These Are The Top News Stories Of The Week

We all love a bit of schadenfreude on occasion, who can blame us, we’re only human. So when a new YouTube channel pops up and it’s just footage of drivers taking a sharp corner too quickly, and the results of their screwup, of course we’re going to sit and watch these videos until the cows come home. There’s nothing that can make you feel better about your own driving abilities than watching others bash their cars and motorcycles against rocks, trees, sharp curve signs, or other cars. Thankfully this curve is slow enough that none of these crashes appear to be particularly dangerous, and certainly not fatal. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Oakland, California is struggling to deal with a deluge of abandoned vehicles across the city. According to the Oakland Department of Transportation, 13,856 cars were reported abandoned over a six-month period in 2023. The city ran out of space in its storage lots and is renting even more room to hold the excess. In total, Oakland is spending $1 million on storage. Anecdotally, car theft is the root of this problem. - Ryan Erik King Read More

No one likes paying for gas, but at the same time, not everyone is ready or in a position to go full-electric. Hybrids offer a tempting middle ground between gas-only and electric-only that promises better fuel economy without the need to find a spot to charge. Typically, though, you’re paying more for the hybrid version, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll make your money back right out of the gate. - Collin Woodard Read More

Former President and current candidate Donald Trump directed promises of potentially economically devastating tariffs toward China and Mexico during a rally at the Dayton, Ohio airport on Saturday. The twice-impeached face of the Republican party claimed that he would impose a 100-percent tariff on vehicles made in Mexico by Chinese companies, in addition to the 50 percent tariff he promised on all Mexican-made products, and up to 60 percent on all Chinese-made products. If you think inflation was bad last year, just wait until these costs are passed on to the consumer. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Against all odds, the reborn Fisker managed to actually produce a car. Multiple cars, even. The Ocean looks cool and comes with a relatively reasonable starting price of $37,499; even the top-of-the-line Ocean One wasn’t ridiculously priced at just under $70,000 considering it had more than 350 miles of range and a boost mode that could temporarily send more than 500 hp to all four wheels. But what if we told you that you could buy an almost-new Ocean One for way less than $70,000? - Collin Woodard Read More

If there’s one thing government enforcement officials love more than using tax dollars, it’s driving huge unmarked SUVs. For years, GM has almost exclusively been the supplier of these vehicles. Motorcades and FBI agents everywhere are always full of unmarked Chevy Tahoes and Suburbans. Now it seems as if another automaker is trying to get in on the unmarked government vehicle game: Jeep. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

The sedan isn’t dead. Kia just laid down the law in the world of compact sedan design, blowing away the bland and unwieldy shapes currently occupying the market. The new replacement for the aging Kia Forte sedan is called K4, and it’s here to kick ass. Kia’s design team calls this new language “twist logic” as it supposedly “twists logically aligned squares in a seemingly illogical fashion.” That’s designer double speak if ever I’ve heard it, but the resulting shape makes my smooth brain feel very shiny. - Bradley Brownell Read More

According to new reports surrounding the death of Angela Chao last month, the billionaire’s blood-alcohol concentration was around 0.233 grams per 100 mililiters at the time of her death, which is nearly three times the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle, 0.08 g/ml. Chao had reportedly switched her Tesla Model X into reverse instead of drive, backing over a retaining wall and sinking into a pond. - Bradley Brownell Read More

On Friday, March 15, 2024, a Boeing 737-8000 flight landed safely in Medford, Oregon despite the fact that it was missing an entire body panel, which had fallen off mid-flight, NBC News reports. It’s the latest public failure for the company’s aircrafts. Thankfully, no one was hurt. - Elizabeth Blackstock Read More

When GM reintroduced the Pontiac GTO for the 2004 model year, it was a big deal, and yet, at the same time, it somehow wasn’t. It had the same name as the original American muscle car, but it was actually based on the Australian-market Holden Monaro, and its styling could probably best be described as “understated.” Without a brash, in-your-face design, the GTO struggled to sell even 14,000 GTOs in the first model year. - Collin Woodard Read More