Remember Opel Astra? It was India’s first tryst with German technology on the roads. With automatic transmission — a rarity in those days — ventilated disc brakes and a CFC-free air-conditioning system, Astra quickly became the car to dream for. It single-handedly launched the premium luxury sedan segment in India. Opel, then owned by Detroit, … Read more
I was 24 and working seasonally so money was tight most of the time. I had a 1992 Buick Roadmaster, that I purchased from a friend, whose grandfather had passed and they just wanted the car gone. So, I got it for a steal. Driving it into the shop where I worked, my boss constantly … Read more
Wheezing through the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden, surrounded by a literal sea of cerulean velour, vinyl and polyester, blasting Abba on FM, I felt like the disco era superstar I’d always longed to be. Pedestrians pointed and mouthed OMGs, construction workers ushered me past with grandiose waves and pensioners scratched their balding heads, their muddled … Read more
Hyundai announced on March 1 that it would be tackling the 102nd running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this June with a massive four-car effort. The Korean automaker is bringing a quartet of Ioniq 5 N racers to the hill, and judging by the drivers it has selected for its team, it is … Read more
Screenshot: 19Bozzy92 on YouTube Cadillac’s 5.5-liter V8-powered hybrid LMDh race car made its debut just over a year ago at the 2023 running of the 24 Hours of Daytona. While Acura won that day, Cadillac wasn’t far behind with a car on the podium, and by the end of the season, the Whelen Engineering Racing … Read more
Photo: SAIC-GM-Wuling The good EVs haven’t made it to America yet and it’s likely that they won’t. The best ones seem to be available mostly overseas where people have many more affordable options, like those in this collection of EVs we can’t buy in the U.S. By now, you’ll have seen reports that EV sales … Read more
The 61-year-old Spaniard rally champion — Carlos Sainz, Sr. — has won his fourth (and Audi’s first) Dakar in his 17th year competing in the legendary event. This year he won the race in a unique way, without taking a single stage victory, and running a consistently quick and relatively trouble-free event. Sainz and co-driver … Read more
Many carmakers claim that one of its different models was the first crossover, but as far as I’m concerned that’s like being the first locust in the plague. Curbside Classics says the Matra Rancho was truly the world’s first crossover passenger car, and goes on to explain that the two-wheel drive Rancho was inspired by … Read more
After first teasing it during the Super Bowl, Ram unveiled the electric 1500 REV pickup truck in April, which will do battle with the likes of the Chevy Silverado EV, Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T. The Ram REV will go on sale by the end of 2024, but it won’t actually be the first … Read more
Image: Chrysler Stellantis, when it was still just Fiat-Chrysler, scrapped any plans to introduce new cars around 2016, spelling the end of decades of Chrysler cars, and possibly leading to similar segment abandonment from Ford and General Motors. Even the long-serving 300 is about to exit production at the end of the year to make … Read more