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Photo: Buick Pressroom Chevrolet may be moving in the direction of phasing out larger sedans like the Impala, but look on the bright side: we still have the Buick LaCrosse. Personally, my taste has always run most toward the first-generation Buick LaCrosse, which clearly shared many styling cues with the last-generation Buick Riviera coupe—an example of which I am a proud owner.

U.S. workers build cars at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing, LLC. Photo: Hyundai Media Center. If you’re an employee or business owner in the U.S. car-care industry, the Auto Care Association thinks you should be afraid. Very afraid. According to the trade group, based in Bethesda, Maryland, an economic study they commissioned finds that proposed tariffs of 25 percent on imported automobiles and car parts could cost the auto parts manufacturing sector 17,800 jobs, resulting in wage losses of $1.4 billion for affected workers.

Photo: Hyundai media center. In April we ran a story on Autotalks , an Israel-based semiconductor company focused on the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications technology space, after they announced a collaboration with the Connected Motorcycle Consortium to enhance safety-related communication between motorcycles and other vehicles with which they share the roads. Yesterday, Autotalks revealed that they have embarked on a major new collaboration—this time with a major global automaker. Through a direct investment in Autotalks, Hyundai Motor Company seeks to drive chipset technology for connected cars into its next generation.

Photo: FCA Media website. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) issued a flurry of Dodge-division announcements late this week that, although they tell us little that we didn’t know already, further clarify their strategic direction for Dodge going into the 2019 model year. The Dodge announcements give us a snapshot of an automaker that is continuing to stay the course with two of their current strong suits: fleet sales and performance-focused passenger cars.

Photo: Volkswagen U.S. media website. As covered in our article just over a month ago, Volkswagen said they would do it. And on Sunday, they did it. Those of us who have been watching the advances in electric vehicle technology have known it for a while. But in case you haven’t been paying attention, something happened at Pikes Peak this week to add a big, public, exclamation point to the reality that electric vehicles aren’t just for tree-huggers any more.

Photographed in the UK, this 1986 Hyundai Pony is an example of the model that Hyundai marketed in the U.S. as the first-generation Excel. Photo by Charles01 (posted in Wikimedia Commons). If you’re old enough to have been around and aware in 1985 when the first-generation Hyundai Excels started arriving in the U.S with a bargain-basement sticker price of $4,995—incredible even then for a brand new car—you’re well aware of what a long way Korean automakers have come in the last 30 years. 

Photo: Mazda USA Newsroom. Ah, Miata. The car that, in spite of sometimes being maligned as a “chick-mobile” or “secretary’s car,” has earned a reputation as the world’s best selling roadster, the world’s most raced car, and the universal solution to how an enthusiast on a budget can gain entry into ownership of a true sports car.