The CarGurus Blog

All Photos Courtesy of the Petersen Automotive Museum

On the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, at the beginning of Los Angeles’ “Miracle Mile,” sits the Petersen Automotive Museum. Founded in 1994 by magazine magnate Robert E. Petersen, the Petersen Museum rose to become one of the world’s premier automotive museums and today attracts visitors from all over the globe to view the approximately 150 cars on display at any given time. With an inventory ranging from Ferraris to Fords, the Monkeemobile to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s custom 1942 Lincoln and a countless number of rare and classic cars that come through the museum on loan, the Petersen Museum has something for everyone.

Founded with the idea that all the museum’s cars would not be on display at the same time, the Petersen Museum has 8 permanent exhibitions that it compliments with a variety of temporary exhibits. Given the principle of not putting all its cars on display at the same time, the museum rotates cars in and out of exhibits to keep the museum feeling fresh every time a visitor returns. With permanent exhibits including the famed “Streetscape: The Car and the City in Southern California,” “Hollywood Gallery: Cars of Film and Hollywood” and “Discovery Center” as well as temporary exhibits like “Braving Baja: 1000 Miles to Glory” and “Fins: Form Without Function,” it’s lucky for our boss that the Petersen Museum isn’t located in New England, as it’s doubtful CarGurus employees would ever show up to work with such a collection in our backyard.

Continue reading >>>

Car Lists, Car Minded, Classic & Vintage Cars, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat

A lot of people in advertising seem to think they can add instant credibility to their marketing message by adding a superlative or two to the copy.

Calling a product or service the “best” or the “biggest” or the “most” is pretty common practice, but this rarely means anything, since such labels are typically subjective marketing speak and used everywhere, all the time.

Tesla Motors posted a piece on its blog Friday announcing the “World’s Best Service and Warranty Program.” Well, that’s a mighty bold statement to make, but then again, Tesla is a pretty bold company and tends to back up what it says.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Shopping, Domestic Cars, Electric Vehicles, General Chat elon musk, Tesla, Tesla Model S, valet service, warranty

Tesla hasn’t done much that’s conventional in the car business. Just being successful as an independent U.S. automaker is unconventional enough, but the feisty maker of sexy electric cars has shunned the traditional dealer network and, now, debuted a whole new way to finance a Model S.

Well, mostly new. It’s essentially a lease. And a purchase, but with all kinds of asterisks and “true cost of ownership” numbers involved. But is the new financing program truly revolutionary, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk has suggested?

Well, yeah, the idea actually is. Don’t expect to drive a new Tesla for dirt cheap (not even close), but Tesla’s new financing plan should pique the interest of more than a few potential buyers.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Electric Vehicles, General Chat electric car, elon musk, model S lease, Tesla, Tesla Model S, true cost of ownership

With all the coverage of the New York Auto Show this week, one little car has been mostly ignored. In a sea of exciting new debuts, convincing Cadillacs and luscious Land Rovers, coverage of a small but exciting new electric has mostly fallen through the cracks.

People in the United States are not used to small cars from Mercedes-Benz. The smallest offering here has been the C-Class, but our roads are smothered in M-Class SUVs and large, powerful sedans. We have equated MB with big luxury, so smaller cars with a premium price here may be hard for buyers to accept. But with the new CLA-Class on the way, and the coming B-Class EV, things are about to get small.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Shows, Cars Coming Soon, Electric Vehicles, Foreign Cars, General Chat b-class electric drive, Cars Coming Soon, CLA-class, electric. new york auto show, mercedes-benz

McLaren P1

One of the cars I’m going to mention here is real and could theoretically be purchased and stored in your garage, assuming you had enough cash and knew the right people.

The other car doesn’t even exist. All we have is the promise that it will, along with some seriously unbelievable claims and performance numbers.

These are supercars that reside at opposite ends of real and imagined, yet share the common goal of becoming one of the fastest automobiles in the world.

First, let’s start with the real car: the McLaren P1.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Electric Vehicles, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Hybrid Cars Chreos, electric vehicle, McLaren P1, McLaren P1 specs, P1, Silex Power

I don’t know why people continue to be surprised that electric cars have range limits. My 8-year-old daughter has an electric scooter and loves it, but knows it’ll die out somewhere around the 25th time down her long driveway and she’ll end up pushing it back to the garage. It doesn’t make her angry or surprise her, it’s just expected. Meanwhile, my son knows his gas-powered go-kart will run until the tank goes dry. Similar concept, different fuel. One can be refueled in about 30 seconds, while the other takes all night.

