over 700 horsepower—but I’m confused as to who exactly this car is for, as the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 already exists.
Read MoreCar sales are nosediving, which is bad news for automakers but also dealers, most of which don’t or aren’t allowed to have showrooms open. While most of them do have their service shops open as they are considered essential businesses, business there is down too.
Read MoreIf there’s one thing that has truly united America in this time of crisis, it’s the collective fascination, dismay, and horror that comes from contemplating the main characters in Netflix’ very popular documentary about deeply broken, ruthless, and often economically-toothed large-cat-obsessives and their respective cults/feifdoms, called Tiger King. While the documentary is really not about cars, there is one very puzzling and interesting car that does make an appearance, and it’s worth pointin
Read MoreWe have already laid eyes on the drop-dead gorgeous 2021 Genesis G80. But now there are engine specs to pore over as well as some new press photos of the car in a beautiful green paint to examine. Unfortunately, it seems like the V8 options is going away for this generation.
Read MoreI’m stuck in Tel Aviv right now (more on that later) and, despite all that’s going on, one thing sticks out to me. The cars here look awful. Like they’ve clearly seen some shit. It’s almost impressive, really.
Read MoreA wall display slash Sixt car rental ad in Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport is (or at least was) a “real-time” playback of real cars being positioned and repositioned into the shapes of numbers to make a “working” clock. It’s actually kind of amazing to watch.
Read MoreAs far as shows about three white guys and cars go, Proving Grounds is damn decent. What really like about it though, actually, is the format of the test track. In every episode, cars get put through a course that is uniquely realistic. And challenging!
Read MoreAs a citizen of Houston who’s originally from up north, I complain about the copious traffic, enormous flying cockroaches, and murderous climate that are found here. All this fades away when I visit pretty much any local car meet. The lack of road salt, massive freeways, diverse population, and location on a major port add up to one of the best car scenes of any city I’ve ever lived in. The sheer plethora of I’ve-never-seen-one-0f-these-before cars at even the smallest gatherings continually bog
Read MoreLast week, I covered why NFS: Hot Pursuit 2 is worth revisiting and discussed the supercars that shaped my desires growing up. Now, it is time to indulge our inner Brian O’Connor and tackily modify the hell out of every car in Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition.
Read MoreThis year I made my annual trek from my swampy homelands to Austin, TX, to attend Radwood at the Driveway Austin Motorsports Track on Feb. 29th, just before the world stopped spinning. I took two of my trusty Nikons with me, and I made it my goal to document as much radness as the show had to offer, and I came up short, because it was absolutely impossible to shoot pictures of every good car, truck, bike, and rad-era outfit there, because it was the biggest Radwood held to date. Still, I gave it
Read MoreOn March 19th, Tesla announced it would significantly scale back operations at its Fremont, Calif. factory following a battle between it and the county as to whether or not building luxury cars could be constituted as essential. A week later, the same thing is playing out with the company’s northern Nevada Gigafactory, shared with Panasonic. On-site staff will be reduced by 75 percent, though Tesla did not indicate how many people would be affected by the reduction.
Read MoreThis week’s drama over whether GM would produce ventilators to help fight the coronavirus pandemic came to a fittingly bizarre conclusion today, with GM saying it was working “around the clock” to make the ventilators and—a few hours after that—President Trump invoking the Defense Production Act to require it do so.
Read MoreWith a national population of over 1.3 billion, India should be very concerned about the novel coronavirus, covid-19, currently spreading across the globe. But there are still plenty of people out and about despite a lockdown, and the police have resorted to physical violence to get people to return home.
Read MoreCarpentry is really nothing like car mechanics, so painstakingly carving a 200-Series Toyota Land Cruiser from wood doesn’t count as a “car project” but it is creative and took a lot of talent. Watch a masterpiece come to life in this neat video.
Read MoreWe’ve covered the delightfully Russian exploits of Garage 54 for quite a while, and I can’t think of a time when their particular brand of destructive notgiveafuckery isn’t appreciated. They’ve just put out two videos that dovetail quite nicely together, as experiments, as they’re two opposite extremes: making the quietest possible exhaust and then the loudest possible exhaust.
Read MoreI’d normally say something about how a goofy frivolous thing like this is good Friday content, but in this strange, undifferentiated-scenery world of lockdownitude, is Friday even a viable concept anymore? Does anything still matter? Sure, all kinds of things still matter, but that also means goofy frippery like this stupid chart matters, too. At least a little. Whatever, it’ll be fun. Here we go.
Read MoreGeneral Motors just announced to employees that it will reduce their salaries as a way to weather the economic crisis that has resulted from the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s what we know so far.
Read MoreFor reasons that are probably not possible to explain, I always loved the trim and sharp faces of 1990s Cadillac Sevilles. What a horror it was to open up a copy of Car Styling magazine and realize that Cadillac had been sitting on this look for two decades straight.
Read MoreFirst, let me be clear I’m a big fan of Raymond Loewy. The man was an outstanding designer, and helped to define the whole genre of industrial design. Plus, he went dune buggy-ing in an ascot and suede loafers. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t make some pretty big missteps, and let’s be honest: Raymond loved Raymond. That’s what led to I think a bit of a narcissistic over reach regarding a Soviet home-built car. I should probably explain.
Read MoreAs of this morning, New York reported over 33,000 cases of coronavirus, and 325 dead. The state, however, estimates that it is still two to three weeks away from suffering under the deluge of peak infection. Accordingly, the New York Times reports that the state has requested 85 refrigerated trailers from FEMA to house the anticipated number of bodies as a result of COVID-19.
Read MoreI know we’ve discussed how the state of most car shows you see on mainstream television are generally somewhere between a pizza made from urine-soaked carpet samples and an unexpected, forceful kick in the groin when it comes to quality and enjoyability. We’ve lamented this before, and once even tried our hand at it, but all of 15 people watched it (two of them had it on in the background while they expressed their dog’s anal glands) and so we weren’t really able to improve things. But there’s a
Read MoreSure, the world may be collapsing all around us thanks to the relentless march of that spiny little bastard, the Coronavirus, but some important things are still pressing on, undaunted. One of those things is the progress of my order of a $900 Chinese-built electric car from the huge website Alibaba. I’m delighted to inform you that Jalopnik’s car has been built, and I have pictures of our very car, fresh from the factory. So, you know, prepare yourself accordingly, likely involving a dropcloth.
Read MoreWhen Ford, GM, and Fiat Chrysler first announced last week they would be idling plants to help contain coronavirus, they all earmarked March 30 as the day they might bring the workers back. This week, they reportedly decided that wasn’t happening.
Read MoreThe city of Pittsburgh sent garbage collectors home with full pay earlier today after the workers refused to pick up, instead gathering in protest for better safety equipment and requesting hazard pay for potential exposure to the ongoing spread of Coronavirus.
Read MoreIf there is one sort-of good thing to come out of the stupid COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that the October deadline for getting a Real ID driver’s license in order to fly commercially in the United States has been pushed back indefinitely. Thank God.
Read MoreAs the travel industry tanks and rental car agencies ask for relief from the federal government, their fleets of rental cars sit, largely unused, on their lots. But rather than let them gather dust, Hertz will start offering them out to healthcare workers to get to work for free.
Read MoreSome of you are going to read this post today for entertainment. But, possibly, up to 26 of you may eventually be reading this because you’re trapped in your 2020 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. So here’s why you’ll never (?) get out.
Read MoreMost of the major automakers and many other companies are stepping up to help produce more desperately-needed equipment like air purifiers and respirators, leading to some fascinating improvised quick engineering and design solutions. The results feel a bit like the sort of clever engineering within severe constraints of an Apollo 13-style emergency problem-solving scenario, like Ford’s design for a powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR).
Read MoreIn late January, I visited my brother in Southeast Asia. I’ve already shown you the awesome custom Jeep Wagoneer we saw in Vietnam, the sweet Nissan Pao pickup we spotted in Hong Kong, the spider-infested Pao, and the ridiculous Hong Kong parking garage filled with automotive masterpieces. Now here’s a look at the incredible machines we discovered in just a single afternoon in one of Hong Kong’s most prolific scrapping districts.
Read MoreThe next-generation Toyota 86 will allegedly get 255 horsepower and come next year, according to a leaked product plan that may have just revealed Toyota’s plans for the next two years.
Read MoreIf there’s one upside of this whole pandemic mess, it’s likely that there’s probably some intense germaphobes working for all these automakers that have long dreamed of plans like this, but never really felt they had a chance. Well, germaphobes, you win. Now we live in a world where a major carmaker is seriously planning on handing you your new car’s keys by flying them to you via a drone.
Read MoreDetails about the Aston Martin Valhalla mid-engine hybrid supercar have been few and far between while Aston’s been busy bragging about its flagship car, the Valkyrie. But today the Valhalla is the star of the show, as it will feature Aston’s first all-new in-house engine in the last 60 years.
Read MoreToday feels like a good day for a goofy little challenge: see if you can figure out what car that deeply strange chassis up there comes from. Lots of body-on-chassis cars have some distinctive-looking chassis, though most are fairly generic ladder-frame-looking things. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one with a sort of gumdrop/teardrop shape like this, though.
Read MoreIf you’re social distancing at home like I am, maybe you’re going around and cleaning and organizing everything you can get your hands on. (Use microfiber towels to clean your house!) Recently, I reorganized my earring tree and wanted to share a particular pair of earrings with you, as they’re relevant to this website. Do you have any automotive-themed jewelry of your own?
Read MoreDealers, I wrote last week, are in a bit of bind, with a lot of people not buying new cars in the face of potential economic doom, and showrooms mostly vacant as people social distance themselves amid a global pandemic. It’s probably going to only get worse.
Read MoreFeeling stressed? Pushed to your limit? Maybe a little hungover? Yeah, me too. And if you’re also like me, you’re turning to anything to help sooth nerves more jangled than a wind chime left out in a hurricane. Two of the most relaxing videos to binge are car detailing and ASMR videos and this one of an Aston Martin being meticulously scrubbed is a glorious combo of the two. It may be the only cure a frazzled and isolated car lover needs.
Read MoreOne form of baguette measuring contests between enthusiasts of French cars is the question of the last “true” Citroën. There are a fair few answers to that question, not only because Citroën cars continue to be built even today. For some, the last real Citroën was the CX, built until the early ‘90s in estate form, as the CX was conceived before the 1974 Peugeot merger which gave birth to the PSA Group. Some say it’s the C6, as the 2000s flagship still had hallmark Citroën oddities and unmistakab
Read MoreI own a 1993 Mazda MX-5. I’ve had it for around five years now, and I’ve driven it around northern Europe enough to know I really like driving it. Currently, for some unfathomable reason, it gets neither fuel nor spark, and instead of successfully fixing it I just pushed it to the garage before winter to wait for more diagnosing time and eventual repair. I’ve already gotten two other automotive journalists to look at it, and while we replaced the main relay and forced the fuel pump on, the corre
Read MoreSome sentences start in one place and end in another and you have no idea how the ends are part of the same sentence. Often, some of the weirdest possible descriptions can be found written in eBay ads, and despite having trawled through quite a few of them in my time I can’t remember another sentence that would quite top this one.
Read MoreWhile it would be a relief to be able to tune out all the coronavirus news and keep pounding out car content paragraph after paragraph, the stark truth is that the outside world is dealing with an unprecedented event. Looking at news feeds from manufacturers means reading one press release after another where the company announces production has been halted or an event has been rescheduled or canceled altogether, and it takes the strength of the global car enthusiast community to act sensibly an
Read MoreWhen Volvo adds “Classic” after the model designation, you know they’re running out the old ones to make room for the new ones. Subaru is a little more to the point with the BRZ, as the “Final Edition” of the Toyobaru has been announced on the German market.
Read MoreRecently, I was presented with the opportunity to acquire a car that I had never seen before. Granted, many enthusiasts buy cars sight unseen, but what I mean here is I had literally never seen a single one in my entire life. I had no choice to go check one out first because there’s most likely a single-digit number in the U.S., and the closest one I was aware of was the one I was about to go buy, leaving me with few options other than to just go pick it up.
Read MoreModern gaming, especially in the racing world, has made enormous strides forward in recent years, with tire wear, realistic slipstreaming, and laser-scanned real world courses dominating feature lists. But sometimes, it’s fun to just throw a disc in, and harmlessly slam a multimillion dollar exotic off of walls, and for that, I think the best place to look is the classics.
Read MoreHaving daily driven a W123 in the past gives me an enormous soft spot for them, and I’ve established a friend group that is absolutely All About Old Benzes. And while a bunch of older cars look like crap once they get a bit of crap on them, old Mercedes just keep looking better.
