So, can you legally drive without a rearview mirror? The slightly irritating answer is: maybe. That is not very satisfying, but it is the truth. In the U.S., mirror laws are not perfectly iden
Close a car door with every window shut and the air inside has to go somewhere. The door pushes a substantial volume of air into an already sealed cabin. Without an escape route, pressure builds fo
Shift an automatic car into Drive, release the brake and it begins moving without a touch of the accelerator. The movement is usually gentle. Just enough to edge forward in traffic, ease into a par
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.
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
The tires were set perfectly that morning. Then, after a long stretch of highway, the pressure display shows every one of them sitting several pounds higher. Out comes the gauge. Sure enough, the d
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
Replacing windshield wipers used to be one of those jobs that made everyone feel mechanically competent. Lift the arm. Turn the blade. Unclip it. Spend several minutes questioning the little plasti
A turn signal normally keeps a relaxed, predictable beat. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Then, without warning, it sounds as though someone has doubled the tempo. The arrow on the dashboard flashes furiously