Cars Tips: July 2013

Monday, July 8, 2013

Politically Correct and Incorrect Way of Exiting a Freeway

Are you ready for some informative videos on how to exit a freeway? If you're still reading this, we guess you are so here goes. The way we see it, there are two main schools of thought – one politically correct, and another that is politically incorrect (and possibly…illegal). Read more »

New 2014 Suzuki SX4 Compact Crossover in a Fresh Gallery with 53 Photos

Seen in its final production outfit at this year's Geneva Motor Show in March, the new generation of the Suzuki SX4 has a couple of months before it begins arriving in showrooms across Europe in late September, so the Japanese company is freshening up our memory with a new collection of photos and the release of output and fuel economy figures. Read more »

Watch a London Cyclist Intentionally Cut Off a Lamborghini Aventador

To say some Londoners hate supercar drivers who enjoy revving their V12 engines and sprinting on the city’s streets is an understatement. If you watched the documentary we covered earlier this year, you know how some London residents feel about the so-called "supercar invasion". Read more »

Purple 1914 Rolls Royce Ghost First Owned By Tsar Nicholas II Going for €5.5 / $7 Million

The gruesome assassination of Tsar Nicholas II, who was shot in the cellar of an old house, along with his family, doctor and cook, was preceded the year before by the delivery of a new luxurious car, which had been commissioned from the UK – a classic 1914-built Rolls Royce Ghost. Now that car is reportedly up for sale in Germany.

The sale ad does not specify how long he had it for, or if he ever had the chance to to drive it, considering the fact that 1917 was a pretty busy year, as the Tsar was forced to abdicate by the Bolsheviks.

You may remember the Water Car Panther, the Jeep-esque amphibious vehicle which was not built by a large company capable of developing its own motor. Their solution? They used a Honda V6 engine, normally used as the basis for an outboard motor, because the Japanese manufacturer has been making those for long and has had hardly any complaints from what we know. Read more »

Garmin Makes Head-Up Display Navigation Available to the Masses with $130 Device

Head-up display technology is no longer a luxury for expensive cars like the Corvettes or high-end BMWs. That’s because today, satellite navigation expert Garmin revealed a new product called HUD, which is a portable head-up display for smartphone navigation apps. Read more »

Caterham Wants to Build Renault-Based SUV and Hatch!

Yes, you read the title right; Caterham has just announced that aside from the planned sports car they are making with Renault (due in 2016), they have two more models in view for the near future. One is an SUV/crossover, which company CEO Tony Fernandes says “will be huge,” if they get it right, while the other is a subcompact/supermini. Read more »

Suzuki Swift Gains 4x4 Version with a Crossover Flair

The current Suzuki Swift's lineup has become a little more interesting after the addition of a new 4x4 model for the UK market. Already available in Japan as well as several European Countries including Germany and Switzerland, the new Swift 4x4 goes on sale in Britain this month with a 1.2-litre petrol engine and five doors in either SZ3 or SZ4 grades. Read more »

This Is What It's Like to Live with a Lancia Stratos Every Day

Owning a Lancia Stratos Stradale has to be quite an experience. It was only built because Lancia had to make street versions of its Stratos rally car to homologate it for the World Rally Championship (WRC).

With that in mind, it should surprise no one that, in terms of quality and build, the road-going Stratos fares poor even when compared to a kit car. That’s because it was only an appendix to the rally Stratos, a car built with only one purpose in mind: to win WRC titles. And indeed it did - in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

While there are many questions surrounding the teaser photo of a new Rapid model that was released by Skoda earlier today, there's nothing of the sort with these spy shots, even though the Czechs and their German counterparts at the VW Group did try to fool us much in the same way they've done in the past with other vehicles Read more »

Jaguar to Show Unique Version of the F-Type at Goodwood

Britain's Jaguar will use the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed to premiere an “unique version of Jaguar F-Type convertible sports car”. While some may be tempted to think Jaguar will finally display the F-Type Coupe at the Goodwood hill-climb event, the language used by the UK carmaker is rather ambiguous.

