car auto blaas

A recent workshop in Los Angeles offers something special for interested children: a class on the mechanics of car theft. Created by the non-profit organization Machine Project, the workshop is entitled “The Good Kids’ Guide to Being a Bit Bad: Cars edition.” It covers the topics of hot wiring, opening a locked door and getting out of a locked trunk… and we fully support the class.

Getting kids fascinated about “how things work” is a wonderful project, and when it involves cars, well that’s just a bonus. In this modern world, it’s so easy to overlook how things work on the inside, which makes it extra important for kids to develop a basic understanding of nuts and bolts while they’re young.

The instructors for the class also didn’t simply just talk about how a car door works, they showed the children and then let them try to open a locked door themselves. The same happened when showing the kids how to escape a locked trunk. The only lesson that wasn’t hands on was the hot-wiring of a car because of the risk of being shocked, which the instructor also demonstrated by shocking himself a few times.

The kids learned about some basic mechanical functions, got a dose of humor and hopefully the class created a desire in them to learn more about how the things around them function.

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is such a good car, it seems that Malaysian automaker Proton decided it ought to offer a version of its own. Sort of. While the company’s Jebat Concept, which was just shown off at the Kuala Lumpur Motor Show, is styled to look like the Evolution, it’s actually powered by the 237-horsepower, 2.0-liter turbocharged mill used in the slightly less potent Ralliart model.

Nobody seems to know at the moment if the Jebat Concept has any shot at production, but its existence isn’t all that surprising considering that Proton just recently launched the Inspira, itself an almost exact copy of the standard Mitsubishi Lancer. In any case, it’s clearly differentiated from its siblings by virtue of its matte black front and rear fascias and side sills, along with a Proton-specific grille. See for yourself in the image gallery below.

Auto insurance is a state-administered and every individual who drive needs to declare financial accountability before they can register their cars. Though the community might administer the bottom limits of accountability drivers need to insure, they repeat on telling drivers what to do about the actual expenses provable. There are particular issues to consider when selecting a car insurance policy.

If you did not spend cash in obtaining your automobile because it is through loan or leasing contract, better study your financing arrangement along with your financial agreement. There are also financing firms that limit the maximum inferable you can obtain from your car policy to retain in settlement with your auto financing. Also you need to determine your available capital. An inferable isn’t a one-time expense, if you are disastrous to have several car accidents, you will have to spend with your own money for the quantity of every single claim. Always select a provable that you can manage to pay for each separate claim.

Another is to recognize the make and year model of your vehicle. Car insurance deductible requirements for contemporary luxurious cars differ from the automobile deductible necessities for cars over 10 years. Make some research on the average expenses of repair for your car before analyzing what type of insurance to take. It is also essential to recognize the missing funds expenditures opposed to the superior insurance savings. The larger the inferable, much money will be able to save on premium and oppositely. Have the insurance personnel to give some financial figures. Analyze the distinctness between the loss of capital costs and the potential premium savings and obtain with something that can exactly fit your money.

During a roundtable meeting in Detroit, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne confirmed that Jeep will be getting a new model in the near future, one that he’s classifying as a “multipurpose” vehicle fitted with “a truck bed.”

Although Marchionne stopped short of calling the Jeep a pickup, he did reference the 2005 Gladiator concept (above) and said “there’s better than a 50% chance that you’ll get one.”

Just as intriguing, the perpetually sweatered-CEO told the assembled media that the cargo-hauling Jeep will come to market whether the Ram brand likes it or not, saying, “They’re totally peeved off at the fact that we’re going to have anything that looks like a pickup truck with a Jeep badge on it. I actually think there’s space for it.” So do we Mr. Marchionne. So do we…

Highland Park, Illinois is home to a very special house. Architecture buffs will recognize 370 Beech Street as a steel and glass building designed by notable architects A. James Speyer and David Haid. To auto enthusiasts, however, 370 Beech is where one unforgettable movie Ferrari met its tragic demise at the hands of Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It’s also for sale. Still.