Read MoreOne of the most terrifying aspects of the global Coronavirus pandemic is that the anticipated number of patients who require respiratory supports vastly outnumbers the number of available ventilators. General Motors’ American car factories may be shut down to help stop the spread, but the company announced a partnership with Ventec Life Systems to help produce ventilators to help COVID-19 victims.
Read MoreSocial distancing and self-quarantining can drive us all a bit stir-crazy, which is why I’m seeing many people turning to pastimes such as cooking and creating art to keep themselves busy. Do you have a burning desire to create art but also aren’t particularly artistically inclined? Have no fear. Car designer Ian Callum and his company have got you covered.
Read MoreIn these dark times, you need light and goodness brought directly to you, wrapped in ham and shoved into your mouth. Luckily, this sort of goodness and light still exists, in the form of the Lane Motor Museum’s new series of un-crating videos. Hot damn!
Read MoreIt’s safe to say that, thanks to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, most of you are reading this at home, having willingly separated yourself from other people, from the activities you enjoy, from regular showers and companionship and work and so many other things because you know it’s the right thing to do, and you’re just one person. If you were a massive organization who, by its very design, interacted with thousands and thousands of people every day, you’d think taking Coronavirus precautions would b
Read MoreLast August, attorneys for Anthony Levandowski, who left Google to found his own company, ended up as an engineer at Uber, and briefly ran his own techtopian church, said, “He didn’t steal anything from anyone.” On Thursday, Levandowski said in papers filed in federal court, “I stole.”
Read MoreYou can still buy a car at almost any dealership in America at the moment, even many in the Bay Area, where there is a shelter-in-place order. But not surprisingly fewer people are doing that amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Dealers who have inventory still to sell are very much in wait-and-see mode, but the worst is still to come.
Read MoreThe new Volkswagen Golf R hasn’t yet made its official debut, but here’s one thing it probably, most likely won’t have: an Audi-sourced five-cylinder turbocharged engine. Word is Audi didn’t want the VW to have that engine because sharing would apparently dilute the brand.
Read MoreFor a few brief, wild years, Lamborghini was owned by none other than Chrysler. Strange days: Lamborghini got an F1 program, Chrysler got the Dodge Viper, and we sadly never got the Chrysler Portofino, a four-door Lambo with an engine in the back. Well, not exactly.
Read MoreThis pandemic that, for some reason, the world decided to host, is affecting all sorts of systems and institutions in often unexpected ways. One of those unexpected ways is how it appears to be affecting the Polish Army, which seems to have sent out letters to owners of trucks, 4x4s, and other “high-mobility vehicles” demanding that those vehicles be delivered to the nearest army barracks, complete with a full tank of gas, on penalty of 30 days of imprisonment and a fine. What the hell is going
Read MoreGeneral Motors and Ford are researching the possibility of revamping their plants from shuttered car manufacturing sites to actively building ventilators to help treat those sickened with Coronavirus.
Read MoreThat is, have you ever owned an Acura Legend? Ludacris is famous for still owning his, a testament to the classic 1990s sporty luxury sedan/coupe combo, complete with V6 power and a manual transmission. But I wonder, is the car actually all that great to drive and to own?
Read MoreThe Tesla Model Y—basically a slightly lifted Tesla Model 3—has finally hit the streets. This means there are some reviews out there to help us learn what this tall-ish electric crossover is actually like to drive and sit in compared to its sedan sibling. Here’s a roundup of some of those reviews.
Read MoreWe’re living in some deeply weird, unsettling times. That smug-ass COVID-19 virus has managed to force humanity’s pudgy finger onto the global pause button, bringing most economic and social life to a screeching halt. Every press release I’ve gotten in the past few days has been one huge company or another informing me of their Coronavirus plan, which is almost invariably something like hunkering down and laying low until the shit blows over. Well, every press release except for two, both of whi
Read MoreFord, GM, and Fiat Chrysler, which have so far resisted shutting plants down to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, will shut down its American factories, according to Automotive News.
Read MoreThe biggest hospital ship in the world will be heading to New York Harbor to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic, officials said Wednesday. A converted oil tanker, the USNS Comfort has 1,000 beds, 12 operating rooms, and weighs nearly 70,000 tons.
Read MoreThe Financial Times once declared the late Gianni Agnelli to be the “uncrowned king of Italy.” His heirs, the Agnelli family, are conservatively estimated to be worth approximately €11 billion (with a b). The annual letter to shareholders sent out by their holding company, the EXOR Group, which holds large stakes in Fiat Chrysler and Ferrari, has a predilection for quoting from Ayn Rand. And they just donated €10 million (with an m) to fight the global Coronavirus pandemic.
Read MoreThe last all-new Elantra was unveiled in 2015, so it’s about time for a new one. Hyundai says this new car is a return to its sporty roots for all the “young disruptors” it considers its customer base for this car. The compact sedan market continues to shrink, but with some sharp futuristic good looks, perhaps Hyundai can pump some life back into the segment.
Read MoreSome auto workers at an FCA plant walked off the job over coronavirus concerns yesterday, as the Big Three insist on leaving plants open amid a global pandemic, while also leaving some UAW members to wonder out loud why their union wasn’t doing more to protect them. Today, the UAW’s president revealed that the union has asked the Ford, GM, and FCA for a two-week shutdown.
Read MoreThe 2021 Genesis G70 will continue to be a savior to (a few) enthusiasts during these trying times. In an age where manual cars are going extinct left and right, the next-gen G70 is sticking with its manual offering. It’ll be paired with the base engine, but that’s not at all a bad thing.
Read MoreSince most of us are trapped in our homes as viruses bang on our doors with their creepy little protein arms, I figured you could use a nice deep-dive Torchinsky Files episode, full of really intensely geeky crap. I think I’ve provided that for you, with this tour of something pretty amazing: essentially, a website before there was a web at all. A website on a 143K floppy disk, running on a computer literally hundreds of thousands times slower than whatever you’re reading this on. It’s Buick’s 1
Read MoreOver 90 percent of Detroit bus drivers called out of work en masse today after they said the overcrowded Detroit Department Of Transit buses were not adhering to Center for Disease Control guidelines for prevention of spreading Coronavirus, as the state shut down all schools, bars, and restaurants. Detroit public transit was hanging on by a thread during easier times, but now that the world has been turned upside down, the overstressed service has given way.
Read MoreRod Millen’s Leadfoot Festival in New Zealand never fails to provide a litany of purely insane automotive contraptions built for the sole purpose of going fast in an entertaining manner. This year the Nissan Micra of Glenn Hodges is the first of surely many to hit YouTube providing delight and excitement.
Read MoreIf you’re looking for ways to entertain your kids while your whole family’s stuck at home waiting out the covid-19 pandemic, the Petersen Automotive Museum’s going to be streaming some educational child-friendly content this week.
Read MoreThe Isle Of Man TT has gained notoriety worldwide as the most incredible display of motorcycle speed anywhere. With a massive course, breakneck speeds, jumps, and a requirement for millimetric precision, the Tourist Trophy has proven its worth on the motorsport calendar, and attracts the best riders from around the world. For 2020, however, the Isle Of Man TT has fallen victim to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been wiped from the calendar.
Read MoreEveryone, everyone, drop the that damp bag of pizza rolls and emerge from your social-distancing pillow-and-blanket forts, because I have good, non-Coronavirus-related news! As part of a bold new experiment, I have bought a new car! Finally! And not just any car—with our eyes boldly open to the future, we’ve bought an electric car. Not some boring Tesla or something, either. Something much better. A $900 EV bought off the giant online shopping website Alibaba.
Read MoreSpain might be on lockdown as a country, but that didn’t stop Mercedes from calling in 5,000 employees to assemble vans in its Vitoria factory in Gasteiz. They weren’t having it.
Read MoreHere’s yet another unforeseen circumstance of the Coronavirus: America’s highway safety regulators last Friday suspended daily driving limits for truck drivers hauling medical supplies, personal and other items necessary for battling the current outbreak possibly leading less safe road conditions.
Read MoreLate last July we packed our bags into a small Fiat and headed for a tour of Eastern Europe. Our route took us through the Baltics and Poland, but the main attractions for us were Ukraine and Romania, for their mountain roads, good beer and cooking and especially the weird cars.
Read MoreOne of the most recent mechanic memes that made me chuckle went like this:
Read MoreNot to be outdone by the Big Three that announced comprehensive work-from-home plans for their employees, Tesla announced today a similar set of plans, but also ones that went much further, permitting workers to build Tesla cars in their own homes. The idea was said to have come directly from Elon Musk, according to Musk’s personal secretary Cassandra Clearlyfakeperson.
Read MoreThe COVID-19 Coronavirus, a virus genetically engineered by a consortium of HOA presidents dedicated to the total and complete destruction of fun on Earth, has claimed another victim: Ford’s press event to debut the new 2021 Ford Bronco. As of press time, Ford has not picked a new date for the event.
Read MoreI had a thought while I was lying underneath my Montero, test-fitting a skid plate I’d pulled off a wreck in a boneyard: My truck has parts recycled from no less than eleven dismantled Monteros. That seems like a lot. Do I have a junkyard addiction or is this normal?
Read MoreWe first got a look at the Czinger 21C last month, before its planned unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show, an unveiling which never happened because of coronavirus. The 21C is here now finally, having instead been unveiled in London this week. It looks like a supercar!
Read MoreBollinger, the EV startup that charges $125,000 for a 200-mile range off-road electric truck with no airbags, will begin selling just its vehicle chassis for all of those who think they could build something better.
Read MoreThe current Coronavirus pandemic is affecting almost every aspect of American life. At this point, you’ve probably been subjected to a cancelation of some kind. But not everyone can selectively seclude themselves from other people. Some folks, like drivers, have to deal with close proximity to strangers all day.
Read MoreBefore the Honda NSX pushed Ferrari to make a better, more usable Ferrari 355, there was another set of Japanese/Italian all-weather sports cars to pair off. The two cars in question are the Nissan MID-4 and the Ferrari 408.
Read MoreOur own David Tracy is working on a story about an amazing cache of cars molding and rotting away in France, and the pics he was showing us of the cars were incredible. So many great things—BMWs, Renault Alpines, Renaults, Peugeots, Citroëns, Fiats, a lone Gremlin, all kinds of treats. I’m just teasing you for David’s story later. But, until then, I want you to have a peek at this car that was so familiar yet just beyond my recognition earlier today. See if you can ID it!
Read MoreGerman Porsche tuner Gemballa has finally gone off the deep end. Its new Avalanche 4X4 concept takes the “Safari 911" trend to its ultimate end by jacking up one of its 991 Turbo S-based Avalanche supercars. Safari cars started out as cool because they were unique and hadn’t really been explored before outside of a motorsport context. Now that everyone and their brother builds a rendition of the concept, each wilder and more off-the-wall than the last, can we just declare it dead now? This Gemba
Read MoreTesla just recently got its China factory operational, it’s already broken ground on a factory in Germany, and now it’s looking to build yet another factory—one Elon Musk is calling Cybertruck Gigafactory—in the U.S. The new factory will support construction of the highly touted and highly hideous Cybertruck, as well as production of the Model Y for distribution to the east coast.
Read MoreYou could look at videos of new Ferraris racing right now and become upset that you could be racing Ferraris but instead are in your underwear in bed or at your job. Or you could look at videos of new Ferraris racing, but shot with 50-year old cameras and film, and wash out all of that FOMO with nostalgia.
Read MoreI’ll be the first to admit that my particular demographic (short, weird-haired, taillight-obsessed dipshit/father) isn’t usually the most targeted one by political candidates, so when the President of the United States himself issues an Official Tweetmissive that directly addresses my specific interests as someone who “like(s) automobiles,” I pay attention. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem like anything in this tweet is true.
Read MoreStraight six power. An optional manual transmission. Rear-wheel drive and peerless build quality. These are all qualities I completely ignored for years, while I dismissed the original Lexus SC300.
Read MoreCredit where it is due, Tesla has come a long way in the last 12 years. To get from the first Tesla Roadster in 2008 to the millionth car—this bright red Model Y Performance—has been a strange and sometimes beautiful journey. There hasn’t been a new car manufacturer, especially one with a sedan-heavy lineup, to find this kind of success in a really long time.
Read MoreBack in January, I visited my brother Mike in Hong Kong. As he’s a car enthusiast and curator of the Carsofhongkong Instagram page, he not only knows the locations of lots of cool cars, but he’s got a sixth sense for where to find more of them. It’s uncanny. Just check out this random parking garage he took me to; I expected it to contain a bunch of modern vehicles parked nicely in their designated spots, but what we found was very, very different.
Read MoreThe new Cadillac CT5-V comes with a turbocharged V6 and way less power than the outgoing CTS-V, which is very upsetting. But Cadillac has promised a more powerful version of the CT5, and new spy photos show it may continue the legacy of the manual transmission.