Jaguar say the car is “an exciting new design study based on the Jaguar F-Type convertible sports car”, which should eliminate the production version of the F-Type Coupe.

We're not aware of all the details surrounding this video captured on the dash-cams of two police cars, but there's no doubt that these cops weren't fooling around with the driver and occupants of a speeding silver sedan in the Russian city of Novokuznetsk. Read more »

Which New Rapid Model is Skoda Teasing in This Picture?

Not to blast you with questions and mystery models today, but Skoda issued a cropped, teaser image of an upcoming, new edition of its fairly new Rapid compact car, which was originally launched in liftback (saloon) form last year.

The successful VW Group-owned carmaker from the Czech Republic posted the above photo showing the rear end of said Rapid on its Facebook page along with the following caption: "Wait a minute, could this be something completely new?"

Here's another mystery scoop for you readers. This one comes to us courtesy of Reddit user Kenitzka who apparently found the test car parked outside of what looks to be a fast food place – our investigative efforts say it's a McDonalds lot. Read more »

Porsche Gets All Excited About the New Panamera S E-Hybrid

Only a very limited number of alternatively powered cars even come remotely close conjuring up an emotional response from their driver, as they are usually compromised in some annoying way that spoils the entire experience. Read more »

What Would You Call a Cross Between a Honda City and a Chevrolet Camaro?

Adding to the many bizarre replicas found in the jungle that is the online web is this picture of a car, the front end of which apes that of the fifth generation Camaro with a big "H" badge for Honda, instead of a golden Chevrolet-bow-tie emblem. Read more »

VW Wants €26,900 or About $34,500 for the All-Electric e-up! in Germany

If you thought the Volkswagen e-up! would be one of the cheaper EVs in the market, mainly because of its small size, and the affordability of the model which it’s based on, you were wrong.

Reality doesn’t come close to complimenting the previous statement, as VW has just revealed that the all-electric version of their über-compact city car will not be cheap at all, once it goes on sale in the months after its official reveal at the Frankfurt motor show, in September.

With this year's edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS) in England just around the corner (July 11-14), automakers are getting ready to share their four-wheel goods, some of which are new, some of which are old.

Looking to add a playful note in its presentation, Toyota released a picture of a covered car on its Facebook page with the following message:

Jeez; where's a dashboard camera when you really need it? Well, for now, the only piece of evidence we have about this extremely costly accident between an Aston Martin (reportedly a DB9, but we wouldn't be surprised if it's another model) and a Bugatti Veyron is the single photo seen here. Read more »

Cop Smells Marijuana, But Driver Comes In Peace and Doesn't Want to Come Out

We've seen a number of police officers and state troopers perform some questionable or even downright illegal drug checks on drivers and car passengers, but it's not always like that. Take this incident for instance, which was filmed on a mobile device when a cop approached a car with a young man, his wife or girlfriend and their toddler, parked at an Autozone lot in Illinois.

The police officer said he smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the the car and asked the driver to come out so he can check the vehicle. The man objected and said the cop was violating his rights. The situation quickly escalates with the officer placing his hand inside the passenger window to open the car in a mild manner, causing the man to freak out and scream "help, help, help, I do not consent, help, help, help I do not consent".

The Skoda Rapid is not a car you buy with your heart, but it definitely appeals to the head. It doesn’t hurt the eye, having good proportions and clear lines, and a typical VW Group interior that places function over form. Now, the Czech automaker has updated the car for the new, 2014 model year, and the main addition is that instant kudos-builder - Xenon headlamps. Read more »

2014 BMW X5 Feels at Home on Every Road in New Promo Video

Just as it did earlier last week with the 4-Series Coupe, BMW uploaded an artistically shot promo of its all-new 2014 X5, showing the third-generation of its so-called "Sports Activity Vehicle" (SAV) in various environments. Read more »

NCE Dreams of Chopping Off the Roof from a Nissan GT-R

In their quest to create a convertible of every single hardtop model out in the market, Newport Convertible Engineering (NCE) spends a lot of time on Photoshop fashioning a number of designs to see if anyone would be interested in following this route.

