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If I had a do-over, I would have just ordered the kit off the Ford website rather than walking in an interacting with a salesmen. Unfortunately since everything at the dealership revolves around sales commissions, and no one is making anything off this accessory, they don't care. I just found it...

I've always been a de-badger besides the brand emblems; there's no possible situation where anyone cares if your car has AWD, if it's a diesel, gas, or hybrid drivetrain, and how many cylinders it has. No one even cares what model it is if that's a badge.

When I was car shopping last, one of the reasons I ended up with a Maverick is because a Toyota dealer would absolutely not let me buy the Corolla hybrid I wanted without an "interior protection package" and Zaktek paint protection for nearly $800. Great, you maybe sprayed some scotch guard on...

Well, yes, oil changes are often offered at basically no margin, or even a loss to get you in the door, and many "service centers" will try to tack on easy extras like your cabin air filter, fuel system service, wipers, etc. that are high margin services to bring up the transaction value. I...

You're entitled to use aftermarket parts (e.g. oil fitlers, oil) as per the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act, but yes, many people will just stick with the OE Motorcraft to be in the clear. If your engine has a catastrophic failure unrelated to the oil or filter, but Ford tries to deny the claim...

The Defender 2 is probably the #1 selling tire out there, even more so by people that care and don't just buy the cheapest tire they can, so you're probably going to get reviews all over the map if you read enough of them. I was pretty shocked that the current crop of all-weather tires is...

It definitely cost more to implement with a heavier duty starter and battery. Although I consider myself an environmentalist, I think we need to step back a bit and consider many of the measures taken chasing diminishing returns on MPGs that have made vehicles less reliable with shorter usable...

I'm curious how much Goodyear improved version 2. The first version of the WeatherReady's were the last tire I had on my Prius, and while they were definitely a huge improvement over AS tires in the winter, the steering feel was numb, and they had a pretty significant MPG hit.

I've been very happy with the Pirelli Scorpion AS 3's in the vanilla bean all-season tire category, but that was somewhat price driven since Sam's Club discounts them, and consumer reports gave them the top score for rolling resistance (fuel mileage). $725 with taxes, installed for 4x tires...

You're right about fixed cost making economy vehicles increasingly unattractive, but there are other factors as well. Even a bare bones Nissan Versa (RIP) that can be had for $16K is a much nicer vehicle than the peak Japanese econoboxes circa early 80s to late 90s. You get a better head unit...

The Maverick and Bronco Sport will be due for refreshes when the facility in Tennessee is online in 2029, so it could be as simple as moving assembly from Mexico to the US to realign with EV setbacks and politics. Only way Ford is going to actually get a vehicle to market that is well under...

I've been locked out once, and that debacle made me convert to the keypad for life, or at least having a backup key hidden somewhere. I have no doubt many of the lockouts are bumping the lock button, but at least some are not. It's pretty nice being able to lock the car with it running for quick...

Other than what's already been mentioned with checking fuses and stored fault codes, if it's not anything obvious there, pay the money to take the vehicle in to the most experienced mechanic you can find that can actually diagnose electrical issues. Not the cheapest, not the quickest, not the...

Owners generally charge their EVs overnight when electricity demand is low, although that is admittedly changing some as overnight temperatures rise, which means more air conditioners running overnight. Having tens of millions of EVs out there also opens up the possibility of doing things like...

EVs will help make the grid more resilient as distributed energy storage. One of the few benefits of the AI datacenter bubble that's not a bubble is that utilities and companies with printing press money are actually upgrading the grid, and fast tracking nuclear power. I would love to have an EV...

Very interested to see what this looks like, as well as a compact / mid-size crossover if they can actually hit the 30K starting MSRP. Would also like to see Ford just go with what regulators in China are already doing by banning the ridiculous hidden door handles, and forcing a backtrack on...

I never realized until after it was cancelled that the Santa Cruz uses a DCT for god knows what reason. Korean cars have got a lot better, but I don't understand their penchant for doing weird / completely unnecessary things with the transmission (the Carnival hybrid is another marvel of umm, why?).

It's not a cosmetic cover, but there is more plastic ducting over the 25+ 2.0L, I assume for the port injection and misc. components that go with that on the intake. Wires and pipes are also obviously routed much nicer.

25+ MY 2.0L bay 22-24 MY 2.0L bay 2.5L hybrid bay All I will say is I didn't let car care nut's commentary on how the hybrid engine bay was put together deter me. I don't really care that much as long as things that are likely to need service can be serviced without 20 hours of labor...

It would be interesting to see a proper comparison of the FWD hybrid vs. AWD hybrid vs. AWD EB in something like 70/30 city/highway vs. 30/70 city/highway. He kinda insinuated that the efficiency loss of the AWD hybrid vs. FWD hybrid may be more than the EPA numbers without backing it up testing...