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Listening to Midnight Trucking Radio just now, and they have a guy on talking about an engine lubricant product called Motorkote. He talked it up so well, that I got curious and went to their website to have a look. I read through the testimonials for the product on their site, and I've gotta say, this stuff sounds terrific. Truckers and normal auto owners say all sorts of great things about the stuff. Anyone using this stuff, or have you ever heard of it?

You've heard of the Darwin Awards, which are given to people who do things so stupid that they're taken out of the gene pool? Well, the Automotive Darwin Awards are given to those people who do things so stupid that theyneed to be taken out of the car pool! Presented for your enjoyment are 14 photos showing some recent recipients.

The topic here is this little guy: Somewhere around the early 90s Honda and Toyota started making cars to last longer than their owners last. I have a 96 Honda Accord with around 210K miles on it, synthetic oil all the way, bulletproof 5-speed manual transmission and all the main parts of the car seem set to live for another 30 years, assuming I replace spark plugs, timing belts, radiators, windshield wipers and that sort of thing once in a while. But I've seen cars killed by over-engineering things and that fuel relay is just that. When one of the...

(edit) Things turned nasty when their relationship broke down and there was a long-running dispute over shared items from their home. Finally, Dicken went to Miss Kift's mother's home in nearby Llandudno, snatched the TV from the hallway and loaded it into the back of his Jaguar.Miss Kift was having none of it, her sister Josie told Llandudno Magistates Court. She got into the driver's seat in a vain attempt to stop him driving away.Dicken dragged her out of the car and threw her to the ground. But when he saw what he described as a group of angry people chasing after him,...

This is a public (world viewable) post on Facebook that should garner attention. Tonight the good folks at Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auctions and some of their best customers contributed $700,000.00 to wounded, US Military and their families! This was a big night for Barrett-Jackson, our Military and families and for the Gearhead, Car Guy and Gal Nation! Now ask yourself when was the last time the eco-jackal-extremists did anything for our fighting men and women? When? I hear crickets... Click it! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150330631902208&set=a.111744932207.96077.585617207&type=1&theater

Recently, Toyota have been claiming to build the safest cars on Earth. Just like (Chinese owned) Volvo Cars have been doing for decades. I happen to live in Gothenburg, Sweden, home of Volvo. I also happen to admire and respect Japanese culture. But I fail to see how average Toyota cars actually could compete with vehicles like the Volvo V70/XC70/XC60/XC90. The Avensis can, to a certain degree, but is not representative of their product line. Toyota: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk9yGUu6dtA Volvo Cars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtSOYEr-rYQ

After six decades, Margaret Dunning, age 101, still breezes down the road in her creamy 740 Packard roadster. http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/07/08/automobiles/collectibles/100000000895665/two-classics-one-car.html

With a significant increase in sales, Kia Motors is planning to invest $100 million in the US to boost up their production to meet the increasing market demand. This South Korean giant will utilize this money to increase the production of their Georgia plant by 20 percent. The Georgia plant, Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Inc. (KMMG), currently produces 300,000 vehicles per annum, which will be increased to 360,000 vehicles per annum after the proposed expansion. The plant currently employs about 3000 people and additional 1000 people are already hired by the automaker for the proposed additional production. The expansion plan...

Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc says it plans to raise up to $US214.3 million ($A203.2 million) by selling common stock, partly to fund development of a crossover vehicle as it seeks to expand its offerings beyond its Roadster sports car. The news sent shares up nearly seven per cent in afternoon trading. Tesla plans to sell 5.3 million shares to the public, and up to 795,000 more to the underwriter, at $US26 each, according to a regulatory filing. That would raise up to $US158.5 million ($A150.29 million). The $US26 price is a three per cent discount to Tuesday's closing...

Contact Information: Media Contact: Mary Simms, (415) 947-4270, simms.mary@epa.gov High Bay Area Gas Prices, Environmental Concerns Spur Greener Vehicles SAN FRANCISCO – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld will hold a press conference to discuss a major fuel economy announcement at 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25 at Tesla Headquarters in Palo Alto. WHO: EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld and Diarmuid O’Connell – Tesla’s VP of Corporate Development WHAT: Fuel Economy Announcement WHEN: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 at 12::45 p.m. WHERE: Tesla Motors, 3500 Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto, CA 94022 Enter into the main parking lot. Visitor...

Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine. However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines. The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as...

The Swedish carmaker Saab once again teetering on the brink of financial disaster a little over a year after it was saved from bankruptcy, The Local’s Peter Vinthagen Simpson reviews the recent trials and tribulations of this once iconic brand. A little over a year after it was saved at the eleventh hour by an unlikely Dutch suitor, Saab is back in familiar territory - short of sales, short of prospects and, most importantly, short of cash. And just as in the weeks building up to the February 2010 sale of Saab by US GM to Dutch luxury car maker...

Nearly a month after suspending almost all production at its assembly plant Trollhaettan, Sweden, because it couldn't pay suppliers for parts, Spyker Cars NV's Saab Automobile is scrambling to finalize a plan to further finance operations before the unit collapses. Any deal now constructed to save Saab automobile production will involve an intricate web of international players that stretches from Russia to the U.S. Russian banker and investor Vladimir Antonov has tried for weeks to initiate an investment that might steady the cash-strapped Saab – Antonov already has in place a deal to purchase the portion of Spyker Cars' business...

Turkey and Iran ally for a new European project Carmakers selling cars in Europe could soon get a new and tough competitor as Iranian carmaker Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) and Turkey's Hema Endüstri have shaken hands for a new project that will spawn an entirely new automotive brand. The first project will be a passenger car that will be made in Turkey, officials of the two companies said after signing a memorandum of understanding, with more details to be disclosed at a later date. The two partners are yet to pick a location and a plant to manufacture the new...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today that he told his daughter to buy a Japanese car--a Toyota Sienna--and that she did so. LaHood's comment came as he announced the results of a 10-month long Department of Transportation study that was undertaken to determine whether electronic systems could have been responsible for reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The study determined that this was not the case. LaHood's statement that

Accolades keep pouring in for the Chevy Volt, the electric car darling of the 2011 Detroit auto show, including the show's North American Car of the Year award this week from a jury of swooning auto journalists. In his corny acceptance speech, General Motors vice-chairman Tom Stephens' thanked "all of the jurors who Volted, or voted, for the Chevrolet Volt," a plug-in electric hybrid with gas backup. Its all-electric rival, the Nissan Leaf, was a runner-up. But public acceptance, pricier sticker numbers, charging challenges, and a willingness to break old driving habits (goodbye to pedal to the metal) will determine...

Our 2010 CEO of the Year Drives Success Mulally's achievements position Ford to thrive in a very hard industry. By David Whiston, CFA, CPA, CFE | 01-05-11 | 12:00 PM Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company (F F) is the Morningstar 2010 CEO of the Year for good reason. Auto manufacturing is a tough industry in which few participants are able to garner long-term competitive advantages. It is a viciously cyclical business with high fixed costs and powerful unions to keep happy, and consumers have no reason to keep buying vehicles from the same manufacturer. As such, management prowess, or...

Everyone's heard of the extended-range Chevrolet Volt and all-electric Nissan Leaf, and many know about Tesla Motors, maker of that lightning-quick electric roadster. But there's another California startup with an all-electric car close to production that most of the public is unaware of: Coda. The car itself is simply called the Coda sedan. It's based on a heavily modified two-generations-ago Mitsubishi Lancer, and, honestly, it doesn't look like much from the outside. Certainly it made few waves at the LA Auto Show last week. There was just one on display and it was locked, so I couldn't even get a...

DETROIT – Pontiac, whose muscle cars drag-raced down boulevards, parked at drive-ins and roared across movie screens, is going out of business on Sunday. The 84-year-old brand, moribund since General Motors decided to kill it last year as it collapsed into bankruptcy, had been in decline for years. It was undone by a combination of poor corporate strategy and changing driver tastes. On Oct. 31, GM's agreements with Pontiac dealers expire.

Admittedly, I'm biased. One of the prime reasons why I wish SAAB to survive is the fact that I'm Swedish. Sweden and SAAB is one. I have travelled, slept and ate in small SAABs. As our country grew richer and richer, SAABs more and more got associated with pioneering turbo engineering and yuppie lifestyles. However, unlike Volvo, SAAB never became a car for the vast masses over here in Europe. Perhaps in London, but not among the middle class in the Paradise of Sweden. Perhaps because SAAB is very much of an individualist's vehicle and the average Swede isn't much...

