Author: staff@jalopnik.com (Charles Krome)
There is a longstanding belief that Japan builds essentially the most reliable cars within the auto industry, and lots of modern studies proceed to bear that out. For instance, within the 2025 Consumer Reports honor roll of brands with one of the best reliability, the highest six names were all Japanese: Subaru, Lexus, Toyota, Honda, Acura, and Mazda led the best way, in that order. The outcomes were particularly impressive for that first company, as we discovered once we checked out the info on how reliable Subarus are. The outcomes from this yr’s J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability spread the highest…
We will avoid the low-hanging fruit here and just say up front that no, old Beetles didn’t pipe hot exhaust gas straight into their cabins. They relied on exhaust gases to heat up (relatively) fresh air, which was then routed into the cabin to warm people up, a way even utilized in a slew of Beetles that got lost within the Antarctic. Air is pulled into the engine compartment by a fan, which then lets the air flow over the recent engine components to chill them down. In Beetles built before 1963, the air that had been warmed by the…
Joebelanger/Getty Images Although internal combustion engines depend on burning fuel and air to run, they do need some help beginning in the primary place. Within the old days, that would mean standing outside your automotive and getting the engine’s internal parts moving by turning things yourself with a metal crank. The impetus behind developing the primary electric starter, fitted to a 1912 Cadillac, got here when considered one of Cadillac founder Henry Leland’s friends was killed consequently of an accident that occurred when he was attempting to crank-start a automotive. Leland turned to Charles Kettering, who developed the auto industry’s first…
The primary Iron Age flickered out a millennium or two ago, but its automotive equivalent continues to be going strong. Well, if not strong, it’s at the very least still going. Dodge, Ram, and other automakers still feature iron blocks because the foundations for his or her engines — despite a growing trend toward putting more aluminum in today’s cars and trucks. Aluminum actually began getting used within the auto industry way back to 1899, when Heinrich Durkopp showed an aluminum-bodied sports automotive on the Berlin Motor Show. And it has been utilized in many other ways through the years…
Lots of automobile enthusiasts hold a special place of their hearts for semi trucks, whether or not they’re obsessive about big-rig reviews or, like noted automobile collector Beyonce, singing on top of a Dekotora. If you’ve got it really bad, you would possibly even start wondering what the large spikes on semi-truck wheels are for, or why truck drivers still thump their tires. Well, you obviously got here to the suitable place, and we’ll extend your knowledge today by letting you recognize about those chrome tubes — perhaps higher described as cylinders or canisters — which might be often mounted…
An iconic name from GM’s former Excitement Division, the Pontiac Grand Prix had a 46-year production run that only ended when the brand itself finally ran out of gas in the course of the financial crisis that began in 2008. Now, the Grand Prix went through its share of changes over time, starting life as a premium coupe to rival the Ford Thunderbird and ending as a family-focused sedan, and making some interesting stops along the best way. But one thing that remained constant was the Grand Prix’s ability to supply a few of GM’s strongest engines. After all, none was rated…