The Fixlight 1180 was in many ways a fairly conventional approach to electrical turn indication in that it involved blinking amber lights, but that’s about where the similarities end, because the location and design of the 1180 was just so damn weird, even for the era. Here’s how Volvo’s museum describes the — frankly pathetic — Fixlight 1180: There’s a lot of remarkable things to learn in those two short paragraphs, and they’re mostly breaking down why having your turn indicators in a roof-mounted little wing is such bad idea....

Here’s the tweet that announced the concept’s reveal: Details: https://t.co/W3kv9rtdlG pic.twitter.com/eUaQKTwY4Q — Stellantis North America (@StellantisNA) November 1, 2022 In case you can’t really make out what’s going on in that picture, here it is, enlarged and brightened a bit: Okay, it’s the side of a truck, quite swoopy, and with a few notable differences from Stellantis’ earlier tease, which showed a different light signature and looked more like a designer’s rendering:...

How Did This Even Happen? The Joint Venture System The Chinese car market is loaded with wonder; cars built on ancient platforms, cars running on all sorts of fuel, cars with all kinds of looks, and cars made by any kind of company that might also manufacture something completely different. Part of why car culture is so interesting there has to do with a unique joint venture system that required foreign automakers to partner with Chinese ones; the foreign side was allowed no more than 50% of the shares....

I own too many cars. This has become far more apparent now that I’m no longer just a writer for a car website, but instead someone with a leadership role. Take yesterday, for example. I should have been writing, editing, researching, and answering emails, but instead I was elbow deep inside the piece-of-crap AMC 360 in my 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle (more on that steaming pile later today; hold onto your hats)....

More Money But More Standard Features Let’s start with the big yet entirely expected news: another price bump. While the Maverick launched with a very asterisk-y starting price of $19,995 before freight and other fees, it was quietly increased to $20,995 before freight mid-way through the 2022 model year. For 2023, starting MSRP jumps $1,200 to $22,195 and freight clocks in at $1,495. While a $23,690 hybrid truck is still very appealing, it’s not quite the screaming deal it once was....

The sudden, unexpected appearance of a hot water bottle was a source of confusion in our Slack channel, so here’s how this wonderful bit of kit works. Basically, it’s a flexible rubber insulated vessel. Unscrew the bung, fill the vessel with boiling water from the kettle, screw the bung back in, and the rubber construction will let you enjoy heat for a fair period of time. It’s great for winter wrenching, cramps, shoveling snow, staying warm during a nasty storm, and pre-heating unheated seats....

Ooh, close one! Our closest yet. But it looks like we’re taking the Fury road. Immortan Joe and his Cadillac are just going to have to lump it. Now, as you might have heard, our illustrious Editor-In-Chief, in an uncharacteristic move, recently bought a vehicle on a whim. My first thought, like so many others, was “Why?”, followed closely by “Big deal; that’s only a good deal in Detroit. I can find a way better manual 4×4 out here on the West Coast for that price....

Last time, we looked at the Tiffin Allegro Bus 45 OPP, a 45-foot luxury Class A motorhome that will run you $670,000 or more depending on options. I asked you dear readers to figure out its lighting, and I must admit, there was some trickery going on. Tiffin’s people tell me that while the company’s rigs look like they use lights from production cars, they only look like they do....

The application form starts off fairly innocuous, asking for some basic information about yourself. However, the application quickly asks you to describe your social media following. Speed Academy probably has enough clout to score a GR Corolla Morizo Edition, but I’m struggling to think of active Canadian automotive influencers with incredibly strong followings who aren’t journalists or already tied to a brand. Birdy and Speed Academy, sure, but who else?...

Huh, interesting. When I first saw the ads for those two cars, I was firmly on Team Buggatti. But the Maxi Taxi’s charms have grown on me, and now I think I might go that way instead. It’s just so ’70s it hurts. I can’t resist it. Also, you might have noticed our polls have had a bit of a mid-cycle refresh, thanks to our own Matt Hardigree. Matt found a poll plug-in that works with WordPress instead of fighting it tooth-and-nail....

