Category: Trends

In 2014, after years of renting boring beige sedans from Enterprise, I finally decided to try Turo. After spending a week in a yellow Porsche Boxster for just $60 per day, I never looked back.

Turo allows you to rent other people’s interesting cars for less than you would pay at the airport rental site. I’ve rented pickup trucks for moves, Priuses for road trips and a Mustang convertible for touring Honolulu.

The platform also has high quality standards and superb customer service – I recently had a host cancel last minute, so Turo upgraded me to an Audi for free.

– Chris Butsch, Contributor

Every September, Costco receives thousands of 1/18-scale model cars in anticipation of the Christmas shopping season. But they’ll be gone by November, scooped up by fervent collectors aged 8 to 88.

Some see it as an investment (I myself have a Corvette ZR1 that has risen 400% in value). Others like the treasure hunting aspect of collecting, rummaging through garage sales for classic Ferraris.

But most, like myself, simply feel joy at the sight of an Aston or a Lamborghini, regardless of scale. Sure, we can’t drive our little exotics – but we don’t have to insure them or pay taxes, either.

– Chris Butsch, Contributor

Back in 2020, BRABUS – the tuning company famous for selling 800-horsepower Mercedes to billionaires – took a poor, defenseless smart car and created this: the Ultimate E Facelift.

Presumably, they chained it to a wall and fed it nothing but Red Bull, steroids and Formula 1 highlights until it broke free. Now foaming at the mouth, the Ultimate E does 0-60 in a “mere” 10.9 seconds and features a wider stance and stickier tires for “especially agile and safe handling.” And yes, BRABUS unironically calls it a “supercar.”

For just $54,000, I’d take this Ferrari-fighting chihuahua over an M3 any day.

– Chris Butsch, Contributor

I hear this question a lot and I get it: EVs have never been better, gas ain’t getting cheaper and the tax credits won’t last forever.

Still, I’d strongly recommend buying a hybrid over an EV for now. They’re cheaper, they hold their value better and while you’ll still have to visit QuikTrip, getting 55 MPG means you’ll actually pay less for a “fill-up” than an EV.

But here’s the real kicker: Consumer Reports ranked hybrid cars as the most reliable segment while PHEVs/EVs were among the least.

It’s best to wait and get the underrated Hyundai Sonata Hybrid instead.

– Chris Butsch, Contributor

Racing teams use it. Dealers charge extra for it. Costco offers it as a free benefit to paid members. But a question remains: Is putting nitrogen in your tires really worth it?

Funny thing is, you already are. Ambient air is 78% nitrogen. But the theory behind putting purer nitrogen in your tires is that they will deflate more slowly and somehow perform better.

NHTSA found no impact on performance and Consumer Reports discovered that tires with nitrogen retain just 1.8 extra psi after a year.

So unless it’s free, nitrogen isn’t worth it. Plain ol’ air is just fine.

– Chris Butsch, Contributor