Badge-engineering is nothing new under the sun, especially for those of us who lived through Detroit’s offerings in the 1980s. Here in the 21st century, all hands are getting in on the action, with Toyotas appearing as Subarus and Nissans appearing as Chevys. This time around, the Big T is continuing to forge a relationship with Mazda, applying its Yaris nameplate to a small Hiroshima hatchback.

They’ve done more than just slap a badge on the thing, of course. Like the Yaris sedan, Toyota has grafted a tribute to the whisker fish to the 2’s nose during a fit of reconstructive surgery.

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Check your sugar bowl for salt, watch for shaving cream on the toilet seat, and take tentative steps on the linoleum. On the off chance you’ve forgotten: it’s April Fool’s Day.

Automakers reliably get in on the game, especially in this day and age of instant social media messages, creating all manner of wacky and groan-inducing marketing plays. There have been a couple of good ones over the years — but also plenty of stinkers. Do you like it when car companies trot out an April Fool’s Joke?

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Back in 2016, General Motors invested half a billion bucks in Lyft, the rideshare company bent on taking Uber to school. When the deal was made, the companies portrayed it as a long-term strategic alliance. Since then, investments have been made in Lyft by GM’s competitors (namely Ford), and GM has made investments in potential Lyft competitors like Cruise Automation. Pro tip: don’t try to draw this particular family tree.

Today, Lyft went public on the stock market, seeing an astounding open of $87.24 a share. As a gearhead, why should you care about this? Well, remember that investment GM made in the company? The General now owns 18.6 million shares, which now translates into a net value of over $1.5 billion.

In a company besieged by idling plants and layoffs, suddenly finding an extra billion-and-a-half bucks on the books is surely a big deal.

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Think of an occasion in which something really good appeared in a place where it was underappreciated. A fantastic steak at the downtown greasy spoon, perhaps? Beautiful new windows installed in a student rental house? My writing on this website? Wait, I wasn’t supposed to say that last one out loud… Buried in the mire […]

Seeking to quench the American public’s seemingly insatiable thirst for crossover vehicles and SUVs, Hyundai has announced it will introduce yet another machine of this type at next month’s New York Auto Show.

To be called the Venue, this will be a new entry-level CUV set to slot in underneath the Kona, a vehicle that is already exploring the limits of legroom and cargo space. It is popular, however, and with good reason – its funky shape, combined with a strong value proposition, is proving an easy sell to a lot of shoppers. Will the Venue follow that path? Or, like Fleetwood Mac, will it go its own way?

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Our man Corey took the wheel of Mazda’s new compact car last week, flinging the little four-door up and down Californian roads, at least during the times when he was not answering pointed questions from stern Park Rangers.

The base 3 has always had a spot in the Ace of Base trophy room, managing to combine sleek looks with a dose of non-somnambulant handling. Freshly refurbished for 2019, this new model appears to do the same, but has the base model sacrificed any content at the hands of flinty-eyed Mazda accountants?

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A game of Monopoly — a family friendly game if there ever was one /sarcasm — over the weekend gives rise to today’s question. There’s one minor adjustment, however: just like a corrupt fat cat CEO, we’re adding a zero to our paycheck.

With an extra $2,000, let’s call it a bank error in your favor — earmarked for purchasing a project car, what would it be? It took all of 21 seconds to select mine from the Craigslist quagmire.

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While diesel may be deader than disco in the passenger car segment, it is rolling plenty of coal in the half-ton pickup truck class. Once the domain of heavy duty rigs, oil burners are now snaking their way under the hoods of consumer-grade trucks.

We’ve known for a spell the output of Ford’s half-ton PowerStroke, as we have with Ram’s on-again-off-again EcoDiesel. Now we learn GM’s rating and, compared to that pair of competitor mills, it can brag about being best in class.

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There are wars being waged on all fronts in the half-ton pickup truck market, from towing prowess to outright power ratings. Not ones to pass up an opportunity to bash their competitors over the head with a truck-shaped chair, manufacturers seem to take every opportunity to harangue their opponents – especially when empirical data puts them in the driver’s seat.

The latest to do so? Ford, leveraging the recent IIHS crash test results of its 2019 F-150 Crew Cab pickup to take a shot or three at The General.

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Remember Lister? It was the company that turned a Jag XJS into a 200 mph supercar thirty years ago. At the time, that Lister-Jag was capable of beating the coke-tastic Ferrari Testarossa in a drag race to 60 mph.

The company is very much still around, currently owned by UK outfit Warrantywise, and spends its time breathing upon modern Jags. Its latest? A version of the F-Type, fettled to produce a devilish 666 horsepower.

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Korean automakers have a history of labelling their crossovers and SUVs with names ripped from rugged-sounding towns of the American mid- and southwest. Witness the Santa Fe and Tucson. The newest entrant? Telluride. Even the little-known Borrego Pass got a nod during the five minutes in which Kia built a body-on-frame brute.

Until now, the most we’ve seen of the new Kia Telluride was that oddball New York fashion week thing, replete with a not-from-factory rear spare tire carrier and leather hood straps. Now that the build and price site’s gone live, we can see the model without all that froufrou. You know we’re most interested in the base LX model…

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It’s a car-related desire most gearheads have had at some point in their driving years: holding the keys to a classic car. Whether that takes the form of a ’58 Impala, a flathead Ford, or the Gentleman Jim shown above, a good many of us have harbored a desire to own a vintage automobile.

Taking the thing out for a weekend cruise is a lot different than living with it on a daily basis, though. Here is today’s question: would you daily a classic?

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If you’ve been on the internet lately in any capacity whatsoever, you’ll recognize the term ASMR. Deployed in everything from driving videos to mildly NSFW speaking sessions, the use of autonomous sensory meridian response is designed to trigger a physical response in viewers via sound. Cadillac has chosen to bake this into its reveal of the new 2020 CT5 sedan.

We’ll leave judgement of that decision up to you. We’re here to talk about the car, a machine which – glory of glories – is not another crossover.

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The shouting factory that is Twitter, by and large, should generally not be considered as something that resembles real life. Between trolls and various other bottom feeders, it can be tough to find real information amongst all the noise.

Every now and then, a nugget of information appears that makes weathering the commotion worthwhile. Despite take rates being lower than this winter’s average temperatures, stickshifts are apparently a very popular topic in the Wolverine State.

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There’s no idling of plants at the Big T. With news of electrified versions of the RAV4 Hybrid and Lexus ES heading to Kentucky for the first time, Toyota is set to invest a further $749 million into its American operations, adding hundreds of jobs across five states.

This builds on a commitment made by the company a couple of years ago, one in which it pledged to invest about $10 billion (with a “b”) by 2021. Those of you with sharp memories will recall that’s the year a new manufacturing facility is scheduled to open, one which marks the start of a joint venture with Mazda and the creation of 4,000 jobs in the great state of Alabama.

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