Motor News

French president Emmanuel Macron has a plan to encourage electric-vehicle leases by subsidizing them so the user pays only about $100 per month. The plan, announced Sunday by French budget minister Gabriel Attal on the French news channel LCI, is based on a presidential campaign pledge made by Macron back in April.According to Bloomberg, the French government currently offers subsidies for electric vehicles with prices up to $47,000.If you are looking to lease a new electric car on the cheap, perhaps you’ll consider a move to France? Bloomberg reported on a plan from French President Emmanuel Macron to offer EV leases for as little as the equivalent of $100 a month. The plan was announced on Sunday by the Macron government’s budget minister, Gabriel Attal, on the French news channel LCI. We haven’t heard of stipulations surrounding these planned subsidies, but according to Bloomberg, current subsidies from the French government get as high as the equivalent of $6000 on vehicles priced up to $47,000. Bloomberg also reports that additional aid is available through a Cash for Clunkers–style program involving older internal-combustion-engine vehicles. More on the FrenchThe move is meant to aid low-income households for whom EVs remain largely out of reach, despite current government subsidies. Electric vehicles reportedly accounted for 12 percent of the market in France in the first seven months of the year. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the EV share of the auto market continues to grow, reaching 5.6 percent for the second quarter of 2022, Cox Automotive reported. The newly signed U.S. inflation-related legislation means that the U.S. will remove the 200,000-per-automaker-limit on subsidies and provide $7500 in tax credits. The U.S. tax credits come with stipulations based on amount of minerals used, where the minerals are sourced, and where the batteries are manufactured.A rollout date has not been set for the French plan, but Attal said the government is working to see how quickly both the vehicles and the subsidy can be available. This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.This content is imported from OpenWeb. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. More

Back in March 2022, a flurry of spy shots came out of Detroit showing a peculiar Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 prototype sporting an absolutely ridiculous hood bulge. Opinions were mixed as to what might be hiding under the hood, but now, thanks to a new video, we know.Revan Evan on YouTube got the chance to spend some up-close-and-personal time with the GT350 mule alongside a handful of Ford engineers, getting a chance to peek under that epic hood structure. Underneath? None other than Ford’s 7.3-liter naturally aspirated “Godzilla” V-8. The Godzilla motor is available in the Ford Super Duty and comes offered as a crate motor for those looking to do their own builds. Unfortunately, this mule isn’t a prototype for a new Mustang trim. Instead, it’s a test bed for Ford’s upcoming 7.3-liter V-8 and manual transmission combo package. As The Drive points out, the company already offers this package with an automatic transmission. The engineers explain that because this drivetrain runs on its own stand-alone ECU, it could be dropped into anything, from a Fifties pickup to a brand-new Mustang. The development crew picked this Shelby GT350 to use as a tester simply because they had it sitting around. The reason for that massive bulge? Well, the prototype engine has an intake that points to the sky, so engineers needed to fit a manifold that wouldn’t clear the hood shut lines. The production manifold will come with a straight-line entrance, making clearance issues a thing of the past. The more you know. More

Introduced in the U.S. in 2017, the Nissan Rogue Sport will stop production in December, and sales will end here early next year.Nissan said in a memo to dealers that it can still cover the smaller end of the SUV market with the Kicks and the Rogue.The Rogue Sport is basically a renamed version of the global Nissan Qashqai, which will continue to be sold around the world. Just not in America.The Nissan Rogue Sport will soon be no more. The young-buyer-oriented subcompact SUV arrived in the U.S. in 2017 with a message from Nissan that it would add to the brand’s conquest sales. But that’s not going to last past this year. A Nissan spokesperson confirmed to Car and Driver that “As part of our Nissan NEXT plan, which is focused on prioritizing our core models and segments that bring the most benefit to customers, production of Rogue Sport for the U.S. will end after the 2022 model year.”Since the Rogue Sport is the U.S. version of the European Qashqai, we had been expecting Nissan to take the European SUV and use it as the basis for a fully redesigned Rogue Sport that would show up as a 2023 model.A memo to dealers, written by Nissan vice president Scott Shirley and published by Automotive News, said production of the Rogue Sport will end in December as Nissan focuses on higher-volume models and more electrified vehicles. “With the all-new Rogue and recently redesigned Kicks, we will continue to cover this part of [the] market effectively,” Shirley said. “We are also able to invest more resources in our current vehicle life cycles and next-generation products.”

