Weekend News Roundup December 14, 2024

Have you ever bought a vehicle that turned out to not quite be as advertised, and wished you could just take it right back to the seller and give them a piece of your mind? Well, one Utah man tried after buying a used Subaru from a Mazda dealer, and did so in spectacular fashion: Driving the Outback straight through the dealer’s front door. - Amber DaSilva Read More

A fan of one of the greatest science fiction franchises of all time has been getting hit with traffic tickets that are meant for other people. A “Star Trek” fan’s love of the USS Enterprise has seen her receiving thousands of dollars worth of tickets even though she hasn’t driven her car in years and doesn’t even own the associated license plate anymore. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

After last week’s dealership story involving a customer nearly $30,000 upside-down on a Genesis they wanted to trade in on a Mercedes GLS, I thought I wouldn’t see anything that could top it for a while. I was wrong. A 21-year-old first-time car buyer got into one of the worst used car deals I’ve seen, on a used Chevy Camaro of all things. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

Police are questioning a suspect in last week’s shooting of United Health Group CEO Brian Thompson. On Monday TrueCar date engineer Luigi Mangione was arrested on gun charges at a McDonalds in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after someone recognized the man from images released by the NYPD following the shooting. - Erin Marquis Read More

Henrik Fisker is at it again. This time, instead of being the head of a bankrupt car company that’s selling broken EVs that he designed, he’s getting into the food business. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

Rebels storming Syria’s presidential palace this weekend unearthed a haul of supercars worth millions of dollars. Bashar al-Assad’s impressive car collection included models from Lamborghini, Ferrari and Aston Martin allegedly stored in several garages across the country’s capital of Damascus. - Owen Bellwood Read More

If you’ve been wanting to buy a new Hyundai but you haven’t wanted to deal with one of their notoriously crappy dealers, Amazon just saved you a trip. The online retail giant has finally rolled out its online car buying tool for Hyundai that has been in the works for over a year. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

When Ford unveiled the 2025 Mustang GTD last year, it pointed to the center field fence and called its shot like Babe Ruth. The Blue Oval promised its ultimate pony car could lap the Nürburgring in under seven minutes. That promise was fulfilled on Tuesday with Ford announcing an officially certified lap time of 6:57:685. - Ryan Erik King Read More

Seven minutes and 32 seconds. Way back in 2004 Horst Von Saurma tested the then-new Porsche Carrera GT on the Nürburgring Nordschleife for Germany’s Sport Auto magazine, and that was the time he set in its original form. This week the magazine was back at it again with the same car twenty years on, but this time fitted with Porsche’s new Carrera GT–specific, much stickier Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tire. Porsche pro driver Jörg Bergmeister set a lap with an old Porsche Carrera GT on new rubber, and it was an astonishing seven minutes and 12 seconds! - Bradley Brownell Read More

There are a lot of shitty ways to find out the project you’ve been working on for months or years has been scrapped, but few seem as inhuman as a Slack notification. That’s exactly how Cruise CEO Marc Whitten let his team know all of their work was for naught. Earlier this week, he posted a message in the company’s announcements channel with a press release link called “GM to refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles.” It’s no wonder people aren’t fans of CEOs right now. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More