Believe it or not, but The Autopian just finished its second year, and first full calendar year of existence. That’s right, we’re a full 21 months into this grand journey of automotive tomfoolery, err, expertise, and though we’ve run into a few snags (like Jason nearly dying), we have also had our share of triumphs. So let’s take a look at the best stories we wrote in 2023.

Let’s get into it (click the headlines to read each article):

What It Feels Like To Have Your Aorta Explode And Almost Die

Speaking of Jason nearly dying, his recent article on that whole ordeal has been hailed by many readers has his best work, and that’s a huge deal given that he’s been at this for over a decade. Click the link above the picture above to read the harrowing but somehow absolutely hilarious tale.

They Brought A Crappy Tesla Cybertuck ‘Clone’ To A Major Car Show. We Interviewed Them And It Got Insanely Awkward

Jason’s aortic dissection happened not long after publication of a bit of an Exposé on a supposedly legitimate American startup that brought a hideously-built Tesla Cybertruck lookalike to the LA Auto Show. The thing appeared to be made of fiberglass panels attached to a Toyota Tacoma (or maybe a Tundra), with plenty of body-filler visible under the silver paint.

The video above may go down as the most awkward automotive clips of all time.

Vermont Will No Longer Register Cars In Any State Because People Couldn’t Stop Doing Crimes – The Autopian

Vermont. It’s been the savior for many car enthusiasts for decades, with Mercedes Streeter brilliantly referring to it in the above article as “America’s DMV.” The state would allow folks from out-of-state to register their vehicles, sideskirting whatever emissions or safety or other restriction that would otherwise make owning a car impossible. From Mercedes:

Vermont was willing to register just about any vehicle to any person living anywhere in the United States so long as they could fulfill some very basic requirements. This has been a godsend to anyone rescuing a barn find motorcycle, saving a car from the crusher, or building a bus into a motorhome.

But alas, the glory days are over:

Unfortunately, not everyone had honest intentions and many people used Vermont to register stolen cars or to run a weird quasi DMV of their own. Now, because of these people, Vermont has closed up its DMV to outsiders.

Read the story for more; it’s an incredible deep-dive from someone who knows their stuff!

I Bought A High-Mileage Electric Car With A Bad Battery. Here’s Why That Was Actually A Stroke of Genius – The Autopian

I wasn’t expecting the entire internet to read this story, or else I might have made a better topshot than the one I clearly cranked out on Paint. But it got the job done, because the story is what won folks over, not the image — specifically, I suspect it was the part about the “loophole.”

I bought an electric car with a bad battery, which I think is a lot of folks’ fear when it comes to EVs. As a result of the vehicle’s high mileage, I got it for cheap, but given how pricy a new high voltage battery is, not cheap enough — or so you might have thought. You see, I did some digging, and despite the BMW dealer claiming that my vehicle no longer had a battery warranty, the truth is that the state of California (and other states that follow California’s lead) requires automakers to offer a 10 year, 150,000 mile warranty on Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles. Because my i3 has a range extender (a little gas engine that acts as a generator when the battery runs out), it qualifies as a PZEV, and thus I’m covered by the warranty.

Result: I got a free battery, and thus, the deal of the century!

The Dodge Hornet Owners Forum Is Full Of People Who Regret Buying Hornets – The Autopian

I love an exclusive story, and this one from Thomas about how buyers of Dodge Hornets are unhappy with their vehicles’ lack of reliability is absolute gold — gold I tell you! You can take the Alfa Romeo badge off the car, but it’s still an Alfa Romeo underneath. The jokes write themselves!

Two Decades Ago, You Could Buy A Dodge Ram With A Manual Transmission And One Of The Greatest Truck Engines Of All Time: Holy Grails – The Autopian

Mercedes’ “Holy Grail” series is one of my favorites on our site because I learn about a bunch of new cars that I never knew existed. Sometimes, though, I learn a lot more about a truck I did know existed, and that’s just as fun. This deep-dive into the beloved second-gen Ram 12-valve Cummins is a great read!

Why Did The Wheel Come Off That Chevy Pickup That Launched A Kia Into The Air? Let’s Look At The Tech – The Autopian

Early last year, a viral video hit the web of a Kia Soul driving over a wheel that had fallen off a pickup, and being absolutely launched sky-high into the air. Here’s the clip:

Witnessed and recorded the most INSANE car crash yesterday, you can see Autopilot also swerve and avoid the rouge tire for me $TSLA pic.twitter.com/csMh2nbRNX

— Anoop (@Anoop_Khatra) March 25, 2023

How exactly did this happen? Specifically, how did that wheel fall off that Chevy Silverado? In this article dive deep into the truck’s front suspension/wheel bearing setup to get answers, because it doesn’t appear that this was just a simple matter of lug nuts not being tight enough.

