I realize that the idea of a car that I bought for $1 being a pile of shit isn’t exactly surprising for many of you. But you have to understand that this Oldsmobile was my friend’s daily driver just a few years ago before its ignition system went bad. I replaced that and drove the Michigan vehicle 1,400 miles to and from Virginia. It performed admirably, offering a smooth ride and 30 MPG....

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. Renault Is Bleeding From Russian Investments It didn’t take a Lada dough for Russian automotive research institute NAMI to snap up a majority of Renault’s share of Russian carmaker AvtoVaz....

First, if you’d really like to kill three hours, you can watch the whole AI day right here: …but if you have other things going on in your life, we’ll just jump to the good roboty bits here. First off, people on Tesla’s robotics team gave an overview of the robot’s hardware and software, which all seems to be quite by-the-book for modern humanoid robot design. The first robot demonstrated was, as Tesla bot mechanical engineer told the audience before the robot came out, going to be operating for the first time without any backup support or umbilicals or support cranes, so I imagine the whole team was quite nervous....

Not just one, but three readers sent in this lovely creation. Thank you all, Alexander, Cory, and Joshua. It’s easy to see why this little car is causing a stir. I mean, it’s not everyday that you see a creation like this just pop up for sale. Sadly, by the time that you read this the Metro has been sold. Whoever bought it got a decent deal, I think. It was just $3,200 and it still ran, but had bad brakes....

Sadly, Al is no longer with us, which is why is partner Robin has decided to sell the evolved Cavalier. I spoke with Robin about the motivations behind this wonderful and strange machine: Looking at the pictures, you can see how this would have certainly been a cozy and comfortable place to sit in and fish through solid ice, which is how I assume frozen fish sticks are acquired for our enjoyment....

Today was our first attempt at a mailbag wherein we answer the questions that you have. It’s a fairly simple concept. There were a bunch of good queries, but this one stood out to me: — Walter McÏnnis (@McWalt) September 21, 2022 What’s interesting here is that, rather than get into the details of when a car is at the sweet-spot for the depreciation/car repair curve, Beau brings his experience as a dealer to explain why the time to sell is probably now....

Why is it that the stubborn nonconformists of the car industry are often the ones we as enthusiasts want to root for? From Saab’s pathological obsession with safety to TVR’s devil-may-care attitude towards driver aids, marques that do things differently often burn their candles twice as bright for half as long, attracting legions of fans long after corporate doors are shut. Mind you, there’s an exception to every rule. Mazda has been around for 102 years, is still fiercely independent, and is willing to stick with and develop crazy ideas everyone else gives up on until they actually work....

I always admired the fact that you could get a Jeep Wrangler without air conditioning. It’s a convertible, after all, so just drop the top and let convection do its thing. Also, the Wrangler being an off-roader, there’s value in keeping complexity down so there’s less to damage on the trails — I myself have always wanted a Wrangler with manual locks, manual windows, and a manual transmission. I’d even have liked one without AC, but only if I could find one used, since buying a new car without AC is a terrible idea (as you’ll have a hard time selling it if you ever needed to)....

I actually have some experience with these little Mercurys because I remember in the early 1990s, with my sister and I well-evicted from home, my parents were considering buying one of these. They liked the idea of a little convertible, so they looked at a Miata and the Capri. I remember the only Miatas available were manuals, so I drove my dad around in one since he can’t drive stick, and then I think I was disinvited from car shopping....

In 1964, Japan showed that in a world of jet travel, trains could still be relevant. The first-generation of Shinkansen trains operated on the Tōkaidō high-speed line going as fast as 130 mph. The “bullet train” caught the attention of not just railfans and commuters, but of companies and governments. As the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration notes, the government began looking into high-speed rail right around the launch of the Shinkansen....

I’m not even sure where the joke began. Volkswagen has owned Skoda partially since the 1990s and outright since the early 2000s and has slowly transitioned the brand into another series of vehicles based on their basic platforms. They have their Polo (Fabia) and their Golf (Octavia) and on and on and on. Maybe it started as a joke? I’m not sure. But I went to the Czech Republic and borrowed an Octavia vRS and, you know what?...

While there were a few people involved with the development of the flashing turn signal, only one gets the credit for getting to the patent office first: Oscar J. Simler. According to the National Museum of American History, Simler’s patent in 1929 was for a rear-mounted device that would signal both for slowing when the brake was pressed, and signal a stop when the brake and clutch were both pressed....

Injured Engine was published by Imagic, a company that was the second third-party video game developer ever: Activision was the first, founded by disgruntled Atari employees, and soon after that other Atari programmers left, emboldened by Activision’s success, and founded Imagic, which released its first Atari 2600 games in 1982. The company started with some very good but fairly conventional games: shooting games, strategy games, adventure games, and so on....

I found this a little odd. Sure, I have nine cars outside my house, but given how bad some of the project cars look, I strongly doubt anyone would really mistake me for a dealer. Maybe this random guy was a reader who wanted to see my fleet? This happens fairly often — someone who follows my articles is driving by, sees my cars, and decides to say hello. I usually greet them and give a nice tour of my collection; in some cases, we become besties....

Yes, you know what I’m talking about! The way that some cars, when you look at them, appear to have a front end that looks like it has another, smaller car emerging from it, like the car has somehow absorbed another car, leaving only the smaller car’s face peering out, possibly in terror. Perhaps the most famous of these cars is the 1969 Ford Mustang: …and perhaps the most infamous is the 1962 Dodge Dart: You see what I’m talking about, right?...

[Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post had a top photo with the term “deep dive.” This is not really a deep-dive; deep-dives are extremely in-depth research pieces, often into engineering topics. You can expect those from us regularly. This is more of a quick-look. -DT] And here is that very video: As far as that old VW part I was talking about, the front axle assembly, while we don’t show it in the video, I can confirm that it is, in fact, a normal VW torsion beam front axle, the same basic kind that has been in use, in various forms, since 1938: Oh, the wipers are old-school VW parts, too....

I’m in a bit of a weird spot, because I’m in the process of moving to LA, but I’m not planning to bring any winter beaters, because why would I? So I’m selling the cars I’d normally drive in salt, meaning I…no longer have a car to drive while I pack my belongings in my Troy, Michigan abode. It’s not an optimal setup, and — after shedding a tear even thinking about driving my Jeep J10 in brine-covered I-75 — a thought entered my head: What about the $1 Olds?...

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. Brit Agency Tells Insurers To Stop Screwing Customers It’s a weird time to be a car insurance company. First, there’s inflation, which makes the cost of most things go up....

I mention this topic after seeing talented-car-journalist Jonny Smith’s tweet a few weeks ago: — Jonny Smith (@Carpervert) April 26, 2022 “Worth risking for national road safety?” Smith asks, clearly dischuffed at the proposal. Again, he isn’t alone. Even British motoring association “The AA” issued a statement ripping on the idea, with The Sunday Times reporting: That second paragraph saying drivers actually prefer annual MOTs is a bit bonkers to me....

We have eight new shirts for the holiday season and we’ve even added colors (!) for some of them. You can buy them here and support The Autopian while also looking fresh as hell. [Editor’s Note: I’m excited about this batch of shirts for a few reasons: first, the Lumiere Rouge shirt is based on that famous taillight bar’s original shirt design from 1972, right before the big Taillight Bar Crackdown of the mid-’70s....