Last night at the Tesla auto plant in Fremont, CA, onlookers marveled at the new Tesla Model S luxury sedan, which finally made its debut after a long wait. Technically speaking, the unveiling of the new luxurious sedan was for the approximately 2,000 customers who have put down deposits of $5000, but these were prototypes, not their actual cars. Seeking to create even more buzz, if not bowl over these customers who showed up for the gala event, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, dressed to the nines in a tuxedo, asked the crowd to spread the word about this beauty, which won’t be ready for delivery until 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

Before the main US trade show for cars, held next month in Detroit at the North American Auto Show, Los Angeles holds an annual display, bringing together many new models and concept vehicles for the public to see.

Overall, the show at the LA Convention Center is important for the volume of cars held in three cavernous halls. And even if Detroit still rules supreme because it attracts the world media for the occasional “world” debuts and the annual announcements of the cars of the year, LA is still a pretty fine show.

Here are some of the more impressive new models that I saw last weekend: Read the rest of this entry »

(More) Cash For Clunkers

By all accounts, the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program, launched this week, has been a success. Many Americans have flocked to car dealerships across the country in hopes of turning in their heaps for a rebate of up to $4500 towards the purchase of more efficient car. That’s the hope of the new program. We’re being told that this spending incentive will not only spur the economy out of its miserable recession, but also help reduce the carbon footprint in our car-obsessed society. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t Kick Those Treads Too Hard

Is this a new set of tires or a four-piece set of ticking time bombs waiting to explode?

The answer may surprise you…

That new set of Bridgestones you just purchased from Sears could be six, eight or ten years old and just waiting to disintegrate some time during your morning commute.   The rubber that tires are made from dries out after six years, but unlike Europe and Asia, American companies may sell “expired” tires long after they have aged to the point of becoming deathly dangerous.

A recent 20/20 investigation found that the “new” tires on sale at Sears and Walmart can be up to 12-years-old. [See the video below] Read the rest of this entry »

Growing up the youngest of six, I remember my dad and my brothers having a pretty wide selection of cars. That was how I became so interested in them, I suppose –it wasn’t so much the makes or models, or what was inside, but it was about how a car looked. I would always be fascinated by the color and the impact it would make. Those were the days of the muscle cars, and shiny metal behemoths.

My oldest brother had a ’72 Olds Cutlass Supreme, with a 407-engine, two-door coupe, black interior, but it was the most beautiful emerald green metallic I’d ever seen. That Olds replaced the light yellow, almost banana color of his ’65 Mustang, his first car. My sister had a ’75 Ford Mustang II, also a coupe, but this time the color was a little iffy –silver exterior, but burgundy red interior—and impossibly tiny. It was a Pinto with a backseat Read the rest of this entry »