Author: News Room
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration denied a petition request to investigate the Tesla Model 3’s emergency door handles for being hard to locate, and therefore unsafe, in the event of a crash. However, in that determination, it also vowed to write new rules around handles that “mandate a robust and obvious door egress system in all motor vehicles.” These rules will take some time to develop; one expert that Bloomberg spoke to estimated that…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. There’s plenty of motion in government right now to lock out vehicles with China ties, either through investment or tech, out of the U.S. market. Yesterday, a Senate committee approved a bill to ban manufacturers that are more than 15% owned by Chinese entities. Meanwhile, a different measure seeks to eliminate components made in China from cars sold here. That’s the reason why Polestar is packing up and leaving. Unfortunately, it figures to make the cars that…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Six giants dominate auto services. Private equity firms control most major chains, maintaining local branding for customer trust. Mavis expands with Pep Boys acquisition. This move highlights the consolidation trend in the industry. Private equity’s strategic play. Firms like Roark and Monomoy capitalize on regional brand equity without rebranding. Impact on consumers. Consolidation offers benefits like pricing and availability but reduces competition and choice. Bottom line: A few powerful companies, driven by private equity, quietly control most…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Car obsessives with a keen eye can spot a high-performance model from a mile away. Sometimes, the differences are fairly obvious; the wing on an STI versus a normal Subaru WRX comes to mind. Other times, though, they’re more subtle. (I love hot hatchbacks, but even I have to squint to know if I’m looking at a VW Golf R or GTI at a glance.) But automakers are establishing a trend that makes it even easier to…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Right to repair empowers consumers. It ensures car owners can access repair information and choose service providers, not just dealerships. Tech advances challenge old agreements. Modern cars’ proprietary software and data collection aren’t covered by past right-to-repair deals. Legislation falls short. Current bills fail to address critical issues like telematics and software access, maintaining automaker control. Bipartisan support with consumer focus. The movement appeals across political lines, emphasizing consumer rights and small business support. ✦ AI assisted,…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Many dealers offer optional alarms as an add-on when you buy a vehicle from them. One company called Karr sells such systems and is a leader in this space, with its tech installed in approximately 2 million vehicles across the U.S. However, not every owner may be aware that their vehicle has a Karr alarm to begin with, and that’s because some dealers actually install and leave them there, whether buyers choose to pay for their capabilities…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. As it prepares to launch its first EV, Bentley faces the same problem as numerous other brands with charismatic internal-combustion engines. Near-silent operation might be appropriate for a luxury car like the Bentley Torcal, but customers are going to miss the NASCAR-after-finishing-school sound of the V8 engines that live under the hoods of other Bentleys. So the automaker came up with something it hopes is the same, yet different. From the Rolls-Royce 6.7-liter V8 that served from…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Many automakers provide a limited free trial of connected features on new models that would normally require a paid subscription. In many cases, these freebies last for a year, and the rationale for offering them is simple: Live with a convenience for 12 whole months, and it becomes hard to live without it. That’s why I pay $15 a month for remote locks on my GR Corolla. Stellantis has been on a roll as of late, though,…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Back in the spring of 2024, Tesla notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the headlights on some 19,900 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles exceeded the maximum brightness allowed by law by nearly double in the most extreme cases. But rather than fix these blindingly bright EVs, the company logged a petition weeks later that it shouldn’t have to, because the defect was “inconsequential” to safety. Well, it took two years, but the feds have…
The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter directly to you, every weekday. Automakers have long counted on parts-sharing to keep costs down—not just across individual lineups, but even across brands and market segments. Volkswagen Group’s MQB platform became the poster child for modern parts-sharing architectures in the 2010s, and many other automakers have since consolidated their lineups to the bare minimum of fundamental platforms to make manufacturing cheaper and more consistent. But there are downsides. VW Group has long been accused of offering the same sausage in different lengths,…