The New Year started off strong, and auto news headlines are packed full of cars for the future. Electric cars, pickup trucks, and crossovers are the main items of focus. Then there’s Mazda doing what Mazda does best: making awesome to drive cars even better. If you want to learn more about the news articles we covered this week, check out the headlines below. If the summary grabs your attention, click through to the full article.
The Rumor Mill: Porsche Mission E
Porsche’s first fully-electric sports sedan should be a real winner. It’s a car that looks great, is exceptionally powerful, and should be pretty luxurious. It should slot right in the lineup between the 911 and the Panamera. While details on the car are scarce, rumors are flying about. It will be interesting to see if it's accepted by Porsche purists.
Elon Musk Wants to build a Supercharging Drive-In Restaurant
Elon Musk has plenty of crazy ideas. His latest one is to create a modern 50s-style drive-in restaurant for his customers equipped with Tesla Superchargers. While we think his idea’s a little off the wall, we also see many rabid Tesla fans eating it up, literally. Will this be the future Tesla car club Mecca?
Rumors of an American-Bound Amarok
The Volkswagen Amarok is one of the many cool midsized trucks that we don’t get here in the U.S. That may change in the future, though. Volkswagen filed for the U.S. trademark on the Amarok name. While that doesn’t solidify plans for a Stateside-bound VW pickup truck, it sure is a good indicator that VW top management is considering the possibility.
The 2017 Automotive Sales Numbers Reflect Changes in the Market
Auto sales numbers for 2017 are out, and they’re unsurprising. Just like many of the headlines throughout the year suggested, pickup truck and crossover sales dominated the automotive landscape while sedans sales started to slide. Don’t get us wrong, sedans still make up a good portion of the market, but crossovers and pickup trucks seem to be the hot items.
Mazda Creates a New Way to Stay Engaged With the Driving Experience
Leave it to Mazda to come up with an innovative plan to fix the distracted driving epidemic on our roads. Instead of forcibly removing the smartphone from people’s hands via some kind of special app or software, the company turned its focus to the car to create a driving experience so engaging and fun that drivers won’t want to pay attention to their notifications. A good idea? We sure thing so.
The Mazda6 Will Finally Get All-Wheel Drive
The Mazda6 was already a fantastic car to drive. In its segment, it puts most of its competitors to shame. That said, we always wanted two more things from the car: more power and all-wheel drive. The addition of the new turbocharged engine pulled from the CX-9 satisfies the more power complaint, and it seems Mazda will produce an all-wheel-drive version of the car, according to some new information.
Will Chevy Exploit Tesla’s Painful Wait for the Model 3
Tesla’s production woes have opened a door for other automakers to swoop in with their own electric vehicles. One automaker positioned well to take advantage of Tesla’s predicament is Chevrolet. The bowtie brand has one of the best EVs in the market in the Bolt and has new products on the horizon. Will it step up and take down Tesla?
Tesla Model 3 Customers Get Hosed with Cheaper Seats
Tesla customers are finally taking delivery of the Model 3’s they’ve been waiting for only to find that they’re not the machines they hoped for or even paid for. Apparently, numerous complaints have popped up from customers about the interior materials. Customers aren’t getting top-notch materials even when they paid for the premium upgrade packages. This could spell disaster for the company as time goes on.
The 2019 Ram 1500 Grille is an Interesting Change
Ram has switched things up for 2019, offering a truck with a more refined chrome grille than before. It's still not as good as the old crosshairs grille that the brand is known for, but it's a big improvement over the weird grille shape they used on some of their trucks previously. That one looked like a couple big nostrils and wasn't very appealing.