The pricing and feature details meant the Rogue Sport (right, below) didn’t have a lot of breathing room between the Kicks (left, below) and the better-selling Rogue. In our overview of the 2022 model year, we noted that the Rogue Sport was using outdated infotainment and driver-assistance tech, and the anemic 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine wasn’t offering any real driving excitement.

NISSAN

NISSAN

Despite entering the U.S. market as a way to bring new buyers to the brand, that job ended up falling more on the shoulders of the entry-level Kicks. Today, the 2022 Rogue Sport starts at $26,255, almost $5000 more than the ’22 Kicks, which starts at $21,285. Both have Nissan’s Safety Shield 360. driver-assist tech as standard, and the Rogue Sport can also be ordered with ProPilot Assist. But ProPilot Assist and much more can be had in the Rogue, which starts at $28,445.Putting all of these factors together, it’s not surprising that the Rogue Sport is about to drive off into the sunset. Nissan said in its dealer memo that it will still sell the 2023 model year vehicle until inventory runs out in early 2023. As with most discontinued vehicles, Nissan will continue to make replacement parts and other support for the Rogue Sport. The automaker will provide these items through 2033.The Nissan Qashqai, which is sold around the world, first debuted in 2006. This model will continue to be produced and sold.
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Transglobal Car Expedition

The Transglobal Car Expedition is preparing for a massive round-the-world drive in 2024 and did some test drives of its heavily modified polar vehicles this spring.During that time, a modified Ford F-150 called the Arctic Trucks AT44 fell through the ice in far northern Canada. No one was hurt and the expedition ended up completing the crossing.The group has a “leave no trace” mentality, so they have spent the intervening time figuring out how best to return the AT44 to the surface. The efforts started for real this past week, and they involve divers, giant flotation devices, and a heavy-duty helicopter. We’ll update this story when they get the truck free.The Transglobal Car Expedition is a great idea that has seen some early success despite a rough start that included the loss of one adventure-modified Ford pickup. The international group of adventure drivers is in the early stages of an 18-month pole-to-pole, vertical circumnavigation drive using floating and amphibious vehicles.

The Arctic Trucks AT44 pickup.
Transglobal Car Expedition

In March, as the group was driving on the ice near the Tasmania Islands in the Nunavut territory in far northern Canada, a heavily modified Ford F-150 with 44-inch flotation tires sank into the depths “in an area of rapidly shifting ice on a heavy current,” the group would later say. No one was hurt, and the group continued north. In the end, the group managed to complete what it’s calling the world’s first overland wheeled crossing from the continental shelf of Canada to the high Arctic, just one vehicle short of a full pack.

