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Novelties

Which Dead US Automotive Nameplates Should Remain Buried?

Seems the boss-man has been moonlighting again over at Popular Mechanics, this time advising Detroit about which of its dead nameplates should remain six feet under. We won't give away Ray's picks; you'll have to head over to PopMech for those, but we've tossed our own version together after the jump. More »

6:00 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Ben Wojdyla
3,643 views, 133 comments

Commenter Of The Day

Commenter Of The Day: Lincoln-Darwin Edition

Recently, it's been fairly well reported that both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the same day: February 12, 1809. It isn't that surprising that this coincidence (and that's all it really is) has captured so much interest, given that these two men were giants of the 19th century and managed to live separate, yet dramatic, lives. Both embraced and then challenged conventional notions and faced strong opposition for doing so. Feelings about Darwin and Lincoln sharing a birthday are so strong that it lead to an eight-week-long war on Wikipedia over whether or not to include one line about the coincidence in Charles Darwin's page. The debate on the Wiki talk page consumed over 30,000 words. In that same spirit, we had two great commenters (more, actually) in the Saab Bloat story. Hopefully, beercheck and Van Sarockin don't share a birthday... More »

5:40 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Matt Hardigree
873 views, 32 comments

Latest by Naturally Exasperated?: ah so what? darwin was just getting his theories onto paper. then the world jumped on it as some kind of magic alternative to believing in God. Its not his fault people are sheep. more »

Project Car Hell

Project Car Hell, Arc-Weld Your Soul Edition: Electric 911 or Electric Spitfire?

Welcome to Project Car Hell, where you choose your eternity by selecting the project that's the coolest... and the most hellish! Yesterday, we saw the triple-'49-Mercury deal obliterate the six-four by what may be the biggest-ever margin in Choose Your Eternity Poll history: 80-20 for the Mercuries in the Low And Slow Edition poll. Today we've become so excited over the possibility that the ~~$30,000~~ $40,000 Chevy Volt will be on the street in the not-so-distant future that we're going electric, and we're not talking about golf carts or even AMCs here- no, we mean electric vintage European sports cars!
More »

5:20 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,663 views, 50 comments

Latest by Van Sarockin: @junkman: About twenty years ago a friend of mine was knee deep in a project to convert a perfectly serviceable '70 Mustang to electric power. I think he planned to use about twenty standard lead-acid car batteries more »

2009 Audi R8

2009 Audi R8 Sold Out Worldwide

The entire run of Audi R8s for 2009 has sold out. There's now an 18-month waiting list for Audi's hand-built supercar. This news comes just as we were about to place our order, meaning it'll be even longer before Wert gets to ~~drive~~ get driven around in one. It also comes despite a price hike of $3,500, although we suppose that if you can afford a $113,700 car, that slight hike ceases to be relevant.

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5:00 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Wes Siler
1,042 views, 28 comments

Latest by layabout: Weird that there is a huge waiting list,i just looked on a U.K. website & found over 60 R8's for sale they are '07 & 08' models.For the same money you could buy an '05/'06 Lamborghini Gallardo.Both cars come in more »

Industry News

GM Using US Postal Fleet As Fuel Cell Equinox Test Bed

GM is partnering with the US Postal Service to place its fuel cell-powered Chevy Equinox into service in Irvine, California and other yet-to-be-identified locations. The idea is to put the fuel cell SUVs into heavy-use situations to help work out the development kinks. Not only that, but they'll be able to test the operation of the hydrogen filling station at UC Irvine. It's a cunning plan, and it makes sense, but they aren't getting one over on us. More »

4:40 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Ben Wojdyla
632 views, 19 comments

Latest by ebm14: The postal vehicle LLV (gruman) were the worst products on earth. They smelled, vibrated, and over steered horribly. The Tata Nano is 5x better! No joke. I delivered mail and will never do it again. The more »