Toyota Prius Owners Are Swapping Tired Old Batteries For Lithium-Ion Ones And Seeing Big Gains – The Autopian

What I love about this article is that it’s a look at some grassroots wrenching, which is something we champion around here. Owners took it into their own hands to upgrade their old Toyota Prius batteries to lithium-ion ones, and to see the performance gain is just cool.

Honda Allegedly Spent $225 Million Building An Irrelevant, Completely Ridiculous Piece Of Motorcycle Art: Holy Grails – The Autopian

Yet another Holy Grail, only this time it’s about a bike I didn’t know existed: the Honda Valkyrie Rune.

The story of this bike is absolute madness, and the fact that the bike — essentially an art project turned to life, with a 1.8-liter flat-six engine making an absurd 118 horsepower — made it into production is just a miracle, and even more of a miracle is that they can still be purchased used for around $20 large.

There Was Once A Company That Literally Dragged Cars From The Junkyard And Turned Them Into New Trucks – The Autopian

Jason Torchinsky’s story on how now-defunct American automaker Powell built its vehicles out of junkyard-sourced cars is something I had never heard!

Tesla Driver Skips Wide-Open Superchargers To Take Ford F-150 Lightning Owner’s Only Charging Spot Because It’s Cheaper (UPDATED) – The Autopian

Here’s the story of an EV charging-station quarrel that I saw in person. A Ford F-150 Lightning driver gets ready to back up from his broken charging station spot into the only working charging spot for non-Teslas. That’s when a Tesla driver decides to forego the dozen or so Tesla charging stations and pull right into that last remaining non-Tesla charging spot. Why? The non-Tesla charging stations are subsidized by the government, while the Tesla charging stations are Tesla owned, so this guy can save money by not using the Tesla spots. The Ford F-150 Lighting owner, though? He was screwed, and had to wait a while before he could charge his truck. Read all about the experience by clicking the headline above.

The U.S. Military Once Rode 100 MPG Jet Fuel-Powered ‘Combat Motorcycles’ And You Can Buy One Today – The Autopian

How is it that Mercedes finds the coolest bikes that I’ve never heard of? I mean, really — a diesel or jet-fuel powered motorcycle that gets 100 MPG? That’s absolutely bonkers!

Cummins Has A Super Fancy Oil Meant To Kick Engine Rebuilds Down The Road. Here’s How It Works – The Autopian

I love learning knew things, so it’s lucky that Thomas’ head is a fountain of random car knowledge. Cummins has its own special oil formulation? Why? Thomas answers that in the post above.

I Talked With UAW Workers On The Picket Line In Front Of The Ford Bronco Plant. Here’s What They Had To Say – The Autopian

The UAW’s strike with Ford, GM, and Stellantis was historic, lasting six weeks, and closing numerous highly profitable truck plants. I traveled to Detroit and spoke with a number of striking UAW workers; you can see what I learned in the article above.

Here’s Why That Rivian R1T Repair Cost $42,000 After Just A Minor Fender-Bender – The Autopian

When a Rivian R1T electric truck got rear-ended, its owner got slapped with an enormous bill for the repair. Many news outlets reported this, but Jason was the first to reach out to various parties and dig into why the damage cost so much to fix. Good stuff, JT!

Bring A Trailer Has Lost Its Damn Mind – The Autopian

The Dodge Avenger was a largely-panned car when it hit press fleets about 15 years ago. It was a Daimler-Chrysler, hard interior-plastic special, and is in no way the type of vehicle you’d expect to see on a premium car auction site like Bring a Trailer, and yet: There it is. Read on as Thomas pokes fun at this odd moment in Bring a Trailer history.

I Found A $1 Million RV Abandoned Off-Road. Here’s How It Failed (UPDATED) – The Autopian

Earlier this year, things got really testy between me and the CEO of 27North after I wrote about how one of his trucks had failed on the off-road course I had just come back from. He tried to tell me the failure was the fault of Ford’s bad wheel bearing, but I’m no dumbass, and know how unlikely it is for a wheel bearing to suddenly fail in a way that twists a driveshaft into a Twizzler, so I hedged a bit. The CEO wasn’t thrilled, but you can read the rest by clicking the headline above.

How A Tennessee Man Amassed The World’s Largest Junkyard Of Jeep Cherokee XJs – The Autopian

Here’s a story I assigned our newest writer, Australia-based Lewin. I’d known about Dex from Facebook — he’s a prolific Jeep Cherokee hoar, err, collector. Actually, in truth, he managed to turn his passion into a business, and that’s just badass. Here’s the story of the biggest Jeep XJ collection on earth.

Why Driving Short Distances Can Kill A Newer Honda CR-V – The Autopian

Thomas has started his “Achilles Heels” series that talks about ways in which various cars fail, and this one about Honda CR-V oil dilution is a doozie!

How I Used A Chainsaw To Remove Batteries From The Cheapest EV In The World – The Autopian

This article answers my above question.

