Buying wheels on a budget doesn’t mean buying lowest-common-denominator. Look past new-car lots and be prepared to cover somewhat higher maintenance costs, and you’ll have your choice of upscale cars at mainstream prices . These are Jalopnik readers’ picks for the best luxury car bargains. More

I’ve been putting off any Lego purchases until my nephew gets old enough to build with non-Duplo sets without potentially swallowing any pieces. The new Lego Technic 4×4 Off-Roader might have me breaking that policy. Hey, his 11th birthday is barely a decade away! More

A methodical teardown and analysis by a team of automotive engineers has revealed the Volt to be at least as advanced as some of you already know it is, and it appears also to have been designed from its inception for future upgrades. The teardown was the sort of thing

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For years, Mazda has had a gaping hole in its product line, and has been completely absent from the white-hot compact crossover market. All that changes when the all-new 2013 Mazda CX-5 hits the showroom floor this month. Wisely, Mazda is marketing the CX-5 as a small CUV built for the motoring enthusiast. All CX-5′s are powered by a… Read the rest

As one of the first to call the Chrysler Clint Eastwood commercial from last night’s Super Bowl a “political ad” — for a moment I felt like the brouhaha over it was partly my fault. Well, until the political hacks weighed in and I realized they were living in a fantasy world. More

Filed under: Motorsports , Coupe , Performance , Japan , Videos , Toyota There is likely no end to the amount of fun one can have with an empty parking lot, a few cones and a willing vehicle. Add two capable machines to the mix and the enjoyment increases exponentially. When those happen to be two Toyota GT86 coupes,… Read the rest

The Basics: The big Dodge Durango SUV has some Mercedes-Benz GL-Class genetics baked into its rugged form. It’s significantly less expensive, of course, and for those that still need the big towing and seating of a more traditional sport-ute, it’s one of the best choices available. For 2012 it returns with just a few changes, competing with the…

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Filed under: Performance , Ford Today marks twenty years since Ford first announced its Special Vehicle Team, most famously known as SVT. With performance mastermind John Colleti at the helm, SVT produced some legendary cars during its first 10 years, beginning with the 1993 SVT Cobra (and its even more hardcore sibling the SVT Cobra R) as well as… Read the rest

Filed under: Etc. , Marketing/Advertising , Videos Here’s a Super Bowl commercial that most of us probably missed, even those of you who stayed on the couch for all four quarters and didn’t even get up during halftime. It’s a fantastic car-chase commercial that features a first-generation Cadillac CTS-V and a pair of iconic Panther-platform Crown Victoria Police Interceptors… Read the rest

If you watched yesterday’s Super Bowl, perhaps the most talked-about commercial was the “Halftime In America” ad run by Chrysler and starring Clint Eastwood. Against a gritty urban backdrop and scenes of middle-class America, Eastwood assured us things would get better. Detroit, he said, almost lost everything, but it’s pulled…

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