Digging Deeper On Trump's Tariffs

Hello there! It's time once again for the TTAC podcast! This week we spend some more time on Trump's tariffs and how they'll affect the automotive industry. We speak with John Vincent from U.S. News and World Report about the issue.TTAC contributor Matthew Guy stops by to talk about screwdriver sets, and we also dig (yet again) into NASCAR's unfortunate trend towards crash fests.You can find us wherever you get your podcasts or by clicking  here. Be sure to leave a review! We thank John and

Pure McLaren events take a track-day to the next level
We were handed the keys to a 690bhp Artura and given one-to-one tuition at one of the world's best race tracksYou dream about the chance to live out your racing driver fantasies, and mine is about to be realised. The venue for my debut track experience: Silverstone. This is like kicking a football for the first time at Wembley.
McLaren is hosting one of its exclusive Pure owners' experience days, and I've been invited. To prepare, I spent th

BMW Alpina logo
Future BMW Alpina models to focus on 'performance and driving comfort'BMW has officially taken full control of Alpina and given first hints of its plans for the long-running performance firm – claiming future models will focus on a “unique balance of maximum performance and superior driving comfort.”
The Munich manufacturer acquired the 60-year-old Alpina firm, famed for its extensively modified versions of BMW models in 2022. Due to an agreement with Alpin

Ford managed to do this back in 1989 for petrol-powered cars...The history of the motor car is one of continuous innovation, with incredibly clever people relentlessly inventing new technologies to make cars safer, perhaps faster and generally better.
We're talking inventions such as seatbelts, fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, airbags and power steering - and the little arrow on your fuel gauge that tells you which side of the car the filler is on.
Okay, that last innovation isn't quite like th

Could this be the best driver's car for less than £100,000?BMW has been extending its M brand for an awfully long time, adding fast SUVs, luxury convertibles and even the fully bespoke XM.
Yet when you imagine an M car, it's a compact, rear-wheel-drive coupé. 'E30' M3, 'E9' CSL 'Batmobile', 2002 Turbo: these are cars with a stature that demands a modern inheritor. And the M2 CS feels fully up to the job.
It's a car defined by the little details, which come together to amount to some

VW's Renault 5 rival majors on physical controls, ditches the touch slider and has a Mk1 Golf's speedoVolkswagen has unveiled the interior of the new ID Polo ahead of the electric supermini's launch later this year, showcasing the increased provision of physical buttons for key functions.
The supermini is the firm's vital new offering in the sub-£22,000 electric car category. It is also the first model to encompass the brand's new design language under the leadership of Andreas M

Sometimes the old school ways of a family hatchback just can't be beatenI evaluated many newcomers this year, virtually all of which were a whacking great SUV, a life-complicating EV or a combination of both.
Consequently the car that I enjoyed far above all others in 2025 wasn’t at all innovative or even new: it was a small, modestly sporty, petrol-powered hatchback of a variety that has been familiar for two decades now.
The BMW 1 Series has accrued an unfortunate reputation or three in

Convening many cars and people in one place is about as efficient as launches getWhen The Beautiful South wrote their song Rotterdam (Or Anywhere), they could have been writing about the itinerant life of a road tester.
Motoring hacks travel to locations that serve a particular purpose: to drive around in big circles. And then we go home. To the outsider looking in, I can well appreciate that you might wonder why it’s done quite so.
The motoring press calls these events launches, although

We put the XC90's touring credentials to the test with a road trip to Italy via WalesSometimes the job calls for a soft, spacious machine that makes an art of being undemanding. In other words, a wafter.
A certain elegance to the design is always nice to have – a 5.0-litre Jag XJ will look rather better on your driveway than an ID7 – but ultimately the calibre of any wafter boils down to effortless cruising and high levels of isolation.
I needed a wafter not long ago. There were seve

Ford is hoping to score its first Dakar Rally victory with M-Sport’s Raptor monster truckSome opportunities don't come along that often - and aren't the sort of thing you say no to. Such as the chance to drive a £2 million Dakar Rally challenger in a private forest. How exclusive was this opportunity?
Well, at the time I climbed behind the wheel, only three people outside of rally outfit M-Sport had been trusted with this toughest of all 'Built Tough' Ford trucks: F1 star Carlos Sain

