Free Republic

The attorney general of Minnesota has identified the culprits responsible for all the car thefts in his state. And the culprit is the car manufacturers of course.

The sport itself is changing for each of the three major racing leagues.In decades past, when Michael Jordan took to the court, everyone knew the inevitable result. This fall, not so much. The change has much to do with the type of court where Jordan has more recently “competed.” As the majority owner of a stock-car racing team with driver Denny Hamlin, Jordan and another team spent nearly two weeks inside a federal courthouse in Charlotte during the trial of their antitrust suit against NASCAR. Both parties ultimately settled the suit mid-trial for an undisclosed sum, making it more difficult...

♥️🇺🇸 🇮🇹♥️ @CB618444 · 1h Make. It. Make. Sense. 🙄 NYS fines Hyundai & Kia $9 million for failure to stop criminals from stealing their cars. It’s like fining Macys for selling clothes from a rack rather than locked cabinets. I know a non-profit fraud case here that was reported by multiple people to Big Tish involving millions & you know what she did? NOTHING.

U.S. prosecutors charged top executives of bankrupt subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings with what they described as a years-long, “systematic fraud” scheme that sent shockwaves through the banking sector earlier this year. In an indictment unsealed in Manhattan, prosecutors allege that from at least 2018 through September 2025, founder and CEO Daniel Chu and chief operating officer David Goodgame orchestrated a series of fraudulent schemes that let Tricolor obtain billions of dollars from lenders and investors by misrepresenting the value of its loan collateral. Tricolor sold used cars to customers with limited or poor credit in the south and southwest,...

Angelle Sampey had waited long enough to know the moment would never feel routine, not even with three world championships on her résumé. When she finally made her first pass in a Top Fuel dragster after the Las Vegas race, she carried a wish she couldn’t fulfill: her father had asked to see her drive one before he died, and he missed it by a week. “It was supposed to happen a few months ago,” Sampey said. “We had actually had a test session planned for Monday after Ohio. I think it was Ohio, I think. And that got rained...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- All 1,600 employees of the brand new electric vehicle battery plant in Kentucky will be laid off before Ford converts it to manufacture batteries for data centers and other utilities. Ford will turn the Glendale factory into a battery-storage business for customers such as utilities, wind- and solar-power developers, and massive data centers that train artificial intelligence, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. And Ford announced Monday it plans to begin shipping the battery energy storage systems from its Kentucky and Michigan plants in Late 2027, a shift to "higher-return opportunities." In total, the company said...

In California, it’s almost expected for people to appear younger than they are. But what about your car? According to Carfax, the number of vehicles on the road with rolled-back odometers is rising, up 14% from last year. “It’s especially concerning because, if we compare the year-over-year rate, it’s dramatically higher than years prior,” Em Nguyen of Carfax told KTLA’s Chip Yost. And of the about 2.45 million cars with rolled-back odometers on the road, the largest percentage of them — nearly 22% — are in California, with the Golden State’s 532,200 cars far outpacing second-place Texas and third-place Florida...

DETROIT (AP) — Sixteen states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration for what they say is the unlawful withholding of over $2 billion in funding for two electric vehicle charging programs. A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Seattle is the latest legal battle that Democratic-led states are pursuing over funding for EV charging infrastructure that they say was obligated to them by Congress under former President Joe Biden, but that the Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration are “impounding.” “The Trump administration’s illegal attempt to stop funding for electric vehicle infrastructure must come to an...

The EU looks set to scrap a landmark 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars on Tuesday, as part of a package of reforms aimed at supporting Europe's embattled auto industry. Carmakers and their backers have lobbied hard for Brussels to relax the ban over the past year – in the face of fierce competition from China and a slower-than-expected shift to electric vehicles (EVs). Set in 2023, the ban was a cornerstone of the EU's environmental Green Deal, which has come under increased pressure from businesses and right-wing politicians as the EU seeks to bolster its industry.

Just four years after it was launched, the Ford Motor Company has pulled the plug on its electric F-150 Lightning truck. The company instead will reportedly be focusing on hybrid vehicles and a future lineup of smaller and more affordable electric vehicles. In a call with reporters on Monday, Andrew Frick, the president of Ford Blue and Ford Model E, the company's commercial and electric divisions, said, "The American consumer is speaking clearly and they want the benefits of electrification like instant torque and mobile power. But they also demand affordability … rather than spending billions more on large EVs...

