First Gear: Any time a quality or safety problem is showing up in police fleet vehicles, upfitters should be the -first- place you look. Now if only we could blame officer behavior on huffing gas fumes...

Third Gear: Can’t wait to watch VW’s consitutent parts be cannibalized by hostile merger in a recession ten years…

They finally acquiesce to side mirrors and grab them out of the parts bin. I’m both impressed that it’s a simple stick-on piece, while disappointed they didn’t do something stupid like a hideaway Go Go Gadget arm.

My father bought a 2015 model Versa, also the absolute base version, but by 2015 the “base” included A/C, Bluetooth connected radio, and automatic tire pressure monitor. If you can drive a manual* it is the perfect car: does 80mph all day every day and if you play the shift right can get close to 50mpg on the highway;…

I definitely recall a for-real, meant to be taken seriously ad for some SUV around 2002-2004: two soccer moms see the last parking space at the mall on the other side of some landscaping. Sedan-mom has to take the long way around while SUV-mom plows over speed bumps, curbs, and irrigation ditch to win the space.
Since…

Thanks for this good engineering dive, David. My favorite example is something Ford sedans used to have called Moose Nuts, which looked pretty much like they sound - two cast iron balls on a wishbone, draped over the rear axle to absorb vibration.

As good a time to ask as any: is there a broad legal requirement for headlights to be physically separate? I honestly think the full-width light bar is a good look (if nothing else on this abomination) and have wondered why other manufacturers haven’t toyed with a big strip of LEDs for a headlight.

David, I love your work, you’ve given us so much amazing content over the years, and you’re an inspiration to every wannabe junk lord. But there’s a point where you need to stop and reflect. There are many facets to hoarding, but in all your articles there’s a recurring thread I’ve never heard you address and I’d love…

Jalopnik’s been letting in some low effort clickbait recently, but this really takes the cake. Fire the editor who greenlit this, then fire the guy who hired that editor.
Except that was probably a herb.

“better fit in a ‘97 Ford Aspire”. As soon as I looked at that dashboard my brain recognized it as my family’s 10th-gen Thunderbird morphed to upright seating. What a bizarre time capsule - its like those flowers still patterned to attract long-extinct bees.

Honestly, the real story here is the incredibly small amount of money it takes for companies to buy a congressman’s loyalty.  $55,000 total across 37 people?  I know the next election hasn’t started yet, but when people talk about “pay for play politics” I don’t think they appreciate the pedestrian amount of money…

Amazing that this article would be printed today, about a parking space that costs $100,000. A man named Shaun Donovan, who used to be New York Commissioner of Housing as well as Obama’s HUD Secretary, is stepping back into local politics and was asked:
“what is the sales price of a median home in Brooklyn?”
His answer:…

Slightly refreshing to hear about road rage against a delivery vehicle that was from the guy being mad about his service, rather than some insane ideological motive.

My 1986 Jeep story didn’t make the cut. Late 80s and early 90s cars were -especially- unreliable because of the industry wide shift from carbs and vacuum lines to fuel injection and microchips.  Your statement makes more sense as “anything before OBD II”.

Least reliable car I’ve owned or ever known: 1986 Jeep CJ-7, Laredo edition
It was my “first” car, bought by my family in 2004, having already gone through several owners who each mucked it up in their own way. But beyond all the misguided tinkering, it was just a poorly designed machine, coming from the mid-80s when…

Trains do have automated marking systems - look at the side of most cars and you’ll see a collection of colored bars near one corner. Trains were using “bar codes” before they were in the general public.
However, what may have happened here is that the system that tracks the location of a given car doesn’t cross…

CLK 55 AMG is Grandpa’s car...
_Looking out at my 2005 CLK 500_
_That I bought for three times this price_
_In my late 20s_
I don’t like this article.

I’m disappointed Jason. Just last week you considered the second-gen Nissan Versa among the worst cars of the decade. When new in 2012, you could get a Versa with a five year warranty for $15,000. So first, just imagine any of these cars coming with an unlimited warranty of any kind.

“I’d literally have to stop for oil more frequently than I do for fuel, and that’s just ridiculous.”

“Ford’s ‘Mustang-Inspired’ Electric SUV”
Every time I read this I want to puke a little.

Everybody keeps making a big deal about SpaceX being “the first commercial spacecraft” or whatever.  What does that make Douglas, Convair, Grumman, and every other manufacturer that NASA has contracted in the past?  It’s not like SpaceX is building these capsules for a customer other than government entities.