They all do that. The dashboard on my boyfriend’s ‘05 Magnum R/T is worse, but it also has 260,000 miles.

Really, the Magnum was more of a Chrysler 300 wagon (and indeed was sold as exactly that in other markets) than a wagon counterpart to the Charger. As such, the Magnum shares its doors with the contemporary 300, which has a fairly dramatic slope as you work your way back across the roofline. But rather than having the…

My partner has a 2005 Magnum R/T as a daily driver. He took advantage of the adverse market a few years back to sell his nearly new 2019 Charger Daytona and ditch a car payment. He got the Magnum cheap at an auction because they had two of them, and incorrectly listed his as a 3.5-liter, and not the other one (which wa…

As someone who has always been a huge fan of the 6 Series Coupe and Cabriolet--and who was never quite a fan of the 8 Series--I’m excited to see them return. Hopefully, there’ll be the return of an M6, too. And hopefully they don’t have the same tall floors as the 5 and 7 Series, as that would be ghastly for a…

Oh, Wiley Post? Sure, that could happen, and I bet it has. But it’s a major fuck-up.

That’s correct. Sometimes, enthusiasts are blatantly irresponsible when it comes to recommending cars, too. I’ve seen a lot of enthusiasts telling people who want three usable rows to buy the CX-90. Meanwhile, it’s a 5+2-seater on a 7-seater footprint, it’s got a weird transmission, and it’s probably expensive to fix.…

True. Also, the majority of leases have GAP coverage built in. So, if you total the car, you won’t be on the hook for the difference between the remaining balance on the car and what the insurance company paid.

I always tell non-car-people to follow the color code. Green indicator lights are simply notices, orange lights mean take caution and fix when necessary, and red lights mean stop immediately or as soon as possible. That’s why crucial lights like oil pressure, temperature and battery voltage tend to be red. In some…

I published this list elsewhere, but this one is expanded

I found this out on a 2008 Lexus LS 600h L, on which the original owner had ordered the chrome wheels as a dealer-installed accessory.

I have a V12 Jaguar in the fleet (a 1996 XJ12) that is definitely a labor of love. It’s easily one of the cheapest ways to get a V12 anything and therefore isn’t worth much, but I love it.

And this is why cars are usually poor investments long-term, as collectible goods to be bought and held onto in hopes that they’ll appreciate. Not only did the car sell for less than its original MSRP in real dollars, it failed to keep up with inflation. Had the original owner kept it all this time, they’d have needed…

Correct. The C1 platform, aka “Global C” was codeveloped by Mazda, Ford and Volvo, and was used in all the compact Euro Fords and the compact Mazdas and Volvos from that era. They share a ton.

The most egregious Aston Martin one, I think, was shortly after FoMoCo took over the company. The Virage needed a driver-side airbag in some markets. What’d they do? Why, they took the Ford variant of the contemporary FoMoCo airbag steering wheel and slapped a sticker over the Ford logo. Yikes. I suspect time or…

Have you driven a Wrangler with a stick? You don’t want one. That manual on those is just...ugh. If you want a manual, buy the Bronco. It’s got a better shifter, plus there’s a granny gear.

True, although during that era, dealers used to throw their one-size-fits-all, branded mats right on top of the OEM ones. I could see a customer being caught out by that.

I mean, perhaps so, but if they don’t figure out the cause and make changes on the production line, it’s just kicking the can down the road.

No, it isn’t. GM had a particularly bad run of engines assembled in 2020, for the early 2021 model year, and most of those failed within 25K miles from the original in-service reading.

I remember taking my 2021 GX 460 in for service, and “Check Floor Mats” was in bold on the service technician’s checklist. That’s a mistake Toyota seems unlikely to ever let happen again.

Perhaps so, but the engines are produced at two different plants. The LX 600's engine is built in Japan, while the Tundra’s is built in Alabama. So it’s likelier an assembly process issue than a procedural one.