Daily coverage of the world of cars.
I pulled up to the bank yesterday and parked nose to nose with a Mercedes-Benz.
It was kind of weird at first glance but I only looked for a moment and didn’t give it a second glance until I passed it again, on foot, on the way into the bank.
The car was an “Anniversary Edition,” at least according to the crudely applied stickers near the front fender. That’s when I paid more attention and realized the car wasn’t a Mercedes at all.
It was a Kia.
“You know, we should probably check out a Buick.”
I had no idea my dad was capable of speaking such nonsense. He wasn’t even kidding.
My parents were in the process of shopping for a new car, and my dad, a lifelong proponent of foreign cars and skeptic of American cars, uttered those fateful and surprising words.
At 60 years old, my dad was just doing what many 60-year-olds do. Thankfully my mom is still 59 and hasn’t crossed over into the age of Buicks just yet. She prevented the purchase and influenced a choice that conveys a considerably younger persona.
My son just wanted to look. As a young car-obsessed kid interested in a future of car design, he is desperate to own a sports car. The kid has taste, though, and knows the value of a Porsche over a Corvette.
He wants his first car to be a Boxster so he can drive to high school in style.
He wants my new bride and me to own a 911.
Wishful thinking, right?
Summer has come, school has ended, and students have graduated. If you have a student in your family, you’re probably wondering what would make a good graduation gift. Well, why not a car? Nothing too expensive or super outlandish, of course. Something with a small price tag, good safety features and good fuel efficiency. Well, if you’re generous enough to be shopping in the automobile market on behalf of a recent graduate, let us point you in the right direction. With fuel economy, safety and, of course, affordability in mind, we’ve compiled a list of vehicles we think would make absolutely phenomenal graduation gifts.
If you’ve been inside a newer car lately, it’s very likely you’ve seen some of the awesome safety technologies new cars come with these days. While cars have become more reliable, longer-lasting and more fuel-efficient in recent years, safety is really where cars have grown by leaps and bounds. In the past, it was all cars could do to protect us during a crash. Today, they actively try to prevent crashes.
We decided we wanted to take a closer look at just what cars are doing to keep us safe. While some of the best safety features on the road today have become standard in many cars, some of the coolest have yet to become mainstream. To help give you an idea of what, exactly, cars are doing to keep the airbags from going off, we put together a list of what we think are 10 of the coolest, most interesting and best safety innovations automakers put into cars.