Congress has scheduled hearings with U.S. automakers later this month, with the planned focus being vehicle affordability. Automotive prices have surpassed record levels at a point when many Americans are struggling to pay bills. However industry leaders are reportedly trying to wiggle out of the event.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), pitched the hearings as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. He previously expressed concerns that government mandates and envi

Ram rang in the New Year with some news -- there will be a 2027 Ram 1500 SRT TRX. Oh, and a 2027 Ram Power Wagon diesel, too. Let's start with the TRX. This one will draw 777 horsepower and 680 lb-ft of torque from a 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8. Ram claims this is the most powerful street-legal truck ever. Ram also claims a 0-60 sprint of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 118 miles per hour. Power gets routed to the wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. As you would expect, the TRX i

Can a van really be fun and likeable? Yes. Especially when it's as practical as most family homesThe Kia PV5 was developed with a laser focus on usability, versatility, load capacity and economics.
That's because the sort of people who will buy an electric van will base their decision on spreadsheet calculations and other wholly unemotional factors.
Yet despite that, this bold new entrant into the commercial vehicle sector is somehow utterly beguiling and likeable.
It's charming in the way of th

“I never saw the car and never drove it but I negotiated a price and bought it”
Dan Baines always wanted a Megane R26.R and the perfect example landed two years agoChristmas Day 2023 is one that Dan Baines will never forget. "Ever since seeing one at Silverstone years ago, I'd always wanted a Mégane R26.R," he says.
"Last December, I found a 2009-reg with 44,000 miles for sale. It was being offered by a friend in the trade. I trusted him. I never saw the car and never drove it

America's best-known racing driver is still flat out at 85 - we catch up with him to reflect on his astonishing lifeAmerica's greatest racing driver? It's subjective and depends entirely on your perspective.
But what we can state for certain is, in terms of worldwide fame, stature, personality, longevity of career and relentless achievement, they don't come much bigger than Mario Andretti. Just that name alone... he's a sporting colossus.
Andretti won in pretty much everything he drove across fo

Sometimes there really is no replacement for displacementMy favourite driver's cars tend to be small, light and rear-driven, with a charismatic engine and a manual gearbox.
With its blueprinted quad-cam V6 and lightly breathed on suspension, Rocketeer's Mk1 MX-5 was well up my street on paper, but I did have a slight sense of trepidation before driving it.
It's fundamentally a 30-year-old Mazda convertible. Was I going to fit? Would it feel quite floppy? Would the suspension be up to it?
It turn

Range-toppers aren't always the best choiceThe M5 has long been the pinnacle of the BMW 5 Series range, and it has always been very good, but it has lost all of its subtle Q-car status in recent generations, it has become far more difficult to deploy on public roads and the current one costs £111k.
All of which serves to enhance the appeal of what you might call the ‘lesser’ variants.
Case in point: I spotted what I thought was a very tidy E61-generation BMW 520d in a car park

The future is an uncertain place without the annual Autocar Almanac. We guarantee all this will happen...
The start of the year is traditionally a time to make predictions about what will happen in the coming months. 
But making predictions is hard, especially in an industry as unpredictable as the automotive sector. Still, we're experts on the car world, so of course we can predict with unerring accuracy every key event that wil define 2026.
Well, possibly. Will anything below actually hap

Ah, today is the last day of 2025.So, as per usual, we're going to be off tomorrow and Friday and over the weekend. Though, again, as per usual, there may be some content should news break.Myself and everyone at TTAC wish you a happy New Year! Don't drink and drive tonight, please. Enjoy your plans, whatever they are, whether you're going out dancing until 2 a.m. or you'll be zonked out well before the ball drops. If you're a college football fan like myself, enjoy the games, even if Notre Dame

I messed up yesterday and never ran the QOTD. Brain cramp on my part, blame it on the end of the year haze. So, with that in mind, you get two QOTDs for the price of one. One is pretty obvious -- what is the best car you drove in 2025? Whether it's a rental, a car you test drove, a friend's car, or whatever -- what was the best one? Make sure you drove it in 2025 and it's a 2024, 2025, or 2026 model year.The second QOTD is this: Do you have any automotive New Year's resolutions? Are you finally

