A retired police car can make an ordinary used-car listing look expensive. There is plenty of room, a purposeful set of steel wheels and the promise of hardware built for a harder life than the school
An engine splash shield can make a ridiculous amount of noise for a piece of plastic. One corner slips out of its clips, drops a few inches, and begins scraping the road. You hear it over the radio. Y
An engine can be low on oil and sound perfectly content. It may start normally, idle without complaint and carry the car through the morning commute. The driver sees no smoke, hears no knocking and re
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
The parking brake has been released, but the red warning light remains on. The first reaction is usually to pull the lever again or press the parking-brake switch a few times. Perhaps the sensor
Wash a car in the evening and look through its wheels the next morning. The brake rotors may have turned bright orange. The change can happen quickly enough to feel impossible. The discs looked cle
Speed has become ridiculously easy to buy. A modern electric crossover can pin its passengers to the seats while carrying three children, a week’s shopping and a suspicious amount of sports equi
On a cold morning, the dashboard can produce a blue thermometer symbol that looks far more alarming than the engine sounds. The car starts normally. No steam rises from beneath the hood. Nothing sm
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
The tires are new, the wheels are back on and the invoice is folded into the glovebox. Before handing over the keys, the technician mentions one final detail: come back after a short period of driving