While often derided as highly unfashionable, minivans really are the Swiss Army knife of vehicles. They’re people haulers, cargo carriers, mobile campsites, and can even improvise as work vehicles for when a utility van (the Leatherman of vehicles) is unavailable. Minivans also drive more like cars than the brutes occupying the SUV and pickup segment, making them easier for some drivers to live with.

With vans having enjoyed a cultural renaissance during the 1970s, minivans hit the ground running in the mid-1980s and continued to swell in popularity until the millennium. By then, North Americans were buying an estimated 1.5 million minivans a year. But that’s also where society decided to apply the brakes. Sport utility vehicles and crossovers have effectively supplanted the van as the default family conveyance — though recent sales figures have suggested those dying flames are now being rekindled.  Read More >

It’s a safe bet that most car enthusiasts are good drivers — or at least, generally speaking, better than the average member of the general public.

Even though we all occasionally run into trouble.

As a former co-worker once told me: “Podody’s nerfect.”

Read More >

Poking around ye olde Internet today, I came across this Motor1 piece that aggregates an interview that MuscleCarsandTrucks did. The interview is with Ford’s Mustang marketing manager, Jim Owens, and concerns, at least in part, the graying hairs of the average Mustang buyer and how Ford can get younger folks behind the wheel of the venerable pony car.

Read More >

Most of the time I am a genial fellow. Laidback. Not particularly quick to anger. Polite towards my fellow man.

Except, on occasion, when behind the wheel.

Read More >

Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday. That’s been something of a mantra for car companies over the last hundred-odd years, and success in motorsports is considered a worthy enough goal for major automakers the world over to invest tens of millions – heck, hundreds of millions of dollars – to compete, if not to win. But, is it real? Does “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” hold water?

I think the answer is obvious – because, if winning races actually sold cars, Lancia would be the best-selling car brand on Earth.

Read More >

Tonight’s the night. The wraps finally officially come off the next Nissan Z.

Your humble author is sitting at a Starbucks in Brooklyn, counting the hours until tonight’s unveiling. And thinking about the future of not just the Z, but Infiniti.

Read More >

It’s Chicago Auto Show week around these parts.

You might not remember this, but there actually was a 2020 Chicago Auto Show — it took place before COVID shut the world down. This means that the Chicago Auto Show was the last one before the world fell apart, and will be the first one as we tentatively reopen and march towards some sort of normalcy.

It also means that enthusiasts and car shoppers get to gather in person to check out sheetmetal once again.

Read More >

Earlier today, I gave you my take on how Jeep should fight off the challenge posed to the Wrangler from the new Ford Bronco.

Now it’s your turn.

Read More >

It’s hot almost everywhere in this country right now.

Air conditioners are straining. The words “heat dome” are in the news. Climate change is being discussed.

Read More >

Tesla’s steering yoke is making news again, sort of, in part because of a video circulating Twitter and in part because our competition over at Jalopnik took some bad-faith criticism over a minor mistake.

Read More >

It’s Bronco Day.

Today is the day that you, the reader, can finally read the reviews of the much-hyped 2021 Ford Bronco.

Read More >

I wrote earlier this week about how BAT has broken me.

In the post, I mentioned how I browse for Fox-body Mustangs. I do this because my dad owned one when I was young and I owned one for a few years between high school and early college.

I suspect many of us have one, two, or even three models we look for when we browse sites like BAT.

Read More >

I’m currently sweating my you-know-what off somewhere near-ish to Austin, Texas, in order to drive the Ford Bronco, which is probably the most anticipated vehicle of the year, and I want to give you the chance to play journalist.

Read More >

Matt raised an interesting question yesterday in his piece on GM’s worker woes.

Specifically, should drug testing even be a thing for plant work when many states are legalizing or at least decriminalizing marijuana?

Read More >

The Fast and Furious franchise is apparently coming to an end, at least in terms of movies that feature the main cast (who knows what other content there will be, in terms of video games or spinoffs, et cetera).

Read More >