After the Acura TL, Aston Martin Rapide and Hyundai Equus cabriolets, NEC has released a single (computer generated) image of a Nissan GT-R in convertible.

Opel and sister company Vauxhall have slowly moved away from the conservative image they used to have in the days of the last-gen Vectra, a car which pretty much summed up their range some 10 years ago, as it was not particularly good to look at, drive or own, being engineered to be just competent enough to sell and not break down. Besides, it also built on a renowned Opel quality: cheap spare parts and simple cars that are relatively easy to work on and mend. Read more »

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Bernie Ecclestone Might Buy Financially Troubled Nürburgring Circuit

The Nürburgring racetrack, located in the Eifel hills in western Germany, has been reporting serious financial problems in the last year, culminating with their filing for bankruptcy in July of 2012. Now, exactly one year later, it remains without an owner, but that may soon change, if F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone decides that he wants to spend the $170 million (€130 million) required in order to buy it, says Die Welt. Read more »

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Holy Scary Car Crash: Daewoo Comes Flying Into Windshield

Can you imagine taking a relaxed drive on a city road with your family, minding your own business, and all of a sudden, seeing a car flying in from the other way - must be terrifying, right?

It certainly is and it happened to YouTube author Sky Kang from Taiwan last Sunday when a 71-year old driver fell asleep on the wheel of his Formosa Matiz (sold in other parts of the world under many different nameplates including Daewoo, Pontiac, Chevrolet and even FSO).

The Mazda6 was conceived in such a way that it wouldn’t require a complicated hybrid system in order to achieve excellent fuel efficiency, while also keeping the drive sporty and the performance good. This was realized by making the car lighter and more modern in its conception and construction, which is Mazda's way of spurring on the ongoing evolution of the automobile. Read more »

Open Source Back To The Future II-Like Hoverboard in the Making for…2015

We’re pretty sure that nobody could argue against the cool factor of ‘hoverboards,’ the magically powered skateboards from the future, which have been blessed with a self-explanatory name, requiring no additional clarification. The idea stems from the 1989 movie “Back to the Future II,” which has main character Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, go back and forth in time, from 2015 to the year 1955.

The former year brings us neatly to a very optimistic project from the realm of crowd-funding, because waiting stacked among the many ideas of varying feasibility on Indiegogo, is a page created for a planned hoverboard project, which incidentally is also due in 2015.

When someone offers you the opportunity to take the passenger seat or even better, get behind the wheel of any Pagani, be that the older Zonda or the newer Huayra, you should grab it like there's no tomorrow. No need to explain why.

This time, the lucky chap who was able to jump inside a Pagani is Tim, a young British YouTube director of supercar videos that we've come to know under the nickname Shmee150. Even though Tim owns and drives a cool looking Audi R8 V10 Spyder, he admits the Italian exotic is in another league.

If you happen to be in London between July 11-14, you can have a rare opportunity to admire Her Majesty the Queen’s Bentley State Limousine, which will go on display at the Coronation Festival in Buckingham Palace Gardens.

The unique Bentley, presented to the Queen in 2002 to mark the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne, will be the highlight of a collection of Bentleys that will be displayed during the celebrations.

The Italdesign Parcour was in my book, one of the more striking to look at concepts of the 2013 Geneva motor show, where it also debuted. Featuring a mid-mounted Lamborghini V10 out of the Gallardo, it offers supercar styling, but with a higher than normal ground clearance and all-wheel drive.

Now, if you thought it was merely a show car, which needed to be wheeled into and out of the back of trucks between shows, think again.

With a starting MSRP of a shade under $200,000 in the U.S. and €190,000 in its home market of Germany, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG in Coupe and Roadster body styles is positioned in the mid-price range of exotic sports cars.

