Author: kirklandc008@gmail.com

Don’t let bad audio take you out of an awesome adventure or ruin your competitive performance. Skrypnykov Dmytro/Shutterstock Sound plays a big part in your gaming experience; it’s almost as important for setting a cinematic scene as the graphics are. If the sound is muffled, crackling or completely missing, you’re missing out and are at a competitive disadvantage. Turning up the volume might help, but it won’t fix distorted audio coming from your PlayStation 5. There’s no one method that’ll fix this type of problem. You’ll have to troubleshoot, investigating everything from a loose connection to…

Get The Downshift in your inbox A daily hot lap of headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editors. Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, a daily sweep of today’s top headlines from the auto industry and car culture, curated by The Drive’s editorial team. Each story gets a short summary and a link to the original source if you want to dive deeper. Big thank you to Joel Feder for holding down the fort while I was away for a lengthy weekend of driving instruction and endurance-race spectating—but more on that later. Here’s…

Wiper blade manufacturer Rain-X has launched a web-based, AI-powered application designed to simplify wiper blade installation. By scanning a QR code on Rain-X packaging and pointing a smartphone camera at the vehicle’s wiper arm, the web app uses computer vision to identify the specific arm design and deliver tailored, step-by-step instructions and adapter guidance. Developed in partnership with digital agency Saritasa, the platform covers 220 million vehicle applications, accounting for approximately 93% of vehicles on the road. The feature began rolling out on select product lines in late August 2026, with full portfolio coverage scheduled through the fall. Rain-X plans…

Lucid (LCID) delivered 3,806 vehicles in the third quarter, down 7% from a year ago. It built only 2,954, a 38% cut from the previous quarter and its lowest production since early 2025. The automaker says that’s on purpose. New CEO Silvio Napoli is selling down the unsold cars Lucid piled up in the first half of the year, and Q3 is the first quarter of 2026 in which it delivered more vehicles than it built. Lucid Q3 deliveries and production Lucid released its Q3 numbers today, a month ahead of its earnings report on November 9. Deliveries slipped 4%…

It used to be the case that “if something is free, you’re the product.” Now, we pay to be the product and insert it into our lives – from voice assistants and video doorbells to smart thermostats, TVs, even refrigerators, and, of course, apps on our phones, our data is being harvested, sold, and used. Now, according to the first large-scale measurement study of the connected-vehicle ecosystem, many automakers are in on the act. The study, conducted by a team of researchers at Northeastern University, Boston, assisted by Consumer Reports, tested 21 cars and published the extremely concerning results. BMW…

Few debates ignite a car enthusiast’s passion quite like the question of which German performance brand reigns supreme. Audi RS, BMW M, and Mercedes-AMG each represent a distinct vision of what a fast car should be — and understanding those visions makes choosing between them far more interesting than simply comparing horsepower figures. We’ve already explored the broader differences between Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz in their philosophy and approach to building cars. Now it’s time to go deeper into their performance arms: Audi’s RS line via its Audi Sport department, BMW’s M cars, and the Mercedes-AMG brand. The broad generalizations…

Confession: When BougeRV told me about its remote-controlled wagon with animated lighting, I called it in for a laugh, expecting to eviscerate it in a review. It’s ridiculous, to be sure. But the DuneRover also proved very capable, with enough torque to flatten hills even when carrying over 200 pounds of gear. It can also traverse soft sand that defeats conventional wagons.As someone who regularly uses a variety of wagons to haul all sorts of gear, the DuneRover is an epiphany. But what BougeRV sent me was a Kickstarter prototype — and it shows.Production units won’t ship until February 2027.…

The Drive 🤝 your inbox. Every weekday The Daily Brief wraps up the biggest stories and our exclusive reporting on the auto industry and car culture. Limited room for home shop space makes it tough to tinker with cars in a big city. But this dude out west has come up with a pretty sweet solution—instead of building a whole new garage, Jason Wang just reinforced his driveway to handle the weight of a portable two-post lift. Now he’s got infinite headroom to work when he wants to wrench, and can reset to regular-neighborhood aesthetic when he’s done working. Our…

The 2027 Mercedes-Benz S-Class is on dealer lots nationwide with confirmed VIN-specific listings at Mercedes-Benz of Atlanta Northeast, Mercedes-Benz of West Houston, and dealers across the country. Edmunds confirms 44 new S-Class units in the Boston market alone with the S 500 4MATIC starting at $114,350 including destination in Quincy, Massachusetts. TrueCar confirms 1,165 S 580 listings nationwide averaging $155,698, 301 S 500 listings averaging $144,273, and 380 AMG S 63 E listings averaging $220,541. AutoFinder confirms the 2027 S-Class spans six trims from $112,550 to $134,600 before options and destination. Confirmed VIN-specific listings include an S 580…

A laptop can become a desktop with one cable, making the home-office choice less obvious than it looks. Dragon Images/Shutterstock I own both a mini PC and a laptop, and I prefer to have the mini PC on my desk. It doesn’t take up much space and fades into a setup that revolves around the monitor, keyboard and mouse I actually use. The small box becomes a part of the office and an organized desk. However, a laptop can do the same. Plug one into a big screen via HDMI, throw in a wireless keyboard and…