Wild Genesis Wheels, 'Shadowbanned' Tesla Fanboy And Buc-ee's Brilliance In This Week's Car Culture Roundup

I was recently driving a sleek Genesis G70 sedan and noticed that the 19” wheels on it looked like a stick-tortoise trying to escape from a starfish caught in a giant whirling asterisk. Compelled, I Googled the designs of other Genesis wheels and discovered that they were similarly complex, fractalized, and animal-inspired, resembling things like a pane of glass splintered by a lightning strike, an argent snowflake subsumed with a gear rotating around Sauron’s eye, a blistered starfish, or the sand-cast footprints of a sedge of cranes. All of this got me thinking, What the fuck is up with Genesis wheel design? - Brett Berk Read More

It’s tough being a Tesla fan these days, you’ve got to defend the company’s combusting cars, its CEO that keeps dragging the brand through the gutter and years-long delays to almost every product it announces. Now, it turns out that if you even think about changing your tune on the automaker, you could risk getting banned online. - Owen Bellwood Read More

Good morning! It’s Tuesday September 3, 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. - Owen Bellwood Read More

A Rhode Island Mayor is facing a lawsuit that alleges he got into a 1975 MGB and drove away without paying for it back in 2021. It’s a dizzying he-said-he-said case, and neither party comes off as particularly the good guy here. - Erin Marquis Read More

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, September 4, 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. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

Good morning! It’s Thursday, September 5, 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. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

Rivalries between regional gas station chains, like Buc-ee’s in Texas or Sheetz and Wawa on the East Coast, reached a fever pitch in recent years. While regional pride played a factor in the rivalries that developed between brand fans, the drive to draw customers through their doors and make a profit created zealous supporters in the first place. - Ryan Erik King Read More

I fear that I’m in the minority for even thinking about the now-defunct entry-level luxury brand Mercury and its cars, but I should not be in the minority when I say that I think the 1999 Mercury Cougar is one of the best-looking cars ever sold in the U.S.. I was a huge fan of most of the Ford Motor Company’s new-edge designs like the Ford Focus and the Ford Ka , but the 1999 Cougar was the first FoMoCo vehicle sold in North America with this striking design theme. This was the first front-wheel-drive Mercury Cougar ever, and unfortunately it ended up being the final iteration of the Cougar nameplate, but before all else, it was a stunner. - Logan Carter Read More

The introduction of the SUV into the American Zietgeist surely went a long way towards killing the beloved wagon. Vehicles like the Ford Explorer convinced people that they need something that looked tough, rode high and drove big. People forgot that they really just needed something that had room to carry people and their stuff without all the extras. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

Police in Maryland are trying their best to stop a 12-year-old suspect from burglarizing car dealerships outside of Washington, D.C., but their efforts are severely hampered by the fact he’s too young to be arrested or jailed for most nonviolent offenses under the state’s juvenile justice laws. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More