Walk past a parked car after dark and the cabin can seem completely asleep, apart from one tiny red light pulsing on the dashboard. Blink. Pause. Blink again. Since red dashboard lights usua
The emergency jack in a car’s trunk rarely inspires confidence. It is narrow, awkward and usually accompanied by a handle that looks as though it escaped from flat-pack furniture. Then ther
Few things make a car owner question reality quite like finding every window open in the morning. The doors are still locked. Nothing appears to be missing. There is no broken glass, no damaged wea
A small square or circular panel sits almost flush with the painted bumper. It has no button, light or obvious reason to exist. Once spotted, though, it becomes surprisingly difficult to ignore. Be
Cruise control feels wonderfully precise on a flat highway. Set it to 65 mph and the speedometer settles into place, leaving the car to handle the small adjustments that a human ankle normally makes.
For most of the year, the liftgate rises with one push and waits politely while the shopping is unloaded. Then the first properly cold morning arrives. The hatch opens halfway, pauses as though rec
There are plenty of things inside a trunk that nobody pays much attention to. A jack that has never left its plastic tray. A spare wheel that may or may not contain air. A collection of reusable shopp
The roof rack looked harmless in the driveway. At 30 mph, it was still harmless. Somewhere around 50, however, the car developed a whistle sharp enough to make every passenger start inspecting the win
The engine stops. The dashboard goes dark. The radio continues playing as though it has decided the journey deserves an encore. For a driver unfamiliar with the car, this can produce an immediate r
A car battery does not need to be completely dead to leave the car behaving as though it is. Sometimes the battery is charged and perfectly willing to work, but the electricity cannot get past the