News Roundup: Highlights from SEMA 2022, police cruisers coming back from the dead, and more

Plus Canada’s first Porsche Experience Centre scheduled to arrive in 2024

Welcome to our round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam.

Here’s what you missed while you were away.

Many of North America’s smaller SUVs are going home with poor report cards from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) after failing a tougher, new test. The IIHS introduced the new crash test to simulate the type of high-speed collisions that often result in fatalities. Testing 20 small SUVS from 2020-2021, only one earned the top score of ‘good’ — the Mazda CX-5. “We developed this new test because we suspected there was room for more progress, and the results confirm that,” said David Harkey, president of IIHS. “The ‘good’ rating for the CX-5 shows that robust protection in a more severe side crash is achievable.” On the previous, easier test, all 20 models received the ‘good’ designation. 

Zombie police cars may soon be patrolling areas in Louisiana. Thanks to the international microchip shortage that has buyers spending more, and automakers running scared, the Slidell Police Department in the southern state may be bringing back some of its formerly retired Crown Victoria cruisers , an act that had them making zombie jokes on Facebook. A spokesperson explains, jokes aside, that they haven’t received any of the new cruiser orders from Chevy, Dodge, or Ford, and are stuck in the same lineup as the rest of us. Funny because it’s true?