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Quick Facts About Vehicle Safety Ratings Two nonprofit authorities rate vehicles for safety: the IIHS and NHTSA. NHTSA uses a 5-star scoring system, while the IIHS uses Good, Acceptable, Marginal, and Poor. Crash testing is a critical component of vehicle safety ratings. Although safety ratings may not be the first concern for some car buyers, it’s often the top consideration when shopping for a family vehicle. The way a car performs in a wreck is serious business and can mean everything to your family in surviving a crash. Carmakers have made great strides in engineering safety into today’s new cars.…
Honda has a long history of producing some of the best front-wheel drive cars. Since the N360 first put tyres to tarmac in 1967, the Japanese automaker has gradually improved its FWD cars, both from an efficiency and reliability standpoint. By the ’90s, Honda had a myriad of highly capable, high performance front-wheel drive models to choose from. Rob Godwin’s reasoning for picking a CR-X del Sol over the Civic or Integra equivalent isn’t what you might expect. He’s no stranger to building cars which stray from the norm, with his previously-featured Mazda MX-5 being one of the more extreme examples ever seen here in the UK. Rob has…
A 1970 Plymouth Barracuda powered by a Hemi V-8 is catnip to car collectors, and now the first one of these iconic muscle cars built is up for sale. First spotted by Muscle Cars & Trucks, the car is being offered by Indiana-based Motorvault for a cool $2.2 million. An ordinary Hemi ‘Cuda (as performance versions were badged beginning in 1970) could probably fetch that amount at auction, but this car is also billed as a pre-production example with just 17,755 miles. First 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda (photo via Motorvault) Plymouth launched the Barracuda in 1964 to counter the Ford…
Cadillac built Eldorados from the 1953 through 2002 model years, with the model becoming a huge personal luxury coupe equipped with front-wheel-drive starting with the 1967 models. Of all those front-drive/two-door Eldos, the biggest and most opulent were the 1971-1978 cars; the most powerful of that bunch were the 1971 and 1972 models. Here’s one of those magnificent, outrageous machines, found in a Denver-area self-service boneyard recently. The pinnacle for Eldorado engine power was attained in the 1970 model year, when the 8.2-liter (500-cubic-inch) Cadillac V8 was rated at 400 horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque. The primitive tires of that…
Which brand revealed a fully electric convertible available this year? Which state opted to join California’s EV mandate this week? This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at DriftBreath Reports—for the week ending February 17, 2023. In a review of the 2023 Kia Niro EV, we find that while this 253-mile EV has improved incrementally in every way versus its predecessor, it backslides on value—especially when you start to lay out how it compares by the numbers. The federal government acted to put Tesla’s $15,000 Full Self-Driving on a tighter leash. The NHTSA said that Full…
If you’re looking for a distraction, this video compresses the build of Travis Pastrana’s Family Huckster gymkhana car down to less than four minutes. Built for filming of “Gymkhana 2022,” the Family Huckster is a purpose-built stunt machine styled to look like a 1983 Subaru GL wagon. It was built by Vermont SportsCar, the same shop that built Pastrana’s previous gymkhana car—the WRX STI Airslayer—as well as multiple Subaru rally cars. Travis Pastrana’s Subaru Family Huckster gymkhana car being assembled The video shows just how little the Family Huckster has in common with a stock GL wagon. The car is…
Ford F-150 Lightning production stopped, Tesla recalled every vehicle with Full Self-Driving software, and we drove the 2024 Maserati GranTurismo. It’s the Week in Reverse, right here at Motor Authority. Production of the Ford F-150 Lightning came to a halt as the automaker issued a stop-build and an in-transit stop-ship order. A battery issue, which was later linked to a vehicle fire, caused the stop orders. Ford said production will be down for at least a week, though it could take weeks to implement a production fix General Motors’ President Mark Reuss said, “I’m not gonna do a Bronco” during…
Roni Collin from Porvoo, Finland is a Speedhunters regular. Over the years we’ve featured Roni’s events at his SpeedHooked facility, as well as his cars, the most recent being his lifted Porsche Cayenne. He’s a man of good taste, a clear statement I can stand behind after seeing Roni’s garage and the fact that his office is right in the middle of it. Roni deals with day-to-day business from here, managing the development of the SpeedHooked brand as well as his other business endeavors. He’s surrounded by cars, most notably his Audi Quattro S1 E2 replica, a pair of black olive Porsches,…
The Maserati GranTurismo has been redesigned for 2024, and we’ve just tested it ahead of the market launch this spring. The big coupe may feature evolutionary styling, but the previous model’s V-8 has made way for a twin-turbo V-6, and there will eventually be an electric option promising 760 hp. Lamborghini Aventador and Miura Lamborghini is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2023 and to kick things off, the company this week released a video that reminds us that it created the recipe for the modern supercar when it launched the Miura in 1966. 2023 Ford MEB-based electric crossover spy shots…
BMW announced Tuesday that updated X5 and X6 crossovers will be introduced for the 2024 model year featuring updated powertrains, some equipment shuffling and minor styling tweaks. Not surprisingly, this comes at a cost. Both models are creeping upwards by between $3,000 and $4,000 depending on style and trim. Such has been the way of things in the business lately, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless. Both get revised interior and exterior elements, with the cabin getting most of the attention. Central to the experience is BMW’s updated infotainment system, which incorporates a 12.3-inch digital cluster and a 14.9-inch central display behind…