We first told you about this house last year, when it was listed with an asking price of $2.3 million. Guess what? It never sold and the price has come way down. Today, the so-called “Ferris Bueller house” could be yours for just $1.65 million. If we had the means, we’d love to park Zach Bowman’s International Pickup in view of nature and nosy neighbors… so he could kick it through the glass when he finally loses his mind.

What say you, Autoblog reader – Is the house is worth the dough or is it just “something d-o-o economics?”

There’s so much going on at SEMA it’s all-too easy to miss a few things. And while there are a ton of Mustangs, one would think that this Shelby prototype would have caught our attention – particularly since we were aware of its existence. Back in September we reported that on some potential future Shelby models, one of which was a 1,000 rwhp twin-turbo GT500.

Nicknamed “Code Red,” this particular GT500 was created in collaboration between Shelby American and Nelson Racing Engines – the same firm responsible for the 1,800 horsepower Mosler MT900S. The heavily modified 5.4-liter V8 features twin 61mm Turbonetics turbochargers along with a dual fuel system that includes cells for both race and street gas as well as an electronic boost controller that can vary boost for each gear.

If Shelby offers a production of the “Code Red” GT500, expect plenty of other goodies to be included like Baer 14-inch brakes, Shelby/Eibach adjustable suspension system, 9-inch Currie rear end, 10-point roll cage, and plenty more? Price tag? Shelby estimates that the package (car not included) would cost around $100,000.

The signs have come down and retail production ended back in October of 2010. Now, the very last Mercurymodel has rolled off the assembly line. This last Mercury somewhat fittingly takes the form of a Grand Marquis reporting for fleet duty. It was built at the St. Thomas plant in Ontario, Canada, which is the same facility that continues to produce the Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car for fleet and livery duty.

St. Thomas’ days are numbered, however, as the factory is slated to close on August 31. When it goes, thePanther platform is likely to follow. So long, and thanks for all the fish memories.

Is the real swagger wagon of 2010 built by Chrysler? If you go by total sales, it is. The Chrysler Town & Country has been a player in the minivan market since its arrival in 1990. Now in its fifth generation, the Town & Country has just been refreshed after a comprehensive redesign in 2008. It’s not alone in getting an upgrade, however, as some serious competition arrived from Japan in 2010.

All-new minivan models for 2011 include the Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna and Nissan Quest, with each of them stuffing a ton of features into modern packages. The Odyssey, which has been the segment’s best-seller for the last two years, has had a strong year. Yet despite serious pressure in a surprisingly strong minivan market (2010 will see the segment’s first volume uptick since 2005), the Town & Country has climbed the sales board and is poised to take out Japan’s finest.

According to The Detroit News, the T&C is sitting on 102,495 sales through November, while its closest competitor, the Honda Odyssey, has sold 98,035 units. Trailing further behind those two is the Sienna with 89,509 sales so far this year. There is one month left but Chrysler’s, familymobile seems to be sitting pretty.

As more and more Car and Truck of the Year awards pour in from a variety of major publications, it’s no shock that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt continues to take home top honors as the best car of 2011. Both Motor Trend and Automobile have deemed the Volt their Car of the Year, and General Motors’ high-profile EV is even a finalist for the prestigious North American Car of the Year award. (Our readers, however, would apparently rather see that honor go to the 2011 Hyundai Sonata). Thus, it’s no surprise that the Volt was just named Car of the Year by The Detroit Free Press.

Similarly, the 2011 Ford Explorer is in the running for North American Truck of the Year, and the Detroit Free Press is honoring it as the best ‘truck’ of 2011. Freep auto critic Mark Phelan states that in the road ahead, automakers must choose the “right shade of green” for each type of vehicle. Phelan explains:

The average gas price in the U.S. is over $3 right now, and there’s a good chance it’ll go higher before too long. What do you do in this situation if you’re a car dealer with a lot full of SUVs and big crossovers? You start being cautious.

