Good morning! It’s Friday, April 26, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know. 1st Gear: ViFast Handed Another $1 Billion Vietnamese automaker VinFast is really trying to get itself taken seriously … Read more
Once you’ve gotten over the charging and pricing issues, the next problem most people have with electric cars is the way they sound. They argue that the hum of an electric vehicle motor is sterile or aren’t fans of synthesized engine notes that can be piped out of speakers built into the cars either. Now, … Read more
The present owner of today’s Nice Price or No Dice Quattroporte claims to be selling it “under book value” due to a minor fix it requires. That’s on top of the precipitous depreciation these cars already face. Let’s see if this one is worth the roll of the dice. Jon Cryer’s First Car Came From … Read more
Good morning! It’s Wednesday, April 17, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know. The Toyota CH-R Is Dead in America 1st Gear: Ports Are Filling With Unsold Cars, Mostly From China … Read more
After launching its all-electric lineup with the Grecale Folgore SUV and GranTurismo Folgore coupe, Maserati is expanding its range of EVs with its first battery-powered convertible: the GranCabrio Folgore. The droptop version of the electric GranTurismo takes the title of the fastest convertible EV on the market thanks to its top speed of 180 mph … Read more
I have never truly understood why some convertibles are called spiders, since spiders are creepy and generally undesirable creatures and not small sporty topless fun machines. There are a few potential origins for this automotive arachnidian nomenclature mashup, one rooted in a poor translation, and one that comes from way back in the horse-drawn carriage … Read more
Photo: Paras Griffin / Stringer (Getty Images) People don’t typically think of Real Housewives as a car franchise, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have plenty of cars in it. The reality show’s cast members and their families, of course, drive fancy cars, and there will always be that time Real Housewives of Beverly Hills … Read more
Tesla’s “no haggle” direct-buy pricing model was once heralded as the future of how Americans would buy cars. Several years later, the dealership system is still going strong. Now, according to a recent study, Elon’s insistence on adjusting MSRPs based on market conditions has had detrimental effects on Tesla’s resale value. Jon Cryer’s First Car … Read more
The new Maserati GranCabrio enters the market as an AWD, 542-hp, four-seat cabriolet that will compete against the likes of the Bentley Continental GTC, Ferrari Roma Spider, and Aston Martin DB12 Volante. Despite the new name, this is just a new GranTurismo cabriolet, which is not a bad thing considering that the GranTurismo is a … Read more
Photo: National Motor Museum/Heritage Images (Getty Images) Designing a car is a massive undertaking. Automakers must effectively predict the future and produce a design that will be appealing for years to come, and the process starts years before the car hits the road. Oftentimes designers have to adhere to a preexisting platform, meet a certain … Read more
