The CarGurus Blog

Daily coverage of the world of cars.

Domestic Cars

This Was My Father’s Oldsmobile


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Yesterday, in the course of my adventures, I overheard one sentence from someone’s conversation. It was one of those moments when you walk past someone, hear a snippet of what they said, and spend the rest of the day thinking about it.

This is what I heard:

“It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile.”

That’s it. I have no idea what the context of the conversation was or what was said directly before or after. I heard only that one phrase.

It triggered memories from many moons ago of ads that attempted to sell the “modern” Oldsmobiles as less stodgy and more hip than the Olds cars of the past.

The campaign obviously wasn’t all that effective, considering the brand ceased to exist soon after. I have a theory as to why: I think the ads were right. Those newer cars weren’t my dad’s Oldsmobile.

My dad’s was way better.

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10 Best Cars to Tackle Winter


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As we saw this past week, snow and ice can be quite a drag when you need to get somewhere—especially when half the country does at the same time. With Winter Storm Boreas hitting just in time for the Thanksgiving travel rush, we got to thinking about just which cars we’d prefer to take out in extreme winter conditions. Some of them are practical, some are sensible, and others are downright nuts—but they’re all cars we’d love to be in when the white stuff starts falling.

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New Life for Cars of the Past


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If you watch Breaking Bad, you know that Walter White drives an old Pontiac Aztec everywhere he goes. The car gets driven hard, has been through countless ordeals, and yet it soldiers on.

Of course, none of it is real on the show, but it’s still interesting that producers chose a car that is universally hated and chided as one of the world’s ugliest vehicles of all time.

Maybe, though, the show has given a second life to Aztecs everywhere. No longer are they weird afterthoughts from a forgettable era, they are now, somehow… cool. Especially ones with a perpetually broken windshield and one steel wheel.

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Will Dodge Disappear Next?


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If you’re like me, when you hear the name Dodge, you still think of beefy pickup trucks. Never mind the fact that Chrysler took all of Dodge’s trucks and moved them under the Ram brand back in 2009.

That shift left Dodge with nothing more than a couple of cars, two SUVs and a van. The plan was to turn Dodge into a sporty car brand, but so far the new Dart is as close as we’ve seen to anything new and exciting. With some recent news about some Dodge vehicles getting discontinued, is it possible Dodge will cease to exist?

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Cars That Won’t Die: Do You Have One?

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2003 Ford Ranger
Over 400,000 miles and still going

My car turned past the 100,000-mile mark this weekend. I’d been fretting over that number as it approached, wondering if things would suddenly start falling apart.

I’ve never had a problem with the car. It’s always started on the first try and always purred along without trouble, and it doesn’t seem to have lost anything in the way of performance or power. Still, it’s not a car exactly known for its longevity, so I’m nervous. My nerves weren’t calmed when I started my car for the first time since I crossed that magic number. Rain fell from the dark sky, and I flipped on the headlights in the parking lot at Fantastic Sam’s. The reflection in the building’s window told me only one headlamp illuminated.

Great. While a headlamp isn’t a big deal, I wondered what other problems were programmed to start now that I was into 6 digits. So far, nothing. But I’m still nervous.

Then I read stories about vehicles that are still going strong after trudging over 400,000 miles without much more than a battery change.

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