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First, let’s check out last weeks final results: Bit of a Saab story for our topless Swede. There was no lack of support for it, but it’s hard to beat a good, honest old truck. The ex-fleet F-150 is our second Shitbox of the Week winner. Back in the dark days before the internet, when AutoTrader was printed on actual paper, there was a section called “Transportation Thrifties.” It’s where you looked if you just needed wheels to get around — something that you could drive as-is for a week or two until you got another paycheck to start fixing stuff....

Now that it’s drivable and safe, I’ve been tootling around town in it while I await the Polar Vortex to disperse to get that cigarette-laden “bowling alley smell” out, as a good friend told me. But, the more seat time I’ve got with this car, the more I’ve come to understand: the second-generation Prius was fucking brilliant, especially its touchscreen infotainment system. Now, I know there’s a considerable aversion to any sort of screen-anything in cars, and I do understand why....

Yep. It’s hard to resist the appeal of the VW Scirocco. And someday, I would really like to have another one. But I sure as hell won’t pay twelve grand for it. Let’s get back to some reasonably-priced fare, shall we? Doing that, of course, means giving something up, because you can’t have it all if you’re shopping at the bottom end of the market. So which do you choose: a clean, low-mileage example of a fundamentally undesirable car, or a desirable one that has been ridden hard and put away wet?...

While the unusually clean Aerostar put up a good fight, it’s clear that it’s hard to find a better used car at any price than a Toyota Camry. With sleek styling and luxurious accouterments, it’s no surprise that the Camry Solara SLE V6 walked away with the win. Score one for Canada, as this thing was assembled right down the road from me in Cambridge, Ontario. Anyway, today we have two cars from brands I’ve actually owned....

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. Tesla Recalls Models Over Pinching Windows The quality control issues keep on coming for Tesla, and this latest one is rather weird. More than a million models have been recalled due to defective power windows....

FSO was the major automaker in Poland during the Eastern Bloc era, and after years of building the archaic compact Syrena and larger Warszawa, in 1965 made a deal with Fiat to build a number of their cars under license, as did another Polish factor, FSM, which made the little rear-engined Polski Fiat 126p that would become their people’s car, but FSO built other licensed Fiats like the Polski Fiat 125p, a licensed version of the boxy Fiat 125 sedan, and the 128p, and so on....

Alpina’s kindly provided a dyno graph for the new XB7, so let’s take a look. The new SUV makes 630 horsepower and 590 lb.-ft. of torque, exactly the same torque figure as the old car but 18 more horsepower. The new twin-turbo S68 engine is really an evolution of the old N63 twin-turbo V8, so similar output is to be expected. More importantly, torque peaks 100 rpm earlier at 1,900 rpm and plateaus through 5,400 rpm, while a horsepower plateau kicks in from 5,500 rpm all the way to redline....

From the front, the new HR-V looks decidedly unimpressed, like it loathes the concept of being a vehicle. It’s seething with contempt for its purpose – schlepping Lack coffee tables home from IKEA after its owner’s housemate had a Marinara disaster. It know the chances of receiving an ugly state-mandated front license plate and approaches such a possible fate with a cynicism usually reserved for deeply disappointed optimists. Things get a bit better around the side – think five-eighths-scale Acura MDX if someone didn’t quite nail the scaling on the vertical axis....

RVs have seen a massive boom during the pandemic. Many vacation destinations shuttered while other popular methods of relaxation like cruise ships prove to be petri dishes. In spite of the challenges, Americans still want to get out and have fun, so an incredible amount of people turned to hitting the road and camping. And a ton of those people decided to do it with a travel trailer or motorhome....

Just over five years ago (which feels like it’s been a decade, I know) Tesla unveiled its idea for a semi truck of the future. The Tesla Semi promised to revolutionize the trucking industry with an EV semi capable of hauling a full load 500 miles on a single charge. Development of the Semi has been a rollercoaster. Back in 2018, Musk said that the Semi would have four Model 3 motors and release in 2019....

See how the photographer shot this gloriously green photo so that there were a lot of blurry leaves close to the lens that makes the right quarter of the photo into a relatively low-contrast sea of light green? That works really well for laying type over and still having it be legible without having to stick it into some clunky box. So I’m wondering: did the photographer set out to take a photo like this with the planned text layout in mind?...

CVT bad! Ugly V8… not good, but less bad! Noted. Now then: There is a certain breed of small car that isn’t meant for everyone. They’re usually based on economy cars, and they do still tend to get decent mileage, but they sacrifice some economy and comfort to the horsepower and handling gods. These special examples tend to get driven hard, because they’re purchased by the sort of folks who like to drive small cars hard....

This week, we have some incredibly fun and dangerous imports, a van with tons of swag, some beautiful classics, and even a couple of cool motorcycles. I search the entire country for a good balance of price and vehicle condition. But sometimes, some really cool cars end up for sale with really high prices. It’s disappointing, of course, but there’s nothing wrong with window shopping and dreaming. So join me in looking at some fun cars, motorcycles, and neat trucks from the past and present....

There’s so much here it’s worth listening (as always) to the full podcast because Kevin is an inveterate car buyer and flipper and has driven/bought/sold some weird stuff. Also, he tracked a Daewoo to death. Why do old Hyundai Santa Fe engines go for like $7,000? Which Civic is the right engine? Kevin’s love for the Yaris and Echo is appealing to me. Especially the Echo. Here’s the sedan version of the Echo, which was also sold as the Toyota Platz....

For all its many woes (there’s a good Reddit thread where someone claiming to be an ex-employee details rampant theft and waste at the company’s stores, though it’s not possible to verify those claims), Carvana has a great search feature. Taking advantage of the dearth of used and new cars due to the pandemic/supply chain, Carvana made offers for cars that seemed crazy and then turned around and sold/financed those to their customers....

Yeah, I figured. But look at it from my perspective: if I find something like that ComutaCar for sale in our price range, I can’t not talk about it. You can’t ask a dog to ignore a bit of cheese that lands on the kitchen floor, and you can’t ask me to ignore a weird old electric car, no matter how little sense it makes. In that spirit, I present to you today’s contestants....

To be clear, I will not be hunting any “roos” (as he calls them). The only hunting that will take place during my trip to the center of New South Wales later this year will involve this spider hunting me, possibly in my sleep: You thought I was kidding about that Huntsman spider, eh? That’s okay; I, too, figured Laurence was joking, but as shown in the video-chat screenshot above, the crazy bastard actually does live harmoniously with enormous, frighteningly-quick arachnids....

[Editor’s Note: Rex here works at America’s quirkiest car museum, the Lane Motor Museum — a place filled with some of the weirdest cars you’ve never heard of. His column here on The Autopian gives us a backstage pass into his strange world. -DT] Every spring, we let our museum members drive a selection of microcars around a small autocross course that we set up in our back parking lot....

SCENARIO ONE: The Enchanted Clown Wig Of Driving Protection You’re out driving one day, and as you pass by an alley, you catch a horrific scene out of the corner of your eye: what appears to be a man, prone on the ground, covered by squirrels and pigeons that are savaging him brutally. You skid to a halt and bolt to the man’s aid, sending bloody-mouthed squirrels and dripping-talon pigeons scattering....

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. Soul Glo It’s been three years since the third-generation Kia Soul debuted which means it’s time for a mid-cycle refresh. A bit of new styling, some trim level re-jigging and some tech downloading will go a long way toward satiating hamsters, and it looks like Kia’s happy to oblige....