Ownership
The Car Looks Good. Can You Actually See It?
Rain, dirt, a warm engine and fading light: arrange an autumn viewing that tells you something. With real FEWD inspection examples.
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The FE/WD reading list.
CarsNº 016
The 910-Litre Boot That Borrowed Your Children’s Knees
A sliding rear bench is useful. Turning its least passenger-friendly position into the headline boot figure is something else.
OwnershipNº 010
The Second Odometer
A car records distance on its dashboard. Time keeps its own mileage elsewhere.
EngineeringNº 008
The Medieval Cathedral Built Around a Diesel Engine
How soot, nitrogen oxides and regulation turned one engine into an entire chemical works.
CultureNº 002
Porsche Brings Its Race Cars to the MAK
Two Le Mans machines and the magnificent bureaucratic frauds that made them possible.
Stories & investigations
The people, decisions and surprises behind the cars.
Culture7 min read
The Twelve-Door Supercar I Designed at Three
It had the nose of a supercar, the length of a limousine and enough doors for everybody.
Ownership9 min read
The Range Rover That Was €20,000 Too Cheap
The body was perfect. The price was not. Then the people selling it declined to explain who had paid for it.
Ownership8 min read
The Doctor from Benin Is Buying Your Mercedes
He had not seen the car, read the advert or visited Austria. He did have €60,000, a transporter and one small request for €1,850.
Essential reading
What modern cars do brilliantly. And what the brilliance can cost.
Ownership9 min read
The Headlight That Ate the Car
A perfectly sensible used car can carry a four-figure optical liability on each front corner.
Engineering10 min read
Your Car Is a Witness
The final seconds before a crash can survive inside the car with less imagination than any eyewitness.
Engineering11 min read
The Car That Made You Worse at Driving
Modern cars prevent crashes brilliantly. They also ask a less practised, more distracted human to rescue them when the brilliance runs out.
The Austria desk
The market, the paperwork and the small print, explained.
Austria8 min read
Your Car Came With You. Can It Stay?
Ukrainian cars in Austria: the deadlines, the expensive unknowns and the decision before the paperwork.
Markets10 min read
Austria Has Quietly Trapped Its Used Premium Cars
A 48-month NoVA rule has made the same premium SUV worth one number at home and another at the border.
Austria9 min read
How to Read an Austrian Used-Car Ad
German advert phrases, the records to request and a message to send before travelling to see the car.
Austria12 min read
Buying a Used Car in Austria: Checks, Documents & Registration
Inspection, contract, payment, insurance and registration — in the order Austria actually requires.
Markets6 min read
The €90 Gap
How 0.71 seconds of empty motorway became a €90 contribution to Lower Austria.
Living with the car
Design meets the less glamorous business of everyday life.
Ownership9 min read
What’s the Best Age to Buy a Used Car?
It’s five years old. How long are you staying?
Cars7 min read
The Last Beautiful Mistake
Why the Audi A5 Sportback may be the best car for a young family — before practicality becomes surrender.
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than
mileage.
FE/WD is an independent magazine about cars, people and places in Europe. We write stories that stay relevant tomorrow, next year, and beyond.
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