Now, being that Germany's finest car manufacturers are on a mission to cover every single niche, no matter how big or small it is, one shouldn't be the least surprised to learn that Merc's AMG division has set its eyes on the entry-level premium sports car category with a new model priced at around (possibly even under) the $100,000 mark.

Where I grew up, few youngsters seemed to wait to come of age (in the government’s view) before trying out their skills behind the wheel. There were plenty of deserted roads through forests and fields where this could be accomplished in relative safety (and unbeknownst to the authorities).

By the time most were allowed to get into the driver's seat of an actual car, the basics were no longer a mystery and whatever was still problematic would eventually be ironed out by the driving instructor's professional guidelines, coupled with his or her experience on the job (a very important aspect when choosing who will teach you to drive).

One of the most annoying things than can happen to you behind the wheel is to carry a back or front passenger seat "driving instructor".

Despite having shared and watched hundreds of Russian dash-cam videos, our knowledge of the language is extremely limited, so we have no idea what the female passenger of this clip is saying – bilingual readers are more than welcome to translate in the comments, though, to be frank, it does sound like the universally understood nag-talk…

Porsche today celebrated the production of the 500,000th Cayenne SUV at the Leipzig plant in Germany. The milestone comes after 11 years of production, with the first Porsche Cayenne rolling off the assembly line in 2002.

“We started with around 70 units a day. Today we produce five times as much owing to the high market demand. In the past year alone, over 83,000 Cayenne vehicles for customers in more than 125 countries have rolled off the assembly line. A genuine success story of the Porsche plant in Saxony,” said Oliver Blume, Porsche Member of the Executive Board Production and Logistics.

Opel Reportedly Bringing RWD Monza Coupe Concept to Frankfurt, May Preview Buick Model

Close to two decades after the demise of the Calibra, Opel (and consequently its British Vauxhall arm) will test the public’s reaction at the Frankfurt motor show in September with the Monza study, a coupe that may preview a future Audi A5 and BMW 4-Series rival.

According to a report from Auto Bild, the Opel Monza study will feature a sharp design and, surprisingly, a rear-wheel drive setup. The name Monza was also used by a RWD Opel coupe in the 1970s and 1980s.

With the Genesis sedan and coupe models first, and then the larger Equus saloon, Hyundai moved up a couple of notches in the industry and began flirting with buyers looking at more premium offerings, even from the likes of BMW and Lexus.

Now, while the Koreans haven't reached the point yet to look at luxury European and Japanese models directly in the eyes, there's no doubt that's their long term goal. The upcoming second generations of the Genesis Sedan (see our 'Future Car' render here) and Coupe models previewed by the HCD-14 Sedan Concept and the HND-9 Coupe Concept respectively are a clear indication of that.

It may not come as a surprise to you that Volvo will be cramming all of its latest and most advanced “safety and support features” into their all-new XC90, which is set for its official debut around the end of next year, but they are.

In fact, they even put out a press release to inform us that their next flagship SUV will be getting Pedestrian Detection in darkness, road edge and barrier detection (which works on roads without side markings) and adaptive cruise control, with both of the latter two also featuring “steer assist.”

The Porsche Cayman S is no longer a car for those who could not afford a 911, as you can specify it to match and even surpass its bigger brother in terms of pricing. I mean, the example MotorTrend magazine tested costs a whopping $101,200, apparently because it had a few options each worth “seven grand.” Still, it is explained that can enjoy this car, even if all you specify is the PDK gearbox and the sports exhaust system. Read more »

Last BMW M3 Coupe Rolls Off the Production Line Marking the End of a Naming Era

We guess everything has to come to an end, and that's the case for the BMW M3 E92 Coupe, the very last example of which rolled off the assembly line today at the Bavarian firm's plant in Regensburg, Germany.

While the related E93 M3 Convertible will continue to be manufactured alongside the regular 3 Series Sedan, Coupe and Convertible at the same factory for a few more months until this September, this is the last time we'll see the famed "M3" badge used on a two-door model.

