Because common sense is more common than you might think, sales of hybrid cars are down now that gas prices have fallen as well. That makes sense. Yet there are some circumstances where it makes sense to buy a hybrid car, even when fuel costs are low. How do you know if that includes your situation? The government is here to help. [More]
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Oregon Testing Pay-Per-Mile System As An Alternative To State’s Gas Tax
By 5.20.15
With more fuel-efficient vehicles and hybrid cars hitting the roads every day and requiring less gas, some states are looking into how they can still collect enough money from drivers to keep maintain their roads and bridges. Oregon is one such state, with a new test program that allows volunteers to pay the state not for the amount of fuel they buy at the pump with a gas tax, but for how many miles they drive. [More]
Woman’s Car Mistakenly Booted 4 Times Because Someone Else Has Identical Vanity Plate
By 5.6.15
A driver in New York City has repeatedly gone out to her car and found she couldn’t drive it because once again her vehicle had been booted due to hundreds of dollars in unpaid parking fines. Problem is, this driver says she’s never been ticketed and that she’s being punished for the bad behavior of someone else who had the same vanity license plate number. [More]
Takata Airbag Defect Now Linked To 105 Injuries, Six Deaths
By 4.27.15
The number of injuries and deaths associated with Takata-produced airbags that have been found to spew pieces of shrapnel at passengers and drivers upon deployment increased once again, now totaling 105 injuries and six deaths, according to data received from the parts manufacturer. [More]
Chinese Luxury Car Buyers Shop The Very Unglamorous Gray Market
By 4.17.15
Here at Consumerist, we’re fascinated with the global gray market: the system of parallel imports that gives us Omega watches from Paraguay at Costco and a pirate Trader Joe’s store in Canada. There are even bigger things that trade on the gray market, though: in Shanghai, there’s a place where luxury car buyers can save money by purchasing cars that haven’t been imported through official channels. [More]
Man Burned While Trying To Rid Rental Car Of Bed Bugs
By 4.15.15
The list of things we didn’t think needed to be explicitly stated has just grown, after a man trying to kill bedbugs with alcohol in his rental car ended up burning himself instead of delousing the vehicle. [More]
There Are Still Car Maintenance Tasks You Can Perform At Home
By 4.13.15
The best way to keep your car rolling for as long as possible is to keep it well maintained. While changes in how automobiles are made and repaired mean that it’s hard to do as much maintenance in your front yard than a few decades ago, there are some tasks that can save you money and time later on and that you can perform at home yourself without extensive auto repair training. [More]
Ford Resurrecting The Lincoln Continental
By 3.30.15
After rolling off into the sunset 13 years ago like a luxury dinosaur (a dinosaur with wheels, okay?), the Lincoln Continental is reversing back onto the scene. Ford Motor Co. says it’s bringing a new Continental to the market soon, with a full-size sedan going on sale next year. [More]
Mercedes-Benz Planning To Launch Its First Pickup Truck By 2020
By 3.27.15
When you think of a Mercedes-Benz, scenes of rugged vehicles hauling heavy loads across rough terrain probably don’t come to mind… yet. That might change with the launch of Daimler’s first Mercedes-Benz pickup truck, which the company is planning to launch by 2020. [More]
Elephants Help Rescue 18-Wheeler Truck Stuck In Louisiana
By 3.25.15
Forget calling for a tow truck — there’s another road rescue team in place and they probably work for peanuts. But seriously, while it might sound like a joke to have a couple of elephants helping out a stuck semi-truck on the side of the road, it’s all too delightfully true. [More]
GM Recalls Chevrolet Volts That Can Silently Emit Carbon Monoxide
By 3.13.15
It’s possible for a car engine to be too quiet. Two people so far have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning when their Chevrolet Volt cars switched imperceptibly to their gasoline engines. When this happens, the engine remains so quiet that it’s possible to forget that the car is running, and the combustion engine gives off the silent gas that can be deadly in an enclosed space. Like a garage. [More]
GM Scaling Back On Length Of Warranty, Reining In Free Maintenance Program
By 3.12.15
Offering a perk is only valuable to the company if it’s getting something in return in exchange, and for General Motors, it seems the car maker isn’t convinced that its free maintenance program and warranty is worth the effort. As such, GM is cutting the length of its warranty and pulling back on its free maintenance offers, saying those perks don’t sway people to choose one brand of vehicle over another. [More]
Police In Ohio On The Lookout For Serial Pooper Defecating On Parked Cars
By 3.12.15
Police in Akron, OH have been dealing with a messy issue since 2012, and it’s one they just can’t seem to wipe away: Cops say a mysterious serial pooper/bowel movement bandit has made area cars his own personal dumping ground, hitting up as many as 19 vehicles in the last three years. But now, police have his face on camera. [More]
Forgot Where You Crashed Your Rental Lamborghini? Police In Texas Would Like A Word
By 3.9.15
Ever have that nagging feeling like you left something somewhere, but you can’t remember what it is or where you last saw it? Someone apparently suffering a memory glitch has abandoned a rented Lamborghini after crashing it in Texas. [More]
Google Launches Car Insurance Comparison Site
By 3.5.15
Google officially jumped into the insurance business today with the launch of its car insurance comparison website in the United States. [More]
Study: Self-Driving Vehicles Could Eliminate 90% Of Car Accidents In United States
By 3.5.15
Although we’re likely a decade or two away from every person on the block owning a driverless car, when the time comes we could be saving billions of dollars and spending far less time dealing with auto accidents. [More]
Illinois Car Museum Giving Away ‘Back To The Future’ DeLorean — If The Cubs Win The Next World Series
By 3.4.15
If Marty McFly saw it happen, maybe it’ll happen: In the movie Back to the Future Part II, Michael J. Fox’s character travels forward in time to the year 2015, where lo and behold, miracle of miracles, he finds that the Chicago Cubs have finally won the World Series, after more than a century without a championship title. If that happens in real life, an Illinois car museum says it will give one lucky winner the exhibit model of a 1981 DeLorean — complete with flux capacitor. [More]
Tesla Asks Drivers To Please Stop Souping Up Their Cars
By 3.4.15
Sometimes the factory radio just doesn’t cut it in your new vehicle. While swapping out the sound system, and other features – rims, seat covers, tires – is an established way for consumers to put their personal stamp on cars, one automaker is asking them not to, because, you know, it could pose a safety risk, which isn’t good for business. [More]
