NB: I stole the above photo from my own “The Truth About Stigs” article. Said article might be worth a brief glance if you’re really interested in this topic…
From Top Speed:
After a scandalous trip to the courtroom over a planned autobiography and a not-so-smooth release of official documents from the racer’s company, Collins Autosport, Ben Collins has been revealed and canned from playing the part of the world renowned Stig.
Who is Ben Collins? What does all this mean?
(Read More…)
BMW loves America, and to prove it, BMW is sending us a North American exclusive sports coupé and convertible. No, it is not some fabulous concept car turned production, its last year’s 335i cranked up a notch with some M3 parts and an exhaust system that’s too loud to be sold in the EU tossed […]
The EPA, working with the Departments of Transportation and Energy, has come up with two potential fuel economy labels, aimed at addressing the challenges posed by new plug-in, and fuel cell vehicles. The EPA’s Gina McCarthy gives an overview on the two label styles in the video above, but the main difference appears to be that one label would give cars letter grades (from A+ to D) on their fuel efficiency and greenhouse as emissions, while the other… wouldn’t. Read more about the first label (with letter grades) here, and compare it to the second label here. Let us know what you think, and if you feel strongly enough, send your comments to the EPA here.
Despite the deep ties between his firm and Volkswagen, Ferry Porsche firmly believed that Porsches could only be Porsches if the company remained truly independent. “Independence,” he says in the video above, “has always been the attitude at Porsche.” But as the latest addition to the Volkswagen empire, tasked with developing mass-market architectures and planning Porsche-brand versions of the Audi Q5 and Volkswagen BlueSport, Porsche’s culture has little choice but to change. But will becoming a good team player within the VW-Audi-Seat-Skoda-Bentley-Lamborghini-Bugatti strategy kill off the spirit that made Porsche great? Or can cultural independence survive the VW takeover?
Michal writes:
Normally I can find answers for my friends, however this one has me baffled and Google is no help, maybe Piston Slap can help.
My friend is selling/getting rid of a 2006 Jeep Commander, 4.7L, towing package and ~43k miles. Normally a fairly easy thing to price, however the thing has a buyback note on the title, because of some issue or another, he says it was something to do with a starter, but given that info was probably from a dealer, I take it with a huge grain of salt.
Using the normal ‘quoting’ sources (Edmunds/KBB/etc) a clean title car is in the 14k price range. However this has that buyback/lemon not on it, and I have not found any guidelines as to how to price it. (just advice as to how to avoid getting one) He was given a CarMax quote of 8k. But that’s not enough to cover the note. I told him to be honest & put it up on Craiglist & eBay to see what happens, anything over 8k is extra money in the pocket. But after doing some research that really didn’t pan out, I’m not so sure the 8k was a bad offer.
Once a new car has reached 3 years of age in the UK, it has to undergo a yearly test to make sure the key components of a car are working, and that the car is safe. It’s called an MOT. This is not the drive-it-down-to-your-friendly-gas-station-and-get-a-sticker routine. It’s pretty rigorous. It is anticipated with apprehension. Anyway, the MOT is reaching its 50th birthday after the test became mandatory in 1960. So to celebrate the MOT’s 50th anniversary, Nationwide Autocentres, a garage group that performs many MOT’s around the UK, conducted a survey (how about taking the MOT out and drinking lager until your head spins? THAT’S a good way of celebrating your birthday!). The survey consisted of the top 10 best selling cars in the UK. Then they looked at their failure rates after 3 years (some people have far too much time on their hands). Shall we have a look at the results (via the Daily Mail)? Firstly, here are the contenders:
Ford Mondeo, Ford Ka, Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra, Renault Megane, Vauxhall Corsa, VW Golf, Renault Clio and the BMW 3-series.
All of these cars were surveyed at their first MOT (i.e. three year old). What the surveys doesn’t take into account is how hard they’ve been driven (that pretty much equals out) and it doesen’t say what exactly has failed (it’s not a loose knob of the radio that fails the MOT, it’s usually something expensive …. T’s PASS or FAIL.)
