Car News Articles

Very funny. Yes, he said he’d be back, but rather than hurtling after baddies in a Hummer, Arnold Schwarzenegger came over all green this afternoon when he checked out Volkswagen’s innovative Space Up Blue at the Los Angeles Motor Show.

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Volkswagen will bring back the Scirocco name in 2008 with this sporty Golf-based three-door. Although the Scirocco won’t be unveiled until the Geneva Motor Show in March, we’ve already snapped the sexy coupe testing at the Nurburgring and on the roads surrounding the legendary circuit.

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Toyota is making the final cold-weather tweaks to its replacement Avensis, that’s tipped to make its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in October. The new Avensis will continue to be built at Burnaston in the UK – Toyota has made a long-term commitment to its Derbyshire plant, which also produces the five-door Auris – but the key news is that Toyota will offer the Avensis as a soft hybrid.

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UAW-Dodge 400 | Las Vegas Motor Speedway
POS CAR DRIVER MAKE
1 18 Kyle Busch, Toyota
2 99 Carl Edwards, Ford
3 8 Mark Martin, Chevrolet
4 24 Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
5 27 Mike Skinner, Toyota
6 16 Greg Biffle, Ford
7 66 Scott Riggs, Chevrolet
8 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet
9 2 Kurt Busch , Dodge
10 19 Elliott Sadler, Dodge
11 5 Casey Mears, Chevrolet
12 10 Patrick Carpentier, Dodge
13 17 Matt Kenseth, Ford
14 00 David Reutimann, Toyota
15 12 Ryan Newman, Dodge
16 44 Dale Jarrett, Toyota
17 29 Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet
18 1 Martin Truex Jr., Chevrolet
19 49 Ken Schrader, Dodge
20 77 Sam Hornish Jr., Dodge
21 07 Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet
22 55 Michael Waltrip, Toyota
23 70 Jeremy Mayfield, Chevrolet
24 31 Jeff Burton , Chevrolet
25 20 Tony Stewart, Toyota
26 22 Dave Blaney, Toyota
27 11 Denny Hamlin, Toyota
28 01 Regan Smith, Chevrolet
29 28 Travis Kvapil, Ford
30 96 J.J. Yeley, Toyota
31 42 Juan Montoya, Dodge
32 7 Robby Gordon, Dodge
33 48 Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet
34 38 David Gilliland, Ford
35 41 Reed Sorenson, Dodge
36 26 Jamie McMurray, Ford
37 9 Kasey Kahne, Dodge
38 6 David Ragan, Ford
39 43 Bobby Labonte, Dodge
40 15 Paul Menard, Chevrolet
41 45 Kyle Petty, Dodge
42 40 Dario Franchitti, Dodge
43 83 Brian Vickers, Toyota
Did Not Qualify
44 84 A.J. Allmendinger, Toyota
45 78 Joe Nemechek, Chevrolet
46 34 John Andretti, Chevrolet
47 21 Johnny Sauter, Ford

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Suzuki’s Grand Vitara wasn’t thrilling to drive, but it’s pleasant enough — and pleasure becomes relative when price enters the mix. If you’re part of a family of four that’s looking for functionality AND great value, this SUV might just have you shouting for joy.

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Back in the day, Toyota used local businessmen to find dealers and deal with local politics. ToMoCo eventually bought its distributors, save Southeast Toyota in Florida and Gulf States Toyota in Houstonm (who still control prices, model mix and availability in 10 states). In the ’90s, Southeast shelled-out more than $100m to dealers who claimed the distributor was forcing them out of business. CNNMoney reports that Gulf States is now under the gun for “improperly encouraging” executives from a large dealer group to leave their company and buy a lucrative dealership in Dallas. Toyota continues to defend its distributors, claiming they “bring a culture of innovation, responsiveness and agility.” What’s more, consumer prices “are the same” or “even more competitive” than prices in regions where there are no distributors. If there’s anyone who can give your perspective on dealing with a Toyota distributor, please contact us.

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I believe that somebody is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for them. If The New York Yankees are willing to pay shortstop Alex Rodriguez $275m for ten year’s service, that’s what he’s worth. You can bet that owner George Steinbrenner stands to make more money than his employee. Well, that’s the theory. In practice, sometimes the people signing the checks are so divorced from reality that they happily shell-out tens of millions of dollars to employees without any hope of recompense. Needless to say, I’m referring to the top level execs infesting GM, Ford and Chrysler. Now you could make a case that Ford is the exception– if we’re talking about Alan Mulally. I reckon the former Boeing man might someday be worth Ford’s $75m - $150m (at a guess) investment. As for Ford’s million dollar plus top level suits– who’ve already proven that they don’t know how to run a railroad– I’m not sure. I find Bill Ford’s postponed payments even less convincing. The man owns stock. If Ford makes a profit, he will (once again) bank millions. Ford’s compensation committee might think that it’s worth $25m to $35m per year to get Bill Ford to “represent” the family biz and stay out of Alan Mulally’s hair. I think not.

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Everyone knows that when you travel to say, China, and someone offers you an amazing deal on a Swiss watch, you might not be getting the genuine article. Buy a discount Ferrari in Italy though, and you can safely assume you are getting the real deal, right? Wrong. The International Herald Tribune reports that Italy’s financial police (?) have broken a ring of Ferrari counterfeiters who had built 14 fake 360 Modenas using, get this, “mostly Pontiacs as their base, but also Mercedes and Toyota.” While visions of the notorious “Fiero-rrari” body kits are probably racing through your head, these fakes actually were fairly well done (if equally targeted at the chest-rug sporting crowd). Authorities say that seven of the faux-rraris were sold to people who knew the cars were fake, and simply wanted to impress the neighbors. Said neighbors were sadly unavailable for comment as to the full glory of a late-model Ferrari with the exhaust note of 20-year old Pontiac V6.

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According to CHINAdaily, China’s auto industry is booming, and the city of Guangzhou is feeling the pinch. “We will increase the total number of parking spaces in the city by 150k between now and 2010, with 50k coming this year,” says Wang Dong, director of the Guangzhou urban planning bureau. Last year, Guangzhou had more than 1m cars on its roads; officials licensed 600 new cars per day. In an effort to increase total parking capacity by 50k, the city’s OKed five large car parks at a cost of 1b Yuan ($140m). Meanwhile, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) have approved a group of “new” domestic vehicles. In a riff on Detroit badge-engineering, only a few are completely new models. The majority are comprised of “upgraded products from existing models.” Chinese carmakers have released some 90 models a year for the past five years, including 20 “completely new ones.” Finally, in an effort to curb “resource-intensive sectors and promote energy efficiency,” the government is increasing the consumption tax for diesel fuel by about 70 percent (to the “full” tax rate of 0.10 Yuan per liter). We reckon even that won’t slow the industry’s growth. In just a single generation, the PRC has transformed from a nation of bicycle riders into a population of car-crazed consumers– and there ain’t no goin’ back.

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