On some older cars, each headlight wears a wiper blade small enough to look like a toy. It can be an amusing sight now, particularly when one blade has stopped halfway across the lamp. The equipment h
You unbuckle, open the door and feel the seat belt brush against your leg. It should have disappeared toward the pillar, but half of it is still hanging beside the seat. Give it a little help and it w
There is a particular stretch of road where the sun finds the narrow gap that your visor cannot quite cover. You swing the visor toward the side window, adjust it twice, and the light still lands squa
The first minute is often the worst. You start the car, turn on the fan and get a brief gust that smells faintly sour or musty. By the time the cabin has cooled, the smell has faded enough to make you
A freshly washed car can reveal things its owner had never noticed. Park it near a window or a row of straight lights, look along the side, and the reflection begins to wobble. The paint is glossy,
A stubborn wheel nut invites a familiar response: a longer wrench, a firmer pull and perhaps a few unkind words. On certain older Chryslers, that approach can end with a snapped stud. The nut was neve
Washing a car in winter can feel wonderfully pointless. The bodywork is clean for perhaps half a journey. Then a truck passes in the opposite direction, the windshield receives a cold brown showe
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N already has enough performance to make most hot hatches look slow. With up to 641 hp and a 0-60 mph time of 3.25 seconds, it hardly needs help in the speed department. But design
Inside a modern automotive design studio, there are enormous screens, virtual-reality headsets, laser scanners, 3D printers and computers capable of rendering a car so convincingly that its paint appe
Park a 1940s Jeep beside a Chevrolet sedan, an early Volkswagen Beetle and a British roadster, then look closely at their headlights. The surrounding bodies could hardly be more different. The glass c