Author: News Room
The Civic Si gets a few key styling tweaks for 2025 The sedan is only offered with a 6-speed manual transmission Civic Si among the highest-priced cars in the class at more than $31,000 I have never bought a car that didn’t have a manual transmission. Sure, I have a truck with an automatic, but I inherited it—and trucks don’t count. From the Toyota Celica to the Jeep Wrangler to the Honda del Sol to way too many Miatas, all my cars have had three pedals, as God intended. God, apparently, has been on a break as manual transmissions have…
The jury is still out on whether Mazda will ever get around to replacing its 6 midsize sedan, but over in China the automaker has a new offering in the segment. Mazda on Thursday unveiled the rear-wheel-drive EZ-6 at the 2024 Beijing auto show. The stunning sedan is a development of Mazda and its Chinese partner Changan Automobile, and is due to go on sale in China before the end of the year. Sales in other markets haven’t been announced. Buyers will be able to choose between plug-in hybrid and electric powertrains, with the latter delivering an ideal 50:50 front-to-rear…
Ford dropped the price of a one-year BlueCruise subscription to $495. The hands-free system is also available as a standalone option, costing $2,495. Buyers who previously purchased a subscription at the higher price will not receive a credit or refund. Ford has cut the price of its BlueCruise hands-free driver-assist subscription nearly in half. Prior to October 1, the system was available at $2,100 for three years, $800 for one year, or $75 per month. Now, you can have it for $495 a year, or $49.99 per month. Or if you don’t want a subscription, there’s a new one-time purchase option…
No one can deny that the name McLaren is one of the most legendary in motorsports. The racing team has a cabinet bursting with trophies dating back fifty years. McLaren Automotive, the car manufacturer, has been harder to make heads or tails of. While a new Ferrari carries the weight of decades of tradition and the dreams of Enzo himself, a new McLaren is a very quick car from a company that isn’t old enough to have a beer. While McLaren Automotive has enjoyed resounding success since the introduction of the MP4-12C in 2011, the company’s oh-so-brief lifespan means that…
Most concept cars promise to run on unicorn farts, pump out 9,000 horsepower, deliver nano-second 0-60 mph times, and even cook your dinner if you ask nicely. We’ve often thought, “What a nice concept, it’ll never happen.” They’re show-stoppers meant to highlight something that could possibly, maybe appear one day on a family sedan. And while they’re a neat distraction from the mundanities of the 9-5, they ultimately mean very little. The Lotus Theory 1 is not that. This concept car is an actual sign of things to come. It has toys on board that actually work, and features that…
California is a state with the gravity to reshape the auto market as we know it. It’s led the country in emissions standards and is the birthplace of the modern push for EVs. But to implement basic measures against speeding? That’d be too complicated, according to the state’s governor, who has apparently vetoed a speeding alert bill on those very grounds. Governor Gavin Newsom swatted down California’s speeding alert proposal, SB-961, on Saturday after the bill passed the state senate earlier this month, per the Associated Press. The measure would’ve required new cars to provide a short, single audiovisual cue…
For some reason, thieves love taking taillights and tailgates off modern Ford trucks. (The reason is money.) It’s been a problem over the last couple of years as criminals—especially in Texas but also in other states—target F-150s and Super Duty pickups. This has been the focus of local news investigations and plenty of social media posts, but still, the thefts continue. That’s why Omaha Bravo Designs developed a kit to keep these parts on your truck. OBD is calling it the AllGuard Kit. It’s set to ship in late November, and it includes hardware for the taillights, tailgate, and even…
EV battery fires are back in the news as Hurricane Helene batters the southeastern United States, submerging EVs and sending some of their batteries into thermal runaway. Between them and the Tesla Semi fire that shut down an interstate for days, it would seem that EV battery fires are a growing hazard that we have yet to reckon with. But that risk may be temporary, as LG Chem claims to have developed a material that can stop battery fires before they start—or even kill them after they do. In a paper published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the company…
EV battery fires are back in the news as Hurricane Helene batters the southeastern United States, submerging EVs and sending some of their batteries into thermal runaway. Between them and the Tesla Semi fire that shut down an interstate for days, it would seem that EV battery fires are a growing hazard that we have yet to reckon with. But that risk may be temporary, as LG Chem claims to have developed a material that can stop battery fires before they start—or even kill them after they do. In a paper published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, the company…
Volkswagen will introduce a new EV concept at this week’s 2024 Beijing auto show with a design language aimed at Chinese tastes. The VW ID.Code is the latest in a series of concept and production models in the automaker’s ID EV family, but its styling is a big departure. The curved front end, high-mounted horizontal lighting elements, and vertical corner lights give this crossover a grinning visage, and the wheel arches are more defined than previous ID models. Volkswagen ID.Code concept VW didn’t discuss specifications, but noted that the ID.Code is designed with manual driving and SAE Level 4 autonomous…