Car News Articles

Nissan GT-R vs Porsche 911 Turbo – it’s the clash of the year. And CAR has pitched the benchmark Porsche against the first GT-R to arrive in the UK, and you can watch the video at the foot of this page.

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The new Lotus Eagle is set to use a 3.5-litre V6 from an American-spec Toyota, CAR has learned. Our spies have spotted the 2+2 coupe cold-weather testing ahead of its debut at the London Motor Show in July 2008 – and a registration check shows this prototype runs a 3458cc engine.

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My success in handling kiddy challenges has been greatly bolstered by the offering of choices — an instrumental parenting tool both at home and on the road. No need to blow a fuse over an insatiable desire for more when I can smilingly say, “Would you care to have your three-flavored ice cream sundae with hot fudge, caramel, whipped cream and sprinkles with ONE cherry or NO cherries?” Basically, choices simplify parenting without compromising your objectives.

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Sweet video I found posted on the Ziptied forums. No explanation needed.

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What starts out as the [now] usual report on the huge number of high-risk sub-prime car loans– “According to Power Information Network, 1.85 of the 9.6 million customers in 2006 who leased or financed a new car were subprime borrowers or consumers with weak credit”– suddenly swerves towards Uh-Oh Town. The CBS5.com report highlights BMW Financial lease holder Vivian Snyder. A salesman inflated Snyder’s income ($2500) on her credit application by 150 percent. The reporter then secured the loan application and discovered that “Snyder’s income had been changed once again - from $6,000 to $8,600, this time without her knowing. An “8″ had been placed before the “6″ and “0″s tacked at the end.” When confronted, Freemont, CA AutoNation General Manager Larry Long claimed the change had been made in Snyder’s presence, and then blamed BMW Financial for approving the lease. “We have investigated this matter internally,” Bimmer spokesmouth Martha McKinley insisted. “And we are satisfied that BMW Financial Services acted appropriately at all times during the application and credit review process.” Yes, well, AutoNation eventually ate the lease and “according to consumer advocate Rosemary Shahan with Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety the practice is common. ‘This is an epidemic of loan applications being falsified. In fact, the model for the meltdown we’re seeing in real estate and home mortgage lending was auto lending.’” [thanks to buzzlightyear for the tip]

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I can’t remember the last time I drove a press car. Since we added the News Blog, more than quadrupling our content at a single stroke (not literally), I’ve had precious little time to get my running machine fixed, never mind test drive a press car. Not that carmakers are falling all over themselves making them available. TTAC is still banned from Honda, BMW, all eight brands of GM and Subaru press cars. I’m sure there are a few more that have us on their shit list (my mother’s expression). But again, I’m so damn busy tapping these keys on your behalf that I don’t have the time to chase PR people for “free” cars. Of course, they’re not free, even when they are. Journos who accept a press car are testing a carefully prepared, non-representational vehicle. We’ve mentioned this before, but it was brought home to me again when Chrysler PR called me– and Chrysler PR never calls me– to find out where Michael Karesh got the leaky Dodge Journey to review. Reading between the lines, someone high up at Chrysler was pissed that we got a hold of a duff press vehicle. Which is why TTAC will continue our [originally unintentional] policy of testing production vehicles rather than press cars. This further separates our reviews from every other media outlet save Consumer Reports. Just to let you know.

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Leave it to the Brits to take traffic surveillance to the next level. Worried that drivers may be getting away with violating the car share lane (carpool lane to us Yanks), Leeds is testing a new camera system that actually detects the blood and water content of human skin to determine how many occupants are in the vehicle. BBC reports the system, developed by researchers at Loughborough University, uses two wavelengths of infrared (IR) light and special algorithms to distinguish faces and count heads. If it finds more than one, it lets the car pass. If it detects only one occupant, it takes a photo of the license plate and records date, time and speed. Developers say it’s accurate 90 percent of the time– and isn’t fooled by large dogs, dummies or cosmetics. They didn’t say if the system could be disabled by transmitting an IR signal back at it or if heat reflections from different color cars would affect its accuracy. Or what happens when there’s a small child in a carrier in the back seat that may not be in the camera’s line of vision. There seems to be several questions they need to address before they start using the system to prosecute solo drivers. But where there’s dosh, there’s development.

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China wouldn’t try anything like product dumping, would they? In a word, yes. Gasgoo reports the U.S. Commerce Department is imposing an anti-dumping duty on Chinese-made off-road tires. It seems Commerce determined that producers and exporters have been selling new tires at 10.98 to 210.48 percent below fair market value on this side of the Pacific. Now four tire manufacturers will have to pay an anti-dumping duty of 10.98 to 51.81 percent on a set of four tires. Twenty-three other off-road tire makers will have to pay an average 24.75 percent duty. They didn’t say if Commerce would expand this to on-road tires, but if the manufacturers have been doing it for one type of tire, you can just about bet they’ve been doing it for the rest.

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Canada’s ZENN, Dynasty and Electrovaya make small, four-wheel, electric cars classified locally as Low-Speed Vehicles (LSVs). They mostly sell these zero emission machines to Americans as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs). Though the 25 mph max speed NEVs must be approved at the local level, they are potentially legal on 35 mph roads in 40 US states. The Canadian EV makeers desperately want to sell their products in their home market. As The Toronto Star reports, both Transport Canada and Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation restrict the sedate LSVs to “planned” areas like campuses and retirement communities; LSV owners are legally banned from taking their chances among Canada’s mix of normal, fast and insanely fast traffic. While slower bicycles and scooters also use Canada’s streets, officials are hung-up on the fact that the LSVs look like cars but don’t have airbags, side-impact reinforcement or meet any crash-test standards. Makes sense, but is it sensible?

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