Saturn is no more. "Other industries could learn from the Saturn Corporation. Certainly GM is taking what they have learned from their Saturn investment and incorporating it into their existing plants and facilities where practical. It will not be an overnight experience. Like Saturn, it will take time, investment and a strong commitment to regain the role of world leader in the automobile industry."
posted by plexi on Sep 30, 2009 - 89 comments

On October 1, 1908, the first Ford Model T rolled out of the factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit. Many people today wonder why Henry Ford started his nomenclature with the letter "T." Short answer: He didn't. [more inside]
posted by Turkey Glue on Jul 19, 2009 - 19 comments

Today marks the launch of the Tata Nano. Some see this car as the next Ipod. Some have grave environmental concerns. (previously)
posted by Xurando on Mar 23, 2009 - 63 comments

Infrastructurist. Although the blog is only a few days old, they've already debunked some of the myths of 24, interviewed Michael Dukakis, and grappled with Amtrak economics.
posted by Horace Rumpole on Feb 5, 2009 - 27 comments

Marcelo da Luz has been attracting a lot of attention with his snazzy solar car. He's hoping to set a new world record by driving the car from Buffalo, NY, to Inuvik, Northwest Territories.
posted by mrgrimm on Sep 10, 2008 - 19 comments

Ford Model T owners "transformed the cars into tractors, pickup trucks, paddy wagons, mobile lumber mills and power plants for milling grain." [more inside]
posted by Knappster on Jul 31, 2008 - 8 comments

On 30th July 1908, after 169 days of competition, the 4-cylinder, 60-horsepower Thomas Flyer, driven by George Schuster from America, crossed the finish line to win the Great 1908 New York-to-Paris Automobile Race. After driving to the West Coast, the vehicles were shipped to Vladivostok from where only three teams managed to continue with the race across Asia and Europe. [more inside]
posted by peacay on Jul 30, 2008 - 5 comments

A new sort of pop art has sprung up in New Orleans - cars emblazoned with brand names, usually snack foods.
posted by plexi on Jul 11, 2008 - 117 comments

R.I.P., Arizona Parking Solutions. Guy parks car without displaying his pass. APS boots car. Guy dollies car into his garage and invites APS to reclaim their boots. Or not; their choice: either way, they can't tow, he won't pay the fine, and he really doesn't need to be driving the car. This catch-22 upsets the owner. And eventually APS goes off the deep end, booting nearly everyone's car in the community. The media becomes involved. And we become witness to a business owner suiciding his own business.
posted by five fresh fish on Jun 18, 2008 - 129 comments

Car of the Future , NOVA's latest episode, is fully online and includes a slew of extras including CC-licensed content, a brief historical overview of "innovative" automobiles, Amory Lovins flogging his Hypercar concept, the Car Talk guys making nuisances of themselves, and much more. (It's no Design for Dreaming, but really, what could be?)
posted by cog_nate on Apr 24, 2008 - 21 comments

Speed, Style and Beauty: The Ralph Lauren Car Collection photo gallery. More photos here (although some are duplicates). Details of the automobiles at Motor Trend. The cars were the subject of a Boston Museum of Fine Arts exhibition in 2005, and an excellent Discovery Channel documentary last October. If you missed the broadcast, you can buy the book. (There's no DVD that I can find, but watch for a repeat broadcast. Or maybe you can catch it some other way.)
posted by Fuzzy Skinner on Mar 29, 2008 - 13 comments

The Tata Nano (pic) is a car that costs less new than the amount I've spent on gas during single car trips, recently announced to the auto market in India. The Chery QQ ^, successful , widely exported, and recognized as the Hostage Taker's Vehicle of Choice by China Car Times, is the runner-up for the world's cheapest car but is still approximately twice as expensive. Yes indeed, the price of gas is not going to come back down. So much for my coast-to-coast road trips. [more inside]
posted by XMLicious on Feb 3, 2008 - 42 comments

How to Paint a Picture With a Car (Bandwidth-saving Youtube version) [more inside]
posted by ardgedee on Jan 3, 2008 - 38 comments

