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Mircea Panait

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Personal motto:

"If in doubt, flat out." - Colin McRae

Senior Contributor
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Little did he knew back then, but a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO is what sparked Mircea’s interest for cars when he was just a kid. Despite studying mathematics and informatics in high school and economics in university, Mircea turned his passion for all things automotive into a job.
 
Interning for Top Gear was his first foray in automotive journalism, and not long after that, a full-time position was opened for Mircea to seal the deal. Just about three years later, autoevolution became his new home.
 
Especially interested in American ponies and muscle cars, Mircea also finds the Japanese domestic market appealing thanks to the quirkiness of kei cars. Full-size pickups like the Ram 1500 and off-roaders such as the Ford Ranger Raptor and Jeep Gladiator Rubicon are much to his liking as well.
 
A self-described master of pasta and an avid CCG player, Mircea’s past-time activities include playing his Epiphone Les Paul Special Vintage Edition electric guitar, discovering the wonders of the Carpathian mountains by foot, and driving to the Black Sea to get a well-deserved tan.
2024 Chevrolet Colorado Pricing Has Gone Up Across the Board
2024 Chevrolet Colorado Pricing Has Gone Up Across the Board

8 Jan 2024, 20:15 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Last year, General Motors listed the Chevrolet Colorado with a starting price of $29,200 before the $1,495 destination charge for the work-oriented WT for a final price of $30,695. Fast forward to January 2024, and the 2024 model year Colorado now ...

 
Hennessey VelociRaptor 6x6 Raptor R Drag Races Venom 775 F-150, Should Have Stayed Put
Hennessey VelociRaptor 6x6 Raptor R Drag Races Venom 775 F-150, Should Have Stayed Put

8 Jan 2024, 19:08 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Hennessey Performance Engineering is well-known in the industry for producing some of the most badass pickup trucks of them all, including a 6x6 version of the Ford F-150 Raptor R. Mat Watson of carwow recently had the opportunity to race the six-w...

 
BMW Recalls i5 Electric Sedan Over External Artificial Sound Generator Software Issue
BMW Recalls i5 Electric Sedan Over External Artificial Sound Generator Software Issue

8 Jan 2024, 17:11 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Love it or hate it, software is utmost essential in modern passenger vehicles, particularly electric vehicles. The increased complexity also means that automakers are prone to more issues, be they small or a bit more serious. BMW, for example, has ...

 
INEOS Grenadier Recalled Over Potential Steering Rod Ball Joint Disconnection
INEOS Grenadier Recalled Over Potential Steering Rod Ball Joint Disconnection

8 Jan 2024, 16:16 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The second recall concerning the Grenadier Station Wagon in less than a month is probably going to put a few prospective customers off. But on the other hand, bear in mind that INEOS Automotive is a relatively new automaker funded by London-based m...

 
The Best Traction Boards for Emergency Use and Off-Road Recovery in 2024
The Best Traction Boards for Emergency Use and Off-Road Recovery in 2024

8 Jan 2024, 00:32 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Getting stuck while off-roading is never a pleasant experience, particularly if you're soloing off the beaten path. There are a number of tips and tricks to get one's vehicle unstuck from such predicaments, with said T&Ts kicking off ...

 
Over Half of BMW M2 Coupes Sold in the US Last Year Were Specified With the Manual
Over Half of BMW M2 Coupes Sold in the US Last Year Were Specified With the Manual

7 Jan 2024, 02:02 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / As fuel economy and emission regulations get more draconic, the manual inches closer to extinction. The stick shift's demise is also explained by virtue of increasing demand for electrified and electric vehicles. In any case, your choices in m...

 
1992 Dodge Viper Drag Races Vector W8 Supercar, It's Not Even Close
1992 Dodge Viper Drag Races Vector W8 Supercar, It's Not Even Close

6 Jan 2024, 03:08 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The original Viper clearly isn't the most luxurious roadster out there. It's not the safest either, but everyone agrees that it was ridiculously fast back in the early 1990s. How fast? carwow's Mat Watson is much obliged to show us w...

 
Volvo Australia Recalls XC90 Over Improperly Tightened Bolts
Volvo Australia Recalls XC90 Over Improperly Tightened Bolts

6 Jan 2024, 02:09 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Volvo Cars has issued a safety recall for a little over 110 examples of the XC90 mid-size luxury crossover. More specifically, 115 vehicles produced between 2015 and 2023 specifically for the Australian market. Published by the Department of Inf...

 
Million-Mile Toyota Tundra Owner Racks Up 900,000 Miles With Another Tundra
Million-Mile Toyota Tundra Owner Racks Up 900,000 Miles With Another Tundra

6 Jan 2024, 01:09 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Toyota built its reputation around reasonably priced reliable vehicles. Although reliability fell in recent years due to increased complexity and too much plastic where there should be metal, everyone and their dog knows that Toyota still is king o...

