Auto blog

Which is more fuel efficient, driving with a pickup's tailgate up or down?

Thanks to the smoke wand in the wind tunnel, you can actually see the difference in our video.
Should you drive with your pickup truck's tailgate up or down? It's an age-old controversy that's divided drivers for decades. Traditionalists will swear you should leave the tailgate down. Makes sense, right? It would seem to let the air flow more cleanly over the body and through the bed. But there's also a school of thought that argues trucks are designed to look and operate in a specific manner, and modern design techniques can help channel the airflow properly. So don't mess with all of that: Leave the tailgate up.

Jerry Seinfeld doesn't love Sarah Jessica Parker's new Country Squire in latest CiCGC

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee has finally returned for its fourth season of combining Jerry Seinfeld, a miscellaneous celebrity and a cup of java. But rather than fondly remembering some older piece of automotive machinery, this time around, Seinfeld is utterly unable to keep his hatred of Sarah Jessica Parker's 1976 Ford LTD Country Squire from coming out to hilarious effect.
However, Parker has such a high level of infectious enthusiasm for her recently purchased Country Squire that she seems to win over Seinfeld by the end - at least a little bit. For most of their time together, the two of them drive around Manhattan and the suburbs waxing nostalgic about what things were like when these wagons were ubiquitous.
Since this is actually SJP's car, she and Seinfeld trade off driving duties, and the image above should give you some indication of Seinfeld's reaction to the Sex and the City star behind the wheel. It seems this '70s land yacht might be a little too much for her to handle in New York traffic. Regardless, she is absolutely in love with her Ford.

NHTSA closes book on Ford, GM probes of 600,000 vehicles

US safety regulators have closed a pair of investigations into some 500,000 Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Marauder sedans built between 2004 to 2007, and 100,000 Chevrolet Impala models from 2014. The Ford investigation focused on rusting heat shields, which may become dislodged and jam the steering, according to Reuters. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that this happened very rarely. In fact, of the ten incidents filed with the government safety watchdog, six came from a single police department, which evidently had some sort of problem with its reporting. As for the Impala, the NHTSA investigators attributed two incidences of "unintended autonomous braking" to user error. In both cases, the vehicles were involved in rear-end collisions. According to GM investigators, it's believed that drivers accidentally activated the electric parking brake, causing the collisions. The vehicles in question were rental cars. Featured Gallery Ford Crown Victoria Related Gallery 2014 Chevrolet Impala View 10 Photos News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Ford, Chevrolet Government/Legal Chevrolet Ford Safety Sedan ford crown victoria mercury grand marquis