With another school year about to begin, parents nationwide are preparing to spend lots more time driving children to and from after-school activities. According to a recent CarGurus online poll of car shoppers with school-age kids, 38% of parents estimate they spend between 30 minutes and an hour shuttling their kids around on a typical weekday, while 33% of parents polled say they spend more than an hour. If your current daily driver isn’t up to the task, here are 10 vehicles with high safety ratings that also offer plenty of cargo space, seating capacity, cabin comforts, and a host of modern technology features that should at least make that extra time spent shuttling children around a little more comfortable for the whole family.
Archives for August 2015
Which to Choose: Alfa Romeo 4C Spider or Mazda MX-5 Miata?
Two great open-air, 2-seat roadsters have hit the marketplace recently: the 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider and the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata. Both are spirited, lightweight, and fun to drive. The question is, which do you choose?
Performance
The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider (see our Alfa Romeo 4C Overview) is equipped with a 1.8-liter turbocharged inline 4-cylinder that produces 237 hp at 6,000 rpm and 258 lb-ft of torque at 4,250 rpm. The Mazda Miata MX-5 (read our Overview) comes equipped with a 2.0-liter DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder engine with 155 hp at 6,000 rpm and 148 lb-ft of torque at 4,600 rpm.
Should a First Car Be a Supercar?
Life is good when your first car is a Lamborghini.
At least, it appears to be good if you’re the kid enjoying the attention your car generates. Onlookers, on the other hand, will assume the kid behind the wheel is either a spoiled a brat or a rebel secretly taking his dad’s car out for a spin.
Kids everywhere dream of owning a supercar as their first vehicle, but there aren’t too many in the world who actually see it happen. The ones who do are proof that no child, regardless of wealth, should ever get behind the wheel of anything but an Accord.
I sometimes participate on the Q&A website Quora, where this question was posed:
The Case for Self-Driving Cars Becomes Clear
I used to think that the advent of self-driving cars would be the downfall of society. I thought they’d take away our freedoms and turn us into mindless commuters.
I imagined people inside their smart vehicles, each buried in his or her smartphone, while the cars silently flow through interstates and arterials like ants slowly marching toward their queen.
Orderly. Efficient. Conforming.
I’m not the kind of guy who likes to conform. I don’t want to be just one of a billion ants locked into a life of mindless existence, thus my resistance to autonomous vehicles and a future where individuals must fall into line.
I think I’m starting to get it, though. Here’s why.
12 Cars for Folks Who Hate Trips to the Pump
Have you ever found yourself tearing across a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland, desperately hoping that your fuel tank won’t run dry? Although not everyone spends their free time pondering Mad Max-related scenarios, we at CarGurus occasionally do. A few weeks ago, we discussed some of the best cars for a summer adventure, and one in particular caught our interest: the Volkswagen Golf SportWagen TDI. We pointed out that with it’s 14.6-gallon tank and great fuel economy, the SportWagen should be able to get you roughly 600 miles before needing a fill-up. That got us thinking—just how far can someone get on one tank of gas? We decided to look at the data to figure it out.