I'm no longer going to express any shock that my island city continues to provide a seemingly inexhaustible supply of street-parked vintage cars and trucks; we got to 150 Down On The Street posts late last year, we're up to 200 as of today, and I've got enough photos in the can to get us to 250, no sweat.  read more »

WASHINGTON -- The insurance industry named dozens of new cars and trucks, led by Ford Motor Co. and its Volvo subsidiary, to its annual list of the safest vehicles Tuesday, helped by the increased use of anti-rollover technology.

Ford and Volvo had 16 vehicles in the 2009 model year on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's list of the safest new cars, followed by Honda Motor Co. with 13 vehicles.

Seventy-two cars, trucks and SUVs received the top safety pick designation for 2009, more than double the number of vehicles in the 2008 model year and three times the number in 2007.

"The sheer number of this year's winners indicates that automakers have made huge strides to improve crash protection," said Institute president Adrian Lund.  read more »

Saturn has gone and made its Vue Hybrid even more hybrid-tastic. Now equipped with GM's advanced two-mode hybrid technology, the new 2009 Saturn Vue Green Line 2 Mode Hybrid promises a fifty percent increase in fuel mileage over the standard V6 model. All of that efficiency comes from a 3.6L V6 equipped with VVT and direct injection and not one, but two 55 kW electric motors integrated into the transmission. Those motors provide assist at different vehicle speeds in order to minimize fuel consumption. Pretty clever, eh?  read more »

After we explained earlier about GM's web-based brain-fart, it looks like the covers have now been officially blown off the wicked new 2009 Cadillac CTS-V. We're talking 550 hp, we're talking about 550 lb.-ft. of torque, we're talking magnetic ride control, we're talking performance traction management, we're talking that beautiful 6.2L LSA Supercharged V8, we're talking sub-5 second 0-60 times (actually Cadillac's unofficially claiming it'll be closer to a four-second 0-60 time). And we're talking about all of this for a price supposedly competitive with the world's luxury sports sedans. Press release below the jump.  read more »

A full reveal of the production-ready 2011 Chevrolet Volt took place in September after we were teased with glimpses of the electrically driven car for months. Detailed information about the Volt was finally revealed, including a production start date of...Joe Bruzek

If there's ever been a Camaro that says "bad ass" like the first Camaro did, this is it, hands down. The Chevrolet Camaro Concept looks like the car you drive if your name is "Butch" and you strike matches on your stubble.

The styling elements recapture that crucial aspect of the original design philosophy; a rebellious one that fell through the cracks as the decades poured on after 1969.

The designer of the Camaro Concept Coupe and the Camaro Convertible Concept, Sangyup Lee, had no idea the Chevrolet Camaro was so iconic.

"I was kind of glad I didn't know how strong of an icon the Camaro was when I was first working on the project," he admits.  read more »

Detroit's automakers and their top Japanese rivals all suffered March sales declines in a market that sank to its weakest level since 2005 as the dual impact of a slowing economy and a credit crunch kept consumers away from showrooms.

The weaker-than-anticipated sales led some auto executives to caution that demand might fall further before it starts to recover.

"I'd like to be able to tell you that the worst is behind us, but I can't give you that assurance," said Jim Farley, global sales chief at Ford Motor Co. "Our sense is, the second quarter may be the most difficult of the year."  read more »