These are kids’ toys, and there’s no mystery involved.

Yet auto writers seem to love it when their test EV runs out of juice somewhere along a pre-determined test route designed to push the limits of range. Why? Because it gives them something to rant about. They can say things like, “Aha! This car left me stranded!”

That makes for a much more interesting story than reporting that a car finished a test loop without issue.

By now most people on Earth probably know about the New York Times writer and his adventures with a Tesla Model S, as well as Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s fiery reply. Come on guys, let’s just hug this thing out.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Domestic Cars, Electric Vehicles, General Chat elon musk, john broder, model s, new york times, Tesla

Congratulations to the Ravens and Baltimore fans everywhere!

While the game was electrifying, I thought the advertisements overall were severely lacking in energy this year. It’s like the power went out on all of them even before the Superdome went dark. My favorite car ad was the Audi prom spot. The Chrysler/Ram Paul Harvey spot almost made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. The others were just mediocre.

With that out of the way, let’s get back to cars rather than the outlandish, extravagant attempts to sell them. Yes, we need vehicles to serve the mundane and much-needed transportation services of daily life, and I find irony in the fact that we often buy them based on some perceived emotion or extreme experience marketing people promise they will provide.

True car enthusiasts can look past overly produced TV commercials and buy based on other, more meaningful, factors.

One of those factors might be the car’s future collector value. Make it affordable and fun to drive as well, and the deal closes itself! What 2013 cars could be future collectibles?

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Shopping, Classic & Vintage Cars, Domestic Cars, Exotic Cars, Foreign Cars, General Chat Audi, brz, camaro, Camaro ZL1, Cayman, cayman S, Chevrolet, classics, collectibles, corvette, corvette 427, Focus ST, Ford, GTi, hagerty, hagerty hot list, hagerty insurance, John Cooper Works GP, Mini, model s, Porsche, RS5, srt, subaru, Tesla, Viper, Volkswagen

The "unpluggable" Model S

The Tesla that couldn’t move.

The Fisker fires.

The A123 bankruptcy.

The CODA Automotive layoffs.

It’s been a rough end to 2012 for the U.S. electric vehicle industry, but all hope is not lost. Maybe Chinese companies can step in and take some ownership in an effort to right what sometimes looks like a quickly sinking ship.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Car Politics, Domestic Cars, Electric Vehicles, General Chat, Hybrid Cars 2012 coda sedan, A123 Systems, China, coda, coda automotive, coda sedan, electric vehicle, fisker, Fisker fires, stranded, Tesla Model S

The next Toyota Supra?

You might want to begin thanking everyone who bought a new Scion FR-S.

Because of the success of Toyota’s new little sports car, the company is considering bringing back the vaunted MR2 and Supra names. Yes, these rumors have been floated before, but now that Toyota has confirmed the public’s thirst for its performance offerings, there will probably be more on the way.

This possibility was mentioned in yesterday’s Car of the Year post, but since then a little more info has surfaced. Not all of it good.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Minded, Cars Coming Soon, Domestic Cars, Electric Vehicles, Foreign Cars, General Chat Cars Coming Soon, electric supra, mr2, supra, Tesla, tesla supra, Toyota, toyota mr2, toyota supra

The 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year

Anyone can give out a Car of the Year award these days. In fact, the list of COTY awards seems to grow every year. There’s the old stalwart, the Motor Trend Car of the Year, but there’s also the North American Car and Truck of the Year, the World Car of the Year, and now the Popular Mechanics Car of the Year. Perhaps there should be an equally prestigious “tgriffith Car of the Year.”

Maybe there will be.

With such a wide variety of awards, it’s pretty hard to label the one true Car of the Year. In this era of “everyone’s a winner,” every car has some chance of winning some kind of award.

Motor Trend, though, seems to have nailed this year’s choice.

Continue reading >>>

Car Industry News, Car Magazines, Domestic Cars, Electric Vehicles, Foreign Cars, General Chat, Trucks & SUVs Ford Escape, Motor Trend Car of the Year, North American Car of the Year, Popular Mechanics Car of the Year, Scion FR-S, subaru brz, Tesla Model S, Volkswagen Up!, World Car of the Year