Read MoreSideshows have grown out of the Bay Area and become a feature all across America. The practice of stopping traffic in intersections and on major freeways to roast tires is not only inconvenient, it’s dangerous. While some cities are cracking down hard on the practice others, like Detroit, are providing a “safe” space for drivers and audience members to enjoy some tire-burning excitement.
Read MoreI spent a few days buzzing around Los Angeles in a borrowed Aventador SVJ and learned, among other things, that other Lamborghini drivers were more likely to seem like actual car enthusiasts than conceited gasbags. To be honest, this brought me a lot of joy!
Read MoreThe outgoing BMW 2 Series is the M2 Competition—a 405 hp, 406 lb-ft tire-shredding two-door coupe. The new BMW 2 Series is an all-wheel drive sedan based on a Mini. Reports claim BMW will now make two different M-versions—one for each configuration—for some reason.
Read MoreHumans have been building cars in quantity for well over a century, and in that time there’s been many, many interesting, unusual, and often downright freaky experiments and variations and concepts, but I feel pretty confident in saying that Honda’s former annual Idea Contests may have been one of the greatest incubators for truly bonkers concepts. I’m pretty sure at least one of these concepts became the folding Motocompo bike and another became the only vertical-driving car ever.
Read MoreGod-tier longroof Audi RS models have been forbidden fruit here in the U.S. market for generations. Audi has taken heed of our hollering and decided to do us a solid by bringing the new RS6 Avant stateside for the C8 generation. With 591 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque, this big German bruiser can hustle you, your family, and a weekend’s worth of goodies from 0-60 in just 3.5 seconds. And now U.S. enthusiasts can order one for the low low price of just $109,995.
Read MoreIn today’s flurry of alleged Ford Bronco leaks, this image of what sure looks like a two-door 2021 Bronco is the most exciting to me. If this is the final design, which I’m reasonably confident it is, the thing’s pretty much perfect. Ford, don’t futz with that. OK, maybe add a light bar. But then stop.
Read MoreMan, someone better call the internet plumber, because today has been a leaky, leaky day, especially from our pals at Ford. First the 2021 Baby Bronco, and now here we go with the full-size, Big Daddy Bronco, in all its undisguised glory. The leak is from another Bronco forum this, time, appropriately called FullSizeBronco. It looks pretty great, I think. Of course, if this is actually it.
Read MoreWhen the Chevrolet Express debuted in the mid ‘90s, it happily puttered around with around 200 horsepower. Two and a half decades on and Chevrolet has gifted this utility van its new 6.6-liter V8, good for 401 HP. It’s not what the van needed—it’s what it deserved.
Read MoreI’m not really sure there is any object that feels more like the first quarter of 2020 than a Chinese market SUV with a special air filtration system designed to combat the Coronavirus. The SUV is Geely’s new Icon SUV, a small, mild hybrid crossover with an actually very novel design. But, most people were interested in its air filtration system, which is specifically designed to protect the passengers from the COVID-19 Coronavirus. Will it actually do that? Much like Tesla’s system, it can’t hu
Read MoreFor the past few weeks, it seems like almost all our collective travel dreams have been put on hold due to the coronavirus situation. But it doesn’t mean that we should stop dreaming about visiting faraway places when the virus scare eventually has subsided. For example, I’ve never been to Japan in my life, and day by day more and more fascinating travel spots in Japan seem to come up, places worth visiting if you’re in any way interested in cars. Take the Suzuki Jimny Museum, for example. Japa
Read MoreI recently bought a right-hand drive car, to drive around here in Finland, where people drive on the left side of the car, as is proper. My justification for this wasn’t exactly the same as with most people who end up with the steering wheel in an unexpected location.
Read MoreA friend of mine from Slovenia enjoys working on older German cars. A while ago Metod, a design student by day, successfully put the 16-valve M42 engine from a newer 3-series into a first generation 3-series, a base model E21. The surgery was a success and the patient lived to enjoy its days at a considerably quicker pace than with the standard issue eight-valve four-banger with which it left the factory.
Read MoreLet me start with reciting the background story. The Wankel engine, which is sometimes called the rotary engine is something that’s often connected to Mazda, as the Japanese brand championed these engines for decades. Instead of conventional pistons, a Wankel engine utilizes triangular rotors and a very small displacement to burn a lot of fuel and cause some grief but in a very smooth fashion.
Read MoreMazda is taking us right back to the early 1990s with a new special edition of the MX-5. For sale only on the French market, the MX-5 Eunos Edition features a similar black on red combination as the one-year-only Miata Limited Edition way back in 1993.
Read MoreThe Coronavirus pandemic has killed thousands already, and it is difficult to understate both its virulence and danger. That’s proving very challenging for event organizers globally, and Formula One is no different. The Bahrain Grand Prix will go on as planned, but reportedly without any spectators at all.
Read MoreThe PR firm repping Lamborghini saw fit to loan me an Aventador SVJ Roadster for the weekend, for science. So, yeah, now I have to spend the next few days sweating bullets hoping nobody scratches the $667,661 art piece parked among the normies on my street. I should probably drive it, too!
Read MoreWords are important. I should know, I have a whole bucket of them right here by my desk that I use in my work every single day. In fact, I’m using some of them right now. As a word-user, it has come to my attention that the series of words “Sport Utility Vehicle,” usually abbreviated “SUV,” is currently used to denote a popular class of vehicle, and I believe is also being misused to describe a class of vehicles that deserves a separate appellation. Two of these vehicles are the Jeep Wrangler an
Read MoreI’m still not convinced the new electric Ford Mustang Mach-E looks good enough to carry that name, but it makes sense to brand a new electric crossover that way if you want to sell a lot of them. Now it looks like GM may be following up with an electric Chevy Camaro, and it’s graciously still an actual sports car.
Read MoreWelcome back to Friday at Jalopnik which means it is time for Ask A Car Nerd once again, our weekly series where you send in your burning questions and we answer them. Or at least, we try, albeit most times poorly.
Read MoreWhile Genesis has been puttering around the luxury market for a few years with a lineup of sedans, its hoping the game-changer for the new brand will be the 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV, which will now start at $49,925, but it’s going to cost a lot more if you want all-wheel drive equipped.
Read MoreWhen I enter my neighborhood I am always shocked at the number of vehicles my neighbors park outside on the driveway instead of in the relative warmth and comfort of their garage. Every house in my neighborhood has an attached garage with room for at least two cars. This isn’t just a simple choice to make, either, as in northern Nevada the summer sun bakes paint and cracks dashboards, while the extreme cold winter nights require a frigid morning window scraping routine.
Read MoreWhile Americans have only been teased with the promise of the hot new 2020 Toyota GR Yaris, Europe can actually buy it—and at nearly $39,000, it’s going to cost a pretty penny.
Read MoreThe 1990s “EG” Honda Civic is still one of the great economy car designs, unbelievably understated, classic to the point of invisibility. But did you know that the coupe version could have had a second spoiler mounted halfway up the back window?
Read MoreWe’ve known Cadillac has been looking to move away from its letter/number car naming scheme for some time. Today, I saw on Car And Driver that the American luxury brand has landed on “Celestiq” and “Lyriq” so far.
Read MoreFiat has revealed the next generation of the compact 500, being pitched as “the first FCA car born full electric” (translated from Italian). While the outgoing 500e was originally a gasoline-powered car converted into an EV, the new one, apparently, was designed to be electric from the onset. Theoretically, that should make it better; unfortunately, its future in the U.S. market is a “maybe.”
Read MoreOkay, look, I absolutely realize that any rational window to talk about the cars of Tarantino’s alternate timeline Manson Family movie Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood is long, long past. I get that. I wanted to do some kind of “cars of” post at the time, but I was unable to get my hands on a screener to get suitable screen grabs from, so I moved on to other things. But, when I watched it, I absolutely noticed the cars, and, more significantly, the (really very few) automotive anachronisms. I final
Read MoreIf you’re like many people, you enjoy the process of living. Metabolizing, converting food and drink into solid and liquid wastes, attempting to reproduce, sweating, the whole thing. That means, generally, you probably want to keep living, even if you, say, wreck your car. Well, the reason why that’s a realistic possibility has a lot to do with a series of experimental cars from the 1970s called Experimental Safety Vehicles.
Read MoreIf you’re like me, you’ve come to find that most Bentleys are, you know, just a bit too chintzy for your tastes. Sure, they’ll use either 18 or zero cows for the interior, but those are usually uneducated rural cows, without any real refinement. You demand something better, something deeper, richer, something that calls upon nearly half a millennia of coachbuilding experience to make something truly special. And Bentley has done just that, with the new Bacalar, their new open-top touring car tha
Read MoreOkay just try to wrap your head around this, because I can’t. I’m just going to lay out the facts. It has a 600 horsepower three-cylinder twin-turbo engine. It has three electric motors. It’s got 1,700 HP total. It has one single gear. It will do zero to 60 mph in 1.9 seconds. It’ll do at least 250 mph. And it has two LATCH anchor positions for car seats. It’s the Koenigsegg Gemera and nothing about it makes sense.
Read MoreOver the past week or so, I’ve been sent an ad many times from friends and people who know my deepest desires. The ad is from the Canadian Craigslistic site Kiji, advertising an incredible two Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles for sale for a very reasonable $12,000. If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it is, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t get me thinking. Thinking intently about just what the hell you could actually do with a Wienermobile.
Read MoreBMW has toyed with the idea of a pickup truck (or a ute) plenty of times in the past, but in the latest frustrating tease for a Bimmer with a bed, the head of product management for BMW M claimed an electric truck would be easy to build.
Read MoreBMW’s chief technical officer Klaus Fröhlich told reporters last year that the upcoming BMW i4 is going to compete directly with Tesla sedans. Up until now, we’ve only seen the futuristic “BMW i Vision Dynamics,” but thanks to leaked photos, we now have a look at the BMW Concept i4, which looks pretty close to production ready.
Read MoreI make fun of the return of the greatest-of-the-great Alfa Romeo GTAm because I love it. With 540 horsepower, over the top aero, and carbon fiber down to the driveshaft, it’s probably the most desirable sports sedan on the planet. And that’s why it’s funny that the car comes out with a shitty Photoshop.
Read MoreThe Fiat 500's long-time-coming update was supposed to be exposed to the world at the Geneva Motor Show, but since a certain virus was exposed to the world instead, the Geneva show was cancelled. The new 500 design wasn’t going to be held back by some stupid lipid-coated virus, at least unofficially, as the new design was leaked, at least the 500e all-electric version.
Read MoreFor some reason, Volkswagen has rescinded its plans to sell the 2020 VW e-Golf in the U.S., which means it’s probably dead for America altogether.
Read MoreChances are, your headlights suck. It’s probably not your fault. Manufacturers routinely miss the mark when it comes to illumination, or make you pay out the nose for lights that do what they should. But that doesn’t mean you should turn on your high beams to make up for what your bulbs can’t do. In fact, you probably need to turn those goddamn brights off.
Read MoreThe other day I had a realization. The Chevrolet Camaro (at least the two generations since the Zeta-platform reboot we’ve had for the last ten years or so) looks its best on steel wheels. It’s odd but it’s true. And I bet it’s the case for other cars out there too.
Read MoreIt seemed like a bit of a risk when Mazda decided to not offer a touchscreen in the new Mazda 3. But Mazda may have just been ahead of the trend, as Honda has also abandoned some reliance on the new Honda Jazz’s touch controls because they just aren’t “intuitive.”
Read MoreThe new C8 Chevy Corvette is the first time the production sports car has had a mid-engine layout. Despite over 60 years of waiting for it, its looks have been remarkably polarizing. But how would it have looked if it were still a front-engine car?
Read MoreFor all that I love its V8s and V10s, Lamborghini is the V12. It’s an over-the-top option for an over-the-top company, and for decades, Lamborghini only had the money (or desire) to keep developing its original 1960s engine design. But there was one moment of derivation.
Read MoreThe only way to appreciate the 2020 Land Rover Defender is to understand that it’s not a 1996 Land Rover Defender; it’s a different vehicle with its own merits. That said, nostalgia is calling and I must answer.
Read MoreGood lord. I knew the rear end on the current-gen Honda Civic was “polarizing” but I guess didn’t quite grasp how woefully inadequate that word was for describing your reactions following Friday’s Honda Civic Hatch review. Luckily for you, a reader read your rage and did something about it.
Read MoreThe Nissan Z sports car (well, let’s be real, it’s a sporty touring car) has a storied but inconsistent history. So, too, does the Z emblem. The twin-turbo rounded wedge Z of the ’90s was cool, but the long and lithe Z of the ’70s was the loveliest. This new logo looks quite a bit like a callback to the design of the older one.
