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Memorial Day 2020 is upon us, and this year’s Memorial Day sales are amplified more than ever. It is, quite possibly, the one good thing to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic as automakers and dealers are just itching to sell cars and move inventory off their lots as they try to make way for next year’s models. We’ve already covered the sports cars and sedans you can get great incentives on,, and now we’re going to fill you in on some leasing and financing deals that you’d be stupid to overlook.

Automakers are dealers alike are always looking to move inventory on Memorial Day weekend to make room for next year’s models, but Memorial Days sales for 2020 are going to be even bigger – quote possibly the only good thing that has come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. With sales in a major downfall for most of 2020 so far, some automakers and dealers are doubling down on incentives, and that’s very good news for you. Below, we’ve compiled a shortlist of some pretty awesome cars that you can pick up with a hefty discount for Memorial Day 2020.

The bottom line is that if everyone with COVID-19 symptoms ran to their local hospital, the medical system would be quickly overwhelmed, and it could, honestly, lead to even more spreading of the Coronavirus. That’s why a bunch of new drive-through testing locations are starting to pop up. It’s a good thing, too, because COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire with more than 390,000 people globally (as of the time of this writing) being documented as infected. This is what you need to know about drive-up Coronavirus testing, how to get tested, and where you can go to get tested without even leaving your car.

In our new TopSpeed series about the most incredible car facts in the world, you will be treated with five of them every week. For this week, I will go back to 1888 and Martha Benz’s first voyage in the very first automobile. Then, I’ll tell you all about the curiously low car and explain how horses were bigger pollutants than cars.

Let’s start with something unexpected though.

Automatic car washes seem to be a fantastic, convenient, and quick alternative to a traditional hand car wash. However, the experience has shown that using an automatic car wash can do more harm than good. Abrasive materials can scathe the paint and the clear coat, while brushes usually make so-called spider web marks on the exterior, reduce the shine, and blemish the exterior of the car.

Brushless car wash systems promise to reduce the possibility of the damage, offer eco-friendly washing solutions, and deliver a better product in the end. However, over time they have also manifested some significant drawbacks and disadvantages compared to a classic hand-wash and, in some instances, brushless car washes can do even more damage than the standard automatic car wash solution.

You will learn here all the pros and cons of the automatic car wash systems and brushless car wash systems. Furthermore, you will learn how to prepare your car before an automatic car wash and reduce the possibility of any damage.

The benefits of going to a car wash are unmistakable. You don’t have to exert effort cleaning your car. Really, you don’t even have to do anything. All you need to do is roll up to an automatic or full-service car wash and let somebody else — or something — do the work for you. Once you’re done, you just need to pay for the service, and you can go on your way with a car that looks about as clean as it can be. Unfortunately, car wash services aren’t without their hiccups. A myriad of things can go wrong and, depending on what they are; you could go home with car wash damage on your car. Dirty brushes in an automatic car wash can cause scratches on your car, especially if they hold dirt or rocks from earlier car washes. Wayward debris could end up scratching your car without you knowing it. Some parts of your car can also get damaged, including the antenna — if there are any — or the wheels. Whatever it is, there are ways to respond to these potential damages, and if you didn’t know what to do then, hopefully, we can help you out so that if it happens again, you’ll know exactly what to do.

Winter is a season some find magical and quite whimsical, but the fact of the matter is low temperatures are not comfortable for anybody, even those who declare themselves wholehearted lovers of this time of year. And cars nowadays are adding more and more temperature comfort features to keep as many parts of your body as warm as possible - this is definitely a positive development in the industry.

On top of this, while in the past such features were the reserve of high-end luxury cars, today you can get quite fancy features on a regular city car not designed to be anything special. These features are becoming more and more important to buyers since some manufacturers seem to have no trouble adding them to all their cars, while others still consider some features are best reserved for vehicles higher up in their range.

Once you’ve experienced these features, which we’ve assembled into a list below, you’ll wonder how you lived without them all those years before; here’s our pick of the ten desirable automotive features to keep you warm in winter.

2018 has been a big sales year for automakers in the U.S. From January to October 2018, car sales in the U.S. have reached 14,262,604 sold units. That represents a 0.2 percent increase in total sales compared to the first ten months of 2017. If you take it from that perspective, Americans are buying more vehicles this year than they did last year. But there are a lot of pieces involve in this numbers, too. These pieces paint a more accurate picture of the automotive landscape in the U.S. in 2018. Sales of light trucks — these include SUVs and pickups are up 8.3 percent compared to their sales numbers from January to October 2017.

On the other hand, sales of passenger vehicles, including sedans, are down 13.3 percent in the same period. This tells us that more and more American buyers are buying SUVs and pickups compared to sedans. It’s no surprise, then, that when we compiled the top 10 list of best-selling vehicles in the U.S. in the first ten months of the year, the upper half of that list was dominated by, you guessed it, pickups and SUVs.

Roaming through car history is like driving on an infinite road. It’s a hill climb if you will, where every single bend actually represents an amazing car fact. This week, I am going to drive through five amazing bends and tell you five cool car stories. One may call them even weird. This is your mandatory lesson in car history. I chose it only for you, to be more informed about what you love the most. Cars!

