Things change. Once upon a time, the greatest concern among Americans was getting home in time to watch that Three’s Company episode where Jack wakes up in bed with Mr. Roper. Now, it’s antibody testing and virus-rocked retirement funds.

Things change in the automotive world, too, and along with it, our perceptions. Preconceptions often become misconceptions as new technology and a focus on quality control (or lack thereof) changes minds en masse via personal experience and word of mouth. Brands and entire countries once known for building the best become the stuff of jokes, and vice versa.

How has your thinking evolved? Read More >

We continue our conversation on automotive design from the recently ended 2010s this week. Prior installments in this series have covered the best and worst affordable SUVs and CUVs, and last week, the best of the not so affordable.

In today’s entry, we’ll discuss the worst upscale 2010s designs to ever grace the driveways of North America.

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The ongoing fight against an increasingly terrifying virus that can ruin your life in a dozen different ways has led to a conundrum. People are advised to stay at least six feet away from each other, but the spaces we’ve built for people often requires them to move in much closer formation.

Public transit, airliners, nightclubs, even sidewalks are designed for crowds, for people rubbing elbows, for packing in as much humanity as regulations will allow. What happens when every last one of those people suddenly requires an order of magnitude more space? Read More >

To make amends for the horrific, disturbing imagery no doubt stirred by the lede of my previous QOTD, I’ll state right now that nothing unsavory or perverse was keeping me up these past few nights.

Yet something was.

Bouts of insomnia aren’t uncommon, certainly not in these trying times, so I know I’m not alone in counting Oldsmobiles in a vain attempt to reach the gates of Slumberville these past couple of weeks. And of the many concerns rattling around my brain like a Mossad assassin’s bullet, I can at least say none of them were specifically automotive in nature. Which can’t be said for everyone… Read More >

We continue our discussion of SUV and CUV design from the 2010s today with our third question entry of the series. The first and second editions covered the best and worst parts of affordable SUV/CUV design, with a strict price ceiling of $48,000.

Today we head upscale and only consider really expensive rides.

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The tedium of self-isolation reached depraved new depths this past weekend, as your author, finding himself all alone with nothing to do, took advantage of the government-imposed privacy to indulge in a shameful solo act. An occurrence that was sadly all too common in his teenage years.

That’s right — with the lights turned low and blinds drawn, yours truly engaged in something he’s not too proud of, and wouldn’t normally divulge to any other living soul. He watched a truly terrible movie… and didn’t turn it off.

No, not “so bad it was good,” nothing like that. This thing was a complete stinker — a colossal turdfest that only kept this writer’s interest because, among other things, it happened to be a commercial for General Motors. Read More >

Emotional response. That’s the end goal of marketing — well, the second-to-end goal, and words and images are what a savvy marketing pro uses to plant that seed in the human brain. Rapidly germinating, the seed quickly grows into a desire to consume. To own. To bolster one’s identity with a product that says something about them, and which makes them feel good in a strange, hard-to-define way.

We’ve all been lured in by slick advertising, product placements, and the like, but products don’t always need a third-party ad agency to boost their image. The manufacturer gets first crack at that.

Which is where naming come in. Read More >

Last Wednesday we pondered the best exterior styling found on SUVs and CUVs of the 2010s. This week, flip the question and consider the visually challenged rides of the past decade instead.

If I recall those distant 2010s correctly, there are plenty of designs upon which one might spill some Haterade.

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Each one of us, minus the psychopaths, lives by a personal code, and that set of deeply held beliefs and attitudes dictates how we treat others. How we interact in society. It makes us whole.

Given that there’s a hell of a lot of variation in what drives a person, there’s been no shortage of diverging takes on the latest Cannonball Run “trophy” holder — the crew of a white, 2019 Audi A8 that rocketed from New York City to Los Angeles in 26 hours and 38 minutes earlier this month, using lightly trafficked highways borne of the coronavirus pandemic to their advantage. Average speed? Roughly 105 mph.

Is this feat worthy of a slap on the back, or a punch in the face? Read More >

If you’re as paranoid as this writer, chances are your formerly daily driver has long since sailed past its last regularly scheduled fill-up date. The last time any fresh gasoline hit the innards of your author’s high-end motorcar was three and a half weeks ago. The needle’s now resting just north of a quarter tank.

*Gulp*

Frankly, it’s cause for concern, as adding useless miles to the odometer has typically served as a mental tonic for yours truly. At the same time, who wants to encounter people or things they’ve touched? That friendly neighborhood gas pump is no longer the welcoming monument it once was (with Doritos, no less). Wouldn’t it be great to drive past it without a care? Read More >

It seems readers gravitated to Chris’ recent review of the Silverado 1500 Duramax. Indeed, I was curious to see just how well General Motors’ new 3.0-liter inline-six diesel handled day to day life and, more importantly, how well it performed at the pumps.

Looks like the pickup’s fuel economy was worthy of note. With each full-size member of the Detroit Three now fielding an oil burner, light-duty diesel fuel economy has become another arena in which to do battle. Of course, the industry has always used fuel economy as a yardstick (despite it not being much of a selling point at various times in history), and as always, the buyer’s mileage will vary, regardless of what EPA figures appear in the window sticker.

Have you ever been pleasantly surprised? Read More >

We return to the 2010s today to conduct more design evaluations. Previously in this series we covered the best and worst standard car designs, then did the same for upscale cars. Today we consider the 10-year span when the SUV and other SUV-like things strengthened their grasp on consumer sales, then choked out nearly everything that wasn’t a pickup truck.

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There’s no shortage of people choosing to signal their offbeat, nonconformist nature via their daily driver. As build configurations shrink and niche products dry up, this is becoming increasingly hard; still, it’s a thing, and if it means reaching into the past for a defunct nameplate, many are up for the challenge.

A buddy of mine did it with a certain low-volume Isuzu. Car Twitter is littered with childless Millennials who advocate the purchase of impractical, less-loved models as their preferred transportation choice. More power to them; just don’t react with confused horror when people with a mortgage and growing brood opt for a GMC Acadia or Toyota Highlander as their main driveway denizen.

With oddball vehicles now more numerous in our past then our present, which unlikely model do you harbor a secret desire for? Read More >

Hey all. Big plans this weekend? Lots of stuff going on?

Yours truly plans to finally swap his car’s cheap winter rubber for equally cheap, corner-carving summer slicks (55 series — OH YEAH) in order to drive…. nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Then, if there’s time, maybe I’ll take a nighttime run in the only place where physical distancing isn’t likely to be an issue: the spooky graveyard on top of the hill. If there’s time, mind you.

Yes, with warmer weather upon us, the list of carefree pursuits knows no bounds! But tell us, what strictly automotive things are you doing this weekend to mentally distance yourself from, you know, issues? Read More >

Try as we might, there’s just no way to know everything about the contemporary offerings of all car manufacturers, even if consideration is limited in scope to North America. Invariably, our mental encyclopedia is missing a few pages. That means sometimes, we should consider the unknowns of our automotive knowledge.

Allow me to explain.

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