The 16-member Transglobal Car Expedition is made up of Americans, Canadians, Ukrainians, Russians, and Icelanders. The expedition is being organized by the Swiss nonprofit group GoodGear, which has a mission to “bring innovative technologies to locations around the world for the betterment of local communities and the advancement of scientific research.” That does not mean leaving a truck at the bottom of the cold ocean, though. Andrew Comrie-Picard, a Canadian member of the group, told the CBC in March that the group’s mentality is to leave things the way they were before a fleet of heavily modified trucks passes through.
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“That’s one of the things we want to make sure of, and make sure that our tracks basically get blown away in the wind,” Comrie-Picard said in March.Which is why the group returned to the Tasmania Islands last week, to start recovery efforts for the truck. The plan is to use a team of “highly experienced Arctic divers” who will attach inflatable bags to the truck to float it to the surface. Once back on land, the truck will be inspected and then airlifted with a Coldstream Helicopters’ heavy lift helicopter to Gjoa Haven, some 186 miles away. Gjoa Haven is where the team has set up its command center for this operation and where the car will be put on a sealift vessel to be sent to Montreal.The truck’s modifications were done by Arctic Trucks, which charges $75,000 (and a donor truck) for its standard work that makes the truck more capable of driving over ice and snow.The Transglobal Car Expedition said it worked with local communities and regional and federal authorities to find safe and effective ways to recover the truck. “This incident has improved our understanding of the safety measures needed for the planned full circumnavigation of the globe in 2024,” the group said in a statement. “It has also provided important data on the viability of travel on the ice in the context of global warming, which is making traveling over the ice more dangerous for Indigenous communities and other ice travelers.”
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A “Kia Challenge” on TikTok encourages people to break in and steal Hyundai and Kia vehicles with key-based ignition systems, and they’re responding in record numbers.The challenge started in Milwaukee and is rampant there, but that city is only part of what has become a nationwide problem.Vehicles produced by the two brands accounted for 67 percent of all stolen vehicles in Milwaukee in 2021.Ever pop into the gas station to pay for your gas, only to come rushing back out because your child or other passenger tried to open the door from inside the locked car and set the car alarm blaring? All modern cars have some form of a security system in place. Teslas even feature a Sentry mode that utilizes the vehicle’s exterior cameras to ward off potential thieves. But despite the best efforts of automakers and car owners, there are ways for people to steal a car, especially if they figure out how to exploit a weakness. Lately, you may have heard of an internet trend referred to as the Kia Challenge, which started on the TikTok social media app. The trend involves thieves filming themselves breaking into a car and taking it for a joyride before dumping the car and abandoning it.Thanks at least in part to the TikTok encouragement, thieves have been targeting Kia and Hyundai vehicles that use key-based ignition rather than the push-button start found in newer vehicles, including most newer Hyundais and Kias. According to the owner of an auto-repair shop quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, thieves know they can break a back window on these brands of vehicles without setting off the alarm system. Once in the car, they can have the car running and are driving away in under one or two minutes.How a Stray USB Cable Can Be Your UndoingThe thieves claim that if they pull back the covering on the bottom of the steering column, they can start the vehicle with nothing more than a USB cable. Outside of becoming a twisted viral trend, the reason these brands have become targeted is that many models lack a crucial anti-theft device known as an engine immobilizer. Engine immobilizers use a transponder, often with a two-code system where your car and corresponding key play a quick game of telephone to verify who is really trying to turn the engine over. Until November 1, 2021, vehicles produced by Hyundai that used physical key ignition systems did not include immobilizers. A Kia spokesman told C/D that “the majority of” U.S.-market Kias do have an immobilizer, but universal application of the safety feature didn’t start until the 2022 model year.

Ignition on Taylor Browne’s 2020 Kia Sportage when the thieves were done with it.
Taylor Browne

From Tide Pods and Flossing to Grand LarcenyThe TikTok trend that’s contributing heavily to the problem seems to have started when a group calling itself “Kia Boyz” produced a video tutorial shot in Milwaukee showing how to steal a Hyundai or Kia. As the chart below from the Milwaukee Police Department shows, the city has seen record numbers of stolen vehicles in the past two years, with Hyundai and Kia models becoming the main target of crimes. It has become enough of a problem that the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Police Department is offering free steering wheel clubs to all students, staff, and faculty who own a car from either brand.One student, Luke Rapisarda, had his 2016 Kia Sorento stolen in August 2021. Rapisarda told Car and Driver that his car was stolen in the early morning while parked on the street in Milwaukee. He explained that the thieves pulled down the steering column covering and used his own USB charging cable to turn the ignition. The car was found eight days later in the town of Brookfield, 15 miles away. The front driver’s-side tire was flat, and the vehicle had been damaged inside and out. According to Rapisarda, the insurance company filed it as a total loss.

