Underwater Car Shoppers, Rogue Teslas And The Deadliest Cars On The Road In This Week's News Roundup

Americans owe trillions in car payments and the last few years have shown that people are willing to accept life ruining payments to be able to drive what they want. A recent video of a customer at a Mercedes dealership showed in real time just how wildly financially irresponsible folks who get into these car buying situations can be. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

Rivian secured a big win last month when the Biden administration approved a $6.6 billion loan to fund construction of its Georgia factory. The electric startup had to pause its initial plans to bring the plant online this year, and the new loan will be a key part of Rivian’s plans to expand its lineup beyond the R1T and R1S. This has, apparently, upset Vivek Ramaswamy, the viscerally repulsive moron Trump chose to co-lead the advisory committee Elon Musk is calling the Department of Government Efficiency. Apparently, helping Rivian is a direct attack on Tesla. - Collin Woodard Read More

Mazda’s famous rotary engine finally made its big return last year, but it wasn’t under the hood of a replacement for the RX-8. In fact, it wasn’t even in a performance car at all. Instead, it served as a range extender for the MX-30 electric crossover. You can’t buy that particular car in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean Mazda’s given up on bringing the rotary engine back to the Land of the Free. In an interview with Automotive News, the CEO said that’s because we need a more powerful twin-rotor engine. - Collin Woodard Read More

Two people were taken to the hospital after a Tesla went rogue in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday and drove off the roof of a parking lot. The Model S reportedly smashed through a barrier and landed in a loading dock with the driver and one passenger inside. - Owen Bellwood Read More

It’s been just over a year since Tesla delivered its first Cybertrucks, and just a couple of months since reports said that basically everyone who wanted a Cybertruck already had one. Last month the company started trying to move unsold units by offering lease deals, and now we’re seeing the final stage of a car that’s outsold its interest: Tesla is telling Cybertruck factory workers not to bother coming in to work. - Amber DaSilva Read More

More cars are fitted with active safety features like automatic emergency braking and lane keep assist than ever before, and yet fatality statistics are higher now than over the past 12 years according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS. Experts say that the increase in fatalities has an array of potential causes including higher rates of speed and higher rates of distracted driving, but an increase is still an increase. The cars on this list are not inherently unsafe, but statistically their occupants experience more frequent fatal crashes than occupants of other vehicles. - Logan Carter Read More

Austrian motorcycle giant and maker of the X-Bow sports car KTM is on the verge of bankruptcy and will begin a “self-administration” restructuring process to avoid dissolution. A big part of the company’s big money-saving efforts will see the MotoGP effort on the chopping block. KTM, which also owns motorcycle manufacturer Husqvarna and has a majority share ownership in MV Agusta and GasGas, says it will continue to race in MotoGP in 2025, simply tightening the purse strings and pausing race bike development, though there are concerns within the MotoGP paddock that the four-bike team will not show up next season. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Against all odds, the first Fisker Ocean rolled off the production line a little over two years ago. It was supposed to be the car that brought Henrik Fisker back into the limelight as the CEO of a new electric car company. Soon, Fisker’s poor management would drive his EV startup into bankruptcy, leaving owners holding the bag. Many of them do still have their cars, but as Edmunds found out recently, the Ocean is now nearly worthless. In fact, its value dropped by $57,000 in less than a year. - Collin Woodard Read More

The most annoying and stupid people on the internet have been screaming about Jaguar’s “woke” rebrand for almost a month now, despite the teaser campaign being extremely typical fashion-adjacent stuff that’s fitting for the new concept’s launch happening at Miami Art Week, and the “Copy Nothing” tagline actually being the company founder Sir William Lyons’ original saying, not something a new ad agency came up with. Now none of that discourse matters, as the new Jaguar Type 00 concept has been revealed, and we can have discourse about what it’s actually like instead. - Daniel Golson Read More

When the world was at its lowest during World War I sacrifices needed to be made in order to support the global effort to snuff out nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. In a bid to conserve fuel and energy, the U.S. turned to Daylight Saving Time in 1918. We pulled the clocks forward by one hour during the summer to allow for the regular operation of day-to-day business and schooling to take place during sunlight hours, preventing the need for more lamp oil. - Bradley Brownell Read More