In the U.S., motorists do not pay their way. The US government spends more on highways and other auto-related expenses than it receives from auto-related taxes, unlike almost every country in Europe. In a recent report [pdf], Mark Delucchi calculates automobile-related costs and revenues in three different ways and concludes the subsidy is around 20-70 cents per gallon or $24-105 billion in 2002. But what are automobile-related costs, you ask? [more inside]
posted by salvia on Oct 2, 2007 - 99 comments

BeaterReview was formed to help the depreciation-averse enthusiast and automotive bottom-feeder alike find gold in them thar' mountains of rust.
posted by punkfloyd on Sep 11, 2007 - 49 comments

Yasujiro Ozu on trains & automobiles
posted by hama7 on Aug 31, 2007 - 7 comments

$50 Paint Job I figured since the Corvair is not in line to be professionally painted, I'd give it a try.
posted by Ufez Jones on Jun 12, 2007 - 70 comments

For years, MDI has been developing a car that runs on compressed air. Last month, they signed an agreement with Tata Motors to produce the MiniCat - a zero-emissions vehicle that will travel up to 180 miles on $3 worth of fuel. See it in action here. (youtube)
posted by Afroblanco on Mar 19, 2007 - 45 comments

Luigi Colani, Biomorphic Designer — This prolific master of plastic has been creating organically streamlined planes, trains, automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, ships, cities, homes, computers, cameras, televisions, furniture, pianos, ceramics, shoes, eyewear^PDF, pens, airbrushes, and other wonderful stuff (including the kitchen sink) for some 60 years. Wherever you need to go, you can reach your final destination in Colani style. More designs here, here, here, and here. [Brits and touristas take note: London's Design Museum will host a Colani exhibition, Translating Nature, from March 3 to June 17, 2007. Bibliophiles can check out the book Colani: The Art of Shaping the Future.]
posted by cenoxo on Feb 18, 2007 - 14 comments

Broken Embargoes. Given the long amount of preparation required to print an automotive "buff book" (US examples include Car&Driver, Road&Track, Automobile, and MotorTrend), automobile manufacturers customarily provide them with access to concepts and new production vehicles months prior to the "official" public unveiling, requiring them to abide by an embargo on the images and data until a certain date has passed, usually to accomodate a carshow or other media event. In these cases, it was to coincide with the North American International Autoshow (NAIAS, aka Detroit Autoshow, 1/13-1/21), with the embargo lifted with either 1/7/2007 online publication or February print issues, which the buff books dropped the last week of a December. As soons as that happened, web outlets like blogs and various forums released their embargoed materials for each model. As a result, many manufacturers have had their marketing plans torn assunder (list and more background inside)...
posted by rzklkng on Jan 4, 2007 - 12 comments

If you've run out of places to pierce yourself, you can now pierce your car.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Oct 1, 2006 - 25 comments

Microcars are cool. (Earlier microcar post )
posted by mr_crash_davis on Sep 7, 2006 - 39 comments

Donk, box, or bubble?
posted by mr_crash_davis on Aug 18, 2006 - 13 comments

Safe at Any Speed With higher speed limits, our highways have been getting safer.
posted by caddis on Jul 21, 2006 - 79 comments

The Great Chinese Road Trip !
Beijing to Three Gorges Dam to Shennongjia to Nanyang etc.
posted by Tlogmer on Jul 2, 2006 - 8 comments

"We can run our car over any road that a man can take a team of horses and a wagon, providing we can get traction."

In 1903, to settle a $50 bet, Horatio Nelson Jackson became the first person to drive (and push) a car (a used Winton touring car, which had no roof or windshield) across the United States, accompanied by mechanic Sewall Crocker and Bud the bulldog. There were no gas stations, and there was less than 150 miles of paved road in the country. They blew a tire 15 miles into the trip and replaced it with their only spare.

