Car News Articles

Lotus will find out this month if its bid to become Britain’s cleanest car maker has been successful. Lotus and green fuel specialist Ecotricity plan to erect three wind turbines to supply all the company’s electricity needs – and make it the UK’s first electric carbon-neutral car factory.

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Ford will dare to be different with a cut-price CLS version of the next-generation Mondeo, CAR Online can reveal. A four-door coupe model will appear for the first time alongside the traditional estate and saloon models, as depicted in our exclusive artist’s impression. 

It’ll be a halo car for the brand, because now Ford of Europe is making money, it can afford some image-building cars. That’s why we’ll see the reincarnation of the Capri (CAR Magazine, July 2008) and this smart, sleek new Mondeo coupe.

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The NASCAR Sprint Cup season is at a halfway point this week. No, not halfway through the season, but halfway to the start of the 10-race Chase for the Championship. With 13 races remaining until Chase Race 1 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, here are the top 12 drivers and a few who may have a chance to battle their way in:
1. Kyle Busch, 2,050 points
He has four Sprint Cup wins and the best average finish (7.4) in the series. He hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down. Chase contender? YES
2. Jeff Burton, 1,908 (-142)
Consistency earns a place in the Chase. Burton has one win, but he also has nine top-10 finishes. Chase contender? Yes
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr., 1,779 (-271)
Junior hasn’t won this year, but he’s mirrored Burton with consistent finishes in the top 10 (nine) or top five (five). Chase contender? Yes
4. Carl Edwards, 1,713 (-337)
Edwards has clawed back from an early season 100-point penalty. He has three wins and should earn at least one more before the Chase starts. Chase contender? Yes
5. Greg Biffle, 1,658 (-392)
On May 10, Biffle, right, was 11th in the standings after a 43rd-place finish at Darlington. Since then he’s collected some momentum with finishes of second and third. Chase contender? Yes
6. Jeff Gordon, 1,646 (-404)
Gordon was 13th in points after 10 races. In the past three, he’s finished third, fourth and fifth, but is still searching for a win. Chase contender? Certainly
7. Jimmie Johnson, 1,644 (-406)
OK, do not adjust your web page. Johnson is BEHIND the leader by 406 points, not ahead. Don’t fret. He’s likely toying with the competition. Chase contender? Yes
8. Clint Bowyer 1,633 (-417)
Bowyer, left, needs to improve at two of the summer’s biggest tracks — 2.5-mile Pocono (20.0 average finish) and 2-mile Michigan (26.2) — to move up the standings. Chase contender? Yes
9. Denny Hamlin, 1,630 (-420)
Hamlin plummeted five spots in the standings after finishing 43rd last week. A win at Pocono on Sunday would help. Chase contender? Yes
10. Kevin Harvick, 1,566 (-484)
Harvick’s five top-10 finishes have kept him in the hunt. He needs a few more to stay. Chase contender. No
11. Tony Stewart, 1,551 (-499)
Smoke hasn’t hit his customary summer hot streak yet. Emphasis on yet. His Chase chances depend on it. Chase contender? Yes
12. Kasey Kahne, 1,524 (-526)
Kahne won the Coco-Cola 600, but his average finish of 17.1 doesn’t suggest a Chase spot. Chase contender? No
Contenders outside the top 12
Matt Kenseth (16th, 95 out of 12th): The 2003 champ will make it.
Ryan Newman (14th, 29 out): He’ll make his first Chase since 2005.
David Ragan (13th, eight out): Sophomore has a chance, but it’s slim.
Martin Truex Jr. (15th, 83 out): Lacks mojo, results. No chance.
Juan Pablo Montoya (17th, 134 out): Needs a lot more top-fives and some team chemistry.

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I don’t know why I’m continually surprised by the quality of Hyundai vehicles. I know I’m not the only one; maybe we have some prehistoric tendency to revert to things that were etched in our brains during our formative teenage years. Whatever the cause, for some reason I am pleasantly surprised every time I drive a new Hyundai, and the 2008 Santa Fe was no exception. In fact, I liked the Santa Fe so much I want to kick that teenage, snarky me to the curb right now and recommend this midsize SUV go to the top of the list for two of my friends who are shopping for cars.

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I was wrong. In spite of indications to the contrary, the GMC salesman blogger defending your right to suck-up fuel and clog the roadways with oversized trucks didn’t have a change of heart about hybrids. In his latest anonymous posting on the Commercial Auto Dealers web site, the same person who warned us about the dangers of hybrids (so quiet we’ll all fall asleep behind the wheel) is “irked”  about environmentalists who “who think hybrids are God’s gift to humankind” because of “Al Gore’s half-truths and theories.”  And he’s specifically “annoyed” with those of you who’ve commented about his views on trucks vs. hybrids. Just to make sure you understand where he’s coming from, he states “I’m sticking with my truck and I’m not going to feel guilty about it.” Neither should anyone else “feel guilty about going to your local GMC truck dealer and getting the biggest, baddest truck you can find and driving it for no reason at all.” Gas prices be damned. After all, “when [hybrid owners] need a tow, the guys with the big trucks are the ones they’re going to call first.”