It’s the radio one that really gets me: Who is this impressing? What potential Sunbeam-Talbot buyer is on the fence until they read that and thought “oh good, I like how they carefully engineered a thing on the car to fit into a hole on the other part of the car! That’s really clever, letting it fit where it’s supposed to go, instead of it, you know, not fitting or falling out!...

It’s the seats that really make it for me: they’re such a wonderfully absurd loophole-jumping ploy, as they made the BRAT into a passenger car instead of a pickup truck, and as such weren’t subject to the cruel 25% Chicken Tax. The lack of seatbelts is exciting, but even better are those terror-grip handles with their BMX-style rubber grips, designed to be held, white knuckled, as your shirtless, chain-smoking cousin drives like a maniac, splashing into the deepest possible puddles and potholes in the gravel roads behind your uncle’s property....

The Utrecht Police Department described what happened on their Instagram page: If, somehow, you can’t read Dutch (I know, I know) here’s a translation: First, I have to admit, I’m really impressed with this kid. Four year old kids are basically ambulatory madness, from my experience, bonkers little squashy loons that bounce around performing acts of minimal, if any, sense. They’re as likely to put a dog’s ear in their mouth as they are to, say, open a door....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Former Apple Chief Designer Sees A Need For Buttons In Cars Iconic modern Apple products are marked by minimalism, although the chief designer of many of those products recently expressed a need for physical controls in cars....

So first, let’s settle up on our crossovers: I guess that’s what I expected. I, however, disagree, and would take the Tribute if given the choice between these two. I do all my own maintenance and repairs, and a two-wheel-drive vehicle with an inline four sounds like a whole lot less hassle than all-wheel-drive and a transverse V6. And Lexus or not, at 230,000 miles, something will need work soon....

1987 Renault Espace I Turbo D Estimated price: €6,000 to €10,000 Who wouldn’t want an Espace? Not only is Matra’s packaging wonder an important part of automotive history, it’s also incredibly practical and unbelievably French. Not only was it built by everyone’s favorite missile and three-seat sports coupe company, it features a somewhat haphazard center stack with the radio at the absolute bottom. Strangely, the Espace shares a bit of a genealogical link to the original Chrysler minivan....

Like elsewhere, sports cars in China are mainly halo cars to draw attention to a brand. For the longest time, high-end sports cars by Chinese brands were not considered an easy sell, as most consumers who got the cash preferred a fancy import. But that is slowly changing with the advance of electric technology. Consumers consider Chinese EV tech superior to Western, so suddenly a homegrown electric sports car may have a serious chance....

The car I was looking at was a 1965 Porsche 911, specifically the little horn grilles on the sides, under the headlamps. I started to imagine what a 911 might look like if those grilles went straight across the front, ahead of the hood’s front edge. And that weirdly reminded me of an AMC Pacer, of all cars, and then that reminded me of the Pacer’s other grille, and then I realized, holy crap, I bet a front-engined 911 might have a grille like that....

Huh. Once again, I find myself in disagreement with the majority here. I dig the Avalanche, but it always felt a little too much like a compromise. I’d rather have the straightforward big-sedan vibe of the Chrysler. Anyway, yeah. Delaware. One of those teeny-tiny East Coast states that’s usually just an arrow pointing to a spot on a map, the first state to ratify the US Constitution, and, coincidentally, my mother-in-law’s stomping grounds....

While the city of Milton Keynes may be better known for office buildings and startups, it also has some automotive pedigree. Red Bull’s F1 team is based there, as is Volkswagen U.K., so it shouldn’t be surprising that RacingLine hails from this pocket of Buckinghamshire. RacingLine may have started out as Volkswagen U.K.’s motorsports effort, but it’s morphed into a tuning shop offering all manner of bits for Volkswagen and Audi products, some of which have ended up on this GLI....