Posts

That Aging Car Is Costing You 167% More Than You Budgeted

Image
Drivers underestimate annual ownership costs by $4,565. Gas and insurance eat the biggest chunk of the budget. Younger owners spend $10k yearly keeping cars running. Car ownership has always been a little like adopting a pet. You budget for food and the occasional wash and blow dry and then Rover goes and swallows a load of lithium batteries and shotgun shells requiring an emergency trip to the vet and your math goes out the window. A new study says drivers are also underestimating what their cars cost, and not just by a few bucks here and there. It reckons the privilege and convenience of owning a car could be costing them more than $4,500 a year above what they envisaged. Related: Driving Costs Got Cheaper But It’s Not All Good News Synchrony’s Cost of Car Ownership survey found owners think they spend about $2,738 annually on upkeep, excluding loan and lease payments. The actual total averages $7,303. That’s a 167 percent or gap, which means Americans are doing th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Musk Lectures Legacy Brands On Cars, Even As Tesla Drifts Beyond Them

Image
Musk says legacy automakers resist electrification efforts. He argues EVs are simpler, cleaner, more efficient by design. CEO warns traditional brands risk extinction if they stall. There’s no denying it. For all Elon Musk’s foibles, he and Tesla have played an instrumental role in accelerating the car industry’s shift towards electrification and autonomy. Love him or loathe him, the trajectory has shifted on his watch. Now, the controversial CEO says any legacy automaker that refuses to follow Tesla’s lead risks going the way of the dinosaurs. Last week, the world’s richest man sat down with André Thierig, head of Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin, for a deep dive into where Tesla is heading and where the wider industry should be going. In Musk’s telling, it has been obvious for more than 20 years that the endgame is fully electric, fully autonomous transport. The surprise, at least to him, is that some rivals still appear reluctant to accept it. Read: Nearly Half Of Jury P...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stellantis’ CEO Earned What The Average Worker Makes In 82 Years In A Year Of Crisis

Image
Antonio Filosa missed bonuses after a net loss at Stellantis. Despite his late 2024 exit, Tavares still earned $14 million. The former Stellantis boss made nearly $40 million in 2023. Running a global car giant has never been a poorly paid gig, and Stellantis boss Antonio Filosa is finding that out firsthand. In his first year after taking over from Carlos Tavares, Filosa collected a healthy €5.4 million, or $6.37 million. His compensation package included a €1.4 million ($1.65 million) base salary, plus €374,000 ($440,000) in fringe benefits covering transportation, vehicles, insurance premiums, and other allowances. He also receives allowances tied to his role as North American chief operating officer, along with €1.5 million ($1.77 million) in long-term incentives that have yet to be paid, and post-retirement benefit expenses. Filosa could have earned several million more through an annual incentive plan. However, since Stellantis didn’t reach positive cash flow las...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cops Draw Guns On Arkansas Family After ALPR Camera Flags Wrong Plate

Image
An Arkansas family was stopped at gunpoint over a plate error. Police say an automated plate reader triggered the stop. The mistake was cleared on scene after both adults were cuffed. Getting handcuffed in front of one’s own children is something no parent wants. Even worse, though, is a situation where those handcuffs go on because a camera got a plate number wrong and an officer on scene didn’t notice the difference before it was too late. That’s exactly what happened to one couple in Arkansas after police pulled them over and ordered them out of the car at gunpoint. A Camera Flag Triggers A Stop The stop happened on February 11, 2026, not far from a pair of Flock Safety automatic license plate reading cameras. Officer Seth Kinkade of the Sherwood Police Department made the initial stop, and things got serious quickly. With his gun drawn, he orders the driver out of the vehicle. The driver complies calmly, and, to Officer Kinkade’s credit, the situation doesn’t es...
Post a Comment
Read more

We Bet Most Of You Never Knew This Secret Porsche Existed

Image
This one-off Ruf 928R was built for Samsung’s ex-chairman. Its 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V8 now makes 360 hp. Gooding Christie’s estimates it could reach $500,000. Ruf has built its reputation on taking already serious Porsche 911s and turning them into something intimidating. In the 1980s, however, one of South Korea’s wealthiest businessmen asked for something very different. The result is a genuine one-off, and it is heading to the block with Gooding Christie’s at Amelia Island next month. Instead of starting with a rear-engined 911, this project began with a front-engined Porsche 928 . The car, appropriately named the 928R, was commissioned by Lee Kun-Hee, the former chairman of the Samsung Group. Ruf sourced an original Porsche body-in-white and developed the car from there, adding bespoke details and a series of performance upgrades that set it apart from any standard 928. Read: This Is What Happens When Jerry Seinfeld And RUF Build A 911 Under the hood sits...
Post a Comment
Read more

America’s Gen Z Is Ready For Chinese Cars, Their Parents Are Not

Image
U.S. consumers are sharply divided on Chinese vehicle brands. Dealers show strong resistance despite notable shopper curiosity. Price incentives could sway buyers, but trust remains critical. If you spend any time in automotive comment sections, you’ve seen it. Someone inevitably points to a cutting-edge EV from China and declares it superior to whatever U.S.-market model is under discussion. There’s a huge catch, though: that vehicle doesn’t actually exist in the American marketplace. More: BYD Got In America Through The Back Door, Now It Wants The Front One Too It’s not federally certified, not sold through U.S. dealers, not supported by a domestic service network, and not priced with tariffs factored in . It’s a theoretical alternative, not a real one, and new research helps explain why this dynamic exists. Americans are forming opinions about Chinese automakers before most have ever seen one in person. According to a study from Cox Automotive , consumers are hea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Texas PD Tests Model Y To See If Gas SUVs Really Cost Up To $12,000 More A Year

Image
Murphy PD in Texas now runs the 2026 Model Y Juniper. Each unit saves $4,100 to $12,000 a year in fuel and upkeep. Its electric drivetrain could double the car’s service life. The Murphy Police Department in North Texas has become the first agency to roll out the refreshed 2026 Tesla Model Y Patrol, upgraded by Unplugged Performance. Instead of committing to a full fleet replacement, the department is running the EV in real-world conditions to see how it holds up to daily patrol duty. Officials say the more persuasive case is financial. Each cruiser is projected to deliver measurable savings compared to a traditional ICE-powered patrol vehicle. More: There’s A New Contender For The World’s Coolest Police Car According to data from the City of Murphy, projected annual savings per vehicle range from $4,100 for single-officer units to as much as $12,000 for shared-shift cars clocking more than 140 hours per week. The bulk of that comes from eliminating fuel purchases, tho...
Post a Comment
Read more