Shelby Stories: Personal Remembrances about a Larger-Than-Life Legend
Anyone who has ever met Carroll Shelby has a story. Most loved him, some feared him, and a few got sued/screwed by him — so the legend goes. But what’s any good legend without its dark sides? I knew...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: The Trade Allowance — What it Means for You
At some point in almost every car deal, the customer will turn to the salesperson and say: “Yeah, but the guys at Down the Road Motors gave me $11,000 for my trade! How come all you guys can do is 9?”...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: Up to No Good?
Those of you who have stuck with this series from the beginning may have noticed something unusual about my approach, and it may have puzzled you. I don’t depict car salesmen as “The Bad Guys.” This is...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: How Much Will My Payment Be?
A friend of mine who used to sell cars likes to tell a story about a customer who came in one day and tried to buy a $72,000 Cadillac Escalade. When my friend presented him with the numbers, the man...
View ArticleCar Guys, Car Talk: Click & Clack Retirement Coincides with Apathy Toward...
So “Car Talk” is done. Tom & Ray Magliozzi won’t tape any new shows. Some of us auto journos consider ourselves too serious about cars to listen to two Bostonians give Subaru repair advice to...
View ArticleEpic Drive: Planning the Plan
We love us some Epic Drives. Every month as part of our newly christened Motor Trend YouTube channel, we endeavor to bring you a visually-stimulating, 15-to-20 minute episode designed to entertain and...
View ArticleBraille Rallye: The Blind Leading the Humbled
“Most teenagers are very excited about getting their driver’s license.” One of the Braille Rallye’s organizers said to the group of new drivers that I was standing with. “These kids are never going to...
View ArticleMotor Trend’s Best Driver’s Car: How-To
By now you’ve read the story, watched the videos and debated the results. You’ve probably read and watched last year’s competition, and the ones before that. You know what Motor Trend’s Best Driver’s...
View ArticleTiming is Everything: Putting 5 Years’ Worth of Bests on the Clock
In the five years we’ve been holding our “Best” events at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca — Best Handling Car in 2007 and ’08 and Best Driver’s Car in ’09, ’11, and ’12 –we’ve acquired lap times on 50 of the...
View Article4.Oh Yeah: Audi’s New Twin-Turbo 4.0-liter V-8 is a Monster in the Making
Two of the most impressive V-8s to come around, um, ever, are GM’s supercharged 6.2-liter (ZR1, ZL1, CTS-V) and AMG’s twin-turbo 5.5-liter (E63, CLS63, SL63, etc.). The former, known as LS9 or LSA,...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: The Life of a Salesman
My feet hurt. My feet hurt nearly all the time. Well, not so much anymore. But they did when I started out. When I first started in sales my feet used to hurt so badly I could barely stand it. Finally,...
View ArticleCar Salesman Confidential: CSI is Your Hidden Power
Everyone in the car business will want to kill me after this one. Because I’m going to tell you about something that levels the playing field between you and the car dealership. It’s called CSI. What...
View ArticleOnward and Upward: Two of Detroit’s Lions are on the Prowl
Instead of waiting around, we decided to push out the red-hot Viper versus ’Vette comparison just as soon as we finished it. Why? The words “lap,” “record,” and “Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.” To turn...
View ArticleName Games: Ford Focus or Fusion? It could have gone either way
I just spent a couple days in the new Ford Focus ST. It’s quick and entertaining, the sort of hot hatch the Europeans have made their specialty and at which American compact car enthusiasts have spent...
View ArticleActing Like a Big, Fat Child
Every year since I can remember, Dad and I made the 45-mile trek to downtown Los Angeles to attend the big auto show. It’s the one thing I remember that he and I exclusively did together, and I loved...
View ArticleGetting Corked: Faurecia Takes to the Automotive Interior Fashion Runway
Tier I interior supplier Faurecia is trying to help its OE clients evolve their interiors beyond the open-grain woods, textured aluminums and piano blacks that are starting to look so ‘Naught-ies.’ My...
View ArticleModern Times: Secret Business
One of the advantages of having now clocked almost three decades as an auto writer is that the designers and engineers who were starting their careers the same time I started mine now hold senior...
View ArticleEvery Day I Am Driving: The Three That Got Away
I can’t actually print what he says to me, but I can assure you that when my good buddy Luis expresses his good-humored jealousy over whatever hypercar I’m currently driving, it’s two hues past...
View ArticleEvery Day I Am Driving: Men of Means — and Taste
“Have you driven that yet?” I asked as editor-in-chief Edward Loh drove by in a 2013 Audi S8. “Naw,” the denim-clad man standing next to me answered. “Not really my thing.” The man saying no to the...
View ArticleGentleman, Kickstart Your Engines for the Little Red Racing Car
As a new dad, I have found precious few baby books that are really for car guys. Sure there are plenty of books with cartoony cars with big grins that drive around saying “Beep – Beep, VROOOM...
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