Read MoreEarlier this week, Hyundai did something pretty bold: they unveiled an all-new four-door sedan, the latest version of the Elantra. In this era of everything’s-a-crossover-or-an-SUV, this once-expected act now qualifies as daring. Also daring is the design of the new Elantra which is striking and interesting and very likely polarizing, things which have never really been said about Elantras before. Let’s take a look at Hyundai’s new design direction.
Read MoreIt’s possible some of you may remember back in 2016 when I wrote about this strange beast, the six-wheeled, 18 horsepower experimental hybrid car built by a company you likely know best from lawn mower engines. When I first wrote that, I had no idea if the car still survived. Late last year, though, I remembered the car and did some digging that ended up with it being refurbished and handed over to Jay Leno to take for a spin.
Read MoreI remember just a few short years ago when carbon fiber still felt like something only the worst departments of the U.S. government were supposed to know about, but now it seems like it’s everywhere. The new Zenvo TSR-S supercar makes carbon fiber feel special again, though
Read MoreI initially dismissed the Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport when it debuted earlier this month, ignoring the idea of a Chiron (a very fast car) made marginally faster. However, after careful study and deliberation, I am happy to announce that the wheels specially designed for this car are good. I defy you to look at them and disagree.
Read MoreToday, in clever ways to subject yourself and your fellow motorists to frivolous danger, we have this ill-advised project wherein somebody saws and re-welds a steel car wheel into a shade tree BBS basketweave knockoff.
Read MoreCar design sketches have a lot of similarities that stretch back decades: dramatic lines, mail slot windows, and wheels so impossibly big there is literally no room for a tire. A lot of times you’ll see wheels that intersect with the ground, so the wheels are so large they occupy the same space as the road. Yo dawg, my rims are so big they violate the laws of physics.
Read MoreThe Pontiac Aztek is a frequently criticized vehicle, often incorrectly called the ugliest car ever made, as though Chrylser didn’t make any cars in the late 1970s. Its styling is, um, brave, to be sure, but is it a good vehicle? Does anything come out of the crazy mixture of a Montana minivan, a Grand Prix, and an unmitigated affront to imprudent design?
Read MoreI think we’re at a point in automotive history when three-row cars are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, and I’m all for that. The “way back” seat is a wonderful thing, partially because it’s the only mainstream car seat you’re likely to find that may be facing backwards. There’s two schools of thought when it comes to the third row: face ahead, or behind? I’m curious to find out which we prefer.
Read MoreAs you may have heard, BMW updated its logo for the first time in over two decades, and, since it’s a thing that happened in the world, some people are not happy about it. I can see both sides here; BMW’s logo was due for an update. And while I like some of what’s been done, there’s validity to the criticisms too.
Read MoreIn 1977, the world was still recovering from the shock of the oil crisis. Toyota looked at its economical, 73-mile-per-gallon, fuel-sipping Sports 800, and said yeah, that’s still not enough efficiency. As a result, Toyota began work on a hybrid adaptation it had initially investigated for fun in the mid-’60s.
Read MoreQuick! Name a gullwing supercar concept with a quad rotor engine. If you can’t name one, great: you’re probably a normal human being. If you can correctly name the 1970 Mercedes-Benz C111/II, you’re a proper automotive trivia nerd and should be congratulated as such.
Read MoreDeliveries of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette have finally begun, which means we’ll soon start seeing them on public roads and, uh, at the drag strip. This modified example, belonging to LG Motorsports, is quite possibly one of the first mid-engine Corvette casualties. Excluding that one that ate it during a snowy day, of course.
Read MoreI get that traffic circles can be tricky if you’re not used to them, but it’s not like they’re Rubik’s Cubes with Mayan hieroglyphics on them—they’re understandable. That may just not be the case for some drivers in Edmonton, Canada, where a traffic circle that was closed in the morning after a rollover accident was reopened later in the day, and, with local news cameras rolling, promptly hosted another (much more minor) wreck.
Read MoreEaster Island is known for its moai, the hundreds of sacred statues that cover the island. On Sunday, a pickup truck rolled down a hill and crashed into one of them, damaging the statue and its platform. The island’s cultural heritage organization, Ma’u Henua, posted photographs of the crash on its Facebook page.
Read MoreThis bodycam video taken from a Bridgewater Township, New Jersey State Trooper named Robert Tarleton has a surprisingly engaging narrative structure: it starts slow and normal, a routine traffic stop, then quickly leaps into action movie territory as Trooper Tarleton races to rescue the driver of a burning tractor-trailer, seconds before a fiery explosion.
Read MoreIn the darkness of this global pandemic, there are precious few rays of light and hope. But there will always be the illumination of truth. Sweet and just truth, which will spring from our hearts and banish the shadow of lies and deceit. Truth is brought forth into the world today in the form of the very true story of how our Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk was stolen.
Read More“Here we are in the midst of a pandemic crisis, my best-est little bud almost died and my ‘97 XJ was stolen,” reader Mike Dyer wrote in a depressing email titled “My girlfriend’s puppy nearly died and then some @$$-hat stole my ‘97 XJ.” This is not right, and I, for one, won’t stand for it.
Read MoreI cannot believe I have to write this, but apparently some people are such selfish moronic idiots that they need reminding. There is never a good time or place for illegal street racing especially—especially!—now. Don’t do it. Do not. Restrain yourselves, for the love of all that is holy.
Read MoreI love old action movies, I adore Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I have patterned the aesthetics of my entire existence off of late ’80s cyberpunk. As a result, I re-re-re-watched Total Recall recently and paid attention to much more banal details than I had previously. Specifically, these things.
Read MoreThe trailers were out, the date was set, the tank tops were tattered and The Rock was lathered, but the Fast & Furious Family, no matter how ambitious, were not enough to stand up to the global Coronavirus.
Read MoreToday I learned that there’s going to be another Batman movie, as our friends at io9 shared director Matt Reeves’ tweet of pictures (renderings?) of the new Batmobile. It’s some sort of rear-engine trophy truck-muscle car mashup that’s apparently going to be Batman’s next ride.
Read MoreThe 2020 North American International Auto Show has been completely cancelled for 2020, according to the Detroit Free Press, after the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it has chosen the venue for the event, TCF Center, to be used for at least the next six months as a makeshift hospital for COVID-19 victims during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Read MoreThe New York International Auto Show was originally supposed to get going just two weeks from now, but with the global Coronavirus pandemic, everything has changed. The show has officially been pushed back to August, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling for its home, Manhattan’s Javits Center, to be turned into a field hospital for Coronavirus patients.
Read MoreNext month’s New York International Auto Show has been rescheduled for August due to concerns over the outbreak of Coronavirus in the U.S. The move comes just weeks after the Geneva Motor Show, originally scheduled for last week, also had to cancel.
Read MoreThe 2021 Genesis G80 just got a big upgrade, overhauling the exterior and interior of the brand’s first-ever car into something that’s really, really pretty.
Read MoreThe electric car space is quickly becoming chock full of contenders from everyone from Tesla to Volkswagen to Hyundai, but the real challenge seems to be price. It’s not impossible, but very few can seem to get below the $40,000 threshold thanks to the cost of batteries. And Fisker – yes, that Fisker – thinks it can do it with the new Fisker Ocean.
Read MoreThe thing is that yes, you will get wet if you drive it in the rain. Yes, you will get buffeted by the wind, and scorched in the hot sun, and frozen in the bitter cold. We want you to experience those things, and you want it, too.
Read MoreBAC first teased the idea of a new car back in June of last year, but this new car is pretty much the same as the old car. Well, it only looks the same. According to the people who build the thing, this new Mono shares nothing with its predecessor except a single-seat open-cockpit layout and a penchant for going really fast and melting the driver’s face. Still, I can’t get over how similar it looks to the car it replaces. I guess we’ll just have to take their word for it.
Read MoreDespite my just calling the 2021 Mercedes-Benz E-Class facelift ugly literally a few minutes ago, the new car is coming to America in both hybrid and wagon form again, and that means the wagon’s doomsday clock ticks further away from midnight. I can’t be mad at that.
Read MoreThere are all kinds of supercars if you want something that’s meant to ape a Formula One car for the road. But what about a streamliner record car for the road? This is the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, which figured 1,600 horsepower wasn’t enough to get a sufficiently manic top speed. It needed super aero, too.
Read MoreAs Mercedes-Benz has quite clearly demonstrated with the unfortunate new E-Class, automotive design is in a bit of a rut, perhaps only to be salvaged by the new design freedoms of electric and hydrogen cars. And the Hyundai Prophecy concept shows that Hyundai is about to mop the floor with everyone.
Read MoreVolkswagen has just announced the Volkswagen ID.4, the very first vehicle built on the company’s promising Modular Electric Drive Matrix platform (MEB) that will be sold in the U.S. Here’s our best look yet at the upcoming SUV, and a few new details.
Read MoreIf you bought a previous-generation Porsche 911 GT2 RS, I am sorry to inform you that the new 992 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S is now as quick as your car.
Read MoreI have largely not cared about the Audi E-Tron electric crossover, but that has just changed. Audi threw in another electric motor and called it the Audi E-Tron S, and it peaks at almost 500 horsepower and 718 lb-ft of torque.
Read MoreI’m really kind of jealous of automotive photographer George Williams right now. He got to stroll around the completely empty Geneva Motor Show two days following the show’s cancelation and honestly, all auto shows should be like this.
Read MoreTry as I might, I’ve never been successful at installing a wind tunnel into my home or even backyard. Turns out, it’s not as simple as grabbing giant fans from your local gym, and placing them in a crudely nailed-together plywood tube. The good news is that there’s another option for me if I want to assess the aerodynamics of my 1948 Willys Jeep (there’s literally no aero data to be found for it!): This amazing Ford F-250 once owned by an aerospace company.
Read MoreHere at Jalopnik, we know we have a (justly earned) reputation for being brown manual wagon stans. But we’re so much more than that. We love brown vans, campers, supercars, coupes, trucks... anything! As our departed colleague Davey G. Johnson was keen to note, brown is the spice of life, and this former SEMA beauty queen for sale in Grand Rapids, Michigan, might just be the spiciest such vehicle ever featured on this humble rag.
Read MoreNow, it’s not unusual that hovels get put up for sale—that happens damn-near every day—but this particular one caught my eye because it belongs to some sportsball-playing person named Tom Brady. I understand that a great many of you know of and care about this person.
Read MoreIf you’re yearning for a convertible pickup truck, but the new Jeep Gladiator is too damn expensive and the Kaiser M715 military truck is too tank-like, run to your bank right now and withdraw $4,500. That’s how much this ridiculously rare 1989 Dodge Dakota convertible is selling for on Craigslist. Between its red bench seat, ragtop, and 4x4 drivetrain, this little truck is damn near perfect.
Read MoreThe answer to the question in the headline is, of course, “yes.” We are all fools, for this 1981 AMC Eagle Wagon appears to be in excellent shape. Despite that, and the fact that this lifted AMC Concord sold on the For-Ballers-Only website Bring a Trailer, the final price was somehow a modest $6,200. Here’s a look at what we all missed out on.
Read MoreEvery town has a wizard. It’s been true since at least the medieval era, and it continues today. They don’t wear robes and pointy hats anymore, so they’re harder to identify. And they don’t conjure dragons or turn townspeople into newts anymore, but they are still able to make ridiculous dreams into reality. The person who built this six-wheeled steam-powered boattail roadster from scratch is a wizard. You may already know him as the ridiculous brains behind the Teslonda.
Read MoreIf you want a reliable, compact, and economical car, you’ll consider a Honda Civic. I don’t care who you are. And if you want to stretch that usability even further, then you’d absolutely consider a 2020 Honda Civic Hatchback.
Read MoreDespite our hard rule on avoiding listening to Bugatti talk about Bugatti, the company recently gave great insight on how, exactly, it filmed the Bugatti Chiron breaking records at 249 mph.
Read MoreAs the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has developed into a full-on epidemic in the U.S., new drive-thru testing sites are popping up around the country. While driving through a bunch of people in lab coats seems frightening, the entire process looks as straightforward as getting a flu shot.
Read MoreHere we are, in the middle of a global pandemic stuck at home with our cars sitting dormant in the garage. Everything is closed, there’s nowhere to go, and it’s best practice to stay home and avoid contact with others anyway. For the few of us who do still have to go out into the world, it’s important to be well prepared to stay as safe as possible. That means cleaning your car. Really well.
Read MoreThese days, even automotive websites are crammed full of Coronavirus related news and posts, meaning that petrolhead sites aren’t the kind of safe haven where one could completely escape the doom and gloom. (I should know, I’ve penned a couple of COVID-19 stories today). Except, of course, you actually enjoy the inventive pandemic memes spread all around the web, or figure out you might as well educate yourself about the virus to stay safe.