’Kia Boyz’ tag on armrest of Luke Rapisarda’s stolen 2016 Kia Sorento.
Luke Rapisarda

Taylor Browne told C/D that she parked her 2020 Kia Sportage in an uncovered, paid parking lot within Milwaukee’s Third Ward. A co-worker of Browne’s noticed someone break the rear window of her vehicle and started recording a video on her phone from an office window, once the thief was inside. Browne’s unfortunate incident shows just how easily thieves can steal these cars. The recorded video is 39 seconds in total, with the now stolen vehicle seen at a distance driving away with 12 seconds remaining in the video. We don’t know exactly how long it took the thieves from breaking in to driving away, but it was somewhere under the one-minute mark. Browne’s experience proved to be even scarier than Rapisarda’s: her car was recovered a week later sporting three broken windows and three bullet holes on the driver’s side. Browne told C/D that her insurance company deemed the car to be totaled.

Taylor Browne’s 2020 Kia Sportage.
Taylor Browne

10,471 Cars Were Stolen in Milwaukee in 2021; 67 Percent Were Made by Hyundai or Kia

While the internet trend started in Milwaukee and certainly still plagues the city, with more than 3300 Hyundai and Kia vehicles stolen so far this year, the trend is not solely due to a TikTok challenge, and it’s not isolated to that city. The publication Urban Milwaukee acknowledged that, reporting that thefts in Chicago are up over 750 percent year over year and in Saint Petersburg, Florida, more than 40 percent of stolen vehicles were made by either Kia or Hyundai. According to this report from Denver7, thefts in that city have become so numerous that the insurance company Progressive restricted coverage for these brands. All of this is happening even though, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), no vehicles from either manufacturer made it into the top 10 most stolen vehicles in the country in 2021. That’s good. But when you look at Wisconsin data, seven of the top 10 spots come from those manufacturers. In Colorado they account for three. Milwaukee Police Department: Motor Vehicle Theft by Year(data courtesy of Milwaukee Police Department)201920202021YTD 2022Motor Vehicle Thefts3495450710,4715666% Kia/Hyundai Related6%20%67%59%How the Carmakers Are RespondingA Hyundai spokesperson told Car and Driver that all of its vehicles produced after November 1, 2021, come standard with immobilizers. The automaker points out that all of its vehicles “meet or exceed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards” and that the company is working with local law enforcement to make steering wheel locks available for affected owners. Beginning October 1, 2022, the company will also begin selling a Firstech/Compustar security kit which it says targets the method of entry thieves are using to get into the vehicles. The company has not announced pricing for this kit, but a quick check of Best Buy shows that at retail, Compustar remote access systems range from $75 to $600.C/D also contacted Kia, and a spokesperson said that, although no vehicle can be made “completely theft-proof,” the majority of Kias in the United States now include key-fob and push-button start, making them harder to steal. All Kia models produced for the 2022 model year will have engine immobilizers equipped either at the beginning of the model year or as a running change, the spokesperson said. Kia also noted that it has been and will continue to provide steering wheel lock devices to local law enforcement at no cost, and those agencies are offering them for free to citizens with at-risk vehicles to protect. Kia also offers a paid Stolen Vehicle Recovery service to assist in the recovery of stolen vehicles and asks owners to call the Consumer Assistance Center at 800–333–4542 if they have questions.So, what’s a car owner to do? The addition of immobilizers for the 2022 model year is certainly a step in the right direction for Kia and Hyundai, as is the companies’ willingness to work with local law enforcement to provide steering wheel clubs. Aside from that, the best defense to these thefts right now seems to be parking your car in a secure location, and that’s a good idea no matter what brand of car you own. A closed garage or at the very least a steering wheel club will hopefully be enough to deter teenagers seeking the thrill of a joyride in your car.
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• This 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado is currently up for auction on Bring a Trailer.• The 1966 model year was the first for the massive front-wheel-drive coupe.• The no-reserve auction ends August 30.In the mid-1960s, General Motors was a market-dominating colossus, and its industry-leading design department was arguably the engine of its sales success. Of all the many designs turned out by GM’s five passenger-car divisions during that period, one of the cars that best demonstrates the company’s styling prowess under design boss Bill Mitchell is the Oldsmobile Toronado, particularly in its debut year of 1966. A look at this Autumn Bronze example currently up for sale on Bring a Trailer—which like Car and Driver is part of Hearst Autos—shows why.