That’s the takeaway point from an Automotive News article, with the key quote coming from a New York Ford dealer, who told the industry publication:

For the moment, gas prices aren’t high enough to make people panic and try to offload their gas hogs the way we saw in 2008, but Kelley Blue Book analyst Alec Gutierrez told Automotive News that SUV sales could drop “dramatically” once gas reaches $3.50 or $4 a gallon, saying, “The days where a dealer could just go to auction and stock up on a bunch of SUVs and hold them for 40 or 60 days are over.”

Try to imagine the most basic car on the road, and you’ll likely conjure up images of the Tata Nano. The Citroën 2CV of our time, the Nano was conceived as bare-bones, bargain-basement transport for the masses. But while it makes the rest of us wonder how much our own cars are really worth, sales of the diminutive budget car have been lagging in the wake of safety concerns after cars were reported to be spontaneously combusting due to bad wiring and such.

To drum up enthusiasm for the Nano, Tata has brought in one of its subsidiaries, Titan Industries, to give the car a more luxe appearance in the form of gold and jewels. Celebrating the 5,000th anniversary of Indian jewelry, Tata and Titan launched a public campaign to solicit designs for a bedazzled Nano. Thirteen designs came in, with the winner you see here chosen just a few days ago. The conspicuous one-off will be crafted out of pure gold by Titan at its facility in Bagalore. Have a closer look at the winning design, along with a couple of the runners-up, in the gallery below.

There’s a grand tradition to enormously powerful and torquey diesel sport-utes. Most of them come from the Volkswagen group – like the Touareg V10 or the Audi Q7 V12 TDI – but this, as you might have guessed, is no VW. It’s a Range Rover, uut one that’s been thoroughly worked over.

The modifications have been carried out through the joint efforts of Project Kahn and Cosworth – two British tuners that have been working together for the past couple of years. Their latest product started life as the thoroughly capable and luxurious Range Rover Sport with the 4.4-liter V8 diesel. With 313 horsepower, the diesel Rover is hardly a slouch, but Cosworth has taken it a step further (and then some) by squeezing out a whopping 500 horsepower.

To go with the massive upgrade in output, Kahn has given the Range Rover an extensive cosmetic update both inside and out, with new bumpers from and rear, side skirts, 22-inch wheels and an interior decked out in billet aluminum and perforated & quilted leather trim. Check it out in the high-res image gallery below

Please join us in a collective sigh of exasperation. According to Automotive News, the much-rumored Jeep pickup that had us all salivating earlier this year may be little more than hyped-up vaporware. It would seem that while Chrysler’s off-roading arm is game to create a small pickup once again, the vehicle isn’t as writ in stone as we were all led to believe. From what we can tell, Jeep is facing some grief from the Ram squad for wanting to play in their sandbox. Additionally, all of Chrysler is staring at a pretty hefty dearth of engineers, so adding another ground-up build to the company’s already sizable honey-do list isn’t exactly on the table.

And what of the military-spec Jeep truck currently on sale elsewhere around the globe? Automotive News says that Chrysler thinks it wouldn’t be worth the effort (or money) to try to dilute that vehicle down far enough for civilian duty. Maestro, cue up the sad trombone, if you’d be so kind.

That means that we can probably scrap the notion of seeing Jeep pickup by next year as we were initially led to believe. If the vehicle does manage to get past all of the hurdles before it, the pickup likely won’t see the light of day for a good long while.

