Mircea Panait
20,321 ARTICLES
Personal motto:
"If in doubt, flat out." - Colin McRae
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.
GM Replacement Ignition Switches Recalled Over Faulty Tab
10 Jul 2014, 09:40 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / What the hell is going on over at General Motors? First the manufacturer announced on February 7th that a defect relating to 619,122 cars was identified, but that figure hiked to 25.7 million vehicles to date. As if that wasn't enough of a han...
Mercedes-Benz CLA Shooting Brake to Debut at the 2014 Paris Motor Show in October
10 Jul 2014, 08:51 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / According to a Mercedes-Benz insider that wished to remain anonymous, the heavily anticipated shooting brake version of the CLA premium compact sedan will make its world debut this October, at the 2014 Paris Motor Show. Considering that a productio...
Peugeot 2008, 3008 Crossway Special Editions Unveiled
9 Jul 2014, 17:09 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / To be frank, Peugeot's lineup is better than what the French manufacturer boasted a couple of years ago, but current models still lack that enthusiastic sparkle that makes you go "Wow! I want to buy this car now!" Regardless of that,...
Bentley Reports Strong Half-Year Sales Performance
9 Jul 2014, 16:32 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / We test-driven quite a few Bentleys since we're in the biz and the truth is that few other cars offer that balance of handcrafted luxury, aristocratic loftiness, racing pedigree and relentless performance. Therefore there's nothing unusua...
Maserati Ends First Half of 2014 With Record Sales
9 Jul 2014, 16:04 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / A few years ago, Maserati was in a big slump due to bad management, worsening reliability and a model lineup that failed to deliver what customers wanted. However, recent years saw the Italian marque reinvent itself thanks to Sergio Marchionne'...
2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Comes With Extra Goodies
9 Jul 2014, 15:01 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Even though the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X has been phased out in multiple markets around the world, the US-spec version lives on with the 2015 model year. The rally-bred sports sedan comes with a host of new amenities packages along with a handful of...
Vilner Hummer H2 Overkilled With Chinese Dragon Tuning Package
9 Jul 2014, 14:12 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Over the years, the guys over at Vilner made some pretty kitschy tuning jobs ranging from old Mercedes-Benz sedans to blacked out Bentley Continental GTs. But this time around, the Bulgarian tuning company surpassed the absurd by coming up with a v...
2014 U.S. Recall Tally Up to 37.5 Million Vehicles After Six Months
9 Jul 2014, 13:24 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Data available on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website shows that the population of recalled vehicles in the United States has reached 37.5 million. That's almost 7 million vehicles more than the record set in 2004...
Delphi CEO to Join Mary Barra on Capitol Hill's Hot Seat
9 Jul 2014, 12:27 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / You might have heard of Delphi Automotive PLC before on the news. It's the automotive parts manufacturing company headquartered in the United Kingdom that became involved in an ongoing lawsuit against General Motors over the glitchy ignition s...
2014 Dodge Charger Commercials Clarify What HEMI Power is All About
9 Jul 2014, 11:47 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / With the redesigned 2015 Dodge Charger slated to hit U.S. showrooms in the first quarter of next year, the American manufacturer has a few 2014 model year Chargers in inventory that need to be sold as quickly as possible. Thus, Dodge came up with t...
2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 vs 2014 Callaway Corvette SC627 - Which Makes More Sense?
9 Jul 2014, 09:47 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / When it comes to high performance Vettes, it's an age-old question if it's better to go for a factory-prepped model or a vehicle which has been steroidized with aftermarket bits and bobs. With the Callaway Corvette SC627 on the horizon, w...
2015 Cadillac ATS Sedan Officially Unveiled
9 Jul 2014, 08:30 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / It's about time, Caddy! Our spy photographers spotted the production-ready 2015 Cadillac ATS as far back as the beginning of May and here you are now, officially revealing the facelifted compact executive sedan two months late. However, the wa...
Volkswagen Half-Year Sales Boosted by Increasing Demand in China
8 Jul 2014, 18:04 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The Wolfsburg passenger vehicle manufacturer tells that 3.07 million cars bearing VW badges have been delivered worldwide from January to June 2014, representing an increase of 3.8 percent over the same period last year. Last month, the German carm...
Mitsubishi Shogun SWB Barbarian Starts from £31,999
8 Jul 2014, 16:22 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Even though it's eight years old and a replacement model is nowhere in sight, Mitsubishi still produces the slightly agricultural Shogun full-size SUV, also known as the Montero and Pajero in various parts of the world. Nevertheless, that hasn...
Ford Recalling 101k Cars in 6 Separate Campaigns
8 Jul 2014, 15:47 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / With this latest batch of cars called back over various safety issues, the Dearborn manufacturer's 2014 recall tally is getting perilously close to hit the 3 million mark in North America alone. That's almost 9 times less faulty vehicles ...
2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat x 2 + Dragstrip = Twin Burnout Mayhem
8 Jul 2014, 15:01 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / What do you get when you put two all-new Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcats side by side on a dragstrip? Some might say 1,414 all-American horsepower and 1,300 lb-ft of torque, while others might answer that with four long strips of Pirelli P-Zero Nero ...
Have Some Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Running Footage
8 Jul 2014, 14:05 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is the hottest topic of pretty much any American motoring publication and gearhead nowadays. No wonder why - Dodge and the SRT skunkworks team managed to squeeze an unbelievable 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of ...
2015 Honda HR-V Spied Inside & Out
8 Jul 2014, 13:08 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Back in April, Honda unveiled the first three photos of the all-new HR-V crossover utility vehicle. We already know that the 2015 model year of the Honda HR-V is the same vehicle the Japanese call the Vezel, itself based on the Fit / Jazz subcompac...
2015 Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine Plug-In Hybrid Variant Announced
8 Jul 2014, 12:11 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / Well, well, well, what do we have here? Why it's the second generation of Volvo's mid-size luxury crossover SUV, which will also come in a very eco-friendly variant able to source 400 horsepower and 640 Nm of torque all while delivering c...
Hyundai Elantra Touring Called Back Over Airbag Issue
8 Jul 2014, 08:45 UTC · By: Mircea Panait / As of lately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seems to be hard at work cracking down safety and non-compliance defects on every model and marque available for purchase in the United States of America. The latest call back operati...