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 »

You may have already heard this, but BMW's twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter engine took home the International Engine of the Year award for 2008. If you've experienced this powertrain you know that title is well and properly earned, as the 3.0-liter's combination of horsepower, torque and even fuel efficiency make it one of the best engines in history. But that got me thinking: What are the best engines in the history of the automobile?  read more »

Chevrolet will join the trio of big GM crossovers with a fourth family vehicle, the Traverse . On display at the Chicago auto show , the Traverse is based on the same mechanicals as the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook. Chevrolet says it's targeting the likes of the Ford Edge, Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot with the new seven- or eight-passenger Traverse.  read more »

Hot off its success with its best-selling Prius sedan, Toyota Motor Co. announced Friday that it would make hybrid-engine systems available on all of its models by 2020.

The announcement came as all of the auto makers at an industry conference this week in northern Michigan maneuvered to carve out their own niches in fuel-efficient design, from expansion of the gasoline/electric hybrid technology already available in the Prius to the new plug-in hybrid vehicle known as the Volt under development by General Motor Corp.

Ford Motor Co., the Dearborn-Mich. auto maker with few of its vehicles with hybrid options, plans to double its hybrid-vehicle lineup and production next year. And Honda Motor Co. said this week at the Traverse City, Mich., conference that in 2009, it will import a new hybrid to compete directly against the new Prius in the U.S. market -- and at a lower price.  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

While we saw the Top 50 finishers of the 24 Hours of LeMons race at Thunderhill last month, we didn't get to see the bulk of the photographs I shot, nor did we see a lot of the stuff sent in by members of the various teams. That's because my laptop's hard drive took a dive during the race and I lost the best stuff... but now the sick Maxtor has yielded up its contents and we're ready to take a look at the long-awaited ber Gallery. Many thanks to all the team members who have been so patient about this; you know who you are! We're going to sort the teams by car number; everyone who managed to get a car out on the track should be here. We've tried to provide links to team-supplied images and video whenever possible. Enjoy!  read more »

Hyundai Avante shall be available in India by end of July this year. It shall replace its mid-size sedan Hyundai Elantra which was launched in early 2003 but the Korean car maker started phasing out the model globally since mid-2007. Hyundai Elantra shall be replaced by the new Hyundai Avante in India this month. The new model was launched in India earlier this year at the Delhi Auto Expo 2008. Hyundai currently has only one car in this segment and a new model shall give a face-lift to the existing product portfolio. It shall be pitted against successful sedans in India like Honda Civic, Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla, and Chevrolet Optra.

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 »

Remember Gran Turismo 5 Prologue? You know that glorified full-priced demo of GT5? The car and feature list is now available, and I am mighty impressed for the semi-real-game nature of GT5 Prologue. Some of the interesting features include a drift mode where drifting is judged based on multiple variables, in-depth car tuning, two-player split screen racing and a few new race events for online and offline play. Click through to see the full list of cars and check out the new trailer that is so beautiful the dragons from the fantasy games perk up their ears in anticipation.  read more »