Winner of the World Auto Design Contest 2009, the Italian competition Domus Academy which awards the most innovative in the automotive scene, the Audi Shark promises to be one of the most exciting cars of the future. The designer Karim Doku inspired by motorcycles and airplanes to create a 3D model of a futuristic car that has no wheels and is capable of flying.
Reinterpretation of the language, Audi born a vehicle that lives up to its name. Their sharp edges, its structure, the matte finish and very gray make it resemble a shark, and Audi Shark aspires to be so on the road.
In subsequent appendages that look like a tail and looks that complement the environment while ensuring speed and stability, has other interesting features. Recalling his inspirations, the door not only differs from a plane that wraps itself around the cockpit an d the two places where this unusual sports car put passengers in a very comfortable position.
It features underwater allied himself with a modern aesthetic where either the headlights or the rear, are composed of LED units mounted on plastic tubes. The end result is plain: a conceptual vehicle similar to a flying submarine.
In the vision of its creator would be a means of transporting high -power and advanced technology, able to overcome the limitations of ordinary cars, offering passengers "strong feelings and high security." This is a great example of futurism is not far from reality, which may one day reduce the risk of road accidents while providing a unique feeling of flying.Winner of the World Auto Design Contest 2009 the Italian competition Domus Academy which awards the most innovative in the automotive scene, the Audi Shark promises to be one of the most exciting cars of the future. Winner of the World Auto Design Contest 2009, the Italian competition Domus Academy which awards the most innovative in the automotive scene, the Audi Shark promises to be one of the most exciting cars of the future. The designer Karim Doku inspired by motorcycles and airplanes to create a 3D model of a futuristic car that has no wheels and is capable of flying.

It’s not that the Nissan Sentra is a ‘bad car,’ so to speak, but it’s about as exciting to anyone with even a modicum of automotive enthusiasm as a haircut. Sadly, that milquetoast feeling even extends to the more powerful SE-R and 200-horsepower SE-R Spec V. Said another way, the current Sentra is a long time gone from the SR20DE-engined B13 Sentra SE-R of the early ’90s.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel: Nissan knows that its current Sentra is too boring. Al Castignetti, Nissan Division Vice President of Sales recently admitted to AutoWeek that “We miss the heart of the market right now. A lot of people reject the Sentra because of its looks… it is not a natural progression to move down to it from the Altima.”

While you could certainly argue that the Sentra needs more than just a restyling – like, perhaps having more content and sporting potential to properly differentiate itself from the almost-as-large and significantly cheaperVersa – looking more like the handsome Altima sounds like a solid step in the right direction.

Land Rover’s critical new Range Rover Evoque debuted today at the Paris Motor Show, ushering in a brave new world for the British off-roader brand. The debut continues the company’s march toward the softroader segment, a movement first started with the LR2/Freelander and now resulting in the handsome new three-door seen here.

Slated to be joined shortly by a five-door version, the compact Evoque fits right into the Land Rover mold design-wise, albeit with a surprising amount of surface jewelry for such a sleek two-box shape. From the protruding fog lamps to the horizontal matte chrome-trimmed hood intakes to the unique divots atop the wheel lip moldings and the somewhat fiddly taillamp lenses, there’s quite a bit to draw one’s eye. The overall impression one gets of the vehicle on the show floor is one of imposing width, a feeling that’s magnified when you realize that an individual of average height can see over the vehicle when standing next to it.

Despite the fact that Land Rover has gone out of its way to promote its new Evoque as an environmentally friendly alternative to its normal brand of behemoth globetrotting earth movers, Auto Express reports that the front-wheel drive (optional all-wheel drive, naturally) unibody Rover won’t be getting a hybrid powertrain option.

Instead, Land Rover’s global product director John Edwards suggests that any future electrically assisted powertrains will likely be featured in the larger Discovery (LR4 in the States) and Range Rovers. Edwards points out that the Evoque was designed as a lightweight machine, and a small four-cylinder diesel engine can provide the kind of fuel mileage targeted for the model.

While it’s certainly true that hybrid componentry adds complexity and weight, American and Japanese automakers have proven that it’s certainly possible to put the fuel-saving bits and pieces in smaller-sized vehicles. What’s more, diesel vehicles aren’t exactly commonplace on American roads or dealerships, leaving us to wonder if the U.S. market will be left out of the high-mpg loop yet again.