Automobiles

Highlights

  1. PhotoRenée Brinkerhoff, right, with Juliette Brinkerhoff, her daughter and navigator, at the 2019 East African Safari Classic Rally.
    CreditChristina Brinkerhoff

    Wheels

    Driving Across the Globe to Fight Child Trafficking

    Renée Brinkerhoff has been on a quest, on almost every continent, to use racing “as a platform to do something about” a global scourge. Next stop, Antarctica.

    By

    1. PhotoInsurers’ apps may monitor your driving (sudden braking? lead foot?) and adjust your rates.
      CreditMike Blake/Reuters

      Wheels

      Letting Your Insurer Ride Shotgun, for a Discounted Rate

      Most big car insurers offer apps that monitor your driving, and one start-up requires it. The trade-off in privacy is a premium that could be substantially cheaper for safe drivers.

      By

  1. PhotoTesla’s chief executive said on Wednesday that the company had started to build a fourth factory.
    CreditStephen Lam/Reuters

    Tesla Turns a Profit in a Pandemic-Squeezed Quarter

    The result was achieved “despite tremendous difficulties,” said the chief executive, Elon Musk, including a plant shutdown and lower sales.

    By Neal E. Boudette, Peter Eavis and

  2. Wheels

    PhotoThe new Mercedes-AMG S 63 Cabriolet. A $7,500 extra, the paint updates a historic Mercedes green from the 1950s and ’60s.
    CreditBryan Derballa for The New York Times

    Going Topless, Turning Heads

    Station wagons outsell them, but convertibles hold a special place in the hearts of drivers, and automakers still offer a smorgasbord of models.

    By

  1. Photo
    CreditShonagh Rae

    Black Behind the Wheel

    On a road trip to Detroit, reflections on the car as a symbol of aspiration and adventure. But if you’re Black in America, that lovely machine isn’t always a refuge.

    By

  2. PhotoLeland Gilmore, with his dogs Oakley and George, near Mount Hood in Oregon. “These are little escape vessels, escape pods,” said Mr. Gilmore, whose business, Benchmark Vehicles makes custom vans for up to $300,000, van not included.
    CreditAndy Cochrane

    The #Vanlife Business Is Booming

    Coronavirus is just a distant memory while zipping around in a several-hundred-thousand-dollar custom van on the open road.

    By

  3. Wheels

    PhotoThe 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S on the track at the Monticello Motor Club.
    CreditBryan Derballa for The New York Times

    ‘The Car You Buy Because You Love Driving’

    Put through its paces on a motor club’s racetrack, the 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S growls with a gaudy 640 horsepower and handling that lets even amateur drivers feel like superheroes.

    By