For Swedish carmaker Saab, its new 9-5 model could not be more important. Contributor David Hooper finds out if it lives up to all of its pre-launch hype, and considers the company’s plans for the future. Saab’s painful separation from General Motors has been well documented, but with new owner Spyker now in place, financial backing from the Swedish government and the European bank, an engine deal with BMW and a stunning new flagship model now on sale, the next mission in the carmaker’s story is ready for take off. The aircraft puns are quite unavoidable once you have driven...

Amped-up car enthusiasts and environmentally conscious drivers lined up Saturday in Tacoma for the national road tour debut of the Chevrolet Volt.

Maybe things are looking up for Chrysler as it seeks buyers of its brand. Pot smokers and people who drink and drive from all over are flocking to dealerships to trade in their Fords for what many are calling their "get out of jail free card." But it wasn't just the My Fox Detroit story about Chrysler workers smoking weed and drinking alcohol during their lunch breaks that has them in the buying mood. No, it's Darryl Dawson's story. On Friday, Darryl Dawson was on his way home after buying a new Jeep Grand Cherokee when he decided to celebrate...

WJBK's Rob Wolchek on Detroit's reaction to Chrysler workers drinking and smoking pot on their lunch breaks.

Watch Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JcXAaORCLQ Watch the first part, skip the obama stuff (skip forward by dragging the ball forward) and then watch that last third, classic stuff ...

When the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont shut down in April, many pronounced it dead -- a triple victim of the recession, sliding auto sales and General Motors' bankruptcy. But NUMMI is about to be reborn. Electric-carmaker Tesla Motors, which stunned the world when it announced plans to purchase the plant in May, officially takes ownership Oct. 1. Already, many Tesla employees call the plant the "Tesla Factory." Forty people regularly work out of a Tesla office that's been set up on the parking lot -- taking breaks under three red patio umbrellas similar to those at the company's Palo...

I STILL remember learning from my father how to carefully remove a dipstick to check the oil level in our cars. It was drilled into me — along with turning off the lights when you left a room and clearing the plates off the table after dinner — that oil needs to be changed every 3,000 miles or so. Kieron Kohlmann changing the oil in a 2007 Dodge Charger in Union Grove, Wis. Changing the oil every 3,000 miles is no longer a good guideline for cars bought in the last seven or eight years, says Philip Reed of the...

EXCLUSIVE Stig was SAS Hero  RACING driver Ben Collins, unmasked yesterday as Top Gear mystery man The Stig, is a former member of the SAS. Ben trained SAS heroes in daring "escape and evade" driving skills while serving with the regiment, The Sun can reveal.     No more mystery nice guy ... Ben Collins aka The Stig   Millions of viewers have seen the race ace coaching celebrities on how to achieve the fastest time around a TV circuit in Top Gear's reasonably-priced car. But sources close to the special forces unit - motto Who Dares Wins - last night...

I am ordering parts to repair the torque tube on my 1970 Opel GT. The question I have is, why is it there? What purpose does it serve? It would seem to me that a simple driveshaft would suffice, but no, I have a heavy (everything seems heavy in an 1800 pound car) piece that serves, as far as I can see, no purpose. I have read the Wikipedia definition of what it does, but this makes no sense to me. Can someone tell me in layman's terms why it is there?

A sports car once owned by the late British actress Diana Dors has sold for $3 million (£1.9m) at a California auction. The 1949 Delahaye Roadster, which some have dubbed the most beautiful car in the world, was given to Dors when she was 17. The sky blue car has been described by auctioneers as "extravagant and outrageous - a rolling sculpture". Dors, who was seen as the British Marilyn Monroe, died in 1984 aged 52

CARS around the world are making do with fewer cylinders to save fuel; the engine of the Tata Nano, to cite one extreme case, has just two. Yet this is America, land of cheap gasoline and home of the brave V-8, a country where 4-cylinder engines have mainly populated rental fleets and econocars. So the question nags: how low are we willing to go in the cylinder count, especially for models that stake their images on power and prestige? Ford has already made waves with the announcement that its EcoBoost 4-cylinder will be available in the redesigned Explorer. But cowboys,...

