Automotive News (Page 1218)

A hearing is planned today in Santa Cruz, California to make rental cars safer.

Necessity is the mother of invention goes the old saying and the current emphasis on greening the planet and extending the mileage squeezed out of every gallon of petrol seems to be having just that consequence. The Chevrolet Cruze keeps finding ways to extract more and more from every gallon with technology like deceleration fuel cutoff (DFCO), that completely suspends fuel delivery when you brake, restoring the flow when you accelerate again.

A new Smartphone app is designed to protect your rights when dealing with police by recording your rate of speed every five seconds and storing the data in a spreadsheet compatible with Microsoft Excel. The My Max Speed app protects you from flawed police equipment or alleged infractions aimed at secondary violations like the failure to use a seatbelt.

For the third consecutive year the ubiquitous Toyota Camry has taken the title of Most American Car despite new competition entering the race. The Toyota sedan is built in Georgetown, KY and Lafayette, IN and has fended off challenges for the honor by newcomers including the Ford Explorer, the Chevrolet Traverse and the GMC Acadia. It is closely followed by the Honda Accord and the Chevy Malibu, which take second and third respectively.

Jaguar will take center stage this weekend at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed in Britain.

NADAguides in its 2011 Second Quarter Car Buyer's Market Report selected six models from Toyota, Acura, Dodge, GMC and Hyundai as Top Recommended Current Buys. The vehicles that offer great values and good deals from the showroom floor are the Toyota Tacoma Double Cab V6 Manual, Toyota Venza I4 AWD, Acura TL, Dodge Challenger R/T, GMC Terrain SLE-2 and Hyundai Azera Limited.

Italian magazine Motociclismo has somehow gotten a hold of leaked studio photographs of the Ducati 1199, several months ahead of what was supposed to be a November revealing at the EICMA Milan motorcycle show.

The U.S. White House proposal on Monday to update the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to 56.2 mpg may be ambitious, but not out of the range of feasibility. Nor does have to cost an arm and a leg as some in the auto industry are crying.

The Chevrolet Camaro holds the leading role among cars that can talk in the modern Transformers series and with Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon set to hit theaters on June 28th, Chevrolet has announced the newest special edition Transformers-themed Camaro for the 2012 model year.

Another day, another piece of information in the saga that has become the Saab brand as it appears that Swedish real estate firm Hemfosa is reportedly ready to buy the automakers Trollhattan plant with the intention of leasing it back to Saab.

The folks at Audi recently built a pair of gorgeous R8 Spyders earmarked for donation to the Elton John Aids Foundation and when the final gavel had sounded, these mirrored convertibles raised just shy of one million dollars for charity.

University of Connecticut basketball player Maya Moore (pictured) won the Honda-Broderick Cup today, making her America's best female college athlete of 2011. She is the first to win the high honor two years in a row. Moore, who now plays for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA, beat out other finalists Blair Brown, a Penn State volleyball player, and Sheila Reid, a cross country and track and field standout from Villanova.

Ho hum. Another trophy for the mantle. Lexus is the No. 1 car company again in the 2011 J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality Study. It is the fourth year in a row that the luxury marque has emerged as the best-quality car there is in the world.

Contrary to popular belief, President Obama wasn’t the only diplomat to announce a theatrical release of oil from strategic reserves. Fact is, the International Energy Agency (IEA) decided last Thursday night to release 60 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserves of several member nations, and America was one of those nations. [UPDATE June 27, 2011: IEA now states per Reuters it will release 41.9 million barrels of crude and 19 million barrels of refined products, changing the mix ]

With skateboarding guru Tony Hawk standing on the auction block displaying a nervous smile, the “hawkized” custom 2011 Ford Mustang he commissioned for charity sold for $65,000 Saturday evening at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Costa Mesa, California.

Meet the next creative force in the auto world. Porsche Cars intern Anna Frey designed the livery that appeared on a 911 GT3 Cup race car that was driven Saturday in the 200-cars-from-25-countries Porsche Carrera World Cup Race at the Nürburgring track in Germany.

President Obama is being criticized by a Fairfax, Va., group for releasing reserves of domestic oil into the U.S. marketplace to make gasoline more affordable for American drivers.

June 30, 2011 may be another date which will live in infamy for the auto industry as the Federal Reserve will end all buying and propping of mortgage back securities and bonds.

After thousands of miles logged by Google’s fleet of automated Toyota Priuses and an Audit TT, Nevada’s legislature passed a bill that could lead to driverless cars on the Silver State’s roadways.

This BMW fighter is pulling its punches as a purist sports sedan, but as a blend of sport and luxury the 2011Lexus IS 350 AWD is a knockout, which might disappoint the hard-core enthusiast but will amaze everybody else.

It’s been a great month for the Chevrolet Corvette, with the mighty ZR1 setting a new American production car record at Germany’s Nürburgring early this month and now the 2012 Corvette Z06 has set a new personal best of 7:22.68 around the world’s most well-known road course.

This weeklong celebration coincides with the Jeep Brand’s July 15 anniversary observance, the date the U.S. Army signed a contract with Willys-Overland to become the lead producer of the military reconnaissance vehicle. Free admission, a program for Jeep enthusiasts and a specially-themed cruise night are all highlights of 70 Years of Jeep Week at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum, sponsored by the Dana Holding Corporation , July 12 – 17.

According to the folks at Bugatti, the final Veyron EB 16.4 has been sold to a customer in Europe and while the Grand Sport model remains available, all 300 of the Veyron EB 16.4 hardtops have been sold.

When His Serene Highness Prince Albert II weds his fiancé, Ms. Charlene Wittstock, at the Palace on the Rocher July 2, they will then tour the principality in a custom hybrid Lexus with a space-age, see-through polycarbonate roof. The full hybrid vehicle will be able to drive nearly every inch of he tour in full electric mode, underscoring the Lexus commitment to environmental stewardship.

Poor Saab, they just can't catch a break. Yesterday they began to get pushed towards bankruptcy, not from outside pressures, but from within. Two Saab worker's unions said that they will start a legal process that would surely induce the Swedish automaker to file for bankruptcy.

UAW Local 5960 voted Wednesday in favor of a strike by workers employed by LINC Logistics, a company that provides third-party labor for General Motors at their Orion Production Facility in Michigan.

The Fiat 500 tops the list of ten cars that kbb.com has chosen as the Coolest Cars for under $18,000.

Chrysler has announced that when the 2012 Ram HD trucks hit the market later this year, they will feature a new optional 6-speed automatic transmission for models with the Cummins Turbo Diesel for those who don’t care for the standard 6-speed manual transmission.

There are some great half-hour reality shows on cable that show us what it's like to lose our cars. And it ain't pretty. Two that are must-watch TV are "Operation Repo" and "Lizard Lick Towing" on truTV.

Part of the U.S. auto industry’s rebound from the global recession is based on the greater use of aluminum in American built vehicles and as federally-mandated fuel efficiency requirements kick in the amount of the light weight metal used can only increase. Automotive manufacturing rose by 38 percent during 2010 and continues to grow at a rate of 11 percent over last year during 2011.