I have five more incredible automotive facts for you. This time, we are visiting a period when car tires had one of the biggest evolutionary steps. After that, you will learn a cool fact about the Shelby GT350 and the way it actually got its name. Both of these facts, however, pale in comparison to a something very interesting about eh Bentley Mulsanne. For that, I’m talking about luxury and excessiveness. That’s it.

Well, without further ado, enjoy:

This is our third installment of the 5 Incredible Car Facts series. This time, I am going to discuss some of the most amazing facts that include the Ford Model T, a Porsche-developed Sedan long time before the Panamera and the Tycan, and Adolf Hitler’s letter to Mercedes-Benz. He wrote it from his jail cell to beg for a car.

As always, I’ve added two more interesting facts that will help you win any car-related bar talk fight.

2018 is just around the corner, and it’s that time of the year when we look back on what happened over the last 12 months in the automotive industry. Needless to say, 2017 has been a busy year with five major auto shows in Europe and North America plus a few more important car events in Shanghai and at SEMA. More than a hundred new cars have been launched, with countless concepts previewing vehicles and technologies that we will get in production models in a few years. We’ve seen semi-autonomous cars go into production and significant progress made toward electrification with significant gains in hybrid and all-electric drivetrain technology.

We saw spectacular supercars bow in Detroit, Geneva, New York, and Frankfurt, alongside redesigned or updated cars and SUVs for the average Joe. But the industry also spawned a few flops this year. Cars that didn’t live up to the pre-launch hype, concepts that didn’t bring actual novelties, and Asian automakers that copied European designs inch by inch. I’ve included all of the above in this end-of-the-year recap, so we can look back on both the successful debuts and the flops that we witnessed from January through December 2017. Keep reading to find out what got me excited and disappointed this year.

Continue reading for the full story.

When you’re picking a color for your next car purchase, how much attention do you put into the color of the car? Whatever your answer is, it turns out that a car’s color goes a long way in affecting its depreciation value. This revealing information was presented by iSeeCars after the used car website analyzed over 2.1 million used car sales and discovered that certain car colors retained more of their value compared to others. Yellow, for example, was the big winner after the study revealed that cars wearing this color depreciated by just 27.0 percent in the first three years of ownership. On the other end of the spectrum? Gold, which depreciates by a staggering 37.1 percent in the same period.

The appeal of the color yellow in the auto industry appears to be tied to its availability, or lack thereof, according to eskers CEO Phong Ly. “Yellow cars are relatively less common, which could drive up demand and help maintain their value,” he said, before adding that the color also holds strong appeal among SUVs and pickup brands. Apparently, SUVs and pickup trucks depreciate 30.9 percent and 20.9 percent, respectively, overall, while yellow SUVs and pickups depreciate only 25.8 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively. Orange- and green-colored cars also revealed themselves to be more resistant to depreciation, depreciating by just 30.6 and 30.9 percent, respectively. The site also revealed that on average, cars depreciate in value by 33.1 percent in the first three years of ownership.

Continue after the jump to read the full story.

When you stroll onto a dealership lot, car salesmen do everything they can to gain your interest in making a decision about what car you want and how you want to obtain it. That in itself isn’t a decision to be taken lightly; after all, you’re going to be driving the vehicle for at least the next few years. But, what’s more important is whether you decide to purchase the car or lease the car. Both options have their benefits and downfalls but which one is really right for you, your family, and your current financial situation?

To put things simply, purchasing a car means that it’s yours to do what you wish – as long as you keep up on your loan payments, of course. If you want to install a custom sound system, make mechanical upgrades, or even repaint it, you’re free to do so. But, you’ll also be burdened with making a sometimes hefty down payment, paying for repair costs that occur later in the life of the vehicle once the warranty coverage has expired, and you have to consider how much value the car will lose between the time you purchase it and the time you decide to sell it and trade it in for a new vehicle. When you lease, you don’t have to worry about the aforementioned burdens, as they typically have smaller down payments, and carry a full warranty through the entirety of the lease. But, on the other hand, you’re responsible for any excess wear and tear, mileage that exceeds your predetermined allotment, and have zero equity in the vehicle. Those who choose to lease a vehicle typically pay less in sales tax, but usually need a higher credit score and often end up paying more for insurance while the car is in their possession.

That’s just the tip of a very large iceberg, though, as there are a lot of different things that you need to be aware of if you want to make an informed decision. Your credit score will even play a factor in which options are available to you and what the end cost of purchasing or leasing a car will be. So, we’ve put a guide together that covers the pros and cons of purchasing and leasing, as well as information that will help you decide which option is best for you before you even head over to your local car dealer.

Welp, it’s New Years Eve, and as you pour out the champagne and put on a pair of ridiculous glasses shaped like the number 2017, it’s important to take a moment to look back and reflect. In the search for the answers of where you’re headed, you can often find clues by sifting through the past, so that’s exactly what were gonna do right here. Incredibly, at least to folks as old as I am, we’re now more than 20 years beyond the year 1996, which prompted us to search the old TopSpeed archives and come up with an answer to the following question – what were the best cars you could buy two decades ago?

Included in this list is a motley crew of sedans and hatchbacks, sports cars and super cars, imports and domestics. We tried to cater to everyone’s tastes, picking out the very best production vehicles we could find, no matter the shape, size, or flavor.

So how’d we do? Which of these rides speak to you, dear reader? Did you own any of these cars in the past? Maybe you own one right now? Let us know in the comments!

Continue reading to learn about the best cars from 1996.