Ferrari is exploring radical oval pistons that could shrink engines, boost efficiency, and reinvent how high-performance gas motors are designed for the next generation. =============================================================== Key Points * Ferrari patents oval, or "stadium-shaped," pistons to replace traditional circular designs. * The design could significantly shorten engines while maintaining displacement and cylinder count. * Oval pistons could also lower frictional losses, improve combustion efficiency and lead to engines that "breathe" better. =============================================================== Breaking Away from Tradition For as long as internal combustion engines have existed, pistons have been round. This wasn’t necessarily because circular shapes were optimal for performance. It was...

DELIVERING A WIN FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES AND AUTOMAKERS: Today, President Donald J. Trump is delivering major relief to American families by resetting the Biden Administration’s costly and unlawful Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.President Trump is returning CAFE standards to levels that can actually be met with conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. The Biden Administration standards imposed unrealistic fuel economy targets that effectively resulted in an electric vehicle (EV) mandate.The Trump Administration’s reset of the CAFE standards ensures the program’s fidelity to the legal restrictions set forth by Congress.The Biden standards broke the law by going far beyond the requirements...

According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the fire was reported at 9:20 a.m. on Foothill Boulevard, just below the 210 Freeway overpass. No children were aboard at the time, and the driver was transported to a local hospital for minor smoke inhalation injuries. Aerial footage showed a large plume of smoke emerging from below the underpass. The smoke led to the closure of the Osbourne Street offramp, according to Caltrans. Fire crews were at the scene but appeared to keep their distance from the flames. Experts say fires involving lithium-ion batteries, commonly used in electric vehicles, are typically controlled...

Waymo is hitting the brakes on its robotaxi software and issuing a voluntary recall after school bus safety concerns came to light earlier this year. The recall won’t necessarily pull cars from the road but will instead see them updated. It comes after an investigation by Nexstar’s KXAN found the company’s driverless vehicles illegally passed school buses with their stop arms out in Austin, Texas. The Austin Independent School District said similar incidents occurred at least 19 times this school year, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation in October. In November, cameras captured a Waymo...

Hundreds of Porsches in Russia were rendered immobile last week, raising speculation of a hack, but the German carmaker tells The Register that its vehicles are secure. According to reports, local dealership chain Rolf traced the problem to a loss of satellite connectivity to their Vehicle Tracking Systems (VTS). This meant the systems thought a theft attempt was in progress, triggering the vehicle's engine immobilizer. Porsche HQ was unable to help or diagnose the nature of the problem. It's understood that systems like VTS are operated by local Porsche subsidiaries or dealer networks. But following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and...

While less prevalent these days, it’s hard to not appreciate the sound of a high-revving naturally aspirated engine. The team at Boreham Motorworks just pulled the cover off their new 2.1-liter, inline-four cylinder engine. This small-displacement powerplant puts out an impressive 325 horsepower and, as the name suggests, screams all the way to an astonishing 10,000 rpm. It may be small, but innovative engineering is significantly pushing the boundaries for what a street-driven engine can be.

What It Is The Chevrolet Camaro was originally created as a Ford Mustang foil. History now appears ready to repeat itself as Chevy prepares to reintroduce the Camaro nameplate to the market. This time, we're hearing from our sources that we should expect the Bow Tie to resurrect the Camaro not as a coupe but as a fastback SUV aimed squarely at the Mustang Mach-E. That is, unless General Motors president Mark Reuss has his way and the Camaro makes its comeback as an electric car. But if it's an SUV, here's what we believe you can expect: Why It...

Sealed beneath a pyramid for 50 years, a forgotten American car has just been unearthed—and it’s nothing like what experts expected. Once mocked, this buried relic has stunned a small town and reignited a national obsession. On Independence Day 2025, a sealed concrete vault beneath a small-town pyramid in Seward, Nebraska opened to reveal an unexpected relic: a 1975 Chevrolet Vega, untouched for 50 years and preserved in striking condition. The unveiling drew thousands, offering a rare collision of automotive history, American nostalgia, and small-town spectacle. The car emerged from what is now being recognized as the largest time capsule...

The European Commission could announce a package to support the local automotive sector, including a possible watered down version of its 2035 combustion engine phase-out, on December 16, an industry source briefed on the matter said. Brussels is so far planning to announce the package on December 10, but EU transport commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said earlier this week that the package could be delayed until January. The source said that December 16 was a target but could still change. A spokesperson for the European Commission declined to comment on the new date, which was first reported by Germany's Tagesspiegel Background.

The future is now along a stretch of Texas highway as driverless semi-trucks begin their commutes within an Austin-area corridor. The "Smart Freight Corridor" is a 21-mile stretch of State Highway 130 in the Austin area - the fastest highway in Texas - covering the highway region from Georgetown to Mustang Ridge.