Car News Articles

More manufacturers are fitting run-flat tyres, as they seek to remove the unnecessary bulk and expense of spare tyres. But do run-flats actually work? Watch our new video as we put them to the test in our latest Does It Work video series.

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Here’s the best evidence yet of the forthcoming Vauxhall Insignia VXR. The disguise around the snout of this prototype covers a GTC concept style nose that will front the red-hot Insignia VXR when we finally see it in 2009.

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The transporter fire that damaged the cars that Team Penske planned to race this weekend at Infineon Raceway has added another challenge for Helio Castroneves, right, in his effort to catch IndyCar Series leader Scott Dixon.
The primary Dallara-Hondas for both Castroneves and teammate Ryan Briscoe were badly damaged in the fire Wednesday on Interstate 80, west of Cheyenne, Wyo. That leaves a pair of backup cars for the two Penske drivers when practice and qualifying get under way Friday on the Sonoma, Calif., road course.
Castroneves, who trails Dixon by 78 points with only three races remaining, took the loss of his best car philosophically.
“If there’s a team that can rebound from something like this, it’s Team Penske,” Castroneves said Thursday. “They’ve done it before, and we’re going to do it again. It’s tough because you have some small bits, seats for example — I loved the seat that I had and I’m going to have to use the spare one. Little details.
“The car was prepared for here. My guys are going to do what they can. We’re going to go out there, put that behind us and, hopefully, that will give us even more motivation to go out there and do well.”
Tim Cindric, president of Penske Performance Inc., said it is hard to estimate the cost of the damage from the fire that apparently started from a wheel bearing failure.
“It really comes down to the amount of work that has to be done,” he said. “The difficult part is the amount of time and effort that goes into the customization of the race cars and the trailer and the pit equipment and that type of thing.
“From a financial perspective it’s never easy and never fun, but you run a similar risk every weekend when you crash a race car.”
Cindric estimated the cost of replacing the transporter, cars, equipment and uniforms lost in the fire at between $1 million and $3 million.

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When your kids get to be booster-seat size and age, you might notice that booster seats, which are available with and without seat backs, don’t buckle or latch into the car’s seats. So, what happens in a car accident when no one is sitting in the booster seats?

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Despite swearing up, down and sideways that Toe Tag sales were a thing of the past, GM started a new “employee pricing for everyone” sale yesterday. It runs through September second. At least. All the new pricing info is locked and loaded on TrueDelta. Every GM model [”91 vehicles found“] is included in the EPFE sale, even the Corvette and Pontiac G8. The “employee discount” is $75 less than it was three years ago– no big deal. But Saab and Saturn now share the regular GM formula; they had their own employee pricing formulas the last time around. This means that Saabs are priced slightly higher than before, while most Saturns drop by a few hundred bucks. (Employee pricing is especially helpful with Saturns, as many dealers normally insist on charging full sticker.) With the other GM brands, you can often negotiate a price not too far above the employee price anyway. GM shaved rebates by $1k and even $1,500 in a few cases. Rebates actually increased by $250 for the last next big thing, the Lambda crossovers. The most heavily discounted vehicle: the Saab 9-7X. The Saablazer carries an $8k rebate on top of the employee price. If low-interest financing is your thing, fuhgeddaboutit. GM removed zero-percent financing from most models; 0.9 is now the lowest you’ll find (except on a Hummer). For many models the “special GMAC rate” is now 6.9 percent. As in “get your financing elsewhere.”

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TTAC commentator Brent asked why fellow members of our Best and Brightest aren’t cutting the new Cruze some slack. “All I ever see are comments (rightly) digging on GM for having no truly competitive small cars, and for having none in the pipeline. Now we learn of one that in fact *is* in the pipeline. Furthermore, it just might be competitive. And what do I see? A bunch of comments digging on GM for even trying.” As a cynical bastard, I think the cynicism has been well and truly earned, through dozens of less-than-stellar (i.e. crap) GM small cars. And, lest we forget, Chevy is a brand that touts itself as “An American Revolution” whilst selling a Korean car. In fact, what equity/credibility remains within the Chevy brand? Like a Rock reliability? Not for cars. (Not yet, anyway.) So, really, it all comes down to one word: Corvette. And if that’s true, what IS a Chevy? No matter how good the Cruze may be (Jonny), it simply can’t traverse GM’s branding issues. Nothing can. [PS: DON’T FORGET THERE’S A PODCAST BELOW]

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Around the Key Largo portion of my escape from Tropical Storm Fay, the belt squeal from the engine bay of our rented Dodge Caravan reached epic proportions. The van limped and shuddered into Homestead AFB for the night. The next day, we discovered that a rear tire was low, most likely due to a pothole impact. The spare was deflated as well. Thrifty roadside assistance routed us into rain-soaked Miami International, to exchange cars. As I unloaded the van (which held my luggage and about 300lbs of stuff to be delivered to Warner-Robbins AFB), I asked the porter queuing the cars if I could move it over to the far left to expedite unloading. “What?!? You want me to make a special concession for you?” I guess not. I tracked down several carts to haul everything. I was berated again for not moving the car further down to make more space (despite the ample opening in the six spaces beside me). As Monica emerged from the rental counter with keys in hand, the porter took off with the car, and the rest of our luggage, to the nether regions of the lot. Much arguing later on who takes priority– the customer exchanging a broken van, or the porter who wants his lane clear– we were off in a beige Caravan. The dirt-covered interior had boogers smeared on the dashboard, and it smelled bad. Like the previous Caravan, it also had been in a noticeable front-end accident. The things you learn from adversity…

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As Reuters notes, 90 percent of the vehicles Ford builds in Canada end-up in the U.S. So, despite the fact that the Ford F-series is still the best-selling vehicle north of the border, Ford Canada is suffering. All of which leads to the suprise (really?) resignation of Barry Engle, Ford of Canada’s president. Though Engle has served for several years for Ford and Chrysler, working in several capacities around the globe, he decided to exit the auto industry just six months after assuming FoMoCo Canada’s top job. Engle’s new job will be in his native Pennsylvania, working for an agricultural equipment company; IMHO he’s using “family time” as a smokescreen. Time for a Lilly Pulitzer: did he fall or was he pushed? And why?

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Those wacky Brits– you never know just what they’ll try next. From Motor Trader comes a report that farmer Steve Burgess has become the first person to cross the Bering Strait in a land vehicle. He floated across the 56-mile stretch from Russia to Alaska in a Land Rover Defender equipped with pontoons, a propeller and motor. His 10,379-mile trek from his home in Yorkshire was sponsored by Cooper Tires. Back in Merry Olde England, earlier this month Top Gear’s James Mays and oenophile Oz Clarke ran a Radical SR4 racing car from 0 ot 60 in 3.5 seconds using “a special distillation of whisky.” Bruichladdich distillery manager Duncan MacGillivray said “The exhaust smells much better than petrol. It’s a sustainable biofuel; but at £26 a litre, the duty and VAT isn’t, so it’s not a viable alternative just yet.” Of course, that just begs the question of whether the police could charge you with DUI if your car had whiskey on its breath.

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This much I can lip-read, as the driver in the Ford Focus is saying it with the window up. He’s not saying it to me, but the man in the BMW in front who’s just cut across him on the M4, behaviour he would have got away with had the traffic not abruptly ground to a halt and left them side-by-side.

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