The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has taken dead aim at stamping out distracted driving and with good reason. Last year, inattentive drivers caused around 950,000 accidents. But according to a new study by the Society of Automotive Engineers, there’s another issue causing even more accidents across the country: turn signal neglect. According to their research, drivers neglect their turn signals, either by failing to turn when their signal is activated or not activating the signal at all, an astonishing 750 billion times a year. What’s more, neglecting the signals may be responsible for as many as two million accidents per year.
SAE says the solution lies in the implementation of so-called “Smart Turn Signals,” which use sensors to shut off turn signals before they become a safety hazard. What’s more, engineers can integrate a “Turn Signal Assist” feature, which uses a vehicle information display to alert the driver if they fail to use turn signals on a regular basis or don’t shut them off in a timely manner. The report says that since the system uses sensors already integrated into the stability control module, there would be no cost added to the vehicle’s bottom line.
This is our skeptical face. We’re major proponents of proper and consistent turn signal use, but we’re bigger fans of creating smarter drivers through education than we are of building smarter cars. for the full press release.
General Motors and Isuzu were partners for decades before parting ways in 2006. Even now, you can find the final hangover of an alliance that gave us vehicles like the and in the and smallish pickups.
The two companies may start negotiations soon for General Motors to once again take a stake in Isuzu Motors Ltd. with commercial vehicle sales in Asia and Central and South America as the goal, reports the Japanese Nikkei business daily.
GM would go in for ten percent of Isuzu, and this deal would likely spell the end for , as well as smother any capital partnership talks with . Isuzu developed the trucks, and if lashed-up with GM again, a team effort to develop, produce and distribute pickup trucks is being considered. At ten percent, General Motors would pass Mitsubishi Corporation’s 9.2-percent stake in Isuzu to become its largest single shareholder.
North American small pickup fans probably shouldn’t get excited about this, as it appears aimed mostly at markets more suited to smaller trucks. With GM’s new full-size pickups on the horizon, the General likely wants you to forget that there are any other choices for the time being.
If you want a top-of-the-line SUV with serious performance capabilities, look no further than the Group. Its unit has had tremendous success with the , a vehicle that has doubled its sales all on its own – and that’s not even accounting for the or that share some of its underpinnings. Keen to capitalize on that success, the German auto giant is overseeing the application of the same formula to two of its other divisions: , which just unveiled its new Urus concept, and , which is working on an SUV of its own.
The British marque has been showcasing the EXP 9 F concept to preview what it has in store. It only hinted at powertrain possibilities upon its unveiling at the , but at the , it got ever so slightly more specific. Like the range, the production version of the Bentley sport-ute would pack a 600-horsepower, 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12, but offer the (relatively) more sensible 500hp, 4.0L twin-turbo V8 as well. The bigger news, however, is the V6 plug-in hybrid option which Bentley is planning for its SUV, enabling it to travel up to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) on electric-only mode, while rocketing to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than five seconds.
Bentley projects the variety of powertrain options will help it sell 3,000 units of the vehicle once it enters production in 2015 – the same figures sister-company Lamborghini is projecting for the Urus. To put that into context, consider that Bentley sold just over 7,000 vehicles (from its current and lines) around the world last year. That’s still a far cry from the number of Cayennes that Porsche churns out – it delivered nearly 13,000 of them in the United States alone last year – but then the EXP 9 F is expected to carry a price tag north of $200,000 (double the price of even the most expensive Cayenne Turbo) while sharing common components to make its first entrance into SUV market a lucrative one for the Flying B brand.
Scope out the fresh high-resolution images we’ve added to the gallery above for another look at the EXP 9 F (which is still expected to look different by the time it comes to production), and for the press release containing powertrain information.
Rumors that would some day build the in the U.S. have bounced around for years, with often being cited as the most likely candidate. After that plan was , a new version of the same story returned in 2010 when a Toyota executive vice president said . Given the on-again, off-again history of the story, we weren’t surprised when not much was officially said about the matter in the last two years. That changed today.