Bring a Trailer

Bring a Trailer

Bring a Trailer

First, there’s the sheer scale of the thing. Riding on a 119-inch wheelbase, the Toro stretched 211 inches from stem to stern, making the close-coupled coupe about as long as today’s Cadillac Escalade. A good portion of that length is the miles-long hood, at the leading edge of which are the hidden headlights. Despite the ultra-long nose, the proportions are remarkably balanced, with the backlight sweeping almost uninterrupted into the decklid. More impressively, the Toro is noted for its complete absence of a shoulder at the window line. In a feat of body engineering, the wide C-pillars merge seamlessly into the quarter panels. The body’s shoulder line is pushed down almost to the mid-point of the wheels, giving the car a particularly low-slung appearance.

Bring a Trailer

The Toronado wasn’t just a styling tour-de-force, the car is also famed for being the first U.S.-built front-wheel-drive car since the Cord of the 1930s. At the time, the exotic technology was seen in just a handful of cars sold here, such as the BMC Mini. Oldsmobile was the spearhead, with the Cadillac Eldorado following suit on the same platform for 1967 (the Buick Riviera, meanwhile, was also built on the E-body platform but was rear-wheel drive).

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A 425-cubic-inch V-8 provided more than ample thrust. One auction commenter recalls riding with his father (an Oldsmobile rep) in a first-year Toronado when his dad was pulled over for doing 95 mph on a desert highway. The brakes, however—power drums at all four corners—are widely regarded as a fade-prone weak point, and several commenters recommend swapping in front discs, which Oldsmobile soon made available. Note that a C/D test of the facelifted ’68 model equipped with the optional discs still noted some pretty hairy stopping behavior, so careful following distances may be advised.

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The interior eschews bucket seats and console in favor of a front bench seat, the better to show off the novelty of the car’s flat floor. The speedometer is a rotating drum, and the gargantuan doors are so long that they feature a second inside door handle at the rearmost point of the armrest, to allow rear-seat passengers to exit.

Bring a Trailer

Bring a Trailer

This car is said to have been restored under previous ownership, but it’s not quite perfect. The selling dealer notes an inoperative horn, wipers, and radio pushbuttons. None of that seems to have dampened bidder enthusiasm, however, as the price currently sits at $23,500 with four days to go. More

Audi has officially announced that it will enter Formula 1 in 2026 as an engine supplier.Which team Audi will supply its F1 engine to will come by the end of 2022, but Sauber—which also announced the end of its partnership with Alfa Romeo today—seems a likely candidate.Audi said F1’s new power unit regulations, which will bring a 100 percent sustainable fuel and increased use of electric power, were crucial to its desire to join the sport.A little more than a week after Formula 1 approved new engine regulations that will go into effect in 2026, Audi officially announced its plans to compete in the premier open-wheel motorsport series. Audi’s entry into F1 coincides with the start of these new engine rules, with the German automaker announcing its intent to start supplying engines for the 2026 season. Audi will develop its power unit at the Audi Sport facility in Neuburg, the first time in more than a decade an F1 powertrain will be assembled in Germany.

Formula 1

One of the stated goals of F1’s revised engine regulations is to attract new power unit suppliers. Starting in 2026, the turbocharged 1.6-liter V-6 engines used in Formula 1 will run on a 100 percent sustainable fuel, while the electric portion of the hybrid powertrain will produce three times the power as today’s setup, two factors that Audi explicitly stated were critical to its decision to join F1.Starting in 2026, the MGU-K, which harvests kinetic energy and deploys electrical energy via the crankshaft, will see its output nearly triple to 350 kilowatts, or about 469 horsepower. This will boost the total system output to well over 1000 ponies. The MGU-H, which currently harvests heat energy via exhaust gases in the turbocharger and can deploy electrical energy to reduce turbo lag, will be removed from the F1 power unit in 2026. The increased reliance on electricity will see the amount of fuel used in a race drop from 100 kg to 70 kg, while the removal of the MGU-H, along with other measures, is intended to decrease costs.

