News

Jeep's ditching its entire plug-in hybrid lineup after 2025, pivoting hard toward extended-range electric vehicles instead. The 4xe and Grand Cherokee PHEV are effectively dead. It's a quiet admission that the middle ground between combustion and full EV wasn't where the market was headed.

This C8 ZR1 drop-top arrived fully optioned—carbon aero package, front-axle lift, forged carbon wheels—in black-on-black with the kind of spec sheet that reads like someone actually understood what they were building. The ZR1 nameplate is doing what it should: justifying a six-figure price tag through engineering theater and genuine track pedigree, even if it's technically a soft-top rather than a hardtop purist's choice.

The FIA's fresh engine formula for 2026 hasn't even hit track yet, but manufacturers are already circling a compression ratio loophole that could reshape the entire technical playing field. The focus is compression ratio—the delta between maximum and minimum cylinder volume—and how teams might exploit it before the rulebook gets locked down. This is classic F1 politics: spec the regs, find the escape hatch, negotiate before enforcement.

Chrysler's abandoning plug-in hybrids entirely—the Pacifica Hybrid and Wrangler 4xe are getting the axe as the company pivots to traditional hybrids and range-extended setups instead. It's a tacit admission that PHEVs were always a compliance play, not a genuine product strategy. The bean counters finally realized nobody was buying them at the volume they needed.

Readers want what the industry deemed unprofitable—honest, small-footprint runabouts with actual personality. The Fiat 500, MINI Cooper, and Renault Twingo proved the formula worked; bean counters just decided margins on crossovers looked better on quarterly reports.

Officine Fioravanti has done what Alfa Romeo wouldn't—dropped a manual into the modern Disco Volante to mark Touring's centennial. It's a 2000s revival that gets the transmission question right, because some cars demand three pedals regardless of what the spreadsheet says.

Officine Fioravanti has done what Alfa should've done from the start—fitted a proper manual to the modern Disco Volante, the 2000s homage to Touring's aerodynamic masterpiece. It's the difference between owning a car and piloting one. Values on these have been creeping up; a manual example will only accelerate that trajectory.

A Crawfordsville, Indiana builder named Terra Knife turned out this blue fiberglass go-kart in the '70s—steel frame, Tecumseh engine with centrifugal clutch, chain drive. It's the kind of DIY contraption that existed before liability lawyers killed the genre. Simple, purposeful, probably terrifying.

Geely's Zeekr brand dropped the 7GT wagon in Europe with peak 480kW charging—fastest in the segment, technically. Problem: it's still a Chinese EV fighting for credibility in markets that don't know the brand. Charging speed is table stakes now, not a differentiator.

Italdesign dusted off the mid-engine hybrid formula and designed what Honda should've kept alive—a cleaner, more purposeful update that borrows from the original's DNA without the corporate dilution. The design study suggests what happens when you let designers dream instead of letting product planners play it safe.

This low-mileage W222 S560 represents the last generation before Mercedes decided to make everything a tablet on wheels. The twin-turbo 4.0L V8 makes 463 hp through a nine-speed auto to all four corners, finished in Selenite Gray over black Nappa—the kind of spec that ages better than the infotainment systems that ship with these things. Values on clean examples have stabilized, making now the moment to buy if you've been watching.

The 992-generation 911 now starts at $140K, up $8K alone for 2026. This isn't inflation—it's Porsche testing how much devotion actually costs. When base models approach six figures, you're no longer selling cars; you're selling membership to a club that's priced out everyone who remembers when 911s were attainable.

Honda's racing division is developing a parts catalog for the current Civic Type R and revived Prelude, though specifics remain under wraps. This is HRC doing what HRC does—taking already-capable platforms and squeezing another 10% through suspension geometry, intake flow, and chassis reinforcement. The Type R especially needs it; values are holding but the market's waiting to see if these parts justify keeping them relevant against the next generation.

Honda's issuing a recall on the new CB1000 Hornet SP over piston and ring specs that can starve the engine of oil, seizing the connecting rod bearing. It's the kind of catastrophic failure that ends rides permanently. Early production run issue—if you've got one, get it sorted before it turns into a $15K bottom-end rebuild.

Chevrolet's twin-turbo mid-engine monster earned a spot among Road and Track's Performance Car of the Year contenders, giving the ZR1 a legitimate stage to justify its $110K+ price tag against purpose-built competition. With 1,064 hp and a sub-2.8-second 0-60, the question isn't whether it's fast—it's whether it can do anything else well enough to matter when judged alongside dedicated track specials.

A ground-up restoration of a genuine '77 Trans Am SE—the peak of second-gen muscle theater—heads to auction with original 400/403 V8 and that specific blend of gold and black that defined an era. These cars sat in the shadow of their own mythology for decades. Now they're finally worth restoring properly.

A spec'd-out LR4 HSE with that $10,200 luxury package—cooler box, mood lighting, Windsor leather, Meridian audio. This is what peak mid-2010s Range Rover dealer thinking looked like: convince owners that cupholders and ambient lighting justified five figures. Corris Gray over Ebony, no reserve.

The Atlas has always been the three-row crossover with actual character—the Peak Edition leans harder into that personality with visual tweaks that actually land. It's not trying to be German precision or American swagger; it's doing its own thing, which in the midsize crossover wasteland is either refreshing or just weird depending on what you want from seven seats.

Cadillac's V8 lineage spans nearly a century of American excess, from the early L-heads that defined luxury to the 6.2L LT4-based Blackwing that finally gave the brand a proper performance engine before they killed it all off. The real story isn't the specs—it's that Cadillac waited until 2023 to build something that mattered, then abandoned it for EVs.

General Motors took a massive writedown on EV operations and China restructuring, and now Jeep is cutting 2026 prices to move inventory. Translation: the company that bet big on electrification is now in damage control mode, which means real discounts on gas-powered models while they last.