Mark Savage

Buying a car may be one of the most stressful things you ever do. Whether it’s new or used, a car is one of the most expensive items you will ever buy.

While the internet has helped consumers arrive at a dealership armed with more information, that hasn’t really changed the overall dealership experience. And depending on that experience, it’s very easy to feel you’ve gotten a bad deal.

It’s hard to imagine the world without hybrid cars.

More than 20 years ago in Japan, the Toyota Prius was the first of these cars produced for the mass market. Two years later, the Honda Insight was available in both the United States and Japan. Today, not only are there more hybrid options available, they also have a significant place in the automotive market.

If you walked into a car dealership today and asked the salesperson which vehicles had anti-lock brakes, you would be in for a puzzled look. If you asked the same question 30 years ago, their reaction would be entirely different.

Lake Effect speaks with contributor and car writer Mark Savage every month about trends in the automotive industry - from the minutiae to the bigger picture. But Savage also writes about much smaller cars - model cars, in fact.

"It's kind of creating your own special world in miniature because it's smaller and it's easier to deal with and you can fill a room or a house with it," he says.

Although the general public may have reservations about the future of electric cars, car makers are plowing forward.  Chevrolet announced earlier this month that the company is moving towards an all-electric future.  That word comes as Tesla continues to scale up production of a growing line of cars.

The 4th of July is just around the corner, and many of us will mark it with fireworks and barbecues and family get-togethers.  But don’t overlook the great American road trip – whether it’s a cross-country sojourn, a long weekend, or even an afternoon.

It’s those latter two ideas – the shorter road trip that got contributors Dan Harmon and Mark Savage talking.  Normally, they talk about cars, but both contributors are encouraging people to actually sit and enjoy using their cars through a classic American pastime.

We live in an increasingly automated world. What used to take many physical steps can often be taken care of by a click of a mouse or a swipe of a finger across a screen.

However, there are still many things that require human intervention. For now we still have to drive our cars - but for how long? Lake Effect auto contributor Mark Savage notes that the market is changing quicker than expected. A younger target audience, Savage says, view cars as an appliance. "It does what you want it to do, and now you shouldn't even have to drive it," he says.

Diesel passenger cars have had a tumultuous past in the United States. In the last 15 years, they gained some acceptance among American consumers before a recent downturn. But in the pursuit of increased gas mileage, an increasing number of car makers are now offering diesel models in this country.

But a notable absence today is Volkswagen, which once sold the most diesels vehicles in this country. After VW was slapped with a huge penalty for rigging emission test results, the company pulled its diesels off the market.

For a long time, electric vehicles were neither practical nor especially affordable. To add insult to injury, you also couldn’t go very far in them before you needed an often hard to find charging station.

But Tesla’s newest Model 3 is the first mass produced electric car. It will also be the company’s most affordable car to date with a list price starting at $35,000. And the distance you can go between charges has improved to 215 miles.

Long gone are the days of compact pickup trucks where the fanciest gadget you may have inside the cab is a radio. Today, pickup trucks are the top 3 selling vehicles in the North American market. But even as their sales numbers have risen, they’re used less and less for work and more as a luxury family vehicle.

New trucks are able to seat up to six adults, have a multitude of gadgets, and can easily cost up to $50,000.

Not all that long ago - at least in automotive history - luxury cars were promoted in a lot of ways. There was the rich, Corinthian leather. The comfortable passenger space and the huge trunk. And of course, there was the soft - sometimes practically squishy ride.

That's not the way Cadillac, Lincoln, or really any luxury manufacturers advertise their cars any more. It's all about speed and performance, and maybe passenger space, too. But it's a trend that caught the eye of  Lake Effect automotive contributor, Mark Savage.

Horse racing fans have had two big dates on their calendar already this spring, with the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.  Auto racing fans have a huge one coming up on Sunday, with the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500.

"It's a team sport, so it's who has the best aerodynamicist and work best with the driver, who has the best team as far as making good pit stops and getting the car set up properly for the driver, and then who has the best driver," says automotive contributor Mark Savage, who writes about cars for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and on his website.

There are probably still a few cars on the road that have only a radio, or perhaps even a cassette deck. However nowadays, it's kind of a throwback to even find a CD player in some newer models.

Electronics are a huge deal in the cars of the 21st century, from the way the engines themselves are controlled, to how drivers and passengers are kept safe and how they’re entertained.

Not long ago, the idea that you could design a car that could drive itself and its passengers from place to place safely was something out of science fiction films. But the idea has gone from drawing boards to a prototype to the road.

At least two companies have set early versions of the self-driving car out for a spin – Audi, the German maker of some high-end cars and SUVs, and Google.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is still deciding what the future holds for its most successful international show.

Top Gear, the car culture show, was thrown into disarray recently when the BBC fired one of the hosts, Jeremy Clarkson. Clarkson had been in hot water several times before, but finally went over the line when he berated and physically attacked one of his producers.