Models | Culture

IIHS to Launch Roof-Strength Ratings

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cars

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 1:40 p.m.

Over the past few years, there has been great debate between automakers and the government about beefing up roof-strength standards on cars and SUVs. Now, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has announced it will add a new rating to ...

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Infiniti To Reveal Concept Car, Louis Vuitton Luggage At Geneva [Geneva Motor Show]

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cars

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 12:30 p.m.

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Hard to imagine a stranger marketing fit than French luxury bag maker Louis Vuitton and Infiniti, Nissan's re-badged luxury brand, but they're partnering on a new concept debuting at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show ... Infiniti has managed to keep the concept car they're debuting at Geneva pretty hush-hush, but given the recent precedents across the industry, we can expect to be beaten over the head with a series of nonsensical teasers any time now. We do know one thing — it will be packing some

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Hughes Previews Future Of In-Car Tech, We Want It Now [Gadgets]

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cars

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 12:00 p.m.

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Imagine a car that personalizes its navigation, information and connectivity to your needs. Sounds great, right? Well, it exists right now, but it's going to be awhile before you can buy a car with it ... The ability, functionality and look of OEM in-car technology is unfortunately limited by conservative, litigation-averse manufacturers who make equipment decisions based on price, their own extremely limited understanding of what customers want and their keen ability to avoid anything that

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New Study Confirms Car Exhaust Increases Lightning Strikes [Lightning And Cars]

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cars

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 10:30 a.m.

A new study reveals car exhaust clouds attract lightning and actually increase the frequency of strikes. Metallica approves ... Thorough lightning mapping has shown that long stretches of rural road have an unusually high concentration of lightning strikes. An undisclosed 50km stretch of desert highway has so many daily lightning strikes that Metallica actually chose to have their latest music video shot there ... NewScientist states, "During the working week, air pollution rises because of all

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Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo race car undergoes first tests at Adria

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cars, lamborghini

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 10:24 a.m.

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Late last November, Lamborghini announced a new racing series called the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo, is set to commence in May 2009, and described as the world’s fastest one-make series. Today the company revealed it has taken the cars to the race track at Adria for testing, and the results were promising.Over 167mi (270km) of testing laps were logged, proving the car is well enough sorted to complete more than full race distance as it sits. Already the engineers and drivers are

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1980 Honda Civic [Down On The Street]

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cars, civic

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.

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Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. A few first- and second-gen Civics still roam the island nowadays ... This '80 has the usual NorCal slo-mo body rust around the glass, but the rot won't be life-threatening for another few decades. Thing is, these cars really aren't worth much, so a burned valve or busted transmission might be a ticket straight to The Crusher for this survivor. Let's hope

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Alpina releases more details for B6 GT3 ahead of Geneva Motor Show

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6-series, bmw, cars, gt3

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 7:53 a.m.

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BMW-tuners extraordinaire Alpina has decided to return to motorsports after a 20 year absence. The comeback will be staged in the 2009 FIA GT3 European Championship - but the best part - the company will be selling exact copies of their race cars to individuals, collectors and other teams.Alpina's racing history is a long and lauded one, despite the 20-year lay off. Drivers like Hans Stuck, Jacky Ickx and Niki Lauda all drove for Alpina at one point, each winning a European Touring Car

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Renault unveils facelifted Clio

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cars

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 7:22 a.m.

The Clio line of cars are very popular in Europe due to the flexibility of their small size, wide range of body styles and relatively long features list. To help bolster the range and boost sales further, Renault has today revealed a facelifted version of the basic three-door hatchback. The new car will enter the market as a 2010 model and make its debut at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. Taking styling cues from the recently revealed Megane, the facelifted Clio features an updated front-end,

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Toyota Yaris, smart fortwo part of 40 MPG Club

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cars, toyota

Published Feb. 5, 2009 at 5:02 a.m.

Ever since we all experienced gas prices topping at $4 a gallon during the summer of 2008, people have been calling for the domestic automakers to do better in making cars that are more fuel efficient. We’ve seen Congress ...

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