Andrew Collins

2 weeks ago | thedrive.com | Andrew Collins

A few days ago, Instagram fed me a picture of a woman I don’t know. She was wearing mechanic’s gear, holding what looked like a giant Crayola crayon. Confused but intrigued, I dug around a little and saw that @chevy.colorado.girl had painted her ’05 Colorado’s driveshaft to look like, well, a crayon. I love car mods like this—creative, whimsical, and inexpensive. There’s a lot more done to this truck than this, but sometimes the smaller mods are the most fun to look at.

2 weeks ago | thedrive.com | Andrew Collins

The just-announced Slate Truck is promising to deliver on a dream that many car critics, myself included, have been crowing about forever. You want a new, inexpensive, utilitarian vehicle with old-school simplicity in its interface but modern efficiency in its powertrain? Hell yeah, brother. The Slate is committed to being just that—right down to having crank windows and a dash-mounted phone slot instead of an infotainment screen.

3 weeks ago | thedrive.com | Andrew Collins

Of all the cars on American roads right now, the 2024 Dodge Hornet is certainly one of them. And not to be a jerk to those who produce and sell these, but the almighty market has spoken—people are not buying Hornets. So if you’re the kind of car buyer who loves discounts, this might be your time to shine. This week, we heard of some serious fire-sale discounts on these cars, in the neighborhood of 40 percent off list price. Carscoops found a $40,000 Hornet GT advertised for under $23,000.

3 weeks ago | thedrive.com | Andrew Collins

When I logged on this morning, a fellow editor asked me if I’d trust my life to something called “the Jack Rod.” I thought he was talking about a Halo power-up I’d forgotten about, but he was referring to one brand’s version of a long-existing garage accessory: A jack lock. So, are jack locks safe? In the right context, yes. You would not catch me crawling under a car supported exclusively by one unless I had to, but they have value in certain situations.

4 weeks ago | thedrive.com | Andrew Collins

My sister-in-law’s Toyota RAV4 has had a hard life. It was stolen, found again, repaired, and put back into service. Since then, it’s been commuting about 100 miles daily, transporting high-energy dogs, and sometimes carrying kids or cargo. I thought it deserved a little reprieve, so I installed a set of TuxMat floor mats to protect, and enhance, the vehicle’s interior. It was a significant upgrade, even over the heavy-duty mats the car already had.