Jackson's trip inspired others. In 1909, Alice Ramsey, accompanied by three female passengers, became the first woman to drive (and pull, and push) a car across the country. In 1915, Anita King, "The Paramount Girl," became the first woman to drive across the country solo. "Her only companions will be a rifle and a six shooter." And in 2003, Peter Kesling repeated Jackson's trip, in a 1903 Winton.
posted by kirkaracha on Sep 27, 2005 - 18 comments

Patent Room is a collection of early 20th Century industrial design culled from the archives of the U.S. Patent Office, featuring architecture, automobiles, toys, and trains.
posted by crunchland on Aug 3, 2005 - 11 comments

Portable parking spaces are the mind-bending Atomic-age outcome of centuries of humankind's best technology: they enable a bike to occupy the same perimeter as a car. They're arts and crafts, they're couture, they're vehicles of dissent [Flash, contains photos, project info, instructions on building your own PPS]. See the movie [11MB QuickTime]. A different take on the concept.
posted by Mo Nickels on Aug 1, 2005 - 52 comments

Spray-on Mud - So you own a big 4x4, and you feel a bit stupid that you only use it to take the children to school. You want people to think you're a bit country - that you need 6 tonnes of car to get you from A to B because you like to take it off-road every so often. You need Spray-on Mud apparently.
posted by The Ultimate Olympian on Jun 14, 2005 - 101 comments

After an American car company recreates its legendary 1960's Ferrari-beating race car, the first $150,000 2005 production car sells at a charity event for $400,000 over sticker price, (to a Microsoft-enriched individual, of course) and many months later, dealers are still asking up to $200,000 over sticker, or at least $150,000 over sticker. The "experts" at Edmunds say the car is selling for about $100,000 over sticker (seeing their "True Market Value" requires a few clicks from this page), and the widespread belief is that these admittedly amazing cars are virtually impossible to find and all selling for at least $100,000 over sticker. But using publicly available data, including completed eBay auctions and public documents, this non-commercial site shows the truth to be very different than the hype.
posted by escorter on May 13, 2005 - 32 comments

In an effort to undermine California's vehicle global warming law, the auto industry has been running an ad claiming today's vehicles are virtually emission free. The Union of Concerned Scientists says "poppycock on that!" and is seeking a FTC false-advertising investigation. Fortunately, no matter who's bullshooting, you can help wipe away the problem.
posted by danOstuporStar on Mar 16, 2005 - 30 comments

These images caused a great debate among my antipodean circle in London whether they are real or have been photoshopped. As far as we can gather it does exist. But it is surreal - and only in the UK surely would something like this be real.
posted by Samuel Farrow on Sep 8, 2004 - 85 comments

Vehicle Lifecycle Cost Analyzer
posted by alms on Aug 13, 2004 - 12 comments

Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles. An homage to Cuba's astonishing wealth of antique cars, revealing the time-worn splendor of classic American automobiles spanning eight decades.
posted by ZippityBuddha on Aug 5, 2004 - 6 comments

The Old Car Manual Project
posted by anastasiav on Jun 1, 2004 - 5 comments

"The car has...a headrest with a valley down the center for women who wear their hair in ponytails." At Volvo, an all-female project team is designing a concept car for women -- which makes for some interesting features (like a car without a hood) as well as some curious tales from a (temporarily) female-dominated workplace. More inside...
posted by serafinapekkala on Dec 18, 2003 - 53 comments

Golden Spirit. Née "The Homer?" Finnish cheerleading squad not included. Hat tip to the NY Times automotive section.
posted by Dick Paris on Nov 17, 2003 - 19 comments

Welcome to the International archive of pants cars. Why would anyone do this to a jag?
posted by srboisvert on Sep 20, 2003 - 17 comments

Do Cars force us to give up the outdoors? In jail, prisoners are stuck indoors and aren't allowed to go outside except for an hour at most. But are the car-driving residents of the average American suburb consigned to the same fate? "You go from the box garage in the house to the box car, driving down the street, not touching anything or being part of your environment" says Jessica Denevan. [More Inside]
posted by gregb1007 on Sep 16, 2003 - 70 comments

A bad seafood salad would have crippled the global auto industry. "Doesn't that new Nissan Maxima look like a larger-scale Saturn Ion? Could the Kia Sorento be a Lexus RX 300 in disguise? Doesn't the face of the Nissan Z look like that of the Toyota Celica (and its taillamps like those of the Lexus SC 430)? Is that the new Bentley — or the new Hyundai?" The sudden similarities in automobile design.
posted by the fire you left me on Jul 12, 2003 - 34 comments

