If you skim through the comments on what they're calling "Cars Technica" articles, you'll find heavy criticism (especially on the earlier articles), some of which is along the lines of native advertising or sponsored content allegations---not helped by Porsche and Audi being advertising partners. The Ars writers and editors are however on record saying that they are absolutely not using native advertising or sponsored content (except when there is a clear banner declaring so).
Personally, I find that the further Ars gets from it's traditional domain of computers and consumer tech, the worse the quality of the article. In the case of the automotive articles, I don't think the editors or writers have sufficient subject matter expertise to write the well-informed articles that are common for Ars' computer and consumer tech coverage.