Trimflation: Explaining Why Automakers Raised Prices So Much In The Pandemic

Matt Hardigree coined a term that I hope someday makes its way to the fabled servers of Wikipedia: Trimflation. It’s about how, in the throes of the pandemic, when people had lots of cash sitting around and automakers were limited due to supply chain shortages, cars became more expensive. Much more expensive. This didn’t necessarily happen by changing cars’ base prices, but by making the mix of vehicles available to buyers flush with expensive, high-trim offerings. Now that interest rates are up and folks aren’t spending as much, automakers are in a bind. Matt explores that in his excellent piece above.

I Bought A 20-Year Old BMW With 234,000 Miles On It To Prove The Haters Wrong

As a seasoned writer and editor, Matt is multitalented, and is not only coining his own economics terms, he’s also telling you about the 234,000 mile BMW that he bought for a steal. Was it a triumph in car purchasing or just another waste of money on a shitbox? Matt lays it all out.

The Morning Dump

Every morning, we are graced by a Morning Dump in which Matt not just reports the news, but lays it all out in context. This requires a deep knowledge of the auto industry and its history, and it is a true boon to our site at large.

The Pontiac Aztek Was Not A Design Tragedy, It Was A Corporate Tragedy.

Speaking of people who can put things into context, Adrian Clarke is a seasoned automobile designer who understands how cars end up the way they do. So when people question “How could GM have designed a car as ugly as the Aztek,” Adrian can answer that beautifully. And I do mean beautifully, as his writing is itself a work of art.

A Car Magazine Convinced Me The 1990 Ford Escort Was Trash. Now That I’ve Driven One I’m Here To Defend It From The Classist And Wrongheaded Editors Of The October 1990 Issue Of Autocar

The only reason why I don’t necessarily owe Adrian an apology for initially declining his pitch for this story is that, in my defense “Can I review a Ford Escort” is hardly that appealing. I mean, the thing is 34 years old, and has been reviewed to death. Why would anyone read it?

Because it’s Adrian at the helm, and the man is a comedic genius. And the angle of this story is gold.

I could go on and on, bragging about Adrian’s great writing and his design breakdowns. Instead I’ll implore you to read his work here on his author page. Here are some links to some of my faves:

Things Get Complicated When Our English Car Designer Digs Deep Into One Of Britain’s Most Iconic Designs: Mini

Why The New MG Cyberster Is A Great Metaphor For The Collapse of the British Car Industry

Our Pro Car Designer Fixes The Jeep Grand Wagoneer

I’m An Ex-Tesla Suspension Engineer Here To Tell You: The Cybertruck’s Front Suspension Is Not ‘Terrible Engineering’

As an engineer, I’m a huge fan of Huibert Mees. The way Huibert can bring context to discussions about engineering — especially suspension design — is unparalleled in the world of automotive journalism. He is singularly the best, and truly a gem to work with.

The above story basically tells all the folks freaking out about that ball stud poking down from the Tesla Cybertruck’s steering knuckle: relax, it’s fine.

Why Automakers Still Worship This 30-Year-Old BMW’s Suspension

The article above may seem like it’s just about suspension engineering and the E39 BMW 5 Series, but it’s about so much more. Huibert gives loads of context into what goes into developing a vehicle — who sets the vehicle level functional objectives and how? How do you determine your competitive set?

It’s a fantastic piece that could only have been penned by Huibert.

I’ll paste a few more excellent pieces by Huibert below, but I recommend you check out his author page and read everything there.

Why Pickup Truck Shocks Are Mounted Weird

Why You Won’t Find Carbon Fiber In Most Land-Speed Record Cars

Why The New Ford Ranger And Toyota Tacoma Are Finally Offering Coil Springs And Why You Should Care

Why People Cut Holes Into Their Cars’ Trunk Floors Even Though It Could Kill Them

Since I’ve moved to LA and become soft, I’ve been lucky enough to have Stephen Walter Gossin take over as Oil-Covered Chief Wrenching Machine. He provides us with joys like this piece about why folks put their lives at risk grinding holes into their trunks, just above their fuel tanks.

Proof That A $700 Car Saved From The Junkyard Can Make Someone As Happy As A New Lambo Can

This is a heartwarming one about how beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. The young man who ended up with SWG’s Envoy was more thrilled than anyone could have imaged.

How I Bought A Broken Version Of My Dream Car For $300, Then Nursed It Back To Glory And Let It Free

My favorite SWG stories are the long, detailed ones that tell a full tale about a car that required some seriously heavy wrenching. They’re hilarious, and they’re always full of great little tidbits that one can learn about how to fix old crap-cans.

Read everything SWG writes by following his author page!

We’d Love Your Feedback

How can The Autopian improve to make your experience as a car-nut/reader more fun? We’re always listening to our readers, so hit us in the comments. Above all: Thank you!

2024 will be better than ever. We have big plans that we’ll announce soon!