Unveiled in 1939, the Pontiac Ghost Car was the first completely transparent car made in America, and eight decades later, photos of it are still a wonder to behold.

Designed to showcase everything that goes into making an automobile in a time when the automotive industry was thriving, the Pontiac Ghost Car was built by General Motors in partnership with Rohm and Hass, the company that invented Plexiglas. The revolutionary material essentially replaced the sheet of metal out of which the car’s body was usually made of, thus offering a clear view of the inner workings of the vehicle. To add to its striking appearance, the metallic structure featured a copper wash, the hardware was chrome-plated and the tires were white, instead of the usual black. The Ghost Car’s total cost was estimated at $25,000 at the time.

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Introducing the electric toy car for the 1%. Luxury car maker Bugatti teamed up with London-based Little Car Company to create 500 miniature electric cars for kids, priced at a spicy $35,000 each.

The French car maker originally unveiled the children’s electric car, named Bugatti Baby II, at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, and soon after announced that all planned 500 units had been sold to wealthy parents all over the world. But then the Covid-19 pandemic happened and suddenly some of the buyers decided that spending tens of thousands of dollars on what is essentially a children’s toy was ill-advised under the circumstances. So Bugatti had no choice but to announce that some Bugatti Baby II electric cars for kids are once again available for purchase. They start at $35,000, get them while they’re hot!

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If you’ve been dreaming of going electric, but can’t yet afford to buy a Tesla, you can start low, really low. Changli, the world’s cheapest electric car, will set you back just $930 ($1,200 with larger batteries), and can be ordered online and delivered to your door.

Designed and produced by Chinese manufacturer Changzhou Xili Car Industry, the Changli, or Changli Nemeca is a tiny electric vehicle that has been getting a lot of attention online after being promoted as the world’s most affordable electric car. Calling this thing a car is kind of stretching it a bit, as it’s electric motor can only produce the equivalent of 1.16 horse power, and it has a top speed of only 30 km/h. Still, it does come with some interesting features, like air-conditioning, independent suspension, heater, radio and even reverse-view camera. But the most impressive thing about the Changli, in my opinion, is that you can have it delivered to your doorstep.

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If you can’t afford to shell out $330,000 on a brand new Rolls Royce Cullinan, you can still get a 1:8 replica complete with the SUV’s iconic accessories and details for “just” $27,000.

Car miniatures don’t usually cost as much as a decent daily driver, but then again this isn’t your average miniature. It consists of more than 1,000 individual parts carefully put together by hand by Rolls Royce experts in about 450 hours. That’s more than half the time it takes the luxury car company to build an actual Rolls Royce Cullinan. Plus, the Richie Rich-worthy toy comes with working exterior lights, as well as a mini version of the 6.75-liter, twin-turbocharged V12 used for the Rolls Royce SUV.

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A prominent South African politician who passed away last week was laid to rest in his Beloved Mercedes limousine instead of a regular casket, as per his last wish.

Tshekede Bufton Pitso, a former leader of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) in Eastern Cape, died last week, after collapsing in his driveway as he was making his way to his second-hand 1990s Mercedes E500 limousine. The former businessman had once had an entire fleet of luxurious Mercedes cars, but was forced to sell them in recent years, after falling on hard times. He did manage to buy a used E500, and even though it had broken down and couldn’t be driven, he still enjoyed spending time in it and listening to the car radio. It was his favorite thing in the world and he even told his family he wanted to be buried in it when his time came. Last weekend, they honored his wish.

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A Chinese man was recently sued by an Audi dealership in Guilin,in China’s southern Guangxi region, and had to pay a settlement of more than $10,000 after his young daughter casually scratched 10 luxury cars.

The young girl’s father, identified only as Mr. Zhao, reportedly accompanied a friend  to the dealership, bringing his wife and daughter along. They were looking around at the nice cars and listening to interacting with the staff, leaving the 3-year-old girl to her own devices. After understandably becoming bored, the little girl allegedly grabbed a stone and proceeded to scratch doodles onto the paint of no less than 10 Audi vehicles, including  an Audi Q8 valued at nearly 1 million RMB ($142,000).

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A 22-year-old man was recently accused of scratching a BMW sedan at a dealership in Jiangxi City for a very bizarre reason – so his father would be forced to buy it for him according to the “you break it you buy it” principle.

The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Ji Moubing, reportedly visited the BMW dealership on November 25th and expressed interest in buying a dark blue sedan. Staff later told police that Ji acted normally and actually seemed really excited, telling one salesman that his father had promised to buy him a nice car as reward for getting his driver’s license. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse after Ji called his father to tell him what car he wanted.

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If you’re a Dark Knight fan with money to burn, you may be interested in this cool-looking Batmobile on sale in Russia for just 55,000,000 rubles, or about $850,000.

