2004 Oldsmobile Alero

Uhhhhh....we're at a loss, here. Somehow, the manhole cover has spoken on this, uh...once again, we're at a loss.

Photo: Craigslist

2015 Minivan Sales

So, are people really not buying minivans? Clearly, they must be out of their minds if they'll choose something other than the most efficient and best-driving (of vehicles most optimized to haul people and things) vehicles on the market. Let's see if they aren't; here are the sales number as of October. Note that things are highly unlikely to change by year end.

That's pretty bad. As a somewhat random comparison, the Acura MDX, which shares much of its DNA with the Honda Odyssey, outsold all minivans combined. It occupies the #88 slot on the YTD (as of October) total sales. That's awful. Not only that, but MDX sales are down by over 17% compared to last year.

Photo: Kia

Americans have truly chosen form over function and this truly saddens the REVolution. The end is nigh. Do you have your Prepper stock ready?

1970 Radio Shack Catalog

Remember going on long trips and talking to each other from car to car with these bad boys? Those were the days...literally. Check out this article reminiscing about the 1970 Radio Shack catalog!

Photo: Radio Shack

Remote Voodoo

One of the REVolution fleet has suffered a terrible blow; the remote doesn't work. Though we currently have vehicles that are completely manual in this and all other respects, this particular vehicle actually needs this feature. We could tell you why but then we'd have to kill you.

Bozatwork Correspondence

Like a Venus flytrap, occasionally outsiders get caught up in the REVolution. Mostly, it's a misplaced attempt to help someone buy a used car or deal with current car issues. You might find this correspondence between one of the REVolution staff and someone who goes by the handle "Bozatwork"; it most certainly accurately reflects many of our thoughts here.

Begin message...

Photo: WreckedExotics.com

Urbamobile Replaces The Car

"Before introducing the UrbamobileTransportation System one thing should be noted: however unbelievable or fantastic it may seem, implementing this System on a broad and global level, without exaggeration, opens up a new era in the history of mankind.

Unfortunately, it is exactly the fatally hopeless organization of motor-car traffic in the actual absence of feasible alternatives that predetermined a rather bleak picture until recently.

Photo: Alexey F. Khoroshev

But now when the Urbamobile is invented giving the realistic chance of organizing everything in a fundamentally different way. Implementing the amazing urbamobile ability to easily move around disregarding contact and ensuring good maneuvering in a squeezed space environment due to optimal design and control offered by the Urbamobile TransportationSystem."

Click the links for more description, details and images. Imagine how difficult it would be to implement this idea; what a task of monumental proportions! But it might work if a city closed its borders to cars and provided safe and secure free parking on the city limits and made these available for within. Say, that could work...

"Yours To Keep" by Teddybears

Now that November is here, we're missing warm summer evenings around here at the REVolution offices. This great pop song will alleviate some of that angst, we hope. Enjoy!

2105 VW Jetta TDI Depreciation Update

How can it be time for an update on the depreciation of our example 2015 Volkswagen Jetta TDI? It's only been two weeks! Surely the value hasn't gone down much...or has it? Well Buffy McBufferson, the last we took a look at the KBB, it was $19,230. The current value is now...wait for it...$18,744. It's only lost $486. Is that good or is it bad?

Design Element - Jan 27, 2016

This is the engine from the Lancia Aurelia. It's important because it was the world's first production V-6.

2016 Nissan Titan XD Design Analysis

You’re probably already aware that full-sized trucks outsell every other kind of vehicle in the United States. The bestselling car, the Camry, is still outdistanced by the Ford F-Series, often at nearly a 2 to 1 rate per month. To say that big honkin' trucks are the lifeblood of American car manufacturers is an understatement.

Photo: Nissan

Atkinson Cycle Engine

Click here for the Wikipedia entry describing the Atkinson cycle engine.

 

1981 Delorean

It's hard to quantify what's rare in the car world. To some people, anything less than several thousand vehicles produced is rare while to others nothing is rare unless it's less than a dozen. And when you factor in special editions and options...well, things get messy and there's gonna be a smackdown.

How about 7? Is seven vehicles produced with a special paint job rare to you? How about if the car is normally unpainted, with a stainless steel body? Okay, things just got weird.

Photos: Craigslist

Design Element: January 4, 2016

Many enthusiasts believe the Porsche story begins with the Beetle but that's not true. They also believe that the original Porsche-designed vehicles were powered by gasoline engines. Neither of those assumptions are accurate; witness the very first Ferdinand Porsche-designed car, the 1898 Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton, which was electric. Yep, Mission E be damned!

With six forward gears, two for reverse and four for braking, this lil' German zapper could utilize an overboost function ("Insane" mode, anyone?) to pump out 5 hp and dash to 20 mph at the time (don't forget that "roads" were not the same that we're used to). It had a range of about 50 miles and was, incredibly, a rally race winner.

A museum piece now, the car pictured was rescued from a permanent dirt nap by none other than Wolfgang Porsche, Ferdinand's son and is on display in Germany. The ghostly purplish-blue pieces are plexiglass reconstructions of what the body looked like. I'm not sure why they chose to do that instead of actually recreating the missing pieces with materials that would correctly represent the time it came from, but it gives the vehicle a fantastical appearance that is certainly suiting. When I was in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, seeing this vehicle in the flesh was nearly a religious experience. It's that amazing, regardless if you're a Porschephile or not.

There, now you know. Impress your frenemies with your vast knowledge. Just don't expect them to care.

Black+Decker 300 Amp Portable Jump Starter

They're on to you...them, those pesky people that own cars but don't know or want to know anything about them. Of course, they won't admit that and they'll do their darnedest to convince you otherwise but their level of understanding is paper thin. That's okay, except they aren't interested in increasing that knowledge either and your enthusiasm gives them IBS.

Still, if you have a truck then you're helping them move. And if you have jumper cables, then you're getting a call in the middle of night, fifty miles away. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways.

Photo: Home Depot

What Would Satan Drive

In our desperate attempt not to feature a hearse or a car painted an orange hue from the factory -Seriously, that’s what they came up with?- for Halloween, one of the concepts we conjured up was the question, “What would Satan drive?”

In the ironically beleaguered television show Lucifer, the Lord of Hell drives a mildly customized C1 Corvette. But that seemed too Hollywood (which is another kind of Hell); he’d drive whatever he darn well pleased and most likely something that is a major polluter. Not that the 'Vette isn't...and there will be no diesel VW jokes here, thank you very much. No, the car would need to have a nameplate related to whom or what he was. Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.

So we put our thinking caps on and these are the vehicles we came up with that include a name related to bad old Ash-Shaytan. We’ve included examples currently for sale if we could find one and a tiny bit of buying advice.

Photo: eBay