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The last time someone knocked on my door, I answered to the flashing lights of a fire truck.
While scary, it turned out to be nothing more than a warning about a burn ban and a firm request to put out the remains of a campfire I had smoldering in the front yard. I mention this only to illustrate the fact that I live in a rural area, and people simply don’t come knocking on my door.
So when the rat-a-tat-tat of a door knock happened again last weekend, I prepared for the worst.
We shall call them the Badge Swappers.
We’ve all seen these guys and gals on the road, hidden behind the steel-and-glass veil of their cars. Unlike the rest of us, who are proud of the cars we drive, the Badge Swappers try to convince the rest of us that they are driving something much more special.
Some people try to be blatant and pass their car off as a different brand entirely. Others are more subtle and adhere a performance badge to a base-level car.
Here’s the thing that the Badge Swappers must not know, though: The only people who would care about the badge are the people who notice the fraud. Keep reading and see if you can identify the car behind the badge.
We are a car blog. It’s here where we discuss the best and worst of the auto industry, from exciting new technology to finding great value in used car purchases.
We love cars and the entire culture that surrounds them. We love interacting with readers, answering questions, pointing out trouble spots in car-buying, gushing about exciting new cars, and creating fun lists giving our opinions on a wide range of best cars for a variety of purposes.
One of those purposes is road trips. And while we would normally discuss the best cars to take on a road trip, today we share what might become the world’s ultimate road trip.
Living in the United States, it’s currently exceeding difficult to drive to Europe. If we desire to leave the confines of our country we can escape to Canada, migrate to Mexico or, if we’re really ambitious, continue on into the far reaches of South America.
But there’s no driving to London. Yet.
John “Bugsy” Lawlor and the New England Motor Press Association gave one of New England’s worst winters ever an emphatic boot this past weekend. Having assembled an impressive fleet of new cars and trucks, not to mention a mouth-watering buffet, Lawlor and his Automotion crew hosted a large and varied group of auto journalists for NEMPA’s 2015 Winter Vehicle Awards testing.
Roads were relatively clear but very wet, and withering grey remnants of this year’s record-setting snowfall lingered just beyond the pavement. But having the opportunity to put a large and varied assortment of cars through its paces refreshed everyone’s perspective and attitude. We all learned a ton and had a blast, and we now eagerly look forward to ditching snow tires, opening car windows and roofs wide, and hitting the back roads in something speedy and nimble.
The list of cars available for testing included everything from hot compact all-wheel-drive hatches to full-size trucks, with a number of muscle and sports cars tossed in for good measure. My co-workers and I did our best to sample as wide a range as possible, though we’ll confess that some of our choices were driven by parking-lot logistics. NEMPA’s Winter Vehicle Awards winners won’t get announced until springtime, but here are some thoughts on the cars we drove.
We thought we would follow up our Today’s Most Popular Cars From the 1980s list with its logical sequel: ’90s cars. We looked at our data again and determined which ’90s cars garnered the most interest from CarGurus shoppers. We have to say, this list surprises us a bit less. The ’80s list featured a good number of discontinued cars, but only one car no longer in production made this one. Nineties cars are probably a bit more practical than some of the nearly ancient ’80s models (cars on this list are likely at least 11 years younger), and most of these cars haven’t quite reached collector status.