Today we end the year with a 1996 Volkswagen Jetta GL. There's no real New Year's connection here -- it's just a Jetta for sale in the suburbs. This one runs and drives, according to the seller, but it needs a paint job and the speedometer doesn't work. It apparently also needs all the fluids changed and the power doors don't work. Oh, and there's a fluid leak. Apparently, while the car runs and drives, it won't pass state inspection without some work.The transmission is an automatic and the mil

The Cadillac Eldorado that debuted in 1992 would end up as both the model’s final generation, and the longest lived. Both of those data points were driven by the consumer’s lack of love for the personal luxury coupe: It was a segment well in decline by the mid-Eighties. The ‘92 debuted to very mixed reviews of itsmishmash exterior styling, and its interior includedstrange design choices and was not up to par with the competition. Starting in 1993 Cadillac began making strategic

Hey there! It's time for the TTAC podcast. This week's is the final one of 2025. This week we have research on how consumers are thinking about electric vehicles. We also have tips on exhaust repair and thoughts on NASCAR paint schemes.CDK Global's David Thomas talks about consumers and EVs with us, and TTAC contributor Matthew Guy walks us through exhaust repair. Guy and I then go over the best and worst NASCAR paint schemes from 2025.You can find us wherever you get your podcasts or by clickin

Despite finalizing the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as a sweeping replacement for NAFTA in 2020, the Trump administration has signaled that it might want to change things up or perhaps even do away with the trade deal upon its next review. This has placed member nations and the relevant industries, particularly the automotive sector, on high alert.While we can argue about the pros and cons of outsourced labor and the nuances of trade relationships, multinational corporations oft

2025 saw a new F1 hero crowned - but there was also constant excitement in rallying, endurance and IndyCarSo, then: 2025 proved to be a year of high drama and unexpected triumphs across the world of motorsport - arguably the most exciting season in years.
In Formula 1, Lando Norris overcame fierce competition from teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to claim Britain’s 11th F1 crown, ending McLaren’s title drought since 2008. Elsewhere, Sébastien Ogier st

Not even lightweight specials scratch the itch like a kartFive seconds after climbing into a kart, I am entirely comfortable. My gloved hands find the steering wheel rim, my feet rest easily against the pedals and I am contented.
Five seconds after actually driving off, things are different: the vibration makes me feel sick and my glasses shake so much that my vision is blurred. It’s loud, it’s uncomfortable and I have no idea how I’m going to cope with half an hour o

Opel roots rather than Vauxhall mean Simon Bailey's Lotus is an Omega, not a CarltonAs a twenty-something back in 1990, Simon Bailey dreamed of owning a Lotus Carlton, Vauxhall's 176mph supersaloon that raised questions in the Commons and rattled the likes of BMW and Mercedes.
A quarter of a century later, he has realised his ambition, although the car on his driveway is not a Vauxhall but its Opel equivalent, the Lotus Omega. It's a left-hand-drive example from Germany, imported three years ago

The Duke tells us about all things Member's Meeting, Festival of Speed and RevivalThis week's My Week In Cars is a very special Christmas episode, as Steve Cropley and Matt Prior travel to Goodwood House to meet the Duke of Richmond.
Which is his favourite event? What elusive cars are still on his must-get list? What's in his garage and is there space for another Goodwood event?
Join us for the answer to all of these questions and more besides.
And if you'd review, share and/or subscribe to the

Bison, Bentaygas, car shows and road test records, 2025 was another memorable year for our staffersFrom watching celebrities perform at high-octane car launches, to chasing the serene quiet of a mountain pass in a Bentley Bentayga Speed, and attending the most modest of car events, the past year has delivered a multitude of unforgettable moments for Autocar’s team of writers. 
2025 has been another tumultuous year for the automotive industry, with the continuous push towards software-

Yesterday, I gave you the worst cars I drove in 2025. Today, I give you the best. I was trying to keep this to three, as I did with the worst cars, but I came up with a few more. What can I say? There are some good cars out there.Otherwise, the rules are the same -- I had to have driven it in calendar year 2025 and it had to be a model-year 2025 or 2026. I could have driven it as a loan at home, on a first-drive event, at a media event, or anything like that.Here we go.2025 Volkswagen Jetta GLII