#Editorials

The Chevrolet Malibu is dead.

Or, at least, it will be come November.

Legislators have accused several automakers of betraying their customers by going back on an earlier pledge to protect their data. The brands stated during a congressional inquiry that they would provide information to government officials upon their request, despite having previously signed onto the Consumer Privacy Protection Principles in 2014 where they vowed only to hand over customer data when given a formal court order or search warrant.

This has resulted in Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Edward Markey (D-MA) asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to launch a formal investigation on the grounds that the companies have engaged in deceptive tactics that misrepresent what they’re actually doing.

The amount the United States has been spending to advance the proliferation of all-electric vehicles in recent years has been genuinely staggering. However, the allocated funding doesn’t appear to be doing much good. EV adoption rates are slowing and the $7.5 billion earmarked exclusively for the construction of charging stations has only resulted in a handful of operational locations.

Piggybacking off our earlier match between the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, this week’s throw-down will be between the 2024 Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

While neither model sells quite like it used to, due to the popularity of their crossover equivalents, there are few mass-market rivalries as long lived as the Civic and Corolla. Be you someone in the market for basic transportation on a budget or an individual that wants something more sporting than the character-free CUVs that currently dominate the market, Japanese automakers still have your back.

Cadillac once said it would be all-electric by 2030, but like other automakers, it has appeared to soften that commitment.

Sometimes, government regulations make so much sense, you wonder why they weren't passed before. And sometimes, they make sense when taken at face value, but not as much when you think it through.

That, I think, is the case with the recent rule that requires automatic emergency braking to be standard on all new cars starting with the 2029 model year.

Time flies, doesn’t it? Seems just a year or two ago your author took a troubled and stressful trip to Austin to pick up a lightly used GS 350. But that was a full five years ago now, prior to pandemic times! We last spoke about the GS in April of 2021 at the two-year mark. Three years on, this is the longest I’ve ever kept a single automobile.

We’re introducing a new segment where we intentionally pit two vehicles against each other that are exceedingly difficult to choose between. The idea is to create a would-you-rather situation where we compare the strengths and weaknesses of both models and take input from our readers.

Our first match-up is an incredibly tough one, because these are some of the best-selling vehicles in all of North America that aren’t pickup trucks — the Honda CR-V vs the Toyota RAV4.

Connected vehicles now appear to be on the table as a new vector for government surveillance. On Saturday, President Joe Biden signed a bill that reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after the Senate passed it late on Friday (60-34).  

Last month, I was chatting with Dave Thomas from CDK Global on the TTAC podcast. We were discussing electric vehicles, and Dave suggested that for many EV buyers, range isn’t that much of an issue.

Stellantis has agreed to adhere to California emission policies, including requirements to make two-thirds of new cars to zero-emission or electric by 2030. This means the automaker — which oversees Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Ram, Fiat, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, and several brands that are not sold in the United States — will be required to cut emissions through the 2026 model year and adhere to California’s requirement to have a majority electrified fleet within the next several years. There are also provisions for the company to spend millions of dollars on charging stations and community outreach programs designed to encourage EV sales.

On International Women’s Day, the Kia EV9 was announced as the “Supreme Winner” of the Women's Worldwide Car of the Year (WWCOTY) 2024. However, saying that this is the vehicle women most desire — let alone are willing to spend money buying — is probably a stretch.

It seems only a couple of months ago I reported on my experience traveling from Cincinnati to Nashville to purchase the 2010 BMW Z4, thus satisfying a used convertible car search that lasted for a year and a half. Though that search was much more lengthy than I’d have preferred, I was convinced at this time last year that I selected the right car for my usage case. But does that still ring true, do I still think an old German car was the right choice?

A recent study published in the Journal of Transport Geography has alleged that “car harm” cannot be undone by the world pivoting to all-electric vehicles. 

However, the paper doesn’t favor everyone running out to buy the largest diesel pickup they can afford. Instead, it adopts the same anti-driving nonsense we’ve seen from the Vision Zero Network and government regulators that have been caught up in its activism web. The issue, as framed in the study, isn’t that EVs still pose a problem. The complaint is that all vehicles are problematic and the paper recommends sweeping policy changes pertaining to how roads are managed to deal with the matter. 

A whistleblower has accused FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem of abusing his authority to influence the results of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The alleged action was attributed toward influencing the results of the Formula 1 event.