Have you driven a Chevy Volt The headline is a play an early ‘80s Ford car ad campaign. Have you driven a Ford. . .lately? was the tag line and it's instructive when considering Chevrolet's new Volt, the car that'll make GM a "leader" in green vehicle technology and create green blue collar jobs. The answer to Have you driven a Chevy Volt . . .lately? is most likely to be no. I really love cars, and it pains me to criticize a vehicle, since my premise is all cars are good, some are better than others. Plus I know...

Go over the FR Verboten Detroit News and Free Press for the story. Ouch, how is this really going to work...

Fewer people have been killed and injured on roads following a decision by a local council to switch off its speed cameras. Accident data shows that in the first nine months after the devices were scrapped in Swindon, there were 315 road casualties in the area as a whole, compared with 327 in the same period the previous year. In total there were two fatalities – compared with four in the same period previously – and 44 serious injuries, down from 48. The figures were seized on by campaigners who claim speed cameras do little to combat problem driving...

Industrial Policy: The administration's electric car represents both the genius of American technology and the stupidity of its government. Imagine Rube Goldberg with $50 billion. Buy now and get a free 40-mile-long extension cord. It wasn't exactly Michael Dukakis riding in a tank wearing a Snoopy helmet, but it was close. President Obama, who reportedly hasn't driven an inch himself since taking office, visited a GM plant in Hamtramck near Detroit on Friday to drive a Chevy Volt 10 feet off an assembly line. It was a perfect image, as the American economy is being driven off a cliff by...

Britain’s network of 6,000 speed cameras could be dramatically reduced after a raft of councils looked set to follow Oxfordshire’s move and switch theirs off. The county’s entire network of 72 cameras will be switched off at midnight tonight after the coalition Government pulled the plug on their funding. The change of heart could usher in a different landscape for Britain’s 33million motorists two decades after the first network was installed. Already, neighbouring Buckinghamshire said it is ‘very likely’ to switch off its cameras, while Bedfordshire, Suffolk and Derbyshire have launched reviews. (edit)  The moves, however, could be just the...

Each year, around 10 000 cars of America's past flood the streets of Swedish Västerås. I'm not an owner of such a vehicle myself (although I plan to be - the future of my economy is looking good!), but I happen to love these cars and can't help but feeling somewhat proud, as a Swede, over my country hosting such an event (regardless of what Buford T Justice has to say about it). Greetings from Volvo Land to America/one nation of car lovers to another! (Links to clips below, enjoy!)

Don't call it Chevy. General Motors leaders are asking Chevrolet employees to refrain from the shorthand etched in America's consciousness for decades. Or, as the New York Times put it, "If General Motors has its way, you won't be driving your Chevy to the levee ever again." The Times quoted this company memo sent Tuesday: "We'd ask that whether you're talking to a dealer, reviewing dealer advertising, or speaking with friends and family, that you communicate our brand as Chevrolet moving forward. "When you look at the most recognized brands throughout the world, such as Coke or Apple, for instance,...

<p>Authorities have identified a 47-year-old woman who drowned as her car sunk into a retention pond Friday night after she unsuccessfully tried to save the vehicle from rising water.</p> <p>Cassandra Bryant, of the 1400 block of Blue Bell in north Harris County, was southbound on the North Freeway service road around 10 p.m. when rising water prompted her to maneuver the car inadvertently into the pond.</p>

Nissan Leaf EV to Have Ultra-Cheap Battery Pack BY Ariel Schwartz Wed May 5, 2010 Over 8,200 people have made online reservations in the past month for the upcoming Nissan Leaf EV, and for good reason. The $33,000 vehicle, set to be released later this year, is the first affordable all-electric vehicle from a major auto manufacturer. It's an early adopter's dream. Now Nissan has revealed the secret behind the Leaf's reasonable price: an ultra-cheap battery pack. While most lithium-ion batteries cost $1000 to $1,200 per kWh, the Leaf's 24 kWh battery pack costs just $9,000 to produce, or $375...

Although initially Aston Martin didn’t intend to bring the V12 Vantage to the U.S. market, the British sportscar maker is planning to introduce this model in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Inside Line. Based on the 2007 V12 Vantage RS Concept, the roadgoing V12 Vantage was launched in Europe in 2009, being a heavily modified version of the standard V8 Vantage. Aston plans to build only 1,000 units of this car, which is powered by a 510 horsepower V12 engine. Since the V12 Vantage was never destined for the U.S., Aston Martin had to make extensive modifications to...

