ArcaMax

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Wednesday it is eliminating a regulatory wrinkle that boosted the miles-per-gallon ratings of electric vehicles, which helped automakers meet federal fuel economy targets.

The announcement follows an appeals court decision in September and a complicated Biden-era standoff between automakers and ...Read more

Ford Motor Co. engineers assigned to work on the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker's new electric vehicle platform often take several months to transition to the group's different approach to vehicle development, the team's executive director said.

Ford a few years ago broke off a small team of engineers and designers it called "skunkworks" in ...Read more

For 27-year-old Kenneth Slowik, an affordable vehicle is the 1998 Chevrolet GMT truck he bought last month for $900, complete with a broken driver-side door that he taped shut to keep out the cold during the frigid Michigan winter.

The truck runs, he said. That's about it.

"I was looking for something just to transport for work, for me and my ...Read more

A strange thing has happened to what used to be compact -- and affordable -- trucks like the Ford Ranger and its rivals. They have grown in size to the extent that they are now nearly as big as full-size trucks used to be -- and they have become twice as expensive as compact trucks used to be as recently as about 10 years ago, when all the small...Read more

Luxury-brand (and luxury-priced) vehicles have -- arguably -- been diminished by the fact that many of them have the same size and type of engine that non-luxury-brand vehicles have.

That size and type being a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

The Cadillac XT5 also comes with one of those. But -- for the moment -- it is also still ...Read more

Nissan has had trouble selling its electric vehicles -- the Leaf and Ariya (the latter was just recently canceled). Sales are down 94%. Probably because EVs are too expensive and too impractical for most people.

The Kicks is neither.

Which probably explains why it does sell.

What It Is

The Kicks is Nissan's smallest -- and most affordable --...Read more

The Chevy Colorado is simpler to buy than it was a few years ago -- because now it only comes in one configuration -- crew cab, with a 5-foot bed -- and with just one engine, a turbocharged four.

This truck used to be available in extended cab or crew cab configurations, and you used to be able to pick from three different engines, ranging from...Read more

Would you pay $8,800 more to get a Honda HR-V with less engine but more power? What if it were badged as an Acura -- and came standard with a larger touch screen than you'd get in the Honda?

Behold, the Acura ADX!

But is it worth almost $9,000 more than an HR-V?

What It Is

The ADX is Acura's smallest, least expensive model. It's a ...Read more

Electric vehicles have brought something back to the lower end of the new car market that's been absent from that end of the market for decades:

Rear-wheel drive.

It was once common for even economy cars to be rear-wheel drive. Examples include the Ford Pinto, Chevy Chevette and Datsun B210. Front-wheel drive became standard in pretty much ...Read more

The problem with sedans is that they're impractical. Even the full-size ones have proportionately tiny trunks that make it difficult to carry both people and their things. It's not like it was once -- when big American sedans that had huge trunks were common. In fact, there are no longer any American sedans being made -- except for...Read more

Jaguar has the same problem that Chrysler's dealing with. Both of these brands currently have just one new model to sell. For Chrysler, it's the Pacifica minivan. For Jaguar, it's the F-Pace, which is an SUV.

Both brands haven't got anything else to sell at the moment because they intended to be selling something different -- electric vehicles ...Read more

Lincoln no longer sells a full-size luxury sedan -- the kind of car that could carry five to six people in ultra-quiet comfort. That was -- for decades -- the Town Car, which Lincoln stopped selling after 2011, which was also the last year the Ford it was based on (the Crown Vic) was available.

Both of these full-size sedans were replaced by ...Read more