Alex Oagana
3,341 ARTICLES
Personal motto:
Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. (no pun intended)
His parents almost called the police the day after he got his driving license, suspecting their car had been stolen. Little did they know that Alex had went for a 24 hour joy ride with his friends and had forgotten to announce his parents that he was going to “borrow” the family car for the trip.
In case it's not obvious enough by now, he lives and breathes cars. He considers himself an oldschool petrolhead who is well aware that the automotive industry is a polluting business but he's also sick at heart knowing that someday we're all going to drive kitchen appliances with digitized V8 sounds.
Following some time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea. Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project, which he believes is changing the face of online automotive coverage.
During various periods of sabbaticals from autoevolution he also got a few writing and/or editing gigs at websites like Carscoops, Top Speed, and also did some freelancing work, but his first online passion kept calling him back at the car site he helped launch back in 2008.
Diesel Power...
14 May 2009, 14:51 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / ... some say that the real diesel revolution started in Europe about 20-25 years ago, and that that era is about to end with the introduction of higher efficient and smaller gasoline engines. Plus, one of the largest car markets in the world, the U...
Chrysler's Green Mile...
27 Apr 2009, 14:57 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / ... Before the April 25-26 weekend came to an end, there was an increasing wave – or should I say tsunami? - of media reports concerning the completely inevitable Chapter 11 reorganization of Chrysler LLC. Like many times history has shown us...
Euro NCAP Testing Procedures Explained
17 Apr 2009, 16:28 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / According to a report by the World Health Organization released a few years ago, one of the leading injury-related causes of death among people aged 15 to 44 years is, believe it or not, traffic injuries. From over six million people who die of...
Do Supercars Still Have Soul?...
11 Apr 2009, 21:04 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / ... or are they just technologically advanced and very fast means of propulsion for the rich and, sometimes, famous? I have often asked myself (and others) this question, especially in the last few years, but an absolute truthful answer has evaded ...
GM's Rick Wagoner Wants Higher Fuel Prices
19 Mar 2009, 11:53 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / In a flip-flop twist worthy of a Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner ending, Rick Wagoner is suddenly in favor of a major increase in gasoline prices. The General Motors big kahuna said that increasing the federal gasoline tax to guarantee a price of $4...
SAAB: Dead Brand Walking...
18 Mar 2009, 17:54 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / ... A few decades ago - let's not go too far and say only three or four - Saab was the epitome of Swedish quirkiness on four wheels. No, it wasn't Volvo, whose sole original trait was (and still is) its safety-based marketing. The "o...
Brawn GP 001 Race Car Illegal Diffuser Allegations
16 Mar 2009, 16:37 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / After allegations abounded last week about several teams having illegal rear diffusers, the Brawn GP 001 newbie car has also jumped on the bandwagon. The highest voice implying that the Brawn GP sports an illegal aerodynamic rear is, as usual, Flav...
3 Execs Steal 81 Cars from Their own Dealership
12 Mar 2009, 14:16 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / Some people's minds work in mysterious ways, especially when they are in deep financial doodoo. In a period of time between sometime last weekend and Monday night, 81 cars and three executives vanished without a trace from a dealership in Scot...
Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone Divorce in 58 Seconds
12 Mar 2009, 07:22 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / In a High Court hearing that lasted just under a minute, Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone got a decree nisi from a district judge. Neither Formula One head honcho, Bernie Ecclestone, nor the Croatian ex-model, Slavica, were present at the hearing. ...
Short-time Work at Mercedes-Benz Truck Plants in Germany
11 Mar 2009, 21:05 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / Because of the now-regular "weak demand", "declining level of incoming orders", "market conditions", "recession" blah-blah-blah, yadda-yadda-yadda, Daimler AG has announced it will institute short-time produc...
Dual-Shotgun Baby Stroller is Packin' Heat
11 Mar 2009, 15:58 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / There's a whole array of American jokes that start with "you know you're a redneck if.............". You just fill the dotted line with a description about a pretty moronic thing to do. In our case, the funny but true descriptio...
Mercedes-Benz Fuel-cell Hybrid Buses on the Way
11 Mar 2009, 11:32 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / Starting with June this year, Mercedes-Benz will present its new Citaro FuelCELL Hybrid regular-service city bus at the UITP World Congress and Mobility & City Transport Exhibition in Vienna. Part of Daimler's "Shaping Future Transpor...
BMW is the Greenest Premium Manufacturer in Germany
11 Mar 2009, 08:47 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / The Federal Motor Transport Authority has officially calculated the fleet consumption of the BMW Group brands in 2008, and the results are more than uplifting for Bimmer fans with a green side. Apparently, the most fuel and CO2 emissions efficient ...
Ross Brawn: From an Apprentice to an F1 Team Owner
10 Mar 2009, 19:18 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / In the eyes of some people, the life story of Ross Brawn is the epitome of success. From a trainee at the British Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Oxfordshire, via a job as a milling machine operator for March Engineering to owner of his ver...
Porsche 917 Turns Forty; no Mid-life Crisis
9 Mar 2009, 18:37 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / On March 13, 1969, one of the most successful racing cars of all time was getting its baptism of fire at the Geneva International Auto Show. Forty years later, the Porsche 917 is coming of age as a legendary track car with enough victories to fill...
Ferrari Asks Top Gear to use Real Ferraris in their Live Shows
9 Mar 2009, 14:29 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / A bit more than a month ago, it was reported that Top Gear used three Toyota MR2s "dressed" as Ferrari 360s doing a lot of... 360s. It was all part of the Australian Top Gear Live show, which took place at the Acer Arena in Sidney. The Au...
Gordini to Return in Renault's Lineup
9 Mar 2009, 09:07 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / Renault is reported to officially revive the Gordini brand as an in-house tuner for its model line-up, CAR magazine has revealed. After numerous reports that hinted at Alpine's revival, Renault first confirmed that rumors, only to later announ...
Radioactive Bimmers from Hell...
6 Mar 2009, 17:11 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / ... say what? These last few days the online automotive world, including myself, was taken by storm thanks to a misleading article posted by the Brits at Autocar. The news article implied among other things that BMW is working on a radioactive tech...
a.d. Tramontana R-Edition Driven
5 Mar 2009, 16:21 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / What does Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, sangria, fiesta and bull-fighting have in common? Well, each has a more-than-close connection with Spain. A new fact connected with Spanish culture has emerged in the last couple of years, and that is the han...
GTbyCitroen Concept Gets Limited Production Run
5 Mar 2009, 13:45 UTC · By: Alex Oagana / Citroen is known as one of the weirdest car manufacturers when it comes to concepts. Each year they build from two to five jaw-dropping concepts that in 99.87% of the cases never transform in a series production version, limited or not. In a move a...