I fear that I am one of the few people on Earth who actually loves Smart cars; they’re just quirky and adorable caricatures of cars, especially seeing them on the roads of the sport ute and pickup truck-obsessed United States. The Smart ForTwo was only sold in the United States for 11 years from 2008 … Read more
Photo: Fiat Today is an exciting day, as Fiat has revealed its new Grande Panda, a baby crossover-ish hatchback that is completely adorable. If you can believe it, this is only the fourth generation of Panda to emerge since 1980 when the original model was revealed, and that one was in production until 2003! While … Read more
Image: Fiat If you hadn’t realized, the 2024 Fiat 500e is already arriving at dealers here in the United States, with the first ones all being painted bright red. Keeping in the brands plans to release special editions like shoe drops, the brand has “dropped” a new special edition. The latest 500e is called the … Read more
Screenshot: Attack Official Movie Channel on YouTube If you’ve ever played Gran Turismo, you probably remember that anything even approaching a one-minute time at Tsukuba Circuit is frickin’ fast. To bop around that track in a tiny little Fiat, on street-legal tires no less, in one minute and seven tenths of a second is nigh … Read more
Mini just unveiled its first dedicated EV model, the adorable and diminutive Aceman electric subcompact crossover. It sits just about two inches longer, one inch wider, and three inches taller than the current F55 Cooper Hardtop four door, and slots between the recently redesigned Cooper and Countryman models. Given its unimpressive WLTP range estimates, small … Read more
Of all the goofy and delightful vehicles to ever wander the of Antarctica and the Arctic, I never thought I would come across a vehicle seemingly less-suited to the icy wastes than Australia’s Volkswagen Beetle. But the Australians who brought the Bug to the continent really out did themselves with a Morris Mini Minor—on tracks, … Read more
Even by electric vehicle standards, the original Fiat 500e wasn’t exactly a huge success. The Italian EV was mostly available in California, and sales peaked in 2015 with 6,194 units dropping to 2,250 by 2018. Former CEO Sergio Marchionne also famously claimed the company lost $14,000 on every 500e sold, which meant the less successful … Read more
When then-Chief Designer Frank Stephenson was ready to present his new first-gen Mini Cooper design to BMW’s board of directors back in 1996, he realized he forgot something important. The Mini design team had worked multiple 24-hour days to complete the first full-sized clay model of the new Mini, and when they finally finished the designers had … Read more
Allow me to begin by admitting my bias. I own a 2017 Mini Cooper S that I bought used, and I love my car more than most. When I was shopping for a fun, affordable, practical daily driver, my wishlist included Volkswagen GTIs, but my bank account disagreed. The Volkswagen GTI is largely credited with starting … Read more
Photo: Logan Carter Buying a new car is always a battle between what your heart wants, what your brain wants, and what your bank account can handle, but if you’re a car person then you know the heart often gets what it wants despite logic pointing you in the other direction. As someone who’s been … Read more