State and local officials announced Friday that Chinese hybrid electric automaker BYD Co. will open its U.S. headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. China’s fourth-largest automaker expects to create at least 150 jobs here by 2011 as it rolls out its fleet of vehicles to California markets first before expanding throughout the country. “By bringing global alternative energy companies to Los Angeles, we are securing our future and building the foundation for an emerging industry that will attract good paying, green collar jobs for generations of Angelenos,” said Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa during a City Hall press conference that included Gov....

* Ford, Lincoln and Mercury March sales totaled 178,546, up 43 percent versus year ago * Ford brand sales up 46 percent versus year ago, Lincoln up 19 percent and Mercury up 26 percent * Cars up 53 percent versus year ago, utilities up 46 percent and trucks up 30 percent; March retail sales up 38 percent; fleet sales up 53 percent * Ford, Lincoln and Mercury first quarter sales totaled 428,596, up 37 percent versus year ago * Ford gains retail market share for the 17th time in the last 18 months, as more buyers turn to Ford’s fresh...

Obama says auto bailouts have paid off Photo 6:09am EDT By Steve Holland ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday taxpayer-funded bailouts of the auto industry that he approved had paid off, in what amounted to a rejection of conservative arguments against such government help. In his weekly radio and Web address, Obama kept up the pressure for an overhaul of U.S. financial regulations, saying the promising news from the auto industry had not reduced the need for Wall Street changes. Government bailouts of Wall Street, begun by then-President George W. Bush in 2008 and continued...

If you want to drive something dependable and long-lasting, steer clear of these vehicles. With a 22% improvement in sales last month, and despite the six-month, $4.3 billion loss it announced Wednesday, General Motors is likely to have its strongest spring and summer in years. Plus, the automaker had critically acclaimed new products at the recent New York Auto Show and the much-anticipated Chevrolet Volt is due out this fall. More from Forbes.com: • In Depth: Worst-Made Cars On The Road • Navigating Your Way Through Traffic • Cars With the Best Gas Mileage Year-over-year sales of GM's Cadillac division...

It is possible that new, damning details could come to light about Toyota's response to faulty accelerator claims. But absent new revelations - and if we are to judge based solely on what we know now - Toyota is getting a bum rap. The Japanese car maker has been stung by a series of reports of customers experiencing out-of-control speeding. The result has been front-page news stories, a product recall, multiple congressional hearings, a big hit to Toyota's stock price and the threat of multiple lawsuits. To top it off, some are even demanding Toyota offer to buy back vehicles...

When BMW AG Chairman Norbert Reithofer declared last week that his company would start making front-wheel-drive BMWs, there were screams from Stuttgart to Sacramento. BMW, after all, had built the Ultimate Driving Machine franchise on rear-wheel-drive cars. Now Mr. Reithofer appears to be chipping away at what made luxury cars so luxurious. Auto enthusiasts—including many automotive designers and engineering executives, as well as wealthy car buyers—generally prefer cars to have the driving wheels in the back. It makes a difference in the way a car handles and steers. That difference is instantly recognizable but hard to define. A rear-drive car...

I’ve been driving Toyota Priuses since 2001. As a junior defense lawyer in the mid-90s, I litigated a number of bogus sudden acceleration cases that were brought against General Motors. So the recent kerfuffle over alleged mysterious electronic problems with the Prius and other Toyotas has certainly caught my attention beyond just throwing my floor mat in the trunk. I knew the public hysteria had reached unprecedented proportions when my father, a Ph.D. geologist skeptical of everything from George W. Bush to global warming (and that’s just the G’s), credulously emailed me repeatedly to demand I read a press release...

Check out what it is like driving a modern Toyota at the link.

Electric cars and green technology dominate at this year's Geneva Motor Show, which opened its doors on Tuesday, but no one expected a hybrid Ferrari. This Kermit-green Ferrari 599 hybrid is one of the stars of the show and a sure sign that even supercar makers are beginning to address their environmental impact. Called HY-KERS, the hybrid two-seater uses Ferrari's Formula One Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) to recover the braking and decelerating energy in a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery. That electrical energy is converted into about 650 volts, which gives an additional 100 horsepower that is used to supplement the...