The Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4MATIC is the three-pointed star’s first real attempt at an all-electric flagship in its 100-plus year history, and its importance to the brand cannot be overstated. Simply put, Tesla is already beating Mercedes-Benz, and the upstart, 500-mile range Lucid Air isn’t going to pull any punches, either. The EQS must come out swinging, then, and it absolutely cannot fail to deliver on the promise of that “S”.

I recently had a chance to take an extended test drive in both the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+ and 580 4MATIC models at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, and the experience was – let’s say “not what I expected”.

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We continue our series on the sporty European market Ford Capri today. Introduced in 1969 as a pony car to suit customers outside of North America, Capri proved an immediate success across Europe and found a more limited customer base in North America too. By the mid-Seventies, times had changed and it was time for a new Capri, the Mark II.

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It has been ages since the days when one needed to change the spark plugs in their car every 20,000 miles. Today’s machines are very different, to the point where most owners have no idea the firing order of the engine that’s powering them down the road. Still, plugs do need to be replaced eventually, even if it is at 100k.

Like the recent oil filter post, we selected spark plugs listed to fit a car that is likely representative of a typical daily beater: A ten-year-old Civic. All the same, we probably should have selected a 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme SL (not the International Series – too fancy) if we wanted to be representative of the Best & Brightest.

We’ve thrown in a couple of spark plug tools for good measure as well because, like the authors at this site, our readers have probably lost theirs at the local pick-n-pull.

Several hooptie-centric road rallies take place every warm season in Front Range Colorado, including the 24 Hours of Lemons Rally, the Rocky Mountain Rambler 500 Rally, and the Colorado Gambler 500 Rally. Teams will build crazy stuff— say, a Lincoln Continental Mark IV filled with three tons of engine-heated water or a gutted Volkswagen R32 converted to a doorless post-apocalyptic Astroturf nightmare— or just acquire some random cheap car, decorate it, and beat it half to death on Rocky Mountain fire roads. As you’d expect, many of these cars go right to the nearest boneyard when the rally is over, and I find quite a few of them during my junkyard travels in northeastern Colorado. Here’s the “Good Vibes” Pontiac Vibe, found in Denver over the summer. Read More >

We started this series however many months ago with the Challenger since it is a model with which I am familiar. Now, with summer in the rearview mirror and gearheads in wide swaths of the nation putting away their toys for the winter, build-n-price tools for sports cars will surely get a workout. After all, many car nuts often feel if they can’t exercise their clutch leg until spring, they might as well see what sort of rig they can build online.

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A report by the Washington Post is detailing the lawsuit being brought against Tesla by a worker at its Fremont factory. Jessica Barraza, who has been working as a production associate on the Model 3, alleges a string of sexual harassment incidents suffered while working at the California automaker.

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Compilations and lists purporting to tout the ‘best and worst’ of any consumer product – from cars to computers to toasters – are always given side glances in this office, if for no other reason than our own skeptical nature. Still, the crew at Consumer Reports have been releasing exactly this type of list for longer than some of us have been alive, so there’s reason to mention their findings.

In this year’s brand ranking on reliability, there were the usual suspects at the fore – and only one ‘domestic’ brand in the top ten.

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Your humble author is about to put Los Angeles in the rearview mirror, but before I do, I wanted to leave you with one last news nugget.

It involves … Barbie.

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Our Rare Rides Icons series on the Chrysler Imperial picks up today at perhaps the most pivotal time in Imperial’s history. As the model’s fifth generation concluded in 1954, Chrysler was also concluding development of its big secret plans for Imperial: A new luxury brand of exclusivity and prestige.

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A foreign automaker that’s not well known in America comes to a major auto show and announces plans to sell cars in the States, showing off a couple of models and promising on-sale dates that seem both ambitious and yet not unreasonable.

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before.

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Two different recall campaigns were announced yesterday by Toyota. One affects the Camry, while the other is for a deficiency with some new Sienna models. Both are related to safety equipment (as most recalls usually are) with the sedan and minivan being recalled for brake and seat belt issues, respectively.

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Top brass at Cadillac have made it abundantly clear they plan to exit this decade solely as the purveyor of electric vehicles. To that end, a swath of new model names have been floated, including the Lyriq which is set for the 2023 model year.

Now, thanks to internet sleuthing, we may have learned a few more of the names Cadillac has up its all-electric sleeve. They all end in ‘iq’ … except for one.

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We’ve already covered the Subaru Solterra EV, so I don’t have much to add.

Instead, you can enjoy two poorly-lit pics from the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show.

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Fisker seems to have many lives, and the small brand led off the L.A. Auto Show’s main media day with the debut of its Ocean SUV.

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Appearing on the same day as certain other vehicles under which one will find the E-GMP architecture, the annoyingly capitalized Hyundai SEVEN was introduced today at the L.A. Auto Show. Billed as a preview of a future sport utility electric vehicle, it’s meant to further the burgeoning all-electric IONIQ sub-brand while also being one of the building clocks for Hyundai’s kick at reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.

Why they didn’t have Jeri Ryan drive the thing on stage is beyond this author’s comprehension.

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