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Previously on Window Shopping with Car and Driver we looked at the fastest cars you can buy for less than $10,000. While we found some seriously powerful and quick cars, none of them have much a reputation for reliability. So, when a viewer suggested that we combine two challenges in one and wanted us to look at reliable cars that are also quick for less than $15,000, we thought, giving people what they want isYouTube gold.
Helping us mine the internet’s car listings this week is Window Shop rookie and C/D contributor, Ben Stewart. Stewart is a fan of muscle cars, burnouts, and horsepower, so his choice of a Dodge Charger Pursuit with the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 doesn’t surprise any of us. His selection does draw a few questions about reliability, what the former city-owned vehicle might smell like, and we dive into the other things the Charger’s seller has for sale. Unsatisfied with the quickness and horsepower of his stock Charger, Stewart leaves enough money in the budget for a Procharger supercharger.Valuing handling and driving fun, contributor Jonathon Ramsey picks a fifth-gen Volkswagen GTI. While we can’t fault the 10Best winning GTI’s dynamics, we do badger Ramsey about just how quick and reliable he expects a 13-year-old VW will be. Ramsey takes our barbs and then answers our complaints with a second, more powerful car in such a sad state that we really wish he hadn’t shown it to us.Senior editor Joey Capparella and contributor John Pearley Huffman select two very different Japanese cars. Capparella goes for the surprisingly quick and largely forgotten Infiniti FX50 S SUV that could hit 60 in 5.0-5.1 seconds. Huffman uncovers a V-6-powered Accord with a manual transmission, a 10Best winner that he hopes will resonate with the group. Finally, deputy editor and host of this fine show, Tony Quiroga puts forth a Lexus IS300 that nails the challenge so thoroughly that everyone, and possibly you, are left completely satisfied and in awe.

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Hindenburg Research, a short seller—an investor that profits from a stock’s drop in value—released a report today stating that Lordstown Motors has misled investors about the progress of its truck, the Endurance, and the amount of interest in it.
Hindenburg says many orders for the Endurance are “fictitious” and that the electric startup paid outside groups to generate pre-orders.
Hindenburg released a report in fall 2020 on electric startup Nikola, leading to the chairman resigning and the launching of federal probes into the company.
Hindenburg Research, a short seller that previously targeted Nikola in the fall of last year, has released a report on Lordstown Motors today saying that the startup has misled investors about the capabilities of its pickup, the Endurance, and about pre-orders for the truck, which have been widely publicized. Lordstown Motors bought the Lordstown, Ohio, plant from General Motors in 2019 and unveiled the Endurance last summer.

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Featured prominently in Hindenburg’s report are the 100,000 pre-orders for the Endurance which Lordstown CEO Steve Burns has touted. Hindenburg’s report says that in addition to those pre-orders being nonbinding, many of them are simply “fictitious.” Hindenburg claims that in some cases, Lordstown paid for the orders to be placed.
Lordstown did not respond to Car and Driver’s request for comment, but Burns gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal following the release of the report. Burns said in the interview that while the orders were nonbinding, they still accurately represent the demand for the trucks. He also said that the report contains “half-truths and lies” and looks to serve the financial interests of Hindenburg, which, as a short seller, stands to benefit from the fall of Lordstown’s stock. In fact, following the release of the Hindenburg report, Lordstown’s stock fell 16 percent.
The claims made by Hindenburg in the report have not been verified by C/D or any other independent publications.
Lordstown went public last year in a blank-check merger, or SPAC, a method of going public that has become increasingly popular among automotive startups. Fisker, Nikola, and Workhorse are other companies that have gone such a route.
Hindenburg said a former employee told the research firm that while Lordstown has said it will begin production in September of this year, it is still “three or four years” from actually beginning production. Former employees also told Hindenburg that the company hasn’t completed any of the necessary testing, such as cold-weather and durability testing. The report says that Lordstown’s first test on public roads resulted in the truck combusting.
In the fall of last year, Hindenburg released a similar report on the automotive startup Nikola, a company that had gone public a few months prior to the report. The report led to Nikola’s stock tanking, the executive chairman and founder stepping down, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice launching inquiries into the company.
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This is our best look yet at the 2022 Ford Maverick small pickup truck.
It’s a crew-cab model with a unibody construction, and it’ll likely be around the same size as the Bronco Sport but with a pickup bed.
Expect to hear more about the Maverick later this year, as it’s expected to arrive for the 2022 model year.
Now that we know Ford has already begun production of a new small pickup truck, we’re starting to learn a lot more about what will likely become the 2022 Ford Maverick. These spy photos show off the new model from various angles, and we can see that it will be a crew-cab pickup with a friendly-looking face.

KGP Photography

The photos also appear to confirm that the Maverick shares its underpinnings with the Escape and Bronco Sport crossovers. An independent rear suspension setup is clearly visible. This prototype also has the same 17-inch Falken Wildpeak all-terrain tires that are available on the Bronco Sport Badlands. It is also being built in the same factory in Mexico as the Bronco Sport.

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The Maverick’s short bed is attached to the cab, as this truck features a unibody construction like the Honda Ridgeline and upcoming Hyundai Santa Cruz. But those models are both based on mid-size SUVs, whereas the Bronco Sport is a compact SUV, so the Maverick will be smaller.

KGP Photography

Because of its shared platform, we expect that the Bronco Sport’s powertrains will carry over to the Maverick, too. The optional 250-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four is a sure bet, with the 180-hp 1.5-liter inline-three possible for a cheaper base version of the Maverick. All-wheel drive will likely be standard, with a front-wheel-drive model possible.
The Maverick should be significantly smaller than the Ranger, and cheaper as well. Ford has previously talked about a sub-$20,000 starting price but we’re not sure if that’s still in the cards. We think a base price of around $25,000 is more likely.
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Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess tweeted that the automaker will have an event early on the morning of on Monday, March 15, which will appear on a livestream on Volkswagen’s media site and on its Twitter feed.
Called Power Day, the event will likely deal with the automaker’s battery technology, and the CEO was quick to point out that the event is not a car presentation.
Volkswagen might use the event to talk about its MEB platform and the technology behind the upcoming Trinity electric sedan.

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Turns out announcing news via Twitter is no longer exclusive to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess tweeted news that the Volkswagen Group will be holding an online event called Power Day on Monday, March 15, at 7:00 a.m. ET. The event sounds similar to Tesla’s vaunted Battery Day events. The tweet and accompanying video both note that no new vehicles will be announced during the event.
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Based on the name and accompanying video showing a battery, it’s likely the event will focus on Volkswagen’s battery technology and its MEB electric platform. The automaker has announced a bold plan to have 50 percent of its sales in the U.S. be electric by 2030 and recently announced an upcoming sedan called Trinity that it says will set new standards for charging times and battery range. How that actually plays out technologically may be the basis for the March 15 event.
The automaker recently launched its first electric MEB-based vehicle in the United States, the 2021 ID.4 compact SUV. The MEB platform is also the underlying technology of the 2021 ID.3 released in Europe and the upcoming 2022 Audi Q4 e-tron that will land in U.S. showrooms in early 2022.
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