Read MoreI gave as many rides as I could in the short time I babysat a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ. “I’d love to rent something like this one day,” one passenger confided. “But I’d be afraid to crash it.” A valid concern I’m happy to try and allay for non-pros who might find themselves behind the wheel of a supercar.
Read MoreLED technology has come a long way in the last five years, and in 2020 there are a bunch of brands selling well-made, well-engineered LED replacements for your car’s old halogen headlight bulbs. Here’s how to figure out which ones to get.
Read MoreEvery time snow season rolls around I get inundated with questions on how effective winter tires really are versus standard, run-of-the-mill all seasons that come factory standard on almost every car you buy these days. Ironically, I get the most questions on this topic from people who have all-wheel-drive cars. The ongoing misconception is that if you have AWD you don’t need to upgrade to winter tires.
Read MoreEver wondered why the pump keeps cutting out when you know there's still space in your gas tank? We did too...
Read MoreIn March, the holder of two percent of Harley-Davidson’s shares signaled that they were starting a proxy fight for seats on Harley’s board, also claiming that Harley’s former CEO Matt Levatich was fired earlier this year, and didn’t step down as he said. It was all (slightly) spicy stuff, but today Harley said that the fight was over for now.
Read MoreMy old man and I got our motorcycle licenses together circa 2006. He bought a 1981 Suzuki GS; I bought a 1991 Suzuki GSXR. Fast forward to 2020 and I look at the Honda CB-F concept, which looks a lot like dad’s GS but is probably faster than my old sportbike... And I reckon it’s the coolest new bike right now.
Read MoreHonda has pretty much always owned the small bike market, and the Honda Cub has always been at the top of the pile with over 100 million units sold since production started in 1958. The most recent major revamp of the Super Cub saw it inherit the 125cc engine from its Grom and Monkey siblings. It’s a great throwback look with a knee fairing and around town sensibilities. But it’s not quite up to the rigors of a post-coronavirus-apocalypse world. That’s where the new CT125 Hunter Cub comes in.
Read MoreThere are two major challenges in the hobby of motorcycling; doing the ton, and doing an Iron Butt. The ton is the 100 mph barrier, which pretty much any motorcycle can do these days, and as a result has evolved into the double ton. The Iron Butt, however, is a test of endurance of the meat sack riding the bike more so than the type of bike chosen. It doesn’t really matter what bike you take, you just have to travel 1000 miles in the course of a 24 hour period. Swiss rider Michel von Tell did th
Read MoreWhen Harley-Davidson’s CEO left that job on February 28, the company said that he had “stepped down,” presumably to spend more time with his family or something. But an investment firm trying to install new board members at Harley said that Matt Levatich didn’t step down at all. No, they claim he was fired.
Read MoreWe haven’t even cleared the first 25 percent of the 2020 calendar year yet, but it has already come to be defined by a global pandemic that has seen the cancellation or postponement of daily life. Because of the coronavirus, major international motorsports events likely won’t happen, manufacturers will fall potentially billions short of sales projections, and the gatherings that hold our enthusiast community together will disappear.
Read MoreHarley-Davidson is in a bad way, having unexpectedly lost its CEO in February amid declining sales and a general non-appetite for heavy motorcycles. For most companies, this might lead to some reflection about changing their ways, perhaps some long walks in the woods. For Harley, it seems content to keep doing the exact same thing.
Read MoreThis weekend I’ll be trekking through the twisting roads of Northern California on an Indian-built bike with a British brand name that harkens back to the heady days of 1960s motorcycling. The 2020 running of the Coastal Range Rally is here, and I’ll be the only idiot trying to participate in this untimed non-competitive enthusiast event on two wheels.
Read MoreI’ll never forget the time I rode a BMW S1000RR. I legged myself onto the saddle, let it idle half a minute, then opened the same amount of throttle I’d been using to move my 1981 Suzuki GS450. Zoom. “Beemer’s faster,” I realized, after catching my breath and bringing the bike back down to the speed limit.
Read MoreThe Triumph Rocket 3 has always been about big ‘ole nasty speed, putting the displacement of a large sedan underneath your crotch with a 2.5-liter triple. This brutish British is rated from the factory to run a 3.2-second 0-60, but at a recent corporate event a Triumph test rider took the damn thing out and laid down a 2.73-second 0-60 run. In the video below you can see the big lad walking away from a McLaren in a drag race.
Read MoreThe 1957 Spatz is a charming little rear-engined microcar, but I’m pretty sure that, since it doesn’t have doors, when the top is up you’re pretty much trapped inside. I bet that kinda sucked in the rain.
Read MoreIn an effort to prevent layoffs during a time when FCA’s plants are shut down and car demand is weak due to the coronavirus, CEO Mike Manley has sent an email to employees outlining salary cuts. Most salaried employees will see a 20 percent deferment, Manley himself will take a 50 percent cut, and the Board of Directors will take no compensation for the rest of 2020.
Read MoreIt’s not as easy as flipping a switch, Penske stretched thin, and Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, of course, gets its own special exemption. All that and more in the Morning Shift for March 30, 2020.
Read MoreNot leaving the house means I finally have time to mess around with the old Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 a friend gave me, so I wrote a crude little drawing program and scribbled out a ‘66 Beetle. Unfortunately I misjudged the limited height (the screen is only 64 pixels tall) so I didn’t have room for wheels, which is why it’s up on blocks. I’ve already been lectured that this is the unsafe way to use cinder blocks, too.
Read MoreA few months after Mclaren’s Elva low-volume speedster was revealed, the company’s MSO division has gone a step further and painted one orange. I gotta tell ya, it works, even though I never really liked the Elva.
Read MoreMost Volvos are discreet. Most Volvos are square. Most Volvos are hardly noticeable among parallel-parked cars. But most Volvos aren’t Suggas.
Read MoreLots of cars these days can hit 200 miles-per-hour. It’s not nothing, but it’s not anything either. But back in 1927, 200 was unheard-of. That is, Until Sunbeam’s “Slug” broke the record at Daytona Beach with Major Henry Seagrave behind the wheel.
Read MoreYou might have heard that Aston Martin’s Valhalla supercar will have a V6 behind the seats. While a six-cylinder Aston is hardly sacrilegious, it’s worth asking whether a V6-powered British supercar will cut the mustard in a post-Jaguar XJ220 world.
Read MoreIt’s Friday! Time to start the weekend right by hopping into this Ford Consul, shoving the driver out of the way, and driving, driving, driving, with a fast determined, sweaty intensity, spewing a never-ending stream of gibberish, randomly jerking the wheel to and fro, then throwing back your head and laughing, laughing, laughing, the only one who understands what a joke it all is and why! Have a great weekend, everyone!
Read MoreBy the time Tesla CEO Elon Musk declared that coronavirus panic was “dumb,” 17 people had already died from the virus and over 300 cases were confirmed in the U.S. Since that day, March 6, over 1,000 more deaths have been reported here. There have also been nearly 75,000 more confirmed cases, including, it emerged Thursday, two at Tesla itself.
Read MoreThat guy with the box kind of reminds me of Jerry Lewis, so I see this playing out where he struggles to get that very heavy box in the car and ends up with it crushing his chest as he lays prone on the cargo floor, screaming “Niiiiceee laaaaadddddeeeee!” as the tailgate slams down, nearly lopping off his feet.
Read MoreBack in the late 1960s, when the tuba and sousaphone craze was in full swing, it was almost unthinkable that you would even consider buying a car that couldn’t accommodate your instrument. Small car accessory tuba racks became essentially standard, and large cars were fitted with “tuba tubes” designed to latch tubas in place. By 1970, the craze was over, and America’s landfills were, briefly, over 40 percent tuba.
Read MoreSince Monday, Fiat Chrysler has laid off roughly 2,000 employees in North America in response to the Coronavirus outbreak, a company representative told Jalopnik. The hallways of the fabled Chrysler Technical Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan—and those of FCA’s numerous other facilities around the country—are now going to be quieter. This is a somber moment for thousands, and could represent an inflection point for the auto industry at large.
Read MoreThere are explanations for the following now-deleted tweet, yes, but few of them make any sense.
Read MoreI know some of you may think you’re casual, carefree drivers, but none of you can hold a candle to Jans Snørdglen, the World’s Most Casual Driver from 1966 to 1978. Experts are still unsure just how he did it, but no one was ever able to record him actually paying attention to the road, and yet he never had a wreck. He once won a rally stage while flipping through a copy of Esquire and drinking a Tom Collins. Truly an inspiration never to be emulated because you’ll crash.
Read MoreI realize people are concerned with little things like “retirement funds” and “layoffs,” but don’t let those small worries make you lose sight of what’s really important in this world. Specifically, I’m referring to this amazing, manual-transmission, 4x4, 47,000 mile 1986 Nissan Pickup. It’s a former racetrack service truck, and its “coolness-to-dollar ratio” gauge is pegged to max.
Read MoreHappy Monday during the period in history that will one day be known as The Great Fuckening! Please enjoy this 1970s-era image of two workers from the country of Monzonotina with their Zuk van dumping shoes into Lake Pínothilan, which would magically re-sole the shoes and expel them on a nearby enchanted shore.
Read MoreFor a couple weekends, I’ve been posting Sunday content here on Jalopnik in place of Max Finkel, who is currently away from the keyboard documenting weird cars in undisclosed locations.
Read MoreLast Sunday, I published a great big load of photos I took on our roadtrip through Ukraine. Driving on Ukrainian roads, you’re pretty sure to see a very weird variety of cars ranging from old Soviet era vehicles to Western cars you would never expect to see in Ukraine, such as a Mercury Topaz. But our trip didn’t end in Ukraine, as we crossed the border south to Romania with the famous Transfagarasan highway in mind.
Read MoreTesla, Ford, GM, Fiat Chrysler, Kia, Hyundai, Mercedes, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Volvo have all announced that they will temporarily suspend production in some form in their American plants to help fight coronavirus. But not BMW. No, BMW is alone in still going full steam ahead.
Read MoreStarsky Robotics is a self-driving truck company that was the first company to run an unmanned semi on a public highway. It’s now shutting down though, and its co-founder has some unusually sensible and honest things to say about the industry, unusual only because the industry is stuffed with charlatans.
Read MoreIn Hong Kong, a right-hand-drive 1966 Ford Mustang convertible sits next to a Pagoda. That’s the nickname for the ’60s-era W113 Mercedes-Benz 230 SL with the concave roof that resembles “curved roofs of Far Eastern temples.” I honestly don’t know which 1960s “2+2" I find more beautiful.
Read MoreAsk anyone to name an Irish car and the best they’re likely to come up with is the DMC DeLorean, which was financed by Americans, largely designed by the British and built in the part of Ireland that remains in the United Kingdom. Absolute die-hards might name the Shamrock, a 1959 tailfinned, fibreglass abomination designed for US export, using Austin mechanicals. Ten of those were built before the factory shut down and all the remaining parts were, thankfully, dumped in a lake.
Read MoreIn New York City we are not allowed to eat in at bars and restaurants, have been advised to work from home if possible, can’t gather in groups of more than 50, can’t go to the gym or movies, and the schools are closed. But! At least the streets will still be clean because alternate side parking regulations remain in place for some reason.
Read MoreAmerica’s blue-collar auto workers can’t work from home amid the global coronavirus pandemic, even if many of them argue that they shouldn’t be working at all. Some of those walked off the job Monday at Michigan’s Warren Truck Assembly, where they make the Ram 1500, perhaps in solidarity with some auto workers in Spain.
Read MoreThis 1991 Dodge Caravan does not deserve such a fate. Despite its longtime Michigan residency, the van isn’t completely covered in rust; its awesome, sporty “ES”-trim lower body cladding and grille still look great; and even the interior remains a thing of beauty. A 3.0-liter V6 sits under hood, and though its condition is unknown (ditto for the slushbox), the body alone is what makes this second-gen Chrysler minivan worth saving.
Read MoreEarlier this week, Porsche published a Facebook post about the upcoming Amelia Island Concours event. In the photo post were three Taycans done up in classic Porsche racing liveries, and people could try and connect a certain livery with the racing car that originally wore it. But really, what the post did was strengthen the belief that the Taycan simply looks great, even in pink.
Read MoreWe once had an animated discussion with a group of friends about the one defining feature in one’s taste in cars. At the time, the answers ranged from a certain way of engine orientation or placement, to the drive type, or perhaps pop-up headlights, but the question kept bothering me until recently. I was sound asleep when the answer hit me like a thousand volts. Three, three is the magic number. Three-lug wheels. Some of the funkiest cars I like have three-lug wheels!
