Car News Articles

The ute is Australia’s unique contribution to the automotive world. A modest achievement, I know. America gave us the the Mustang and the Corvette. Italy gave us the supercar and Germany the luxury sedan with tire-frying horsepower. The Brits, though they could never follow through with anything resembling quality, came up with the Mini and the Range Rover and the Jaguar XJ. Even tiny Sweden, home of Volvo and Saab, has cast a bigger shadow on the automotive stage. But the impending launch of the Pontiac G8 ST has suddenly catapulted the humble ute into the big time. It’s been quite a journey.

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You can almost hear the Smug Alerts going off in Sacramento any time the California Air Resources Board meets. CARB is the group responsible for blunting German automakers’ efforts to sell diesels here in recent years, and for writing the rule that prompted General Motors to build the EV-1 and thus become the villain in “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Thursday CARB met in Sacramento to — get this — cut its zero-emissions vehicle mandate by 90 percent. CARB appears to be listening to reason.

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James Bond has his Aston Martin. Maxwell Smart rolls in a Sunbeam.

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The board will require the automakers to sell a combined 7,500 zero-emission vehicles from 2012 through 2014, a 70 percent cut from a previous mandate of 25,000 vehicles.

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Renault has appointed Nissan’s Katsumi Nakamura to its top board, marking the first time the French carmaker has given such a prominent role to an executive from its Japanese alliance partner.

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The mission of Mitsubishi’s iFamily is to find out whether city-dwelling American and European buyers want a small, cute (and we’d guess cheap) car – and whether they want an electric model.

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This Aston Martin is thought to be a mule for the new V12 Vantage RS. Earlier this week Aston confirmed that the stunning concept – which CAR has just driven – will go into production in the first quarter of 2009. And now CAR Online’s spies have snapped this car testing on roads around the Nurburgring, with a rear diffuser remarkably similar to the concept’s. The V12 is one of two new Vantage models due in the next 12 months.

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Since winning two consecutive Nationwide Series (formerly Busch Series) titles in 1998 and 1999, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has raced in the series sparingly.
In fact, he hasn’t started a Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway since those title runs 10 years ago. That will change next weekend when Earnhardt Jr. races his No. 5 Chevrolet in the O’Reilly 300 on April 5.
Junior earned his first career Nationwide win at TMS back in 1998 and his first career Sprint Cup victory at the track in 2000. He has three Nationwide starts this season, with a best finish of third in the Camping World 300 at Daytona International Speedway last month.
Read more here.

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Chief Mama Kristin Varela investigates some new safety features in the Volvo XC60. Find out how it, like a can of tuna, keeps us dolphin-safe! OK, not quite, but check out the video to see some special technology and family-friendly safety features that keep us happy as clams.

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