First, something to keep in mind. The ID.AERO shown off today is a prototype, of sorts. Volkswagen is tight-lipped about changes for production, but it seems like we’re looking at a relatively finished vehicle. Key tip-offs include the plethora of cut lines between panels, the red reflector set in the lower rear valence, real mirrors, and what look to be street tires. I’d be surprised if Volkswagen changes too much between now and the start of production, so feel free to take this car as a general vision of things to come....

Sometimes called Gradient Taillights, these have taken on a near-mythical significance in the taillight community because, as far as anyone has been able to determine, they have never actually appeared on a production vehicle. While the actual design of such lights varies wildly, and many versions can be seen on votives and other ceremonial artifacts, the fundamental qualities of an Ombré Taillight are simple: the colors of the sections of the taillight must blend together in a smooth, unbroken gradient that includes amber, red, and clear....

It won’t all be completely depressing, I promise. Meet The New Boss Say what you want about Akio Toyoda’s risk-averse approach to battery-electric vehicles, but I think we can all agree it’s a shame we’re about to lose such a Real One at the helm of a major automaker. Toyoda is a legit gearhead like us; an enthusiast, a racer and someone who truly believed driving should be fun. This trickled down to tons of Toyota products over the last decade and change, and we all know there was a time when you couldn’t say that....

The big Volkswagen, eh? It sounds like rarity won out over panache in this case. And it’s a good point – you’re more likely to see another sketchy Cayenne for sale long before another Phaeton crosses your path. Now, the big difference between yesterday’s projects and today’s is that while you couldn’t pay me to take either of yesterday’s choices, I’d happily tackle either or both of today’s projects if I had a place to put them....

The insatiable machine that is American capitalism depends on the end-of-year festivities for retail success, so in a lot of cases, it’s a great time to ask for the car stuff you really wanted—or to gift it to yourself at a steep discount. All of this is to ask: What did you get for the holidays? Did you get the car parts you wanted? Did you get some tools to finally finish that project that’s been sitting in your driveway for years, the one you said you’d devote all that pandemic-related free time to?...

First, if you’re not familiar with the song, you should give it a listen. It was written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, along with Jan Berry, Roger Christian, and Artie Kornfeld, all of whom I’m going to assume know the difference between six and four. Oh, right, the song. Here you go: Want all the lyrics, with the important bits emphasized? For, you, because I’m sweet on you, fine, here you go: So, a race between a Corvette and a Jaguar XKE, along a strip of Sunset Blvd....

Pieter lives in Belgium and he has got himself a very nice new Renault Grand Scenic as a company car. It’s not a car he would necessarily have chosen himself but a free car is a free car after all. His question relates to the tires, which are P195/55R20. Apparently the new Scenic comes only with this tire size regardless of trim level and he thought that was odd. He also wondered why his car might have been equipped with steel wheels instead of aluminum alloys and what difference that would have made....

Throughout my years of loving aviation there has been one thought that has always been around: Flying is expensive! The cost to become a private pilot could run you about $10,000, more if it takes you longer than 40 hours of instruction. Should you choose to buy a plane, you’ll quickly find out that even a 60-year-old Cessna 150 can set you back more than $30,000, and that’s not counting fueling or maintaining the thing....

[Author note: This is one of our holiday gift guides, which is a service we’re doing to help everyone with their end-of-year shopping. This post also contains some affiliate links, which means we might get paid a commission if you buy something listed here or, usually, anything else on one of the sites. We won’t do this often, but it’s a way to support the site if you’re so inclined....

Jeez, you guys. I was kidding. Three-fifths of you were wearing your Bad Idea Jeans yesterday, it seems. But hey, I just present ’em. You all pick ’em. So with that, we have a very strange three-car garage: a derelict British boat, a rattletrap roadster, and a tired old van. Let’s take another look at them just to refresh your memories, and as always, I’ll give my assessments of them....

Looking at it, you can get an idea of the rugged, almost militaristic look they wanted for the Pao, a novel mix of adventure, capability, toughness and yet, somehow, cuteness. This early drawing captures most of the basic lines and proportions of the Pao, but has significantly more aggressive off-road tires and lacks the Pao’s trade mark roof rails. Some of the proportions are a bit different, as is the bumper design, the lack of an actual grille, and how the rear vent windows can open far wider here....

Welcome to weird spec, a recurring series where I go over some of the more mundane oddities of the automotive world. It’s easy to tick off great options on great cars, but those who tick off strange options on normal cars deserve credit too. Believe it or not, the second-generation Kia Sorento was briefly offered with a six-speed manual gearbox, albeit with limitations. For instance, you won’t get body-color mirrors, or a rear armrest, or really anything truly fancy....

The other thing is the name: we always called the Ford version of this car the Tempo in America, and the Mercury version was the Topaz. But, in Mexico, everything was different. Chairs sat on people, breakfast was for dinner, and they called the car the Ford Topaz. Mind-scrambling, right? Oh, and I learned one other Tempo/Topaz thing: there was this early commercial where a Tempo does a full vertical loop:...

I just got back from Germany, and boy did I miss the car culture here in The Motor Suburb. I’m ready to drink it in, so let’s have an Autopian meetup at the usual spot, followed by a cruise down Woodward Avenue, which is going to be absolutely lit on Saturday evening. Bring a lawn chair, as I plan to set up shop on the side of the fabled M-1, and just sit there into the night....

Just so you know and can feel the cringe for yourself, here’s the video: Right from the first “This one’s for you,” this sounds like a parody of X-treem ’90s-feeling doofuscore-rap bullshit. I mean, I don’t know who that moustache-grower in the white shirt is, wandering around in a cave and throwing sand and saying all those silly, silly words in that sounds-like-a-14-year-old-kid-trying-to-sound-badass voice, but oh man, is it, um, bad....

For starters, cars in good condition will likely be a little more rare. Bad examples of great cars are just too fun. Secondly, pricing will somewhat vary as shitboxes exist across the entire automotive pricing spectrum. That 1989 Volvo 740 sitting on a lawn with a dollar store for sale sign in the window? Possibly a shitbox. That high-mileage 2008 Toyota 4Runner from a rust belt state? Probably a shitbox....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. The Present Is Too Weird The world we’re living in feels like an Adam Curtis doc and so it’s sometimes hard to get excited about all the strange things that are happening all the damn time....

Yes, a 2015 Mirage — in large part the same as the 2023 Mirage (the smallest new car in America now that the Chevy Spark has left this cruel world) — made into a camper, with a sink and everything. I love everything about this, not the least of which is that I have a fondness for the humble little Mirage, a car I reviewed back in the day and, more importantly, came to the defense of when other bigshot car reviewers were taking unfair shits upon this honest little machine....

Yes, the Rivian R1T smashed it, earning the Institute’s highest rating of Top Safety Pick+, an impressive feat considering that the new Toyota Tundra is the only other truck to earn such a rating. But why is that? To find out, we’ll have to look at how this rating is assigned. But first, a little explainer on what makes the R1T so different from most other pickup trucks. For starters, there’s the method of construction....

The beauty of this is it gives the company freedom. Mopar is able to make different vehicles compared to what’s expected — to bring a hard rock playlist along when everyone is politely nodding in time to some bland bed-wetter’s music. When Chrysler was briefly the coolest car company on the planet in the early nineties, they built the Viper and the Prowler. Realizing they would have to do something extraordinary to have any chance of gaining market share in the full-size pick up market, the designers cracked open a fresh pack of Marlboro Reds and came up the “big rig” second generation Ram 1500....