Read MoreI have one of those long-form car deals brewing. You know the type, the kind of a car purchase that can take years to work out even if the car isn’t really worth that much. You see a reasonably rare example of a given model driving around town, or maybe parked for a long time in a car port, and you eventually approach the owner and leave details because you feel it might work out.
Read MoreAutomakers are always trying to convince you that their vehicles can do anything. Conquer any mountain, tackle any racetrack, and haul shitloads of lumber. But the truth is you’re always compromising. Many aspects of vehicle design are at odds with each other. It’s hard to have good ground clearance and good handling. Seating for seven is always going to mean a larger, less efficient vehicle.
Read MoreSometimes you need to slow down, and for that, we have brakes. Sometimes you need to slow down right the fuck now, and for that, we have impact attenuators.
Read MoreTruly novel automotive ideas are rare. If you come up with a great idea, there is a good chance that it has not only been thought of, but there is probably an engineer out there who is sick of going to failure mode meetings about it. If your idea is about a new door design, then that engineer is me.
Read MoreItaly is on lockdown as COVID-19 spreads, and as of yesterday, all automotive manufacturing had stopped in the country except Ferrari. According to a statement by the company, that has changed and Ferrari will suspend production until March 27.
Read MoreGas prices went down to a national average of $2.38 per gallon this week, or the lowest they’ve been in over a year, according to AAA. Prices then dropped even further by Friday to an average of $2.30 per gallon, due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic and a supply glut. It’s safe to say we haven’t seen anything like this before.
Read MoreIt’s Friday which means it’s time for our weekly series Ask A Car Nerd. We’ve been getting a lot of great questions, but this one about finding a good off-roading spot stuck out. If you happen to be looking for an activity you can do away from crowds while still enjoying the outdoors, have we got some tips for you.
Read MoreHere’s a great page from a brochure for the U.S. market 1974 Triumph Spitfire 1500. It shows and describes the full powertrain and drivetrain layout (pushrod inline four with a “Stromberg 150 COSEV” carburetor, four-speed manual, rear drive) and suspension setup (double wishbone up front, swing axle out back). But the best part of the literature are the truly random nuggets of info. Does the average consumer need to know the model number of their car’s starter motor? Does it matter if it has a n
Read MoreConsider, for a brief moment, the De Tomaso Pantera. Italian design and build. Mid-mounted American V8 power. Perfection, really. Not many sports cars have used the same recipe, which is a kind of a shame. Still, there’s hope in the horizon for fans of the combination, if everything goes to plan.
Read MoreThe MotoGP season was to begin this weekend in Qatar with the second round in Thailand two weeks later. However, the Thailand event has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak in the area, and premier class competition at the Qatar race has been canceled because of travel restrictions from Italy brought about because of the virus.
Read MoreI didn’t think we’d need two posts about the Fiat 500 today, but then again, I don’t think anybody could have been prepared for the ostentatious majesty of the Bvlgari “Never Too Much” edition of the cute little car.
Read MoreIt’s no secret that I have a soft spot for Citroën. You all know it. But while I admit that my love for the Parisian carmaker sometimes defies logic, I won’t accept any argument about my beloved GS, which turned 50 this year.
Read MoreLeaving Lake Geneva (and fear of Coronavirus) behind, Morgan has decided to proceed with the debut of its new four-cylinder car. Only they have to make it back home to England first. Behind the wheel.
Read MoreAn old myth is that while other birds wait out stormy weather sheltered away from the wind and rain, eagles fly up above the layer of clouds to stay safe and dry. I haven’t found scientific corroboration to this tale, but at least vehicular Eagles aren’t troubled by precipitation. Not in the least.
Read MoreFord may have lost out to Willys for the design of the WWII Jeep, but as today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Bronco attests they eventually could compete with its civilian stepchildren. With a new Bronco likely delayed, let’s look at what this old-school edition could conceivably cost.
Read MoreWith its weird side window and weirdly compelling R-spec kit, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Hyundai Genesis is a pretty unique ride. Let’s see if this low-mileage coupé is compellingly priced to be the start of something big.
Read MoreAt some point in time, it will once again be safe to leave your house. And what better way to celebrate that momentous event than with today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 911 Cabrio? Let’s see if that popping out is popularly priced.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Metris is the only van in its class in the U.S. to feature rear-wheel drive. That means you can do both the school drop-off line and the drift line in it. What might you pay for such amazing versatility?
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe candidate is a BMW M-roadster clothed in an AMC Hornet coupé body because the world isn’t crazy enough as it is. Now that you’ve absorbed that fact, let’s find out what the buzz is all about.
Read MoreIn these uncertain times, owning an ambulance like today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Sprinter could definitely come in handy. Let’s find out if this emergency van is a red light special.
Read MoreThe California Highway Patrol once famously rolled in cars like today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Mustang. This civilian model has super-low miles, but could its not-so-low price still prove to be a ticket to ride?
Read MoreThe Mondial may be Ferrari’s least desirable model at the moment, but as evidenced by today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe cabriolet, it’s also one of the brand’s most affordable. Let’s see if that raises the want factor.
Read MoreOld VW diesel’s like today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Passat tend to go forever and barely sip any fuel getting there. Let’s see if this one is decent enough to pick up a buyer along the way.
Read MoreAmerican muscle may not be what it used to be, but as today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Camaro proves, you can still make it whatever you want it to be. Let’s see what that all should realistically cost to accomplish.
Read MoreThere’s a Cherokee in Jeep’s current lineup, but it’s a far cry from the original iconic 4X4 that’s represented by today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 2001. Let’s see if this low mileage OG XJ is priced to also bring a tear to your eye.
Read MoreThe ad for today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 325is claims the car to come with over $40k in maintenance receipts. It also notes an even more impressive half-million miles on the odo. Could those big numbers add up to a favorably low price?
Read MoreWith all the excitement this week about leaked images of the upcoming Broncos it’s a good time to level set and remember that Ford used to make modest-sized AWD wagons like today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Explorer. Let’s see if this one’s price has you bucking those Broncos.
Read MoreDriving an RHD car in an LHD world can really mess with your mind. That’s the ask of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Mazda, and not only will we have to consider that, we’ll also have to choose which side to land on this JDM truck’s asking price.
Read MoreBefore you get your collective panties in too big a twist, let’s make it clear that today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Gallardo is really a re-bodied Saturn. That’s actually quite amazing, but we’ll still need to decide if this Sky-ardo is worth what its seller thinks it is.
Read MoreThe seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Focus tout’s the car’s Zetec four and five-speed stick, but then brings us down by noting its rocker rot. Let’s see if it’s cheap enough to overlook the latter, or if it should just rust in peace.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Cayenne represents a car dismissed by some for the dilution it brought to the Porsche brand. There are others, however, who don’t mind its mad mix of speed and sitting up high. Let’s see if this red rocket’s price is something about which we can all agree.
Read MoreThe ’71 through ’73 Mustang was large and in charge. Perhaps a little too large it seems as the next version was puny pinto-derived Mustang II. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Mach 1 is a throwback to that last big hurrah. Let’s see if this pony’s price is still something to cheer about.
Read MoreMost Aston Martins over the years have carried the DB name, a homage to the cottage car maker’s one-time owner, David Brown. Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Aston eschews that tradition, as well as that of British reserve in its bold choice of wheels. Let’s determine if its price is just as cheeky.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 911 has more miles than Ken Burns’ The History of Jazz. That means it’s used up, right? Well, according to its seller, it’s actually just getting started. Let’s see if that start should include a new owner.
Read MoreToday’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe LTD comes with an underwhelming 3.8 V6 under its hood, but as the seller helpfully points out, there’s room there for the 5.0 V8. That is an appealing aspiration, but will its current price put it out of reach?
Read MoreSports cars may not be all that popular in today’s crossover-crazy market, but there are still enthusiast caches that appreciate their cachet. With an automatic and total lack of turbos, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe 300ZX may not be dressed for that success, but could its price make up for what’s missing?
Read MoreYep, more Honda. This time, on two wheels, and delivered to you by icons of the ’80s: Grace Jones, the style-defining model and musician, Adam Ant, who solo’d his way to number one in the UK and Australia on his first single, and Devo, the guys who put Akron on the map for something other than tires, and also made cool music that charted a lot.
Read MoreI like Hondas. Unashamedly. And almost every Honda nut will agree that the original NSX is the king of all cars to bear the squared H (or round A, depending on your market). Hand-crafted by the best engineers at the company and developed in part by F1 driver Ayrton Senna himself, seems to be one of the few vehicles made where it’s completely safe to meet your heroes.
Read MoreOne of the worst things about being born as a late Millennial having missed out on the insane shit that was the ’80s ad scene. And no industry went more ham than automotive. Toyota, when it needed to sell the world on the new Supra (this time not “Celica Supra,”) got down to business.
Read MoreThe BMW 2002 is one of those cars that is almost universally appreciated by car enthusiasts. It’s sporty, looks great, has a powerful engine in a relatively small package, and is comfortable to drive. With all the advancements in automotive technology, you can sometimes feel like a directness and purity of driving has been lost. You also sometimes lose the appreciation for how good an old car was in its own time. Thankfully we have vintage car reviews on YouTube.
Read MoreKen Block is yet again proving that he’s living the kind of life that most of us can only dream about. After an exciting and personally fulfilling 2019 Cossie World Tour, Ken and the rest of the Hoonigan Racing Division team set to work making the Cossie a few steps better than it was. That a team is still developing a thirty-year-old rally car in this year of our lord 2020 is equal parts astonishing and weird. Good for them!
Read MoreThe Volkswagen Golf has been around for eight generations spanning 46 years. The company has sold millions of copies and the vehicle has won numerous awards. On average, somebody has bought a Golf every 41 seconds since 1974. But like everything, there was a time when it was new, and its future uncertain.
Read MoreThe ’70s was hardly a high point for automotive technology. However, it was a formative era for recreational four-wheeling. While practical SUVs like the Bronco, Blazer, Scout, and Range Rover were getting good; old army Jeeps and other simple-but-stout 4x4s were extremely cheap and readily available.
Read MoreAmerican Airlines is doing what it can to stay afloat these days, just like the rest of us. On a recent flight from Dallas, Tex. to Frankfurt, Germany there wasn’t a single customer to buy a seat in American’s massive Boeing 777, and thus no luggage to stow in the cargo hold of the plane. The plane still flew anyway, from March 20th through the 24th the plane took two round trips between DFW and FRA loaded down with tens of thousands of pounds of cargo. According to the airline, that hasn’t happ
Read MoreIf you’ve ever wished you could fly, really well, you will appreciate Johnny FPV’s super-fast rip around Abu Dhabi. This quick clip has a couple of incredible car shots, but the building and desert flyovers are frankly pretty unreal as well.
Read MoreThe Federal Aviation Administration briefly suspended air travel to all NYC and Philadelphia airports today after multiple air traffic controllers tested positive for COVID-19. ATC staff has been subsequently reduced, AP reports. The initial directive had a “Medium” potential for extension but was lifted roughly half an hour later.
Read MoreItaly has been severely affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. There are currently around as many Coronavirus cases in Italy as in the rest of Europe combined. The entire country is now on lockdown to slow the death toll from rising, and Italians have taken to social media to build some team spirit to pull the country out of the situation.
Read MoreNearly two weeks ago the FIA approved a delay in the new Formula One regulations slated for 2021, pushing the change out to the 2022 season. As teams deal with the loss of revenue from the coronavirus-inflicted mass cancellation of Grands Prix in 2020, the delay was necessary as the cost to develop a new chassis this year would be insurmountable particularly by the smaller teams. Today, following a moratorium on new-regs development until the end of the 2020 calendar year, teams have indicated a
Read MoreThe recently-announced joint top-flight LMDh class that will share duty between IMSA and the WEC has captured the attention of Porsche’s motorsport department. The lower-cost replacement for LMP1 will run alongside the stupendously expensive Hypercar in a joint fight for the overall win at prestigious races like the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. While the full rulebook as not yet been released, Porsche has formally announced interest in building a car
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago, when a lot of details about the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, still weren’t fully understood, a theory that mass infection could lead to mass immunization was going around. Now that we’ve seen how potentially deadly the virus can be, though, we now know that’s a really stupid idea.
Read MoreDriving a 270 horsepower rear-engined car that weighs less than 1500 pounds up the tight bends of a hill climb course is probably the activity farthest removed from sitting in your apartment and waiting for this whole virus thing blow over. That’s why you’ve got to watch someone do it.