Koei Saga, senior managing officer in charge of drivetrain R&D at Toyota, has informed Automotive News that Toyota is now thinking of making the Prius in the U.S. by 2015 and wants to get hybrid drivetrain components – motors, inverters, batteries (likely lithium-ion packs) – from North American suppliers. The base fourth-gen Prius will probably still use nickel-metal hydride batteries, but the batteries made in the U.S. might be li-ion.
A 2015 timetable means it is likely that America would make the fourth-gen Prius model, which is due around that time. The reason this story keeps coming back is because it makes sense to build the Prius in the States. and expected to grow, so extra production somewhere will almost certainly be needed to meet demand. Plus, a strong yen means that Prius vehicles built in America would likely come at a lower cost to Toyota.
Toyota currently makes the hybrid in the U.S. at its plant in Georgetown, KY. The question as to whether the U.S. Prius would be made there, at Toyota’s Mississippi plant, at the plant in Fremont, CA (formerly known as NUMMI) – where have also floated around in the past – or somewhere else completely will need to be answered at another time.
A had three goals for his first Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway: to finish, to do it on the lead lap, and to do it . He achieved one of them, crossing the line in 22nd place – two laps down on winner Kurt Busch. His only real incident was getting busted for speeding in the pit lane, which dropped him further down the order.
Pastrana plans on and nine races in NASCAR’s lower-tier K&N Pro Series East. This one at Richmond will have been the hardest Nationwide event because it was the first, but having brought the car home at all will be a boost and should get him cleared by series officials to run the high-speed track at Charlotte on May 26.
This was Pastrana’s overdue intro to NASCAR after he broke his ankle at the X Games last year and had to abort his 2011 schedule. He pledged to stay off the bikes for two years to give stock car racing a real shot and said he wants to be in the top 20 this year, top ten next year, and fighting for wins the year after. As for that target he put on Danica Patrick’s back in Richmond, no doubt he got a good look at it since she finished a spot ahead of him in 21st. He’ll get another shot at the Nationwide race at Darlington on May 11th.
We knew the Morgan 3 Wheeler was coming to America, we just didn’t know when or how. The skinny, according to a report on Inside Line, is that the 3 Wheeler will be sold through three U.S. dealerships beginning later this year. One of those dealers will be Liberty, the Seattle company that got this whole thing started by – Morgan then bought Liberty and used it to develop the production model.
The other two locations haven’t been divulged, but one on each coast is the early betting line. We’ll probably know after Morgan scion Charles has finished running his 3 Wheeler in next month’s Gumball 3000 rally, and by then the company might have settled on an official U.S. price. Even if you do plan to make it yours, though, don’t expect on soon: Morgan only plans to make 500 per year, and that exact number was already pre-sold eight months ago.
It happens every time traffic gets too heavy and starts to slow: One inattentive driver panics and slams on his brakes, triggering a chain reaction that leads to a complete traffic stoppage a few dozen cars behind. If everyone could just slow down, pay attention, and maintain an even speed, we could all get where we’re going. hopes to deploy a new system to help make that a reality.
The Japanese automaker has developed the first-ever vehicle communications system geared to cut both traffic jams and fuel use by monitoring a driver’s acceleration and braking habits and providing information that Honda says will encourage smoother driving.
Honda, along with the University of Tokyo’s Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, has developed on-board terminals that connect to cloud-based computing systems to allow communications between cars on the same road that can help drivers maintain a relatively constant driving distance between vehicles. Tailgating is bad for both traffic and fuel economy, and Honda’s system discourages it.
The system differs from traffic monitoring systems that have been part of other vehicle communication systems in that it provides color-coded displays to indicate whether the driver needs to drive smoother and make acceleration and deceleration more gradual. The system can also work with adaptive cruise control to automatically regulate speed among a group of vehicles. The first public road tests will occur in Italy and Indonesia starting in May of 2012. Honda says the system can boost average speed by 23 percent and increase fuel economy by eight percent. Not bad for some cloud computing.