 
General Motors Is America's Largest Automaker, Toyota Ranks Second
General Motors Is America's Largest Automaker, Toyota Ranks Second

5 Jan 2024, 23:59 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Founded in 1908 by William C. Durant and Charles Stewart Mott as a holding company for the Buick division, General Motors ended 2023 with nearly 2.6 million deliveries in the United States of America. The sales report published by the Detroit-based...

 
Rivian Recalls 7,873 Vehicles Over Iffy Software, Fix Includes New Accelerator Pedal
Rivian Recalls 7,873 Vehicles Over Iffy Software, Fix Includes New Accelerator Pedal

5 Jan 2024, 23:05 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Rivian finished 2023 beating its annual guidance, with the BEV manufacturer from Michigan reporting 50,122 deliveries. Be that as it may, Rivian also ended 2023 with a safety recall concerning 7,873 examples of the R1T pickup and R1S utility vehicl...

 
Toyota Supra Outsells Nissan Z in 2023
Toyota Supra Outsells Nissan Z in 2023

5 Jan 2024, 20:52 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Assembled in Austria by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr, the Supra ended 2023 with 2,652 deliveries to its name in the United States market. In other words, more than 45 percent worse than the 4,952 units delivered by Toyota USA back in 2022. ...

 
Toyota Tacoma Dominates Mid-Size Truck Segment in 2023, Chevrolet Colorado Ranks Second
Toyota Tacoma Dominates Mid-Size Truck Segment in 2023, Chevrolet Colorado Ranks Second

5 Jan 2024, 19:34 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Even though everyone and their dog was looking forward to the redesigned Tacoma, the previous generation proved hugely popular in 2023, besting all other mid-size pickup trucks in terms of sales. According to the sales report published by Toyota US...

 
2023 Full-Size Truck Sales Report: GM Outperforms Ford by 100,096 Deliveries
2023 Full-Size Truck Sales Report: GM Outperforms Ford by 100,096 Deliveries

5 Jan 2024, 18:59 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / It's that time of the year when Ford reminds everyone that America's favorite pickup truck is the F-Series. While technically correct, the devil is in the details. Including the F-150 Lighting and Super Duty line of heavy-duty trucks, ...

 
Ugly Duckling No More: Toyota Prius Crowned 2024 North American Car of the Year
Ugly Duckling No More: Toyota Prius Crowned 2024 North American Car of the Year

5 Jan 2024, 01:12 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / For the largest part of its existence, the Prius was hampered by its exterior design. The sedan-bodied first generation was – hands down – the ugliest duckling of the bunch. The Prius grew larger for the second generation, which kicksta...

 
2023 Small Truck Sales Report: Ford Maverick Asserts Dominance Over Hyundai Santa Cruz
2023 Small Truck Sales Report: Ford Maverick Asserts Dominance Over Hyundai Santa Cruz

4 Jan 2024, 23:53 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Made in Mexico at the same facility where Ford assembles the Bronco Sport, the Maverick is America's favorite small truck. The Maverick Hybrid also happens to be America's favorite hybrid truck, besting the F-150 PowerBoost by 2,231 units...

 
Kia EV9 Electric SUV Wins 2024 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year Award
Kia EV9 Electric SUV Wins 2024 North American Utility Vehicle of the Year Award

4 Jan 2024, 22:58 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The second model in the EV series after the two-row EV6, the EV9 is a mid-size crossover with roughly the same footprint as the V6-engined Telluride. It's the first three-row electric crossover in Kia's lineup, which makes it an alternati...

 
Ford Mustang Outsells Dodge Challenger in 2023, Chevrolet Camaro Ranks Dead Last
Ford Mustang Outsells Dodge Challenger in 2023, Chevrolet Camaro Ranks Dead Last

4 Jan 2024, 21:50 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / 2023 was equally good and bad for the pony car and muscle car genres. For starters, Mustang and Camaro sales are up 2.2 and 25.9 percent, respectively, over 2022. The bad news is that both the Camaro and Challenger ended production in December 2023...

 
Ford F-Series Super Duty Crowned 2024 North American Truck of the Year
Ford F-Series Super Duty Crowned 2024 North American Truck of the Year

4 Jan 2024, 21:00 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / In the heavy-duty truck segment, the Ford Motor Company is in a league of its own with the F-Series Super Duty. Introduced back in September 2022, this generation of the Super Duty has received the highly coveted North American Truck of the Year aw...

 
The Toyota GR86 Is America's Favorite Affordable Sports Car
The Toyota GR86 Is America's Favorite Affordable Sports Car

4 Jan 2024, 19:29 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Manufactured by Subaru at the Ota assembly plant in the Gunma Prefecture, the BRZ-twinned Toyota GR86 outsold the Subaru-branded sibling and the Mazda MX-5 in the United States market. According to Toyota, the GR86 moved 11,078 units in 2023. Su...

 

Stories by Mircea Panait