Cars / Measurement
The 910-Litre Boot That Borrowed Your Children’s Knees
8 min
A sliding rear bench is useful. Turning its least passenger-friendly position into the headline boot figure is something else.
The archive
Every published story · One road out
The completearchive.
Cars, engineering, markets, laws and the decisions that remain interesting after the brochure has been thrown away.
Updated 26 August 2026
Design archaeology / 1994
The Twelve-Door Supercar I Designed at Three
7 min
It had the nose of a supercar, the length of a limousine and enough doors for everybody.
03
Engineering / Transmission
How DSG Broke the Automatic — and Sometimes Itself
21 min
Volkswagen’s dual-clutch gearbox made shifts disappear, reset the automatic and generated one of motoring’s fiercest reliability arguments.
Inspection file / Range Rover
The Range Rover That Was €20,000 Too Cheap
9 min
The body was perfect. The price was not. Then the people selling it declined to explain who had paid for it.
Selling / Fraud
The Doctor from Benin Is Buying Your Mercedes
8 min
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.
Engineering / Human factors
The Car That Made You Worse at Driving
11 min
Modern cars prevent crashes brilliantly. They also ask a less practised, more distracted human to rescue them when the brilliance runs out.
Used cars / Buying
The Second Odometer
10 min
A car records distance on its dashboard. Time keeps its own mileage elsewhere.
Austria / Market & tax
Austria Has Quietly Trapped Its Used Premium Cars
10 min
A 48-month NoVA rule has made the same premium SUV worth one number at home and another at the border.
Engineering / Diesel
The Medieval Cathedral Built Around a Diesel Engine
9 min
How soot, nitrogen oxides and regulation turned one engine into an entire chemical works.
Guide / Austria
How to Read an Austrian Used-Car Ad
11 min
The phrases that sound reassuring, the ones that mean something and the omissions that matter most.
Guide / Austria
Buying a Used Car in Austria: The Complete 2026 Guide
12 min
Inspection, contract, payment, insurance and registration — in the order Austria actually requires.
Technology / Evidence
Your Car Is a Witness
10 min
The final seconds before a crash can survive inside the car with less imagination than any eyewitness.
Used cars / Hidden costs
The Headlight That Ate the Car
9 min
A perfectly sensible used car can carry a four-figure optical liability on each front corner.
Cars / Family
The Last Beautiful Mistake
7 min
Why the Audi A5 Sportback may be the best car for a young family — before practicality becomes surrender.
Motorsport / History
Porsche Brings Its Race Cars to the MAK
7 min
Two Le Mans machines and the magnificent bureaucratic frauds that made them possible.
Austria / Road law
The €90 Gap
6 min
How 0.71 seconds of empty motorway became a €90 contribution to Lower Austria.