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Tuesday, January 21, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 21, 2020

Jan 21, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Ford Super Duty First Drive Review | Big truck, bigger numbers

The numbers make you shake your head. Possibly laugh. They definitely get your attention. The 2020 Ford F-Series Super Duty, be it the F-250 or F-350, can be optioned with a revised version of the 6.7-liter PowerStroke V8 diesel engine that now produ…

Paul Walker collection pulls in more than $2.3M at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale

No fewer than 21 two- and four-wheeled vehicles from the personal collection of the late "Fast & Furious" franchise star Paul Walker crossed the auction block at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale last week, bringing in more than $2.3 million combined, l…

Top 5 most expensive cars at the 2020 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction

Hundreds of vehicles saw their few seconds in the auction spotlight over the past week at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale, and we have a short list of the top five most expensive to sell.

Ferris Bueller Ferrari 250 GT California replica sells for $396,000

Amazon pledges 10,000 electric delivery rickshaws starting this year

Amazon CEO and mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos took a trip to India this past week in order to attend a small-business conference and meet with several small-business owners, among other corporate errands. During his time, Bezos announced that Amazon pla…

Volvo vows to give away cars if there's a safety during the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is this Sunday, February 2, 2020, and that only means one thing for those not impressed by absurd feats of athleticism: The ads are coming. Volvo is the first to kick things off before the big game with the announcement of Safety Sunda…

Unrestored, 21k-mile 1971 Datsun 240Z looks showroom fresh

This jaw-dropping 1971 Datsun 240Z has just rolled onto the proverbial block at Bring a Trailer , and it's hard to imagine that it won't end up setting a record price for a first-generation Z. First of all, we have to take a moment to appreciate the …

Tesla rebuffs NHTSA, says it has no unintended acceleration problem

Tesla said on Monday there was no unintended acceleration in its vehicles, as it responded to a petition to a U.S. safety regulator to investigate and recall around 500,000 of the company's electric cars over the alleged defect. On Friday, the Natio…

Tesla city car sketched for a recruitment ad in China

When Tesla announced the opening of a Chinese R&D and design center earlier this month, the company also put out advertisements on its official WeChat account to recruit designers. The posters for recruiting car designers featured illustrations o…

VW's ID.4 electric crossover will debut at the New York Auto Show in April

The Volkswagen ID.3 may have kicked off the brand's global electrification offensive, but it's the ID.4 that will initially carry the banner here in the United States. We've already seen the swoopy crossover in spy shots in what looks to be close-to-…

Monday, January 20, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 20, 2020

Jan 20, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2020 Mercedes-Benz E 450 Wagon Review | The connoisseur's choice

Buying a station wagon in the United States is an exceedingly niche thing to do – especially if that wagon isn't a Subaru Outback. The numbers are bleak : JD Power says that wagons made up just 1.4% of overall vehicle sales in 2018, the vast majority …

First production C8 Chevy Corvette brings $3 million at Barrett-Jackson

Auctioning off the first production model of a new performance car for charity has become accepted practice, so it's not too surprising that the first saleable 2020 C8 Chevrolet Corvette would cross the auction block, and do so at the Barrett-Jackson…

[VIDEO] Redesigned 2020 Mahindar Roxor is here for $16,999

Roxor has been duking it out with Fiat Chrysler over intellectual property issues tracing their roots back to 2009. The short story is that FCA believed the Mahindra Roxor too closely resembled the Jeep CJ-7. After a lengthy spell in court, last Nove…

Hybrid tech to headline Land Rover Discovery's mid-cycle update

Land Rover is preparing to give the Discovery a mid-cycle update that puts a strong emphasis on fuel efficiency. The family-friendly off-roader will allegedly break cover by the end of 2020 with hybrid technology under the hood. According to British…

Subaru plans to sell only electric cars by the middle of the 2030s

Nipping infinite rumors in the bud, Subaru confirmed the Outback , the Forester , the BRZ , the WRX STI , and every other car it makes will go electric or disappear by the middle of the 2030s. The Japanese automaker announced it plans to kick gasoline-po…

2020 Chevrolet Blazer receives a smattering of changes

The big change for the 2020 Chevrolet Blazer is the addition of the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with 230 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. It comes standard on the middle 2LT and 3LT trims. GM Authority has outlined a host of further …

General Motors has tried to cast Hummer in a greener light before

Rumors claim General Motors will resurrect the Hummer name on an electric pickup truck by 2022, and GM allegedly will preview the model with an ad starring basketball star LeBron James during the 2020 Super Bowl. If accurate, the move would represent…

Lexus designers create lunar transport concepts

NASA is working to put human back on the moon by 2024, the idea being to use it as a way station for the eventual colonization of Mars. Since those humans won't want to moonwalk everywhere, they'll need new transportation — the battery-electric Lunar…

Laffite G-Tec X-Road is the second coming of the Zarooq SandRacer

At the 2015 Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix, an outfit called Zarooq Motors introduced the SandRacer 500GT , a high-speed dune runner with a 300-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6 mounted in the middle. The SandRacer was meant to be a limited edition that formed…

Toyota to move Tacoma assembly to Mexico as part of massive North American production shift

Toyota announced Friday it will move production of its mid-size Tacoma pickup from the United States to Mexico as it adjusts production strategies around North America to better consolidate vehicles built on shared architecture. This move will make …

Friday, January 17, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 17, 2020

Jan 17, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

2021 GMC Yukon will pull a 180 thanks to a Hurricane Turn feature

GMC isn't a hip, young startup, but its engineers are out to prove it's possible to teach an old dog new tricks. The next-generation Yukon will offer adventurers seeking a quick turn-around a "Hurricane Turn" feature that functions a lot like Rivian'…