10 Great Gay Cars For 2003. I'm into leather...interior.
posted by adrober on Jun 14, 2003 - 19 comments

The first 50 years of Fiat advertising images. Fiat has been a pioneer in the development and management of its corporate image through advertising. Famous artists as Dudovich, Codognato, Casorati and De Chirico have created beautiful posters and designs for this Italian giant of which 100 from the 1899 to 1950 period have been selected for their online historial archive. The oldest being this fantastic “Fabbrica Italiana Di Automobili” poster from 1899.
posted by riffola on Jun 8, 2003 - 7 comments

VW Beetle days coming to end. I had a '68 as my college car in the 70's. Girls loved it. Got me where I wanted to go (most of the time). The cute car of the 50's and 60's. Have one? Had one?
posted by hockeyman on Jun 6, 2003 - 25 comments

The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum ia an automotive jewel of a site. Post WW II, a war ravaged Europe became mobilized in part due to the efficient and affordable design of micro or bubble cars. Today, fans still pay loving tribute to brands like the BMW Isetta and the Messerschmitt Tiger. Interested in learning more? Join a club or register to attend upcoming meets. (via gordon.coale) - more -
posted by madamjujujive on May 3, 2003 - 17 comments

The General Motors EV1 electric car is soon to be a museum piece: "As California retreats from its strict pollution regulation, GM is taking the cars off the road when leases expire because it can no longer supply parts to repair them", according to this article. CARB (the California Air Resources Board) has proposed pushing back its Zero Emissions Vehicle timetable another two years [PDF link], to 2005. Is the success of the hybrid vehicle killing progress on the all-electric vehicle?
posted by mr_crash_davis on Apr 8, 2003 - 23 comments

Conjestion charging hits london £5 to take a car into the central zone (pdf) between 7am and 6.30pm Mon - Fri. It's all the work of controversial mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone Opinion is split: for and against. A small majority of Londoners seem in favour of it - traffic in London now is as slow as the days of the horse and cart! Day one seems quiet, though it is the school holidays! Is this the answer?
posted by brettski on Feb 17, 2003 - 39 comments

The Worst Modified Cars in the UK. Car modification is becoming a way of life for all trendy 17-25 year olds. When you can't afford a decent off-the-shelf car, you can just turn your cheap wreck into a sporty glory! Or check out an American car with a WOODEN body kit! Alternatively, just check out the ugliest cars in Britain or LoserCars, the worst cars in the USA! (Found on uk.rec.driving)
posted by wackybrit on Dec 23, 2002 - 21 comments

"This car isn't meant to be an SUV, a mini-van, or a sedan" ... becuase, of course, it's a station wagon (the body type that dare not speak its name), albeit a sleek new Chrysler Pacifica, now starring in double-page spreads in your finer magazines. The Europeans have never stopped making great wagons, but its been a while since anything less apalling than the Taurus Wagon came out of Detroit or Tokyo.
posted by MattD on Dec 18, 2002 - 49 comments

last year i saw the land rover, yesterday i saw the boot bus. while it looks to be in support of a small commercial site, the bus is a 'grassroots' adventure to document and share information gathered during their endless journeys in a VW bus. feel free to share your favorite 'common-man' travel resource.
posted by donkeysuck on Nov 14, 2002 - 3 comments

To lessen the clutter on their dashboard, a German auto manufacturer has put in a data screen and command input device that allows the driver to control 700 different aspects of their driving experience (including Navigation, Communication, Car Data, and Settings). More interestingly, there's an undocumented feature in the high-tech control system -- Press the right buttons in the right order and the car will launch you from a stop after revving the engine to 5,000 rpm... at least it will if you're in Europe, where performing the trick more than 15 times voids the car's warranty. Cars sold here in the US will only rev to 1,500 rpm. Supposedly, this is the first example of an Automotive Easter Egg.
posted by crunchland on Nov 1, 2002 - 17 comments