A car can leave a collision with a crushed bumper, broken lights and a hood folded into an expensive-looking shape, yet every airbag remains neatly hidden. From outside, that makes little sense. Th
New tires arrive covered in information. Numbers identify their size, load capacity, speed rating and date of manufacture. Then, among all that serious molded lettering, someone appears to have atta
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 is nothing behind the car. No wall, no shopping cart, no decorative boulder placed by a landscape designer with a grudge. Still, the moment Reverse is selected, the parking sensors erupt. The
The seller has polished the paint, vacuumed the carpets and arranged the service receipts in a folder that looks reassuringly thick. The engine starts without complaint. No warning lights remain on af
A car sits empty in the driveway, engine off and doors locked, yet all three brake lights are glowing as though an invisible driver has a foot planted on the pedal. It looks like a wiring problem. Pos
The tire-pressure warning light is not one of the dashboard’s more mysterious creations. It looks like a sagging tire with an exclamation mark inside, which is a fairly direct way of saying, &ld
The engine is off. You push the brake pedal once, then again. Each push feels a little firmer than the last. After several presses, the pedal barely wants to move. That sensation can make it s
They run around the edge of almost every modern windshield: a solid black border that gradually breaks into smaller and smaller dots before disappearing into clear glass. Most drivers have stared t
Set the cruise control to 70 mph and glance at the navigation screen. It may insist the car is traveling at 67. Increase the cruise setting to 71. GPS grudgingly moves to 68. The two displays can sp