Check out WatchMojo’s profile of Ferrari:
A 23-year-old woman in California borrowed her boss’s Ferrari and, predictably, caused it to flip after taking a curve too fast. The accident caused an estimated $125,000 in damages, and the driver escaped without injury. However, her boss is pissed. Read more…
In 1980, roughly 35 per cent of all cars sold were manual transmission. In 2006, that number had dropped to six per cent. That number is likely to drop even further as manufacturers are moving away from the stick shift. It used to be that manuals were better on gas and more reliable. However today’s automatics, for the most part, outdo their manual counterparts. Read more…
California is doing everything it can to help heal the earth. The latest way they plan to reduce carbon emissions is by…banning black cars. That’s right:
The California legislature is considering regulating the color of cars and reflectivity of paint to reduce the energy requirements to cool them. A presentation on the proposed legislation by the California Air Resources Board is below. (Continue…)
More on Autoblog and CrunchGear.
At the beginning of the year, Tesla Motors had announced that by spring the company would be producing 30 of their all-electric luxury Roadsters weekly. Well, it’s spring, and the company is now saying it’s likely they’ll only reach that benchmark in the summertime: right now they’re making 20 per week. The company is not expected to show a profit this year. Read more…
Have you ever been in your car and thought, “dude, I could totally go for some hot soup?” Yeah me neither. However, you can still get a car microwave to satisfy cravings for hot foods in your car. It plugs into the cigarette lighter and can heat a cup of coffee in six minutes. It can also be hooked directly to the battery for shorter cook-times. Read more…
According to Canoe.ca:
At the Convergence 2008 conference on automotive electronics yesterday, BMW revealed it is looking for partners as it pursues an open-source car computing platform. The German company is enthusiastic about the potential for such an open-source system’s potential to keep up with the rapid advances in technology and features in the multimedia and digital entertainment areas.
Check out WatchMojo’s profile of another BMW innovation - the Hydrogen 7:
Here is a list of signs to look for when checking out new mechanics. If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may want to re-think your choice:
1. Your friends have had bad experiences at the shop.
2. The shop requires you to pay before the work is done.
3. The mechanic is not certified by any national association.
4. The parking lot is full of cars that don’t appear capable of movement.
5. The mechanic attempts diagnosis based upon your broad description.
6. The shop has lots of bad reviews online.
7. The mechanic does not appear to have specific knowledge of your make and model.
8. No estimate of time for repair.
9. Time for repair seems unnecessarily long.
10. The shop is very new or has very little history in the area.
11. The mechanic tries to suggest a myriad of other services for you at the time of your repair.
12. The mechanic suggests fixes which don’t add up.
13. The shop tells you you need to fix more things than you came in for, without a thorough explanation.
14. Lack of sufficient explanations.
15. The mechanic gives you a line like “good thing you brought this in, the car probably would not have lasted another 50 miles.”
16. The mechanic suggests one fix first, then when that doesn’t work, claims they “know” what has to be wrong this time.
17. Insisting they are the best in town without awards or recognition from the community to back it up.
18. The shop installs a new part, it fixes the problem but then fails soon after.
19. The mechanic won’t wait on you to call around to other shops or take the car other places to get estimates.
20. The mechanic cannot understand your explanation of the problem and asks you multiple times to repeat or rephrase.
Read more…
If you need to change your oil, check out WatchMojo’s handy instructions on how to do so:
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