Any time a parent’s poor judgment results in harm or injury to a child, it’s a sad case. This story, however, seems particularly tragic. According to The Telegraph, a British woman whose daughter was seriously injured in a car crash was found negligent and partially responsible for her daughter’s injuries because the girl was riding in an inappropriate child safety seat.
While the accident was judged to be entirely the fault of the other driver, according to the report, his insurance company insisted that part of the responsibility for the girl’s injuries fell on her mother. Despite having an appropriate car seat with a five-point harness in the vehicle, the three-year-old girl was riding in a booster seat designed for older children. The judge agreed with the insurer and ruled that the mother was 25 percent liable for her child’s head, spinal and internal injuries, which the report said will affect her for the rest of her life. The decision means the woman will receive less financial compensation from the insurance company.
While we’re sure that the woman – who was described by the judge as “an excellent and caring mother,” according to the report – feels no small measure of guilt, her case reinforces the necessity of proper seatbelt and child safety seat use. For more information about keeping kids safe in and around cars, please visit , provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
was in the off-road business before the cult classic LM002, on a military vehicle concept dubbed in the mid-seventies that it hoped to sell to the U.S. armed forces. The 4,500-pound, fiberglass-bodied troop carrier used a 5.9-liter, 180-horsepower engine mounted in back. Hardly Cheetah-like, the vehicle delivered lackluster performance and didn’t handle well.
Even worse, it was a of a by another firm, which landed MTI and Lamborghini in court when the Cheetah was revealed at the 1977 Geneva Motor Show. The U.S. military tested the sole prototype and totaled it.
Perhaps this is the worst part: the Cheetah was such an expensive failure for Lamborghini that it was one of the reasons the company was unable to follow through on its commitment to BMW for the M1 project.
And with that history lesson digested, you’ll get even more wry satisfaction from the narrator’s dialogue in the Cheetah promo video, which you’ll find .
Maybe you want a that does more than merely get noticed. Maybe you want a Beetle that… provokes. If so, you need to give German tuner ABT Sportsline a call.
Tweaks are made to the 2.0-liter turbo that add 40 horsepower. A front spoiler, wheels anywhere from 18 to 20 inches, and oval tailipes boost the aggression. Headlight covers make it look mean, and the “carbon-look deco set” with red trim makes it unforgettable.
The result is the Beetle Limousine 5CO, and if you’re a configurating kind of guy, then ABT will let you . Otherwise there’s a press release if you and a high-res gallery above.
Ah, Catrinel Menghia. knows a good thing when it finds one, and so it’s no surprise to see a trio of new advertisements staring the Romanian-born and Italian-speaking model alongside the .
First up is a minute-long montage showing the Scorpion-addled Abarth flung around the desert while Catrinel… well, stands around looking beautiful. Next, the turbocharged 500 drives down the Las Vegas Strip while Ms. Menghia walks around looking beautiful. Notice a trend?
In the third video of this new series, Catrinel finally gets to drive the Abarth in a race against a lucky cameraman. Well, sort of. The two cars are actually piloted by “professional drivers on a closed course” – as you can see, they are wearing helmets. Catrinel and the cameraman, on the other hand, emerge from their black and white 500s with hair blowing in the wind.
No matter. Clearly these videos are meant to build upon the first extremely successful tie-up between the model and the Italian hatchback. We’ve gone ahead and included that initial commercial, along with the three new ones, . Enjoy!
is on a bit of a naming spree. Back in April, it was revealed that the Italian automaker (and hopeful SUV maker, too…) put its legal stamp on the names and , the first of which, as you’re likely aware by now, is the moniker adopted for the concept version of its future sport utility vehicle.
Deimos, on the other hand, has yet to grace any bullish Italian supercars, at least none shown to the public, so we’re curious to see where that ends up. Muddying waters even further is a report from Car and Driver that Lamborghini has also recently trademarked the name Huracán.
Huracán, in case you hadn’t made the connection yourselves, is the Spanish word for hurricane, but it’s also the name of a Mayan god of fire, wind and storms, according to C&D. That dovetails nicely with Deimos, which was the name of a terrifying mythological Greek god.