Lee Iacocca's very first Dodge Viper RT/10 nets $285,500 at auction

The first 1992 Dodge Viper RT/10 to roll down the assembly line , which was snapped up by Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca, yesterday hammered at the Bonhams auction in Arizona for $285,500, more than double the pre-sale estimate. According to a history of…

Dodge's divisive splitter guards are now pink and might become black

There is an infinite amount of real problems out there in the world, but for some reason, one of the most dividing issues in the car community relates to a piece of protective plastic on cars. Yes, splitter guards. Since the plastic parts were introd…

Mazda CX-5 diesels get discounts up to $10,000 off MSRP

When Mazda positioned its long-awaited and oft-delayed CX-5 diesel crossover as the "premium" option in the CX-5 trim structure, we were skeptical. After driving one last fall with a $42,045 sticker price, our eyebrows furrowed even deeper. Today, to…

NHTSA could investigate 500,000 Teslas for unintended acceleration

WASHINGTON — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Friday it will review a petition asking the agency to formally investigate 500,000 Tesla vehicles over sudden unintended acceleration reports. The petition covers 2012 thro…

2021 Kia Seltos prices possibly leaked

An anonymous tipster sent Motor1 a list of MSRPs for all six trims of the 2021 Kia Seltos. We can't know if the prices are all correct, but Motor1 seems to have solid underground connections into Kia's back rooms lately, and if nothing else, the numb…

2020 Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade will see price increases

New year, new MSRP. CarsDirect got hold of a "recent pricing guide" and discovered Hyundai and Kia chanted that mantra over the Palisade and the Telluride, respectively. The Palisade has been on sale since June of last year, and already received a $5…

Michael Bloomberg would require all new cars to be EVs by 2035

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg would push for all new cars to be electric by 2035 and new buildings to produce zero carbon emissions by 2025 as part of clean energy plans he released this week. Bloomberg's l…

Audi competitively prices plug-in hybrid variants of Q5, A8

Audi has released pricing information for the plug-in hybrid, TFSI e-badged versions of the Q5 and the A8 it's adding to its range for the 2020 model year. They'll be joined by a gasoline-electric A7 in the coming months. The Q5 , Audi's best-selling…

Critical catalytic converter metal shortages send prices soaring

A long-term supply deficit has led prices of the metal, used mainly in catalytic converters to curb harmful emissions, to double over the last year. In the futures market, prices indicate buyers fear a lack of ready supply. Before this rally began, p…

Thursday, January 16, 2020

What You Missed | Your Autoblog Daily Digest for January 16, 2020

Jan 16, 2020

Top Stories of the Day

Metallica's James Hetfield's collection of hot rods coming to the Petersen Museum

A new year means new exhibits for the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. To kick off the new decade, the iconic automotive destination is going metal and will launch Reclaimed Rust: The James Hetfield Collection in February. Not only will it …

The weird, wacky, colorful and just plain rad of Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — If you're looking to this post for the priciest, fanciest or most collectible cars up for auction this week at the Barrett-Jackson auctions in Scottsdale, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. Certainly when I'm the man on th…

2021 Porsche 718 Cayman GTS, Boxster GTS upsize with 4.0-liter flat-six

While downsizing is the order of the day in the automotive industry, Porsche is upsizing by bringing the naturally-aspirated flat-six engine to the 718 GTS range. Enthusiasts will undoubtedly see the move as right-sizing. The 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 and…

2020 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Limited Drivers' Notes | Black gold

Ram didn't have fuel economy numbers for us when we first drove the 1500 EcoDiesel, and because of that, a verdict could not be rendered. Today, that's no longer the case. In maximum hypermiling 4x2 form, the EcoDiesel is rated at 22 mpg city, 32 mpg…

Updated 2020 Audi A5 to start at $43,895, the S5 at $52,895

With the first-quarter launch of the U.S. version nearly upon us, Audi has announced a full pricing breakdown for its 2020 A5 and S5 model lines, throwing in details about available content and powertrain specifications to boot. The base 2020 A5 Coup…

Volkswagen bringing next-generation Golf GTI to Geneva

Volkswagen confirmed the eighth-generation Golf GTI will make its public debut at the 2020 Geneva Motor Show. The hot hatch is expected to closely follow the recipe that made its predecessors a global success. The long-awaited next chapter in the GT…

C8 Chevy Corvette Z06 to get rear wing bigger than ZR1's?

GM Authority credits "sources familiar with the project" for intel that the coming Z06 version of the C8 Chevrolet Corvette will "feature a massive rear wing spoiler." The 2019 Corvette ZR1 offered two wings in low and high flavors, and GMA didn't cl…

2020 Polaris Slingshot gets new engine, adds automatic transmission option

The 2020 Polaris Slingshot has undergone some significant changes as the three-wheeler enters its fifth model year. Polaris claims there's over 70% new content in total, but the big news centers on the powertrain. The previous GM EcoTec 2.4-liter fou…

Hendrick Motorsports Track Attack is a custom, NASCAR-derived race car

Hendrick Motorsports has created the most interesting track-day car we've seen in recent memory. Company exec Bill Snider told The Drive that while attending a high-performance driving event — an organized track day — he watched "a Nissan GT-R driver…

Genesis teases new coupe, subcompact as part of future lineup

Genesis teased the future of its product portfolio with some prominently placed silhouettes during the debut of its new GV80 crossover. The teasers, which appeared in the background of the design portion of the presentation, appeared to depict both a…