Read MoreThe Indianapolis 500 is an institution of motor racing enjoyed and respected all over the world. Every year the month of May brings the pomp and circumstance of international competition to the town of Speedway, Indiana for a month-long celebration of speed and ingenuity. Only something truly devastating can stop Indy’s incredible month of May, as last happened in the years spanning the attacks on Pearl Harbor until the Axis surrender. Or a global pandemic.
Read MoreNASCAR has postponed races until May due to the Coronavirus outbreak. But to fill the demand for cars repeatedly driving around an oval, the company held a virtual race that featured actual NASCAR drivers behind the wheel of simulators. Apparently the digital event was actually quite epic.
Read MoreIt’s 2020, and because we can’t have fun anymore, F1 is either postponed or cancelled, and many of us have gaps in our weekend plans. However, the world of esports does indeed exist, and athletes are becoming streamers on a widespread basis, en masse, to do something to entertain us and pass the time. This weekend, there is no real-world race of course, but that won’t stop drivers representing three different real-world F1 teams and Mercedes’ Formula E team from going wheel-to-wheel virtually at
Read MoreFriday afternoon the racing series formerly known as World Challenge, SRO America, issued an incredibly tone deaf press release saying that all races this year would continue. Despite the cancellation or postponement of pretty much every major international motorsport event, it’s business as usual in the mind of the Stephane Ratel Organization.
Read MoreThe world can always use more videos from Rod Millen’s Leadfoot Festival, and that’s doubly true when the car in the video is Ray Evernham’s ridiculous 850-horsepower ‘36 Chevy called “The Ghost.” The car was built for Pikes Peak in 2018, where it ran 18th overall with a 10:11.334 time. It also did an exhibition run at Pocono in 2019 falling just short of the double-ton with a 196 mph run.
Read MoreAmerica’s second-oldest motorsports institution, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb announced on Thursday that it would not run on its scheduled June 28th date, and instead postpone two months to August 30th. While I applaud the organizer’s optimism that the 98th running of the race will continue on, I doubt whether it will be possible to hold such an event even in August.
Read MoreThe Monaco Grand Prix is canceled. The central point of the season is gone, as other races also dissipate and next year’s cars, too, are delayed. The 2020 Formula One season is slipping away in coronavirus.
Read MoreWho needs a BMW-sourced V12 when you can shove a 600-horsepower Mitsubishi 4G63 in the engine bay? This de-stroked Mitsu engine revs to over 9500 rpm, and powers KOMVET Racing’s hillclimb car to tremendous pace. It doesn’t hurt that the whole thing is carbon fiber and weighs just 1565 pounds. This Macca can do it all, from singing a staccato tune to spitting huge fireballs and roasting tires.
Read MoreFormula One teams have jumped into panic mode as the 2020 season has been postponed in the face of the coronavirus threat. In a telephone conference this week, team bosses have reportedly called for a continuation of the 2020 regulations into 2021, as well as a mandatory freeze of chassis and gearbox development, among others. According to Motorsport, nine of the ten teams agreed to this, while Ferrari asked for more time to consider the proposal.
Read MoreJune of 2020 will not bring with it the unique French pomp and circumstance we have come to associate with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Mulsanne straight will remain quiet, there will be no engines roaring through the Porsche curves. Sunrise on the 14th of June will not have any further significance than just another rotation of our planet. The greatest endurance race the world has ever known will not happen in June. The official word is that it will be postponed until September 19th.
Read MoreFormula One finally canceled Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix yesterday, days after that seemed inevitable. This morning, it also postponed the grands prix in Bahrain and Vietnam, with the first race of the season possibly not happening till June. Formula One didn’t have much of a choice in the end but the picture above—showing confused fans lining up today at the track in Melbourne—encapsulates how disorganized this all has been.
Read More“Cash is king,” reigning Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton told Motorsport.com in Australia, hours before the entire McLaren team dropped out of the opening race of the season, with nobody quite sure why the race is still going on. “But honestly I don’t know. I can’t really add much.”
Read MoreThe FIA has reversed an unpopular rule that required Formula 1 drivers to have the same helmet design for all but one race. Drivers will now be free to change the design as often as they like.
Read MoreRyan Newman returned to the NASCAR garage yesterday for the first time since his brutal crash at Daytona. He won’t be driving this time, only spectating and supporting the team. His usual ride, the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford Mustang is being piloted by Ross Chastain for the third weekend in a row.
Read MoreIf you haven’t been following Stephan Papadakis’ 1,000-horsepower 2020 Supra Formula Drift build on YouTube, now’s a great time to tune in. Seeing the car completely stripped down is neat, but watching it be rebuilt with custom-made parts is as satisfying as it is fascinating.
Read MoreThe Mint 400 is probably the most famous annual off-road racing event in the U.S.A. and the people in charge have really done a great job making this multi-day event fun to watch from the comfort of your computer. The Limited cars start running at 12:30 p.m. pacific time, so check it out here!
Read MoreSomebody’s painstakingly built a beautiful race track for toy cars here. But, you’ve probably seen one of those before. What makes the Diecast Rally Championship (DRC, if you will) videos unique: Comically high production values, sound effects–hell, stop reading my synopsis and look at this hilarious nonsense.
Read MoreThe Dutch are incredibly good at creating works of art; masterpieces which will outlive their creators. They have done it again, re-building the Zandvoort circuit into something totally unseen in the current Formula One calendar. I can only hope that others will appreciate it in its era, unlike the stunning beauty of a Van Gogh.
Read MoreIn the lead up to the 2020 Formula One season, there has been a good deal of speculation in regards to how the looming threat of Coronavirus will affect the calendar. We’ve already seen the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix at the hands of the disease, and at least three more are in jeopardy of not happening in the near future. The first of which is the Australian Grand Prix set to kick off the season in just two weeks time.
Read MoreNASCAR has been testing an 18-inch alloy wheel combination on the Next Gen prototype for a few months now, and Monday series officials announced that the 2021 Cup Series cars would officially be running a center-locking single lug setup. This marks the end of an era in which NASCAR has been defined by 15" steel wheels with five individual lugs. The new setup made its on-track debut in the Next Gen car’s fourth on-track test Monday.
Read MoreAfter the Geneva Motor Show succumbed to fears surrounding the growing Coronavirus epidemic and Formula One and Formula E races in Asia have been put in jeopardy as well, the top-tier MotoGP season opener next weekend in Qatar has been canceled.
Read MoreEvery wrencher knows that sometimes the only cure for a misbehaving machine is to just hit the damn thing. The finely tuned machines of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are no exception. Even a whole planet away, with different gravity and no magnetic field, machines just work better with the application of a little bit of brute force.
Read MoreI know for many of you being trapped in your home until the virus invaders from the planet Corona decide to leave is a miserable proposition. While many of us can work from home, there’s many who can’t and that means many powerful minds going to waste, absorbing Netflix and pornography and video games at alarming rates. But there are productive things you could be doing! NASA, for example, could use your help designing a Venus rover!
Read MoreI’m not really sure if there’s a word like “fashion trend” for practical objects, something that describes the strange phenomenon of why various objects in our lives and society seem to ebb and flow in and out of use, but it does seem to be A Thing. I thought of this while rummaging through the vintage accessories brochures on The Samba, where I encountered this humble, workmanlike brochure for a pull-out table rig for a variety of trucks, vans, and station wagons. It’s cool!
Read MoreOver the last decade electric cars have really entered the zeitgeist in a big way. Something enthusiasts have been talking about—at least since Tesla proved EVs don’t have to be slow or boring—is the sound. You’ll hear many automotive fanatics poo-poo the genre for not having the throaty rumble of a tuned-to-the-hilt naturally aspirated V12 that a similarly quick supercar might have. One aftermarket supplier, Milltek, is aiming to bring the supercar sound to EVs and hybrids alike.
Read MoreAs local and federal authorities urge citizens to shelter in place and avoid unnecessary travel, America has undergone a very predictable phenomenon in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak: Road traffic is down by up to 30 percent.
Read MoreLongtime friend of Jalopnik and myself, Tom Jennings, is a huge Rambler fan and walking, moist column of Rambler-knowledge, so when he encounters something Rambler-related he wasn’t aware of, you know it’ll be good. And boy is it: it seems, back in the 1960s, Rambler and Renault were developing—with an unclear level of seriousness—a deeply strange rotary engine that’s not a Wankel-style rotary. Just look at this thing.
Read MoreAs life in New York City grinds to a near-halt following a stay-at-home order in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, among those hardest hit are the gig workers and drivers who rely on people to, you know, actually go places. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission is stepping up to help drivers by offering food delivery work.
Read MoreSmog is the natural enemy of humanity. The pollution created by transportation, shipping, and industry has been killing us slowly for decades, contributing to numerous respiratory diseases. And according to a new joint study from the universities of Bologna and Bari in Italy, smog may have been a contributing factor in the spread of COVID-19.
Read MoreIn a new study from IAM RoadSmart, a UK driving safety charity, it’s being claimed that driving while sloshed is, by at least some measures, “safer” than driving while using a touchscreen Apple CarPlay or Android Auto system.
Read MoreSwedish automaker Volvo has issued a recall of every single 2019 and 2020 vehicle is has built thus far. That amounts to a total of 121,605 vehicles on the road today with a software incompatibility possibly causing the automatic emergency braking system to function improperly. Every single S60, V60, S90, V90, XC40, XC60, and XC90 sold in the U.S. is potentially affected.
Read MoreI want to start this out by saying that I do not think what I am about to discuss is necessarily a bad thing. I’m all for cars with small engines, even to absurd extremes, and I realize that this sort of thing is not all that uncommon in Europe and Asia and most of the rest of the world, but, here in the United States of Generallybigthings, it’s kind of odd. What I’m talking about is the 2021 Chevy Trailblazer, and its bold turbocharged three-cylinder 1.2-liter engine option.
Read MorePeople have been talking about the skateboard for a long time. The idea makes sense on the surface: load all the powertrain, suspension, and other important bits in a flat skateboard-like package so you can drop several different bodies on top. A truck, sedan, and van all being carried on the same lower half, saving tons in development and manufacturing costs.
Read MoreFreshly minted motors need to be broken in gently so all their fast-moving components seat properly. The C8 Corvette uses its fully digital gauge cluster to remind you of that, which is kind of neat.
Read MoreThe Diesel Brothers—a collective nickname for Discovery Channel’s truck-obsessed super polluter television show, David “Heavy D” Sparks, Joshua Stuart, Keaton Hoskins, and David “Diesel Dave” Kiley—have been ordered by a Utah judge to pay over $850,000 in fines for violation of the Clean Air Act. In the process of building trucks for customers at various businesses owned by the men, it was uncovered that they were removing pollution control devices and installing devices to bypass emission contr
Read MoreThe 2020 lineup of Mitsubishi Motors’ cars is not uh, designed for connoisseurs of the automobile, per se. But apparently Mitsubishi Electric has a very different market when it comes to kitchen appliances. In fact, it appears that it offers the supercar of toasters.
Read MoreThe Koenigsegg Gemera’s name is a concatenation of the Swedish word “ge,” which means “give,” and “mera,” which means “more.” Specifically, the car is giving the world more ridiculously nerdy tech, as I learned through correspondence with the founder, Christian von Koenigsegg, and other Koenigsegg engineers. Here’s a look at the engineering behind the newly-debuted, 1,700 horsepower, four-seater Koenigsegg Gemera.
Read MoreSome were surprised when the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S debuted with no electrification, as it seems like a logical step in milking more performance out of one of the longest-running sports car legacies. But Porsche is still developing a hybrid 911, it just sounds like a lot of hard work.
Read MoreTechnology in pill form is one of the longest enduring science fiction tropes, so it was only a matter of time before pill-based features entered the dreamy world of automotive concepts. Goodyear took the plunge into this futuristic form automotive tech this week with its reCharge concept, a tire that can be “personalized” or replenished with just a pop of a pill.
Read MoreThe best selling commercial van in the world is going electric, and that could change the entire fleet market. Ford already takes a huge cut of that market, selling almost a quarter of a million Transits in 2019. The company says that it expects around 8 percent of the fleet truck and van market to be electric by 2025, and it wants to make an early push to own that market, too.
Read MoreThe sign reads “our electric future is now” but it should have read “our electric future is 20 years ago.” GM just debuted a new skateboard-style electric vehicle platform for its upcoming EVs, which will sound strange to those of us who still remember GM debuting a skateboard-style electric vehicle platform circa 2002.
Read MoreDespite kind of a lot going on at the moment, the Trump administration is pushing ahead with its old plans to overhaul and roll-back Obama-era fuel economy standards. That and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, March 31, 2020.
Read MoreBig German automakers trying hard to stop the bleeding as coronavirus depletes their funds, another FCA employee has died from the virus, the White House is looking carefully at GM’s ventilator pricing, and an update on the PSA-FCA merger. All that and more in The Morning Shift for March 27, 2020.