Batmobile replicas are not that uncommon nowadays, but the one currently being sold on Russian online marketplace Auto.ru, stands out in terms of looks, performance and price. First of all this is  very modern take on the iconic Batmobile, I’d say even more so than the Tumbler featured in the dark Knight trilogy. It has a very aggressive look, complemented by a menacing machine gun that actually comes with realistic sound effects, and measures 4 meters wide, which means you won’t be able to drive it everywhere. Powered by a 5-liter engine, this rear-wheel drive Batmobile has a top speed of 100km/h, and features a bunch of cool accessories – such as bulletproof windows, thermal imaging with 255x zoom, and a night vision camera – designed to make you feel like a real-life Batman.

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Car-rental operators in Japan recently observed a very strange  trend – a considerable number of their clients were renting cars but logging an unusually low mileage or not driving the cars at all.

Renting a car is a very efficient and convenient way of getting from point A to point B, and operators prefer the distance traveled to be as long as possible, as they make more money. So when a number of leading car rental and car sharing companies in Japan noticed that a significant number of their clients were renting cars, but not driving them at all, they started getting worried. They couldn’t figure out why it was happening, though, so they did some surveys and got some pretty interesting results. It turns out that people are increasingly using car rental services for a variety of reasons, except driving.

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Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan combined a military truck and a Jeep to create what he believes to be the world’s largest SUV.

Called Dhabiyan, the monstrous 10-wheel vehicle is based on the Oshkosh M1075 military truck with a Jeep Wrangler annexed to it as a driver cabin. It is powered by a 600hp, 15.2-liter, 6-cylinder Caterpillar C15 diesel engine, weighs a whopping 24 tonnes and measures 10,8m in length, 2.5 meters in width, and 3.2 meters in height. Dhabiyan was reportedly designed and built by Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, one of the most well-known car collectors in the UAE.

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A man recently caused havoc at a car dealership in Tongren City, China, after turning up with a truck full of coins to buy a 480,000 yuan ($70,000) BMW.

The unnamed man apparently used to work as a bus driver and collected the coins during his many years on the job. Only instead of regularly exchanging them for larger denomination banknotes, he just kept them in his home, hoping to some day spend them on the car of his dreams. After seeing a new BMW that he really liked, the man decided that the time had come to exchange his sizable fortune for it, but only then realized that he had never even counted the coins. So he called some friends over and they spent four days counting them before loading them up in crates and driving to the car dealership.

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$30,000 may not buy you a new Ferrari, but it’s enough to cover the cost of this limited edition book on the history of the iconic sports car brand.

Before you freak out about the price, you should know that it includes a beautifully sculptured steel and chrome book stand, as well as an aluminum display case for the incredibly rare book. Together, the two artistic pieces created by designer Marc Newson are supposed to emulate the legendary Ferrari 12-cylinder engine. Titled simply ‘Ferrari’, the book itself is described as a “massive tome” and includes loads of photographs from the Ferrari archive that tell the history of the luxury Italian brand.

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If you thought you needed a steering wheel to actually drive a car, let this story be an example of the opposite. A man in Norfolk, England, was really caught by police driving a battered car by using a metal bucket as a car seat and pliers for steering.

You might think that this guy was extremely unfortunate to get pulled over by cops, but you’d be wrong. What first caught the attention of police officers patrolling the streets of King’s Lynn, in Norfolk, was the battered state of the car this man was driving. It had no front wing, bumper or headlights and to top it all off, it also had a flat tire. Hardly what you’d call a roadworthy vehicle, but this was nothing  compared to what awaited the officers inside.

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A Chinese woman recently got a lot of negative feedback after taking to social media to complain about her deceitful boyfriend who, it turns out, didn’t own an expensive Porsche Cayenne, but a cheap Chinese knockoff worth ten times less. This was apparently a deal-breaker for her, and she just had to dump him and expose him as the fraud that he was…

In a series of posts on Chinese social network Weibo, the young woman recounted the events that led to her breaking up with her seemingly rich boyfriend. The pair apparently met just over two weeks ago, at a party. They didn’t exactly hit it off, as he kept a lo-profile during the party and didn’t talk to many people. However, when she was about to leave, he told her that they lived in the same area and offered to give her a ride home. She recalls feeling shocked to see that his car was a Porsche Cayenne which she knew cost around $220,000, and wondering why such a rich guy behaved so humbly. In her post, the woman admits to having become interested in him after seeing his car.

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Golf carts aren’t the fastest, most comfortable, or most spacious vehicles money can buy, but in Discovery Bay, an upscale residential development in Hong Kong, they are more coveted than Porsches, Teslas or other luxury cars.

In the US, the average price of a golf cart is around $10,000, but in Discovery Bay, the slow-moving buggy can sell for a whopping $250,000 (HK$2 million). That’s more than some people are willing to pay for a home, let alone a vehicle that barely qualifies as a car. But there’s a reason to this madness. You see, private passenger cars aren’t allowed in this upscale neighborhood of Hong Kong, and residents require a special license for golf carts as well, the number of which has been capped to 500 by the Transportation Department. The demand for motorized transportation in Discovery Bay offset by a supply crunch has catapulted the modest golf cart to luxury vehicle status.

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