The task of creating a new automobile, even one that uses a platform common to more than one car, is still a difficult task, and one of the main reasons why few attempt to start from scratch, and even fewer succeed. It eats up massive amounts of resources of all kinds, as well as time, especially in the later stages of the project, when prototype parts are required. Read more »

Texas Cops Perform…Body Cavity Search on Two Bikini-Clad Women During Traffic Stop

Only days after a story of a Florida cop, who asked a young mother to shake her bra during a routine traffic stop, surfaced in the news, another similar incident came to light today. This time, two women in bikinis were subjected to full…body cavity searches on the side of Highway 288 in Texas.

In the dash-cam footage from the patrol car, we see State Trooper Nathaniel Turner pulling over Brandy Hamilton and Alexandria Randle for speeding.

It’s not only Porsche itself that is celebrating the 911's 50th anniversary this year, as a number of tuners have also jumped in on the festive bandwagon. Germany's Cam-Shaft says it's honoring the nameplate's golden anniversary with the release of a special package for the 997-generation (built from 2005 through 2011) 911 Turbo. Read more »

Renault Reminds Us How Practical Their Twizy EV Can Be With New Promos

Many aspects of the Renault Twizy are less than satisfactory, like the range, price and unavoidable battery lease costs. However, if you can learn to live with those, driving a Twizy could be better than riding a scooter, which is what Renault is trying to provide some competition to with their smallest EV. Read more »

Thursday, July 4, 2013

2014 Mazda3 Sedan: New Gallery with 42 High-Res Photos [Updated]

As it turns out, yesterday's premature release of half-a-dozen photos of the brand-new 2014 Mazda3 Sedan was only the tip of the iceberg, as 37 high-res images of the compact model turned up on the web today.

Carscoops reader Mr Frisko pointed us towards the Czech website "Auto" for the new batch of photos that give us a better perspective of Mazda's fresh entry in the segment, in terms of both quality and quantity.

There was a real fear that Maserati would have ended up making a plain and ordinary car, when they announced that they were planning to sell 25,000 examples of their new Ghibli per year.

However, they did make the car very noticeable through its design (though opinions are split on its true aesthetic merits), and the car looks like a true Maserati both inside and out. Even the diesel was put into context, when they announced that Ferrari had developed the three-liter V6 unit.

In order to homologate the Polo WRC rally car, the FIA requires Volkswagen to build 2,500 road-going models. The production version of the Polo R WRC was shown late last year when VW began taking orders for the car, and now, the German company has just released a big photo gallery of the most powerful production Polo ever made, ahead of the start of deliveries scheduled for September 2013. Read more »

Spied: New Range Rover Ready to Give Birth to Long Wheelbase Version

What looks like an impregnated 2014 Range Rover in these photos is in fact a new, upcoming addition to Land Rover's flagship SUV.

It's the Long-Wheelbase (LWB) model that adds around 150mm (5.9 inches) to the regular Range Rover's already generous 2,922mm (115 inches) wheelbase, pushing the overall length to over 5.15 meters (202.8 inches) and creating a King-Size, lounge like area for the rear passengers.

Drug checkpoints are illegal in the US, as per the law, so therefore what Ohio police officers did on the I-271 is illicit. What they did is put up signs announcing a drug checkpoint up ahead, but there was really no such thing.

All the police did was put up the signs, and hope that it would make some people act suspiciously, and it would be those citizens that they would actually pull over and search, or threaten to search in the hopes that bluffing will make them confess.

Chrysler Group announced that it will recall 840,000 vehicle (mopstly) in the United States and other countries around the world, because of possible flaws with active-restraint head rests, airbags and electronic stability control systems. The Detroit-based carmaker issued five separate recall actions, including nearly 500,000 cars and SUVs for the head rest issue and another 282,000 minivans with possible faulty airbags. Read more »

Monday, July 8, 2013

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Friday, July 5, 2013

Thursday, July 4, 2013

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