Read MoreCar sales are in the toilet, Ford thinks it has a plan for all of this, and one of the biggest car dealership purchases in history is off. All that and more in The Morning Shift for March 26, 2020.
Read MoreFiat Chrysler has been getting rich over the past few years, with booming truck and SUV sales, as my coworker David Tracy pointed out earlier this morning. What good has that done for the workers there? All that and more in The Morning Shift for March 25, 2020.
Read MoreThe federal government may freeze your car payments, automakers are shifting production to health equipment for Coronavirus relief, dealerships aren’t sure if they should stay open, we don’t know where to park all the planes, and a lot more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, March 24, 2020.
Read MoreRental car companies want in on that travel industry relief plan, more and more automakers pivoting to healthcare production, and Volkswagen hunkering down. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, March 23, 2020.
Read MoreWhy car dealers consider themselves “essential” enough to stay open during Coronavirus shutdowns, Tesla is finally stopping car production its Fremont plant, Germany considers pumping tons of money into its economy, and you can forget about new vehicle debuts. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Friday, March 20, 2020.
Read MoreToyota, Honda, and the Big Three have shut down manufacturing plants. Mercedes is keeping its Alabama factory open, but it will probably run out of parts. Tesla may or may not be contradicting a legal order not to produce cars, and Ford doesn’t want to sit on a mountain of repossessed vehicles. All that and more in The Morning Shift for March 19, 2020.
Read MoreThe Big Three will keep up production despite coronavirus, Toyota and BMW’s factories in Europe will not, and Volkswagen might have enough cushion to survive this. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, March 18, 2020.
Read MoreFor a global industry operating in a global pandemic, the auto industry is operating without any clear unity on coronavirus. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
Read MoreChaos reigns in the form of horrifically long lines and waits at United States airports from returning Americans in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, more automaker production halts, and some good news coming from Wuhan. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, March 16, 2020.
Read MoreThe global pandemic finally takes out Lamborghini, it looks like it may be about to take at least a chunk out of Fiat Chrysler, and Volkswagen’s got some technology. All that and more in the Morning Shift for March 13, 2020.
Read MoreTesla is more valuable than Boeing, Ford is rethinking its Europe strategy, and the guy behind the Chevy Volt got a new job at BMW. All of that and more in The Morning Shift for Thursday, March 12, 2020.
Read MoreVW boss Herbert Diess publicly defends Tesla, Tesla wants to build its wacky Cybertruck in the midwest, Coronavirus is having major effects on the auto industry, and much more in The Morning Shift for Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
Read MoreThe Chinese government isn’t happy with reported issues with Tesla’s early deliveries, the UAW continues to implode in scandal, Big Oil’s price war escalates as Cadillac cancels its EV unveiling, and much more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, March 10, 2020.
Read MoreSaudi Arabia and Russia are facing off in a price war right in the midst of coronavirus and things are moving fast. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, March 9, 2020.
Read MoreA look into GM’s electric vehicle onslaught, PSA and FCA need to figure out China, Tesla is allegedly not reporting workplace injuries properly, coronavirus is having serious effects on Jaguar Land Rover, there’s a possibility of a government takeover of the UAW—all this and more in The Morning Shift for March 6, 2020.
Read MoreRam’s CEO is out, more automakers are going on Coronavirus lock down, farmers are still fighting John Deere, and much, much more in The Morning Shift for March 5, 2020.
Read MoreBrexit may formally be a done deal but there’s still a lot to work out, and Coronavirus is wreaking havoc all over the world. All that and really a lot more about Coronavirus in the Morning Shift for March 4, 2020.
Read MoreNot even a deadly virus will stop American car buyers, another UAW guilty plea, and Waymo has raised billions in new investment. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
Read MoreHarley is beginning its search for a new CEO, Volvo is making some new cars, and coronavirus. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, March 2, 2020.
Read MoreI suspect that if you were to ask a random person when demolition derbies first started, most people would probably pause for a moment before asking you to drive them to the nearest library, where they’d sequester themselves in a carrel surrounded by books, and emerge a few hours later with a hypothesis like the mid-to-late 1940s, citing postwar prosperity and a significant inventory of old crappy cars built up since the 1910s and 1920s serviceable for such destructive use. In that case, you can
Read MoreIf you’re looking for a stress-free drive on Seattle interstates, now is the time to jump in your car, activate bioweapon defense mode, and cruise around at your leisure, ‘cause ain’t nobody on the road.
Read MoreCoachwork outfits treating old Land Rovers to large-diameter wheels, Corvette V8s, and quilted-leather seats is one of the more unfortunate automotive trends of our time. But I really like East Coast Defender’s Series IIA “Project Henry.”
Read MoreThe Tesla Model Y is taller and has more ground clearance than the Model 3 on which it based, it has an “Off-Road Assist” feature, and Tesla even says on its website that the car is “capable in rain, snow, mud and off-road.” But the Model Y is pretty obviously not an off-road beast—something that’s worth pointing out after a Twitter user posted a video of his Y doing some of the tamest “off-roading” many have ever seen.
Read MoreBy the 1980s, Land Rover had more than 50 years of experience building 4x4s capable of any work put in front of them. But the market was changing. Buyers were looking for that same maneuverability but with a touch more comfort. You know, for fox-hunting and polo matches and meetings of shadowy societies in abandoned castles on the moor. And that’s exactly what Land Rover gave them.
Read MoreAfter a feature story from Africa, a slideshow, and some Photoshop silliness I thought we were going to be done talking about the 2020 Land Rover Defender for a hot second. But then I caught Carfection’s 4K video from our Namibia trip, and it’s just too visually glorious. We need to talk about it.
Read MoreThere’s not a lot to the Suzuki Jimny’s design. It’s just, kind of, a brick with two little eyes. That simplicity is what makes it so charming! It also means you can change the vehicle’s look pretty dramatically just by swapping the grille.
Read MoreIf you didn’t get enough 2020 Land Rover Defender eye candy from the images in my shakedown story, come paw through this slideshow of pics taken by the talented Nick Dimbleby and Land Rover’s photo team at the vehicle’s launch expedition in Africa.
Read MoreLast Sunday, we wrote about the fascinating Suzuki Jimny museum which has been set up in Japan. It features a wide range of Jimny models within its walls, but here’s something it might not have quite yet. A new Jimny mini truck conversion!
Read MoreIf you look at these photos of the Ford “Super Bronco” built using the front half of a Ford F-250 Super Duty and the back end of a Ford Excursion, you’d think owner David Stockman’s job was coachbuilding. That’s because this custom beast, which he built almost entirely by himself in a workshop at his house, is far from a homebrew hackjob—it’s a man’s dream brought to reality through meticulous planning, hard work, and craftsmanship.
Read MoreI drove over 1,000 miles around South Africa in a turbodiesel Toyota Land Cruiser pickup truck. I’m looking forward to telling you all about it but because I’m a dork with a weird cupholder obsession, I can not contain my enthusiasm for the truck’s magnificent beverage holster any longer. Look upon it, and revere.
Read MorePart of me feels pretty silly doing yet another Ford Bronco leak post. Like, we get it, it looks like this. But as a 4x4 enthusiast, F it, I can’t help but be stoked all over again even at just a picture of it at a slightly different angle. And I found new details to pontificate about anyway!
Read MoreBack in 2016, Ram teased us with a Hellcat-powered pickup concept, though it limited the power to just 575 horsepower. But now that the Ram Rebel TRX has been confirmed for production, a new report suggests there will be nothing holding back the full 700 HP supercharged capability of the engine when it goes on sale.
Read MoreSeeing the news that Ford is expected to come out with a small pickup truck priced under $20,000 reminded me of another vehicle just outside of our reach. It’s the Chevrolet Montana, it’s already on sale, and it will cost you about $12,000 USD. Well, not USD, because we can’t buy it here.
Read MoreJust as the Ford Ranger was being reintroduced to the U.S. as a bigger, more expensive mid-size pickup, Ford also decided to kill off most of its smaller cars. So now it’s developing a new, smaller pickup to fill the void left behind by the old Ranger and all of those small cars.
Read MoreThe very first undisguised photos of the 2021 Ford Bronco Sport—the “mini Bronco”—have leaked onto the online forum bronco6G.com. Here’s our very first look at Ford’s competition for the Jeep Renegade.
Read MoreNissan has upgraded its Sunderland, UK factory in the face of upcoming refresh of its Qashqai crossover. The news is not only remarkable because it’s about investing in the UK even after Brexit, but because the press release from Nissan contains this line:
Read MoreWe have the very first uncovered photos of the 2021 Ford Bronco. They come to us from the sixth generation Ford Bronco forum “bronco6g.com,” and though we don’t know much about the pictures’ origins, there are a number of reasons to believe that what we see here really are the rear sections of Ford’s upcoming two-door and four-door off-roaders. Let’s take a look.
Read MoreThe 2020 Land Rover Defender has a tough job: It has to live up to the expectations of the snootiest car buyers on Earth while serving as the future-facing halo car for the company that basically invented the luxury 4x4. As such it’s loaded with tech and toys, which are pretty fun to play with.
Read MoreWhen a Unimog comes on the market, we have to post about it. It’s a rule here at Jalopnik from way back in the Martin Administration and who am I to dispute that? Now, this one is for sale at BringATraileroutof Berkeley, California and I am daring you to daily it.
Read MoreYou know how sometimes in movies, the camera will focus on an object that completely and unequivocally conveys that a character has gone mad? Think All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy in The Shining. Well, the 2020 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport is one such object, and it’s confirming that the modern American car market has lost it.
Read MoreI think it’s safe to say that, for most of us, we’re driving a lot less than we used to, what with viruses patrolling the streets, threatening to catch us at every turn, and, as a result, most of our cars are sitting, forlorn and dormant, in our driveways, garages, and ravines. We’ll be covering how to tend to your long-term stored cars soon in detail, but for now let’s just focus on one aspect: your battery, and whether or not it makes sense to idle your car periodically to charge it.
Read MoreBefore I got my Aerodeck, I had a 1988 Toyota Supra Turbo with some door cards and a center console that had definitely seen better days. I wanted to do something to freshen it up, but I unfortunately don’t know how to sew (something I am now remedying during my time stuck at home). However, I found a fairly straightforward way to make my car more unique, look less dingy, and way more synthwave.
Read MoreI counted my cars today, which is something my therapist (who, incidentally, doubles as a junkyard operator) told me never to do. But with my go-to ’yard closed due to the coronavirus, Beauregard and I haven’t met in weeks, so I’ve slipped a bit. Turns out, I own 10 cars, many of which are broken. With what’s going on in the world right now, now’s the time to fix them. I have no excuse not to.
Read MoreGlobal pandemics turn out to be a combination of boring and terrifying. Wake up, existential terror when you check your phone first thing. That slowly fades into dull existence punctuated by taking care of your cats, then 4 PM rolls around on Saturday and you realize you have forgotten what sunlight looks like. Fear not! Your garage/parking lot/carport is safe. Let’s take a look at the forgotten maintenance you should go take care of now while you’re bored enough that undertaking it actually sou
Read MoreIt appears that Chrysler royally screwed up, and owners of 2011 Jeeps, Dodges, and Rams equipped with the legendary 5.7-liter Hemi have paid for it dearly. For some reason, the engine’s valve lifters have a tendency to seize up and wipe out the camshaft, leaving customers with enormous repair bills. One reader reached out to me to see if I’d like to buy his 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee that appears to have suffered this fate, and I may take him up on it. There’s money to be made, after all.
Read MoreThis blog just popped into my head, since it’s something I’ve been doing for years and I figured some of you might benefit from it, too. Use microfiber towels to clean your homes, friends! If they’re good enough for your prized clear coat, then they’re also good enough to dust off your coffee table.
Read MoreCoronavirus probably has many of you working from home today doing your part to stop the spread of this monster through “social distancing.” I bet you’re trying desperately to resist distractions like tools and car projects. Don’t bother. Take it from someone who’s been “working” from home for nearly five years: Go out there and wrench on your vehicle when you really should be working. It’ll be fine; I should know—I’m the foremost expert on the matter. Here are a few tips.
Read MoreI was alerted to this strange intake manifold by our friend the auto designer John Frye, who spotted it on the Innovative, Banned, and Unique Racing Vehicles Facebook group. I see why it caught his eye: it’s a richly strange and puzzling manifold design, and I can’t think of what engine it might have been designed for. I suspect one of you loons may have an idea, so it seems like a good idea to put it out there.
Read MoreI like cars more than furniture, but I’m discovering that I enjoy carpentry more than mechanics. So, I documented the process of building a custom console for my SUV to give you some insight and inspiration if you’re considering such a project yourself.
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