The supercharged V8 is dead after this year. The F-PACE will lose it, the F-TYPE is being discontinued, and the Defender V8 has been replaced with the Defender Octa, featuring the same BMW S63 MHEV V8 as the new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport.

I’m positive BMW has the VINs flagged somewhere, and if any of those cars was to ever come up under a warranty claim, it would be denied.

This is adorable. What a great way to finish out the week.

Considering I’m not shopping for a Toyota hybrid and don’t need another car, I don’t consider myself a victim. But thanks for the sarcasm.

Cars still cost, on average, 20% more than they did four years ago. I’m particularly appalled at Toyota, which seems to have decided to artificially constrain production on its cars--especially hybrids--in order to keep prices high and incentives low.

In theory, the CLE-Class was supposed to be a mix of the prior C- and E-Class coupes. IMO, it’s much closer to the C-Class Coupe, and basically an excuse for Mercedes-Benz to charge more for substantially the same thing. For shame.

An acquaintance of mine and I both think GM is showing these heretofore-unreleased concepts in order to test the waters for a potential Pontiac revival, likely as a sub-brand of Chevrolet (not unlike what they did with the Hummer and GMC). It’d save them having to do a full brand and dealer network launch.

That would be correct. It used portions of Mercedes-Benz engineering, but was fundamentally an all-new platform when it debuted in 2004/5.

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…