What either of these as-yet unused names has to do with Spanish bulls or matadors (if anything), we have no idea. We also can’t say with any certainty what future Lambos, concept or production, will be graced by these names. But we certainly look forward to finding out.
It’s almost DLC time again at – Tuesday, May 1 will bring with it the Top Gear pack, a true goulash of automobilia. At one end you have the 2012 Hennessey Venom GT, a car that automotive historians will look back on and say “Wow.” At the other end you have the 1977 AMC Pacer X, a car that we look back on and say “Wow.” In ‘between’ are the: 2011 SuperSportVan, 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII, , 1966 Lotus Cortina, 1992 Galant VR-4, , 1990 RS and .
The bad news is that the TG pack won’t be part of the Season Pass, so you’ll need 560 MS points, or $7, to make it yours. But if you throw down the fresh amounts you’ll be able to enter the new Community Rivals Mode with the Hennessey Venom GT. Set a leaderboard time with it and you could win one of the 100 unicorn cars Forza will be handing out every week.
to check out the video and have a look at the wares in the gallery of high-res screenshots.
“The past four months have been really tough for us,” admits CEO Dany Bahar to Autocar magazine. “We were working at a pace nobody had seen at Lotus for many years,” Bahar continued, alluding to the British sports car maker’s planned rollout of four models over five years that recently had recently hit the skids thanks to a 60-day financial freeze at Malaysian parent DRB-Hicom. “The shut-down, as I call it,” Bahar continued, “was very hard for us,” but the Lotus boss forcefully rejects media reports that his company is being shopped to potential buyers.
Production at Hethel is reportedly swinging back into action within the next few days now that DRB-Hicom has slid money across the table to re-start , and production. Lotus will also reportedly continue to develop the new and its V8 engine and automated transmission. Bahar went on to dispute reports that KPMG was looking for a buyer to take on Lotus, though there are likely to be management shuffles and continuing developments between Lotus, DRB-Hicom, , and who know what other parties, as the re-start doesn’t completely short-circuit the rumors of a possible sale.
In fact, resuming production could potentially even position Lotus more attractively for a potential suitor, rather than putting a shuttered, down-at-the-mouth boutique carmaker on the block.
Evo founder Harry Metcalfe somehow convinced Pagani to let him take the for a spin, and the result is just another day in the life of an Evo editorial director. The 760-horsepower customer special is, according to Metcalfe, for those who aren’t happy with the ‘regular’ Zonda’s 650 horsepower and really want a Zonda R for the road… plus 20 more horses.
We’d tell you more, but you really should get straight into the video. The details on the 760 RS are fantastic, but the engine note is, how you say, stupefecante. to enjoy.
You wouldn’t think $7.7 million is something to complain about, but then again, you’re probably not in the running to be CEO of General Motors. Despite the fact that GM is no longer the largest company in the world – or, depending on whom you ask, even the largest carmaker – it’s a big job. On most days, we imagine it’s a pretty thankless one too. So when you compare the salary of GM CEO Dan Akerson to that of his cross-town rival at , perhaps $7.7 million does seem like chump change compared to Alan Mullaly’s .
And according to a report in The Detroit News, GM apparently isn’t happy to see its CEO sitting in third place among Big Three CEOs when payday comes. GM’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday said that the company is having an “extremely difficult” time hiring qualified executives because of limits to compensation set by the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury has capped the amount Akerson and other execs can make as part of GM’s 2009 bailout.
Here’s a thought: Maybe GM just needs to do a better job emphasizing all the benefits that come with working for the General, like getting to drive a gratis.
The new Opel minicar has been so long in gestation that it has worn three names (so far). From the Junior and Allegra, we are now being told that it will now be called the Opel Adam, no doubt a nod to company founder Adam Opel.