So, who “won” this survey of the highest rate of failure at their first MOT? I’ll give you a clue. Nissan didn’t bring reliability to their alliance. (Read More…)
When Mazda’s next-generation Mazda5 debuts later this year, it will mark the high-water point for the brand’s Nagare design language. Named for a 2006 concept that first showed off the dramatically flowing (some might say overwrought) look, Nagare has not been a stunning success, and Mazda announced several months ago that the Mazda5 would be the last car to use the design language. At that time, Mazda said it intended to reposition itself as “The Japanese Alfa-Romeo,” but lines like that could mean literally anything. Today, with the debut of the Mazda Shinari Concept, it’s clear that Mazda’s new look is headed in a far more conservative direction. In fact, to our eye, the sleek four-door looks quite a bit like the meeting point between the Tesla Model S and the Fisker Karma. In any case, it fits the “Japanese Alfa-Romeo” billing quite well. Plus, it doesn’t look like a deranged Pokemon. Now that’s progress!
The Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal published in May the results of an extensive Los Angeles, California Police Department evaluation of the effectiveness of license plate covers and sprays designed to defeat automated ticketing machines. The results showed that the popular countermeasures did not work well under actual field conditions using the red light cameras operated in the city by Nestor Traffic Systems (the firm has since gone bankrupt and American Traffic Solutions now runs the program).
Mr. Putin must be reading TTAC. Barely did we report that the Russian market is coming back to life, Vladimir Putin stepped in front of the cameras in Moscow, and announced killer measures to put the Russian auto market back into its place.
In a speech today, Putin announced that import tariffs for new cars will be increased “step by step.” He didn’t mention any numbers or dates, but the buyers of that Mulsanne better hurry. And it’s not that importing cars to Russia is particularly cheap right now. Currently, there is a 30 percent import duty on any new car. Smug Vladimir said that Russia is not part of the WTO, so they can put their import duties as high as they damn please. (Read More…)
The fate of the car industry depends highly on the price of oil. Higher oil prices, lower car sales. Lower oil prices, higher cars sales. Everywhere but Russia.
Russia’s main export is energy. Oil and gas. When oil climbed, the Russians were rolling in money and bought cars like crazy. Then came 2008. Oil crashed. The market crashed. Russian oligarchs went bankrupt. The car market followed. Unit sales of passenger cars dropped 50 percent last year. The annual Moscow Motor Show was cancelled. Automakers were worried about their investments into the Russian market. The Russians tried to protect their industry, raised import tariffs. The market plummeted more. Now, all of this is ancient history. (Read More…)
Too many cars shot, not enough time to write them all up. Here’s a few outtakes whose names are (hopefully) worth sharing. (Read More…)
The job of most auto show booth babes is all about talking. We’re there to talk for hours to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people about the brand we rep. As much as we may talk, there are some things we won’t ever tell you. Here are just a few. (Read More…)
When I’m bored and have 20 minutes to burn, I always go to car manufacturers’ websites and “spec out” cars I may buy in the future. Volvos, Toyota, Hondas, Lexuses etc. Ones which would look nice on my driveway. But truth be told, nothing on the market really captures my imagination. When I look on the road, nothing really stands out. Then I made a comment to myself. “If you want to stand out on the roads you’d be better off driving a Cadillac CTS!” I chuckled at first, but then I saw some sense to it. Although I don’t like Cadillac’s styling, the CTS isn’t that bad (it grew on me), it’s not that bad a car and there’s not many on UK roads. Then I thought, why don’t I take it one step further…? (Read More…)
[Ray Charlton has been a long-time TTAC reader (amazon ray) and has fed me numerous tips. He has offered to share the story of his experiences with his automotive companion of thirty seven years. TTAC always encourages reader submissions, and we are particularly interested to make this type of reader’s story a regular weekly column. It’s a great way to get to know each other better, and share our automotive-related passions, careers, crazy stories or?? And you’ll (eventually) be $50.00 richer. Send them to me at curbsideclassics@gmail.com. About 800-1200 words, and if it needs editing, I’m on it. I also need suggestions for a title of this series. PN]
It was October of 1973, and my seventeenth birthday. My father’s idea of the perfect gift was to give me his daily driver: a 1968 Volvo 122 Amazon. He had bought it new and now it had 74,000 miles on it. Well, needless to say I was mighty happy to get the car. But I’m even happier to have it still today. (Read More…)
Fifty years old, and this venerable Ford is still working hard, hauling construction supplies and debris for its young owner who traded it for “some drywall work”. But in addition to just still being on the job, this F-600 caught me eye for another reason: (Read More…)
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