The one carmaker that could do no wrong falters, BMW and Lexus just went nuts, and one country figured out a genius new way to up electric car sales. All that and more in The Morning Shift for Monday, Nov. 5, 2018.
There is no missing the 2019 Mini John Cooper Works International Orange Edition as it comes down the street. With its flashy orange paint job and checkered graphics, subtle is definitely not in its vocabulary. This is nothing new; the JCWs have been the loud, extravagant performance Minis for years now, with a racing…
Awww, look at you! Aren’t you the cutest little car in the whole world! Wait—what? You mean someone designed the Mini Moke thinking this tiny little Barbie Jeep would be an off-road military vehicle? Awwwww, someone has big dreams!
Let’s face it: you never know when you might find a magic tangelo under some litter on the street, bite heartily into it, and find yourself transported to behind the wheel of a car hurtling down the Pan-American Highway. I’d like to help you prepare for such a situation, so it’s quite fortunate that I’m just recently…
Done with college? Your hand-me-down 2003 Honda Civic not cutting it anymore? Ready to add some car payments to your crushing student loan debt, like a real adult? If so, Mini’s here with a pretty good offer that won’t break the bank too badly. It’s a fun ride with some nice equipment for under $20,000.
At this very moment, I’m on the half of the Earth I usually don’t get to visit: the lower half. Specifically, I’m in Temuco, Chile, where I’m taking part in a drive with three Mini Countryman Hybrids which are attempting to drive the entire Pan-American Highway, from Texas all the way to the Earth’s appendix—Tierra…
Driving a Mini Cooper S brings up different conversations depending on where I am. Around the mechanics at work, it’s all questions about reliability. To which I get to explain the joy that of owning basically a high mileage BMW, but with none of the badge or prestige. You can see the commiserating nods over oil…
Back in the 1960s, Marcos Engineering didn’t have enough money to display their Mini-based sports coupe at the Earls Court Motor Show like all the other manufacturers. So, they took a picture of the car outside the show, printed up a bunch of them, and handed them out to as many show goers as possible in a brilliant…
Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the stories you need to know.
This week I’m roaming around in a 2018 Mini John Cooper Works Clubman ALL4 which is a wordy way to say “the performance trim” of what is essentially the Mini sedan, paradoxical though that may be. What do you want to know?
The original BMC Mini is widely considered to be one of the most technically influential cars of all time. Its transverse front-wheel drive layout is the basic design of nearly all mass-market small cars to this day. Yet a surprising number of the Mini’s revolutionary design decisions were present in another tiny car…
Automakers must feel like they have something to prove with electric cars. Every new concept and production EV we hear about has supercar horsepower, a ludicrous 0-60 mph time and an interior that looks like the H.R. Giger version of an Apple Store. What if I just want something simple, small and easy to navigate a…
Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know.
Minis! They’re fun cars, but please miss me with that British kitsch—they’re BMWs now and we all know it. So, why not stuff a BMW V8 in the front?
Welcome to Jalopnik Movie Club, where we take a look at cars in movies and movies about cars, and you write in with all of your hot takes. This week, we’re reviewing the boring 2003 remake of The Italian Job, a movie that strips most of the style, flair and humor away from the original and replaces it with Marky Mark.
I am nothing if not a fair, honest, and gracious (and beautiful, too, why not) journalist. That’s why when I review Minis, I try to do so from the deranged standpoint of someone who might actually buy them. But the truth is, I hate them for a ton of reasons. Patrick George, who is wrong, thinks I’m wrong. Welcome back…
Welcome to Jalopnik Movie Club, where we take a look at cars in movies and movies about cars, and you write in with all of your hot takes. This week, we’re reviewing the original The Italian Job—the strange tonal genesis of Austin Powers, Top Gear and the global obsession with original Mini Coopers.
Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know. And just a heads up, there are a lot of multi-million dollar settlements and fines raining down on the auto industry today.
BMW is having a hard time figuring out our electro-autonomous future. After making a splash there early on with the i3 and i8, its alternative energy offerings have languished. Now the company has to adapt in a way that could mean losing the whole “driver’s car” thing. Either way, BMW and its Mini subsidiary are…
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