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Michael Karesh’s deconstruction of J.D. Powers’ Initial Quality Survey (IQS) got me thinking. Clearly, J.D.’s mob shelter behind the [accurate] assumption that most people can’t be bothered to, as they say, “do the math.” Just as automakers draw strength (or not) from our natural instinct to slot brands into clear-cut categories, J.D. plays to the peanut gallery’s desire to quickly identify “winners” and “losers.” Add in a bit of Argumentum ad Ignorantiam (a proposition is true because it hasn’t been proved false) and voila! Porsche is America’s most reliable car brand. An Audi is more reliable than a BMW. Never mind the difference between initial quality and five years down the road. Never mind the varying definitions of quality, or the fact that J.D. won’t tell you its exact methodology. Pay no attention to the man behind that curtain because he’s an old bald guy– just like that pathetic pre-tornado snake oil salesman. The ‘08 IQS represents the same sort of lazy thinking Detroit has been feeding itself– and feeding off of– for decades. It’s one thing to fool others, another to fool yourself. Here, Lieberman and I attempt a reality check. 

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File this under “News That Effects Me Personally.” As in, “Those city hall pricks are taking tacos out of my mouth.” Where I live in North Eastern LA, there are– or rather were– six taco trucks with a one mile stretch along the same road. As The New York Time rightly reports, each one offers uniquely delicious fare. Except for that one up on 51st — their tacos suck. But the other five, man… So here’s the dirt straight from the hungry horse’s mouth. Restaurants are complaining (and have been complaining) that the “roach coaches” are stealing customers because their food is so cheap. My new mortal enemy, county supervisor Gloria Molina, is pushing through the ordinance that will require taco trucks to move every hour. Effectively putting them out of business. Why? Henchman Gerry Hertzberg claims the trucks represent a “big quality of life issue.” Whatever that means. Taco truck owner Jose Naranjo puts it best, “We are poor people feeding other poor people.” Yeah, and me! The ordinance goes into effect today. This is a total tragedy as one truck in particular serves-up the best carne asada tacos in all of Los Angeles. And trust me, I’ve looked. Anyhow, I wrote Molina a letter and signed the save our taco trucks petition. Though I fear you can’t fight city hall. Tasteless jerks. 

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Canadian finance minister Jim Flaherty awakes!. After years of ignoring calls from Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty to subsidize Ontarian jobs, brushing off accusations of inaction vis-à-vis the steady outflow of Ontario’s manufacturing jobs to lower-cost areas, Flaherty could hold back no longer. Call it a Shakespearean twist of fate, but of all of the 308 electoral districts in Canada, Flaherty has the misfortune of representing the federal electoral district of Whitby-Oshawa, right where GM Canada lives– the epicentre of Ontario’s ailing manufacturing. Flaherty opened the newsday by announcing a $250m bailout of GM Canada. Except he didn`t call it a bailout. CBC reports the Flaherty will make money– set aside under an “environmental investment fund”– available to GM to help it pursue green technology. The move, another possible knee-jerk reaction to the closure of GM-Oshawa, has caught even Dalton McGuinty by surprise. (Dalton hasn`t decided whether to be pleasantly surprised or to, in typical provincial fashion, say it is not enough. Though the conditions of the deal aren’t finalized,) Flaherty hinted heavily that the money should be used to replace truck production by smaller car production. Well duh.

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But my God, does Roger Cohen take his time getting to the point. Before the New York Times op ed writer argues for your elected representatives to allow cheap[er] Brazilian ethanol into the U.S., Cohen attempts to entertain us with a discussion of national “re-branding.” He begins with the most elliptical lead I’ve ever read. “Perhaps there’s something to treadmill wisdom. We’re all so narrow-band these days, using the vast resources of broadband to direct ourselves into a chosen news and ideological tunnel. Polarized pluralism defines us.” Translation: Cohen was running on a treadmill (geddit?), watching an unknown news channel (broadband) when he fell into a reverie about his Brazilian exile, when the country’s economy was almost as hyper-inflated as his prose. And then he thought, wow! “Energy is the country’s new brand.” I’m thinking Brazil needs something a bit sexier, but the point– yes! the point!– is corn ethanol bad; sugar cane ethanol, good. “Sugar cane is not a staple. It’s eight times more productive than corn. It grows year round. It must be processed fast, so CO2-spewing transport to distant ethanol plants is impossible (unlike for corn).” The environmental impact of shipping Brazilian ethanol, pathetic workers’ wages and the deforestation be damned. See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?

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