Posts

A 17.3 MPH Speed Limit Sounds Like A Mistake, Wisconsin Says It Isn’t

Image
Wisconsin drivers are doing a double-take after spotting a 17.3 mph speed limit sign. Officials say the oddly specific number is designed to break “autopilot” driving habits. Similar decimal-point speed limits, such as 8.2 mph, have appeared elsewhere. Habituation is what we humans experience when we fail to notice something because our brain believes the information is somewhat unimportant. We roll by a 25 mph (40 km/h) speed limit sign and don’t think too hard about whether we’re actually going below that limit. Wisconsin has a government facility that’s trying to buck that trend with a simple decimal point. Rather than a limit of 15 or 20 mph, drivers have to stay below 17.3 mph (27.8 km/h). And that double-take is exactly the point. Read: Speed Limits Are Outdated, And We All Know It According to officials at the Outagamie County Recycling and Solid Waste facility, the oddly precise number was chosen for one simple reason. It forces people to stop and actually lo...

The Land Cruiser 70 Was Built For The Outback, Toyota Just Made One For The City

Image
Toyota’s Land Cruiser Base has two new one-off concepts heading to Tokyo. The Land Cruiser 70 wears beige paint with retro stripes pulled from the ’80s. Its sibling, the LC250, gets a darker matte gray and gloss black bi-tone look. Toyota’s dedicated Land Cruiser Base division will roll into the Field Style Tokyo 2026 exhibition with a pair of one-offs that argue for restraint. One is built on the 250 Series, the other on the venerable 70. Both are called “Urban Style” in some form, both are aimed at owners who fancy modifying their own trucks, and neither is going into production. Starting with the classic 70 Series , it wears a beige paint job with alloys finished in the same shade, wrapped in all-terrain rubber. Black and grey stripes run down the flanks, a style borrowed from the 1980s. The “Urban Heritage Style” name does most of the explaining. The point of the exercise, Toyota says, is to demonstrate that a vehicle this agricultural can still pass muster in the c...

America Is About To Tariff Itself Out Of Its Last Affordable Cars

Image
Cheap cars could disappear if North American trade worsens. US tariffs squeeze already tiny profits on low-priced vehicles. Only 7 % of new cars at the end of last year cost under $30k. Buying a really affordable new car in America is already hard, but it could soon get much harder. Foreign automakers are reportedly warning the Trump administration that low-cost models may disappear entirely if North American trade rules are weakened or tariffs remain in place, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many mainstream brands have already abandoned affordable sedans and hatchbacks. Detroit automakers largely pivoted toward trucks and SUVs years ago, leaving companies like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Hyundai carrying much of the budget-car burden. And even they’ve sometimes struggled to make the numbers stack up, leading Nissan to axe the Versa after this year. Related: The Average New Car Costs $50K, So Americans Are Emptying Used Car Lots Models such as the Toyota Corolla...

A 550 HP Inline-Six From The Charger Could End Up In Alfa’s Next Giulia And Stelvio

Image
The redesigned Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio are due in 2028. They’ll be offered with conventional, electric, and plug-in hybrid power. Models reportedly had to be reengineered to allow for engine cooling. Alfa Romeo was set to launch redesigned versions of the Giulia and Stelvio this year. However, the company got cold feet after seeing other automakers deal with lackluster demand for electric vehicles. Instead of pushing the models out and hoping for the best, Alfa embraced a radical rethink and is delaying the vehicles to give them additional powertrains. While the redesigned sedan and crossover ride on the STLA Large platform, which underpins the Dodge Challenger and allows for both ICE and electric powertrains, things are more complicated than just installing an engine. More: Alfa Romeo Scraps New Giulia And Stelvio Plans To Start Fresh According to Autocar , the vehicles had to be reengineered to “allow more cooling for combustion powertrains.” As part of the m...

Mitsubishi Rarely Recalls Anything, Then 108,000 Outlanders Got A Letter

Image
More than 108,000 Mitsubishi Outlander models in the US need repairs. Certain models were originally recalled in ‘Salt Belt’ states in the US. Dealers will replace the affected strut at no cost to current owners. It seems like every other day we’re writing about a new recall from Ford, with the company recalling more vehicles in the US than any other. On the other end of the spectrum, one carmaker you’ll rarely see issuing recalls is Mitsubishi. Indeed, it’s just issued its first recall for the year, and it’s only an extension of a recall announced last year. This new recall impacts 108,046 examples of the 2018-2022 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and the 2014-2020 Mitsubishi Outlander. The carmaker has revealed that the gas strut cylinder used for the liftgate can corrode if it comes into contact with salt water, potentially causing the strut to rupture. Read: It Bounces, It Flutters, And Now It’s Headed To Court Prior to this recall, the most recent one Mitsubishi issued...

One E92 M3 Sold For $40,000 This Month. This One Sold For $205,392

Image
A standard E92 M3 just sold on Bring a Trailer for over $205,000. The car had only 725 miles and a six-speed manual transmission. It wasn’t a GTS or Lime Rock Park Edition, just a Competition spec. Ask ten BMW faithful which M3 sits at the top of the pile, and you’ll rarely get a tidy consensus. Some hold up the original E30 and its lightweight four-pot, others reach for the E46 with its classic straight-six, and a fair number argue the V8-powered E92 is the one that truly delivered. The new custodian of this barely-used E92 evidently belongs to the last group. Used E92 M3 prices have been climbing for a while now, though a tidy example with a few miles under its belt can still be had for under $30,000. None of that mattered to the two bidders who went toe-to-toe on Bring a Trailer this week, with the hammer eventually falling at an extraordinary $205,392. Read: $175,000 Buys You The E46 M3 Touring BMW Said No To In 2000 What’s particularly eye-opening about this resu...