Still clothed in enough camo to hide a barn, we can’t tell much about how it looks, but with the latest spy shots we do know its sporting chops have been tested at the Nürburgring. That’s a necessity since a longer version of the Adam’s platform will go under the next Opel/Vauxhall Corsa. Beyond that, we aren’t sure what will power it at launch but three-cylinder engines co-developed with are . The electric version, however, .
At 3.70 meters, the Adam extends 15 cm beyond the Volkswagen Up! but is smaller than the Opel Agila. It is expected to go on sale in the Spring of 2013 for a base price of under €10,000 (Roughly $13,000 USD). If it does, that would be a turnabout from last year when former Opel chief Nick Reilly said the “Junior” and cost more than the larger Agila, which currently ($14k), but still wouldn’t to the .
Stay tuned, for those and other mysteries will begin to be solved on May 8, which is when Opel will officially announce the car. So the rumors say. The showcase reveal will come at this year’s .
We’ve had the good fortune of getting up close and personal with quite a few of Icon 4×4’s creations, from their off-road wares like the and to one-off restomod hot rods like their . While few people may be able to afford the company’s offerings, the creativity and thought that goes into each of their vehicles is something everyone can appreciate.
We have a particular affection for Icon and its latest project, the Bronco. We went for a brief drive in the very first example just before it made its debut at last year and fell in love with every detail of the modernized off-roader. Every trim piece on the car has been laser cut or machined from stainless steel. The unique gauge cluster is inspired by Bell & Ross watches. The interior aluminum is the same found on the inside of luxury skyscraper elevator doors. The Icon Bronco is capable of proving its worth both on and off-road too, thanks to an Art Morrison chassis, custom-built Dana 60 and 44 solid axle assemblies, and a 5.0-liter V8 under the hood.
Jonathan Ward, creator of Icon, recently invited a documentary filmmaker inside his facility to take a closer look at the Bronco. The resulting film will give you a better idea of what went into developing the Bronco as well what makes Ward tick as both a designer and a builder. If you’ve like any of Icon’s creations, it’s definitely worth a watch. Just and hit play.
Remember that Ferrari Enzo that is still sitting in a Dubai police impound lot for ““? It was meant to be auctioned this week, but it wasn’t, and the Dubai authorities added some information to the Enzo’s backstory that boils down one word: Interpol.
Unpaid traffic fines are thought to have lead to a British businessman abandoning the seven-figure almost two years ago. After numerous reports of the Enzo being headed to auction – which lead to numerous calls from big spenders trying to buy it outright, Dubai police said the Prancing Horse is on the notice list at the International Criminal Police Organization. Vehicles flagged by Interpol are said to usually be the subject of theft investigations, and according to Emirates 247, the police commander says the Enzo and nine other flashy rides were “seized as they were part of thefts.”
That means that the next time you see pictures of the mummified Ferrari, you’ll know why it’s still there and not up for auction. And seeing how long international criminal cases can take to resolve, you’ll know why it’s probably going to be there for a while.
When the all-new recently, was still awaiting official EPA certification for fuel economy. Now, though, the numbers are in, and the Blue Oval can confidently state that it offers the most fuel-efficient vehicle in the small crossover segment… with an automatic transmission, that is.
The hero engine for the new Escape is Ford’s new 1.6-liter EcoBoost inline-four, offering up 178 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. Combined with a six-speed automatic transmission, this engine is good for 23 miles per gallon in the city and 33 mpg highway, besting the highway numbers of the , , and others. At 33 mpg, this means the new Escape is not only more efficient than the outgoing four-cylinder model, but it bests the numbers of the old , too.
But again, this only pertains to automatic transmission-equipped vehicles (the Escape does not offer a manual transmission with any of its powertrains). The with its 2.0-liter Skyactiv inline-four and six-speed manual ‘box is rated at 35 mpg highway, but opting for the six-speed auto drops that number to 32 mpg.
The other powertrains offered in the Escape are returning some pretty impressive fuel economy numbers, too. The naturally aspirated 2.5-liter base engine is rated at 22/31 mpg, and the range-topping 2.0-liter EcoBoost with 240 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque is good for 22/30 mpg. for the full details in Ford’s press release.
