Volvo Can’t Decide What It Wants to Be—Safe or Naughty

Volvo Can’t Decide What It Wants to Be—Safe or Naughty

Since 2008, Volvo has undertaken a noble effort called Vision 2020 that declares: “By 2020, nobody shall be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo.” The company’s objective is to integrate “preventative and protective safety systems in the car,” while studying driver behavior and developing ways to protect pedestrians. Computer World reported the story as...

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Tuning a Daily Driver

Tuning a Daily Driver

Making your car an extension of your personality and a reflection of your style is the point of car tuning. Many different ways exist to tune your car. However, what if you are tuning a daily driver? Can you have a well-tuned vehicle that looks great and still use it for your daily commute? The short answer is “yes.” However, you will have to go about the...

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Classic Chevy MP Car For Sale

Classic Chevy MP Car For Sale

Take a look at this beauty! Its a 1957 Chevrolet 150 Military Police Car for sale at the Volo Auto Museum for just under $25,000 dollars. What a steal! Imagine the hit you would make at the local car show with this baby. Share...

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The Truth About OnStar

The Truth About OnStar

We all have heard of OnStar. Most automotive consumers are aware of what the company offers users and subscribers via the endless number of television commercials produced over the years. They range from humorous Tiger Woods examples to the more serious “We’ve-been-in-an-accident” spots. I’m going to try not to bore readers a great deal on the specifics of...

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Red Light Cameras: Not Too Many People Love Them

Red Light Cameras: Not Too Many People Love Them

It’s like harassment, right? The gummint has just entered another area that should be private. And cash-starved cities have found another way to milk their citizens. Red light cameras have no fans among drivers, even those who drive safely. The devices have been springing up all over the U.S. for some years now, and their use has generated a lot of public...

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Have you ever wondered why you really bought a vintage car?

Have you ever wondered why you really bought a vintage car?

Though I’m partial to muscle cars, I like a lot of different vehicles for more than just their performance potential. Much of what draws me to them are specific visual cues—the way a certain area is styled or particular components or attributes that make me react like Pavlov’s dog to a dinner bell when I see them. Factory vacuum gauges and tachs, and Hurst...

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How to Expose Hidden Problems in Used Cars

How to Expose Hidden Problems in Used Cars

People trying to sell used cars can be downright desperate to unload their driveway-bound sheet metal in order to pocket some quick cash. While scams or intentionally deceptive sales tactics from sellers aren’t particularly common, they do happen. More often, instead of trying to hide problems, sellers simply don’t mention them. When I, for example, was selling...

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NASCAR Unveils Car of Tomorrow

NASCAR Unveils Car of Tomorrow

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about NASCAR. Like most people in the Northeast, I figure we’ll leave hockey to the Canadians and auto-racing to our friends down South. In any event, racing has made its annual trip to the forefront of the sports page as NASCAR introduces the Car of Tomorrow for 16 races in 2007 and 36 in 2008. The news comes nearly 6 years after...

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Luxury Car Companies Should Build Minivans

Luxury Car Companies Should Build Minivans

So I’m driving along the other day, and I get up behind this Toyota Sienna that looks like it has a body kit. And not just a body kit, but powder coated wheels, too. This thing looked like your standard airport rental Sienna had been turned over to the people in charge of making Hyundais appealing in their last model year before a redesign. It turns out that...

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Toyota and NASCAR – Oh What a Feeling!

Toyota and NASCAR – Oh What a Feeling!

When the green flag dropped this weekend on The Great American Race in Daytona, NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series had what, at first blush, must have seemed like a distinctly foreign new flavor. The 2007 Daytona 500 served as the Nextel Cup Series debut of Toyota as some of NASCAR’s established stars such as Michael Waltrip, Dale Jarett, Jeremy Mayfield, and Brian...

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Peter Brock and the ‘Original Venice Crew’ rethink the 1965 Mustang G.T. 350R for its 50th aniversary

Peter Brock and the ‘Original Venice Crew’ rethink the 1965 Mustang G.T. 350R for its 50th aniversary

The donor K-Code Mustangs during disassembly. Photos by Randy Richardson, LA SAAC. Shelby American’s original racing Mustang, the G.T. 350R, captured the SCCA’s B-Production championship from 1965-’67, but its designers still believed the car could have been better. Next month, on the 50th anniversary of the G.T. 350R’s first win, Peter Brock (keynote speaker...

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Stealing Cars for Fun and Profit: Cadillac Escalade Tops Most-Stolen List

Stealing Cars for Fun and Profit: Cadillac Escalade Tops Most-Stolen List

In Malaysia, they like to steal Protons. In the U.S., it’s the Cadillac Escalade, which has made the top of the theft-loss list (prepared by the Highway Loss Data Institute), for the last six of seven years. In 2005 there were an estimated 1.2 million U.S. vehicle thefts; in 2008, totals were declining, below 1 million. After the Escalade, the next-most-stolen...

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Body Kits – Ramping Up Your Style

Body Kits – Ramping Up Your Style

Automakers are restrained from creating enormously aerodynamic vehicles with sport-tuned suspensions and powerhouse motors because they must cater to the average consumer. As a result, the tuning industry has grown up, providing consumers (tuners) with products that enhance their vehicles appearance and performance. Body kits are one of the most popular ways to...

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