Gadgets

Accessing Maps On Mobile Devices Jumps 82% In US

If you're squinting at a poorly-rendered map on your Blackberry, turns out you're not alone. According to an industry report released today, up to 8% of Americans are now downloading driving directions and online maps via mobile devices, which equates to a whopping 82% increase over last year. Ironic that mobile map use is increasing just as in-car navigation systems are becoming more common: Are we getting hooked on nav? Full release after the jump. More »

4:20 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Andrew Stoy
280 views, 10 comments

Down On The Junkyard

The Junked Cars Of Limerick, Maine

We like to see a sampling of junkyard wares from around the world, and Slantsick has added to our Rusty Iron Grand Tour by photographing some of the more interesting vehicles at C.I.A. Salvage of Limerick, Maine. Make the jump to see the whole gallery and read Slantsick's list of vehicles.

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4:00 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,085 views, 37 comments

Ford F-150 Plug-In Hybrid

HEV Technology Builds 41 MPG Plug-In Hybrid Ford F-150 Pickup Truck

Rather than make yet another Mustang derivative, Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies has done something relevant and managed to install a plug-in hybrid system in a Ford F-150 pickup truck. The resulting vehicle achieves a combined fuel economy of up to 41 MPG, up from a combined 16 MPG on the 2WD version of the truck. HEVT will now offer the technology as a retrofit on a limited basis as they conduct further testing in an effort to put it into mass production. See, how hard was that? More »

3:20 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Wes Siler
1,569 views, 44 comments

Latest by Mike the Dog: This is a lot easier to believe than the 100 MPG Chevy Pickup from the other day... [jalopnik.com] more »

Down On The Street Bonus Edition

How About A Cord And Zephyr To Go With Those International Harvesters?

This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Today's DOTSBE post is sort of a hybrid deal; UDMan has shot three cool old survivor trucks- including a couple of IHC machines- in New York. Then, as an added bonus, he's talked the owner of a couple of terrifyingly valuable classics into posing said cars for a photo session. Yes, a Cord 812 and a Lincoln Zephyr, and you'll see 'em all if you make the jump.

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3:00 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Murilee Martin
660 views, 32 comments

Latest by Slantsick goes hybrid: Burns Oil and Rubber: @No_Brakes: I'm 32. My first two cars had the foot-stomp dimmer ('70 & '73 Dart), circa 1994. I suppose technically they were "classic" or antique" or whatever, but at the time they were still just "old"- the '70 cost 500 more »

Offbeat News

Rhode Island Man Busted For Drunk Driving, Blows Six Times Legal Limit

Stanley Kobierowski (not pictured) is apparently a bit of drinker and a bad decision-maker. After Rhode Island police arrested him for crashing into a sign, Stanley blew a 0.491 BAC on the breathalyzer — more than six times the Rhode Island limit of 0.08. That's a state record, by the way. To put Stanley's inebriation into perspective, a blood alcohol level of 0.3 is considered blitzed, 0.4 brings unconsciousness and 0.5 is a fatal dose. Our Polish friend here was not only not comatose, but cruising around and running into things — fortunately, nothing living. Bad Stanley, bad! [ABCNews, Photo Credit: EnglishRussia]

2:40 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Ben Wojdyla
2,183 views, 52 comments

Latest by NICKNICK: .491 is quite an accomplishment--buy that guy a beer! more »

Industry News

Porsche Creeping Closer To Volkswagen Takeover

Furthering an effort begun by Porsche in 2005, an E.U. commission Wednesday granted permission for the sports car manufacturer to gain control of Volkswagen. If it seems that the buyout process has been happening in slow-motion, that's because it has: Thanks to arcane rules and buyout clauses, Porsche has had to purchase blocks of VW stock over a period of time, culminating in a final buyup in June. The result is that Porsche now owns a 51% stake in Europe's largest automaker, and the gub'ment says it's kosher. Of course, the German state of Lower Saxony, VW's second largest shareholder, can still play all passive-aggressive, so the soap opera is really just getting started. [Reuters UK]

2:20 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Andrew Stoy
722 views, 24 comments

