Are Collision Avoidance Systems Really Necessary?

Are Collision Avoidance Systems Really Necessary?

“Hey, watch this, kids,” I said as I lifted my feet off the pedals off my 2013 Subaru Legacy. “This car’s so cool because it senses cars in front of it and stops itself.” I should mention that I was on the Interstate going about 60 miles per hour as traffic up ahead slowed to a crawl. With my car careening toward the brake lights, I trusted the car would...

Read More

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Lover

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Lover

Steve writes: Mr. Bark: My lady lives 650 miles away. Most of the time I fly to see her, but over the past 18 months I have put 40,000 miles on my Ford F-150 due to the odd weekends where it’s too expensive to fly, I can’t board my dog, or I want to do a detour and visit my parents in Arkansas. What do you think is the best vehicle for frequent, long road...

Read More

Driverless Cars Are Inevitable And Necessary

Driverless Cars Are Inevitable And Necessary

Our nation’s highways are teeming with automotive gridlock. Everyday commuters are backed up bumper-to-bumper, many of whom are driving alone to and from work. Public transportation is either unavailable, inconvenient or frankly just too awful to be a viable option for many. Traffic is a serious problem. It compromises our safety, damages an already fragile...

Read More

Don’t Be the Next Victim of a Rollover Accident

Don’t Be the Next Victim of a Rollover Accident

Cars can roll over more easily than you might think. In the time it takes to blink, a driver can be cruising the highway and then suddenly find his or her vehicle tumbling side-over-side. According to SaferCar.gov, 33 percent of all passenger-vehicle fatalities are caused by rollovers. You might read that and assume it won’t happen to you because you’re a safe...

Read More

Rides ‘n Smiles – a chance to give something back to children in need

Rides ‘n Smiles – a chance to give something back to children in need

The author, and a happy passenger, at speed in the SRT Viper GTC. Many of us who earn a living writing about automobiles once had visions of racing professionally, only to learn that our skill sets (or our bank accounts) didn’t measure up to our ambitions. Despite this, we’ve run thousands of laps at tracks across the country or around the world, most in the...

Read More

VW T-Cross Breeze Concept Is Small And Simple

VW T-Cross Breeze Concept Is Small And Simple

What’s with that cabrio-SUV from VW? It’s a concept-car, and it will probably never be produced in that form. However, it shows the preliminary design of the smallest VW SUV which will appear next year. Almost six years passed since the Nissan Juke opened the show. Until now, a lot of new players joined the Japanese in the competition, but not VW. Just now,...

Read More

Genesis and Ferrari, Design in 7 Days

Genesis and Ferrari, Design in 7 Days

According to the bible, it took God just seven days to create the world as we know it. Unfortunately, God doesn’t design cars, because the average time to develop a new car can be as long as four years. With computers and high tech design systems, the time can be shortened, but the process is still massive, costing an automaker billions of dollars. Even a...

Read More

First Look: Escort Max 360 Laser & Radar Detector

First Look: Escort Max 360 Laser & Radar Detector

While you are on the road, there are many ways police can catch you for speeding violations. Some of them include radar and laser guns, red light cameras, air patrol, and photo radars, commonly known as speed cameras. According to the National Motorist Association, an estimated 1/3 of all speed enforcement citations are erroneous. Erroneous traffic tickets can...

Read More

Toyota Prius: Most Stolen Car in America?

Toyota Prius: Most Stolen Car in America?

Imagine the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” with a Prius in place of the Shelby GT500. Not very exciting, is it? Car theft has been romanticized in movies and video games, but the reality is far less exciting. Cars are stolen every day in this country, and it happens in plain site at grocery stores, in home driveways, and in mass-transit parking lots. Instead of...

Read More

The Start/Stop Button: A Silent Killer?

The Start/Stop Button: A Silent Killer?

A huge lawsuit against ten of the world’s largest automakers was quietly filed last summer. The suit claims at least 13 people have died due to a major safety defect in automobiles made by BMW/MINI, Mercedes-Benz, FIAT/Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda/Acura, Hyundai/Kia, Nissan/Infiniti, Toyota/Lexus, and Volkswagen/Bentley. The issue has nothing to do...

Read More

Autonomous Vehicles, Malicious Drivers

Autonomous Vehicles, Malicious Drivers

You’ve probably heard the news: An autonomous Google-Lexus brushed a city bus at about 2 miles-per-hour. There’s been plenty of discussion on the incident, some of it oddly hysterical, but most of it has centered on the idea of the future capabilities of autonomous traffic to operate in traffic as it exists today. In other words, from everything I’ve read, the...

Read More

Does this weathervane look familiar?

Does this weathervane look familiar?

If you began reading Hemmings in the 1950s or ’60s, there’s no doubt you’d recognize what car this interesting piece of sculpture represents. But as the hobby has shifted from the Ford Model T and Model A and what the AACA terms “Full Classics” into ’50s cruisers and muscle machines, some of the early history has become a bit obscure even to the most dedicated...

Read More