Formula 1

The announcement came with images of a Formula 1 car mocked up with Audi livery. That said, take this image with a grain of salt as it may not be indicative of what the actual Audi-powered F1 cars will look like during the 2026 season. Audi will not field its own team, but it will provide powertrains to at least one team. The brand said it will reveal which team they plan to partner with by the end of 2022. This team will likely be Sauber, which also announced today that its technical and commercial partnership with Alfa Romeo will end after the 2023 season. Alfa Romeo-Sauber is currently in sixth in the championship, which would be the team’s best result since 2012 if it can maintain this position.

The possibility of Audi joining Formula 1 has been rumored for years. Audi says it is currently focused on hiring personnel and sourcing the technical infrastructure and buildings needed to develop the power units. These components should be in place by the end of the year, giving Audi three years to prepare its power unit before the 2026 season kicks off. With Porsche also said to be entering F1 as an engine supplier, potentially with Red Bull Racing, 2026 is set to be an important year for the biggest global motorsports series.
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We took delivery of a long-term Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing in March of 2022.After respecting the 1500-mile break-in period, we hit the track for initial performance testing.After about 15 standing-start launches, the LT4 V-8 started misfiring severely. Our elation after taking delivery of a 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing for a 40,000-mile long-term test quickly turned to despair after its 668-hp supercharged V-8 suffered a catastrophic engine failure during our initial test session. After respecting the 1500-mile break-in period—keeping the revs below 4000 rpm and not sitting at a constant speed for extended periods—we hit the test track with just over 1800 miles on the odometer to log its initial performance figures.

General Motors

General Motors

We took our time playing with the Blackwing’s exceptionally adjustable launch-control feature that allows the driver to select separate launch-rpm and slip-target settings, and then tried a few unassisted dances on the pedals with our ham hocks to see if we could beat it (we could). After about 15 launches, we were almost ready to call it when disaster struck. While coasting to the far end of the straightaway after a run, a host of warning messages popped up on the gauge cluster, all tied to a severe misfire.

The LT4’s even cylinder bank where all the damage occured.
General Motors

What happened? That’s a good question, one that wasn’t answered conclusively even following a complete teardown at GM’s powertrain headquarters in Pontiac, Michigan, where the engine went after it was removed by our local Cadillac dealer. The damage was limited to the even-numbered cylinder bank, with cylinder six taking the brunt of the carnage; its cylinder walls were scored, and aluminum plucked away from the edge of the piston and sprayed on top of it as well as on the exhaust valve. The severe temperature and pressure also blew off the ground strap at the end of the spark plug, and even the cast-iron cylinder liner showed some pitting.Bad fuel could have caused this kind of pre-ignition or knocking, but then both banks would have been affected. So small-block assistant chief engineer Mike Kociba thinks it was likely one of two things that happened: Either the fuel supply on that side of the rail was somehow depleted—a contaminant restricting the flow somewhere—or a similar blockage in the cooling system that allowed things to get too hot. But, during the teardown, they didn’t find such a blockage in either system.

General Motors

General Motors

Kociba assured us it had nothing to do with the severity of our use, and that the engine can happily do standing-start launches all day. Furthermore, he said that of the roughly 20,000 supercharged LT4 variants of the Gen V small-block V-8 the company has sold to date—in the C7 Corvette Z06, Cadillac CTS-V, Camaro ZL1, and now the CT5-V Blackwing and Escalade V—ours is the first and only such failure.However, this isn’t the first time a Gen V small block let go in our hands. The naturally aspirated LT1 V-8 in our long-term 2014 Corvette needed to be replaced after a connecting-rod bearing failed, likely due to a metal burr that originated from the block or oil-filter threads. With our CT5, it took about six weeks for our local dealer to remove the engine, receive a new one from GM, and install it. And then, of course, we had to take it easy once again during a second break-in period. Then we again hit the test track for much hard running, and this time it took it in stride, clocking a sprint to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds and 11.7 seconds through the quarter-mile at 124 mph, and shrugging off repeated runs. Just as we’d expect from one of the fiercest-ever sports sedans. More