First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

In an act of almost incomprehensible stupidity, ignorance, and just plain mean-spiritedness, the Federal Government of the United States of America has apparently struck a blow against motoring enthusiasts across the country.

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The revised fuel economy ratings for the Ford C-Max aren’t the first time that an auto maker has been forced to backtrack on fuel economy claims – nor will it be the last unless meaningful reform is undertaken to ensure that fuel economy figures more accurately reflect the way motorists drive their cars in the real world.

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Say it with me in the Don LaFontaine voice:

IN A WORLD…

WHERE EVERY SOURCE OF “PREMIUM” HAS BEEN EXHAUSTED…

AND MASS-PRODUCED GARBAGE IS REBRANDED AS LUXURY GOODS FOR AN INCREASINGLY FECKLESS, IGNORANT, AND NAIVE UPPER MIDDLE CLASS…

A BRAND SHALL RISE…

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Some say the huge US Postal Service contract to buy Jeep DJs saved AMC (well, postponed AMC’s final downward spiral by a decade or so), and everyone will agree that vast quantities of USPS-surplus Mail Jeeps gave cheapskate Americans low-cost steel boxes to drive for the last few decades. These things must have been extremely popular in Colorado, because I see them all the time in Denver-area wrecking yards; in this series, we’ve had this Chevy-powered ’68, this Audi-powered ’79, this AMC six-powered ’72, this GM Iron Duke-powered ’82, and now today’s AMC-powered ’71. (Read More…)

The Internet’s alive with schadenfreude regarding ROTA wheels. The company recently warned consumers that fake ROTA wheels were being manufactured in China and distributed in several of the markets in which ROTA has a presence. This has made a lot of people laugh because ROTA themselves are considered to be “copiers” or “counterfeiters”.

Your humble author has been racing on ROTA wheels since 2008, as seen above in a rather hilarious-in-retrospect incident featuring a spinning open-cockpit racer and my Neon. Naturally, I have an opinion about this.

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This weekend’s Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance will also be the site of the BMW M4 Concept’s debut. The M4 is expected to bow in production form in September at the Frankfurt Auto Show – this concept version should be very close to it.

Pioneering designer Gordon Murray, the man who gave the world the McLaren F1, announced on his blog that his T.25 and T.27 urban concept cars have been sold by Gordon Murray Design to an as yet unnamed manufacturer, to go into production and on sale in 2016. “The T.25 and T.27 concept has now been sold to a customer and with a following wind a lot more drivers should be able to enjoy the centre drive experience in 2016!,” Murray said. The tiny T. cars use a 1+2 configuration, with space for the driver and two passengers. The driver sits centrally with the two passengers flanking the driver in the back. The T.25 will be powered by a modified 660cc 51 HP 3 cylinder sourced from Daimler’s smart division. The T.27 is the same car, only battery electric. The very small cars were designed to be built with Murray’s unique iStream manufacturing process. (Read More…)

After facing consumer complaints and lawsuits over consumers failing to get advertised fuel economy Ford announced on Thursday that it will be downgrading the combined MPG rating of the C-Max Hybrid from 47 to 43.

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The big surprise of Pebble Beach might be this concept you see right here. The Cadillac Elmiraj is intended to preview a possible Cadillac flagship, while drawing on past models like the 1967 Eldorado.

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According to a Reuters poll of 30 economists, data to be released next week will show that the recession in Europe has ended, but that the euro zone will not start growing significantly until 2015. The consensus prediction for the second quarter of 2013 was 0.2% growth.

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Derek’s recent article on the CUV “event horizon” seemed to have been misunderstood by some of the B&B. Derek’s fine analysis showed you how one type of car, the crossover, has left its usual stronghold of America and is now eclipsing other kinds of cars in other markets. His proof is the new Mercedes GLA which shows that now everybody wants in. I posit that the “event horizon” came somewhat earlier in the form of the Renault/Dacia Duster and that this phenomenon had been brewing for a while. My home country of Brazil is one place where crossovers have been steadily rising in popularity.

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The final production version of the Porsche 918 Spyder is set to be shown off at this weekend’s Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance, but Porsche tweeted a photograph of their hybrid supercar ahead of this weekend’s events. The 918 was also seen running undisguised at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier this summer.

News of a new Ram performance truck was bolstered by these images released by Ram yesterday, that preview the new model set to be unveiled at this weekend’s Woodward Dream Cruise.

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Will there ever be a time in which no Chrysler A-bodies show up in North America’s cheap self-serve wrecking yards? Sure, Darts and Valiants were as common 20 years ago as are dead Tauruses now, so the former torrent of old Chrysler compacts has become a trickle, but I still find at least a couple of them every time I visit The Crusher’s waiting room. In the last couple of years, this series has included this ’75 Duster, this ’64 Valiant wagon, this ’68 Valiant Signet, this ’66 Dart, this ’73 Valiant, and this ’61 Valiant, and today we’ll be admiring the car that was to 1983 what the ’94 Corolla is to 2013: a cheap, dependable sedan that nobody noticed. (Read More…)

  If you accept the idea that a car can have two personalities, then you can be cheered by the fact that your Honda S2000 will always have a garage mate. Cruise conservatively and you may as well be driving a Miata, albeit the world’s roughest riding and loudest MX-5.  Find a twisty back road […]