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Bighearted enthusiast rescues stranger's Mazda RX-7 from floods

With Tropical Storm Cristobal charting a path for the Gulf Coast, a Biloxi, Mississippi, local named Khuong Nguyen wanted to get his FD-series Mazda RX-7 out of the storm — the coupe had some bad seals that would let in rain. He parked the orange and black coupe in the bottom story of a parking garage at the city's Golden Nugget Casino, which kept the rain from getting in. But Cristobal came on stronger than expected, creating a new threat of water from below when the parking garage began to flood. Austin Owens, a Gulfport resident about 10 miles from Biloxi, saw photos of the RX-7 with water up to its rockers on a local Cars and Coffee page. As he would later tell Jalopnik, the RX-7 being one of Owens' dream cars, he decided he needed to rescue it. Just to make sure we're all on the same page, a young man braved a tropical storm in his own vehicle to save a stranger's RX-7 in another city. Owens dragooned a friend and hopped in a Ford Bronco, dodging closed roads and fording three or four feet of water on open roads. They drove to Home Depot to pick up cinder blocks, then headed to the Golden Nugget parking garage. As Owens and his friend arrived, they met Nguyen and a couple of his friends pulling Nguyen's second car, a Ferrari 360, out of the garage on a trailer. The RX-7 had already been set on wood blocks, thin bricks, and some orange wheel chocks, but the stilt job wasn't high enough in front; the water in parts of the garage was knee deep. Owens jacked up the RX-7 to get the cinder blocks under the front wheels; the rear end was fine, due to the slope of the garage floor. Success. As one of Nguyen's friends told Jalopnik, Owens' actions "did give us adequate time to combat the rising water." The success came at a cost, though, Owens reporting, "We actually killed the [BroncoÂ’s] transmission on the way out. We actually had to drive in second gear all the way home" due to floodwater seeping into the transmission. He has no regrets, explaining his derring-do with, “ItÂ’s a rare car ... I would hope somebody would do the same for me if I was in the situation with a car of that stature. I didnÂ’t have it in my heart to leave it there." With the story blowing up on Facebook, he told the legion of enthusiasts sending their respects, "Appreciate the love, but IÂ’d expect the same for one of my cars," followed by, "Alright, whoÂ’s down for some Forza?" Save for the original seal issue, the RX-7 came out of the storm with no issues.

Mountain goats provide full service car wash at national park

A group of plucky mountain goats in a Canadian national park apparently found the hardscrabble life of a common animal too tedious and tried their hands, rather tongues, at car detailing. YouTube user Darkrider1287 uploaded this video of the goats in action last week. His companion were driving along Maligne Valley Road in Alberta's Jasper National Park when a handful of young mountain goats descended on their Mazda. As the bewildered couple stopped their car, the goats surrounded them and proceeded to lick the vehicle clean. Knowing a good video opportunity when he saw one, Darkrider pulled out his phone to film the endearing and hilarious scene. For thirty minutes, the mountain goats licked the car clean from stem to stern. Paying little to no mind to the humans within, the goats cleared the Mazda of its accumulation of dust, bugs, pollen, and other tasty road grime. "So thorough!" said Darkrider as he narrated his video. "That's some tasty dust!" As the goats cleaned the car, other tourists stopped to laugh and take pictures of the strange scene. Eventually, a handful of cars and as many as ten goats had the Mazda surrounded. "Within a few minutes, we were crowded by both sheep and also tourists taking pictures of our funny plight," Darkrider stated in a comment on the video. "We stayed for about 30 minutes before moving on due to a rainstorm." So what exactly is going on here? A similar event happened to a National Geographic reporter in the same park in 2012. A park ranger told the report that the mountain goats were addicted to the salt used in Alberta to keep the roads from freezing. Even in August, salt can still make its way on to a car in the form of road dust. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. News Source: The Daily Mail, YouTube, National Geographic Auto News Humor Weird Car News Mazda Driving goat

2019 Subaru Ascent vs. 2018 Mazda CX-9: Driving two class leaders side-by-side

As the de facto replacement for the family sedan, we expect a lot out of modern crossovers. They need to excel at family-hauling duties while delivering reasonable performance and fuel economy. They have to offer all-wheel drive and the latest safety technology. They ought to be ruggedly handsome, and they can't be so prohibitively expensive that the families they are targeting can't afford them. It's a tall order, and some automakers have hit closer to the proverbial bullseye than others. By some stroke of luck, we managed to snag a 2018 Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring as our chariot to take the four-hour drive from Seattle to McMinnville, Ore., where we got our first drive of the 2019 Subaru Ascent. As one of our favorite vehicles in this class, the CX-9 would serve as a good comparison to the Ascent. And, on paper, the similarities are abundant: Both come from automakers with a clear, go-your-own-way approach to vehicle engineering, are powered by turbocharged four-cylinder engines, and offer three rows of seating in a relatively compact package. Put simply, we expect the Ascent and CX-9 to be cross-shopped by a lot of new-car buyers looking for a new family car. What we found is that the CX-9 is the better choice for the buyer who values a sporty driving experience above all else, while the Ascent is probably better for families looking for a healthier dose of practicality. Either option will ably serve the suburban American family they are targeting, but the ways they go about that life of servitude are quite different. It's worth noting that pretty much every automaker in America is selling a vehicle in this class, which means there are a heck of a lot of vehicles from which to choose. For a few other options, check out this spec-sheet comparison here, and for anything else, be sure to visit the handy Autoblog compare tool. With that out of the way, let's break it down a bit more granularly. Styling: View 36 Photos Looks-wise, we prefer the Mazda. A crossover is going to be generally box-shaped, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring. The CX-9's bodywork flows gracefully from nose to tail, with just the right amount of flashiness in the form of headlights that take the form of cat-like eyes, a five-point grille surrounded in chrome, and gently arcing bodyside lines. It all works to form what we think is the most attractive midsize crossover overall. We don't hate the Subaru Ascent's looks, but it's definitely more boring than the CX-9.