Latest by kaneshadow: ... I'm so confused. I thought Porsche-Volkswagen-Audi was always the same company. Don't they share parts and platforms all the time?? more »

Saturn Vue Plug-in Hybrid

Saturn Vue Plug-In Hybrid On The Way

Larry Nitz, General Motors' executive director for hybrid powertrains, speaking yesterday at the Plug-In 2008 Conference in San Jose, confirmed that the company is developing a plug-in hybrid Saturn Vue. The announcement comes as GM looks for ways to disseminate Chevy Volt-like technology through its other products. They're not telling when the plug-in Vue will be ready, but in the meantime, Saturn will launch a FWD two-mode hybrid Vue next year, and GM is also thought to be developing a plug-in hybrid based on the Saturn Flextreme concept. More »

2:00 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Wes Siler
780 views, 23 comments

Latest by X3SoB: What a bunch of shit. The Vue weighs way too much to begin with, I can't imagine that adding batteries and electrical hardware would improve this. GM is seriously fucked in the head. more »

2009 BMW 7-series

2009 BMW 7-Series Sketches Reveal The Slightly More Radical Path Not Taken

Though there was some speculation that the 2009 BMW 7-Series might be undergoing a radical refresh, the actual 2009 7-Series is a mostly underwhelming update. The rear of the car has been mercifully revised. The rest of the big Bimmer has undergone a more subtle transformation — especially subtle in light of the 7-series sketches released by BMW today.

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1:40 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Matt Hardigree
1,102 views, 30 comments

Nissan X-Trail

Nissan X-Trail Fuel Cell Jumps Nurburgring Shark

There is no good reason at all for Nissan to take their fuel-cell-powered X-Trail to the Nordschleife, but that's what they've gone and done. An 11-minute, 58-second lap time and putting a fuel cell-powered SUV on the 'Ring are both patently ridiculous. Enough. Nissan, it was great when you blasted round the 'Ring with the GT-R, but now you've just Fonzied yourselves. [EdmundsInsideLine]

1:20 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Ben Wojdyla
615 views, 30 comments

tata nano

Tata Nano To Get Two-Cylinder Turbo-Diesel Power, Bajillion Miles Per Gallon

The Economic Times of India is reporting Tata has teamed up with German engineering firm FEV (who's also developing the hybrid system on the Mahindra Scorpio) to bring an 800 cc, turbocharged, two-cylinder diesel to the engine bay of the Tata Nano. Already blessed with a $2500 price tag and rumored to have a compressed air engine on the way, the story of the Nano just keeps getting more and more interesting. More »

1:00 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Ben Wojdyla
1,511 views, 38 comments

2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X

ChargeSpeed Releases Non-Functional Carbon Parts for 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X

Yesterday, we were surprised and relieved to see that the 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR managed to package real Evo performance into a package that was both livable and restrained. Now it seems the aftermarket is doing everything possible to counteract both of those qualities with tacky, non-functional carbon add-ons that will once again make the Evo the preserve of the ricer. The worst offender? The fake vortex generator that sticks onto the rear glass. The new Lancer shape doesn't suffer from the same aerodynamic difficulties that the old model did, rendering this completely and utterly useless. ChargeSpeed, you should be ashamed. [Via NihonCar]

12:40 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Wes Siler
1,149 views, 47 comments

Latest by r34racer01: At least its JDM, seriously it could be worst. And that carbon fiber trunk is functional. more »

2010 Ford Mustang

2010 Ford Mustang To Debut at LA Auto Show

Earlier today, when Ford announced plans to counter its largest ever quarterly loss, we also learned the 2010 Ford Mustang would be revealed to pumping bass and epileptic-unfriendly lights at the 2008 LA Auto Show in November. We know the car arrives in showrooms early next year, and what's a new car without the lasers and dry ice of an auto show unveiling? But why LA and not Detroit? More »

12:20 PM on Thu Jul 24 2008
By Wes Siler
1,266 views, 19 comments

Jalopnik

One Ford, Explained: Jalopnik's Ford Announcement Cheat Sheet

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