Open the door of a large American sedan from the 1950s and the front seat looks less like a modern cockpit than a particularly comfortable sofa. There is no center console dividing driver and passe
Volvo Cars is getting a new CEO at a difficult point for the Swedish automaker. Klaus Zellmer, the former head of Skoda, will take over as president and CEO within the next 12 months. Zellmer has m
A remarkably low odometer reading has a way of making every other detail fade into the background. The paint may be dull, the tires may look suspiciously old and the service book may contain a de
Drivers spend hours holding the steering wheel without giving much thought to what lies behind it. Remove the trim, switches and wiring, and the basic arrangement appears simple. A shaft carries th
The woodgrain paneling on an old station wagon rarely fools anyone. Even when new, the printed vinyl was not likely to be mistaken for hand-finished mahogany. It was wood in the same way a kitchen
Automotive fashion has produced few ideas quite as curious as taking a finished steel roof, covering it in textured plastic and charging the customer extra. For several decades, buyers did exactly tha
Few automotive features can make a parked car look as alive as pop-up headlights. Turn the switch and two neat sections of bodywork rise from the hood, pause with theatrical precision and reveal the l
Changing a car battery used to be one of the cleaner bargains in home mechanics. Remove two terminals, undo the clamp, lift out the old battery and fit the new one. The clock might need resetting a
The usual history of the rearview mirror is wonderfully neat. Ray Harroun entered the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 with a mirror attached to his Marmon Wasp. He drove alone while his competitors
Open the door of an American-market performance car from the early 1980s and something may appear terribly wrong. There is the dramatic driving position, a powerful engine and perhaps a body design