Of course you are, and that will be your mission for today.

Monday’s jarring news of GM plant closures and sedan scrapping came as a shock, despite it being a move many of us anticipated (feared?) for some time. GM went and pulled a Ford. Naturally, the Twitterati took to social media to blame (or gloat) that the closures and discontinuations were 100 percent the fault of the politician they hate the most, while others, harboring bad feelings about that GM car they owned two decades ago, blamed the move on the shittiness of the 1995 Pontiac Grand Am and Chevrolet Cavalier.

Maybe make a car that’s not so awful and bad and stupid, they tweeted, ignoring the prevailing light truck-focused attitude of American consumers and the legions of buyers lining up for the Silverado, Sierra, Equinox, Terrain, Yukon, Tahoe, Suburban, Escalade, XT5, Acadia, Enclave, Encore, Trax, Colorado, Canyon, and Traverse. Maybe stop being such a bloated maker of dinosaur cars, they added, ignoring the fact that, with this plan, GM is effectively attempting to do exactly that.

What would we do without such commentary? (Read More…)

The turkey’s been eaten, the football games have been shown, and all hands have tired of their close friends and relations by now. Around here, it’s generally accepted that laundry and family start to smell if they hang around for more than three days.

But never mind that. With Thanksgiving in the rear-view mirror, what car manufacturer are you most thankful for this year?

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In a Question of the Day post earlier this month, Matthew Guy inquired about the manufacturer which had the greatest number of great cars in their company’s history.

Today we’re going to flip it, and talk about all the awful things. Prepare your fingers for the incoming salt.

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Advice time. My friend wants (though she might say “needs”) a truck, and the choice is narrowed down to two prospects, each competing for midsize pickup supremacy.

Can you help her make a decision? (Read More…)

Without getting deep into the emotional weeds of a contentious scientific debate, one which many would argue we’re not even allowed to have, let’s instead speak in broader terms. Emissions are bad. Always were. They’ll get you in trouble with the EPA and force you to promise fleets of electric cars while funding ads featuring your competitors. They blanket China in orange gloom to this day and once nearly suffocated an entire Pennsylvania town.

The true harmfulness of these emissions, of course, depends on your own personal views — even more so these days. In the past two decades, possibly because of progress on the pollution front, the climate-altering ingredients of emissions (methane, carbon dioxide) quickly superseded the direct health impacts of airborne pollutants like nitrogen oxide, hydrogen fluoride, and sulfur dioxide in the minds of many North American citizens and policymakers. Smog? You can see that. Was that tornado or flood a natural occurrence or did it have “help”? That’s less tangible, more opaque. Easy to ignore.

Still, the effect of this switch in green priorities on discourse surrounding the automobile (and ownership thereof) remains the same. We’re often asked to choose sides. (Read More…)

Wintery weather gripped many parts of North America over the past week, as the snowman arrived earlier than expected. Seeing all the accompanying gross photos got me thinking about driving in winter, which is of course where we all shine … and everyone else is awful.

Except for when we’re actually awful ourselves. Let’s talk about winter weather driving experiences.

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Want to feel good about yourself? Scratch the surface of an outwardly successful, right-thinking person and peer inside. Needle them just a bit about a topic that should be mundane — politics, for example — and watch the quaking begin. Watch the dam crack and the deluge pour forth. The emotion, the spittle-flecked ranting, the complete irrationality. The rage. Glad you’re not like that person, aren’t you?

(Note: this will only make you feel better about yourself if you’re a relatively even-keeled individual and your sparring partner isn’t wildly affluent.)

Now, flip the equation and replace your previous role with a car. That’s the situation many of us find ourselves in at one time or another — rendered inconsolable by one too many quirks, hiccups, or full-on meltdowns of our unthinking driving partner. The vehicle we pour money into, and get depreciation and varying levels of service in return. Sometimes, it’s enough to make a peaceful man violent.

Admit it. Have you ever battered your car? (Read More…)

It’s a not entirely inaccurate trope that most auto journos prefer brown, manual, diesel-powered station wagons. Or at least prefer the weirdest version of a mainstream model. Witness my inexplicable preference for old S60 Cross Country. We’re an odd bunch.

Wagons have been seen as the offbeat choice for years in this country. Our question to you today is: Why?

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Yesterday’s peek at the can’t-get-it-here Volkswagen Tarok got me thinking about the little trucks we’re not allowed to have anymore. You people buy too many F-150s, etc, you see, for domestic automakers to consider building wee pickups again, though we’ve been rewarded with a growing field of not-so-tiny midsizers, complete with upper midsize pricing. Pull up to a new Colorado in an old S-10 and be awed (and emasculated) by the difference in size.

Though capable and roomy enough for a young family, for some these new offerings might still represent too much truck. And, unlike in some markets, we can’t move down a rung on the ladder to find a snugger fitting pair of work boots. Nor can we bring those vehicles here. It’s entirely debatable whether American consumers — who’ve become used to having it all — would want to in this day and age, but we’re not here to talk about the average consumer. We’re talking about you, fella. (Read More…)

In a QOTD post last week, we opened up our memory banks and recalled the days of driver’s ed; the bumpy road we all took to become the car fans we are today. But the dangerous driving moments never end at the learner’s permit or license.

Today we want to know the closest call you’ve ever had.

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There’s little question this is a pretty good time to be a gearhead. Dodge is doling out cars featuring 840 horsepower with full factory warranties. McLaren seemingly manufactures a new rocket ship every other day, with the Speedtail following the Senna following the 720S following the … well, you get the picture.

Which brings us to a very good question: Which manufacturer – past or present – is responsible for cranking out the largest number of great cars?

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A change is gonna come, the song goes, and it may as well be playing for all cars popular enough to avoid an abrupt discontinuation two or three years after their launch. Those sorry rides never got a chance to spawn a second generation or undergo a styling change. For the vast majority of car models, however, a design refresh halfway through a development cycle is the norm.

Be it a barely noticeable tweak or a full-on face transplant, rare is the OEM that doesn’t toss out a few bucks to make an older car look newer (or at least different). Different, it should be noted, does not always mean better. Sometimes the operation fails. Unlike a face transplant, in this scenario it’s other people who reject the new tissue. (Read More…)

Each one of you here in the peanut gallery learned to drive at one point or another. And whether that was via a proper driving school, or, perhaps for the older types, at the wheel of a friend or relative’s car, the memories are there just the same. Today we talk driver’s education and the car which withstood your naive mistreatment. It’s story time.

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I can’t claim to know what Millennials want — I don’t consider myself a member of that particular cohort. Depending on the source, I’m either one year into that demographic or one year removed, but given that my circle of friends starts at about five years my junior and tops out at 20 years my senior, I’ll accept one older aquaintence’s assertion that I’m “the ragged edge of Generation X.”

That said, social media makes one a sometimes unwilling observer of this curious group of people and, amid their incessant political tweeting, the Millennial’s automotive angst emerges. Basically, cars are too expensive, OEMs have abandoned them, and the Boomers stole their future. And I thought Gen-Xers were supposed to be miserable grumps.

What automotive balm would soothe these pains? (Read More…)

Right around this time last week, we featured a QOTD about the most boring car you’d ever driven. Searching through your memories for a boring car was apparently very easy, as nearly 200 comments quickly gathered together to cover all things boring and car.

Today, we’ll head the opposite direction and talk about driving excitement.

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