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  • Banana car

    Plastic is one of mankind's great inventions. It's more or less impossible to get by in the modern world without owning or using something made from one type of plastic or another - from the computer you're reading this on to food packaging and beyond. Cars, too. Have a quick think about the car sitting outside your house and how much of it is constructed from plastics of some sort. The engine bay and interior will be full of them. If you happen to drive a Smart ForTwo, even much of the bodywork is constructed from plastic. Bottom line: Plastics are big business. The only trouble is, they...

  • UberCab app
    Packing For SXSW? Grab These Two Apps For Motoring Around Town

    Back in the late-mid-80s, South By Southwest was a humble music festival. Then someone -- possibly Al Gore -- invented the internet, Austin became a second Silicon Valley, and today, SXSW (as it's now known) is a jumble of music, film, and interactive technology. For the traveler, SXSW is also a...

  • Renault R-Space Concept
    2011 Geneva Motor Show: Technology And Design At Swiss Show

    The Geneva Motor Show is one of the top auto shows each year for new cars, concepts and car technology, and 2011 was no exception. Under the shining lights and amongst the glamorous girls were some pretty hot ideas and cool technology, so here we've chosen our favorite gadgets, details and tech...

  • SF Bay Area Wussies, or, Ultra-Urban Mobility In Action. Photo by Matt H.
    Reader Pic: When Your Segway Isn't Enough, Get Smart

    This driver's urban ultra-mobility cocktail is made of one part Smart car and one part all-terrain Segway. It also has a dash of crazy, for flavor. We're not exactly sure what's going on here, except that we kind of like it and kind of hate it all at once. Perhaps that has something to do with the...

  • 2011 Smart Forspeed Concept live photos
    Smart Forspeed Concept Live Photos: 2011 Geneva Motor Show

    Lately, the Smart brand has been focusing more on electrified vehicles, releasing its Smart Fortwo Electric Drive minicar and following this up with concept versions of an electric bike and scooter. Now, at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, Smart has unveiled its Forspeed electric roadster concept...

  • Smart Forspeed Concept
    Smart Forspeed Concept: 2011 Geneva Motor Show

    Following on from its Escooter electric two-wheeler concept at last year’s Paris Auto Show, Smart has rolled out a new open-top ‘speedster’ based on the brand’s Fortwo Electric Drive minicar. The new vehicle is called the Forspeed and it’s scheduled to make its world...

  • First Smart ForTwo Electric Drive with Roger Penske and Smart USA president Jill Lajdziak, Jan 2011

    Penske Automotive Group has, until now, been the exclusive distributor of the Smart brand (consisting entirely of the Fortwo minicar and its new electric variant) in the U.S. But it won't be for much longer, as Mercedes-Benz is taking over operation of the brand's sales by the end of the second quarter of this year. The move is premised on the integration into Mercedes-Benz USA's sales network, to grow the brand and reduce overhead. Bringing the small cars under the Mercedes umbrella will also benefit the marque's federal fuel economy ratings, according to Roger Penske, head of the PAG, and...

  • Smart Expressions Valentine's wraps
    Nothing Says Romantic Like A Valentine's Day Smart Car

    Whilst the rest of the world is either swooning in love and chocolate or shuffling around cursing all the happy couples and entertaining thoughts that Al Capone probably had the right approach in 1929, Smart USA is offering drivers of the ForTwo city car the chance to wrap it in romantic messages...

  • 19 teenage girls squeeze into Smart Fortwo
    Video: 19 Teenage Girls Set World Record By Squeezing Into Smart Fortwo

    If you’ve ever complained about having to ride around in a cramped car, spare a thought for the 19 teenage girls in this video who squeezed into one of the world’s smallest cars, the two-seater Smart Fortwo. The Pakistani girls set a new world record for the ‘Most people crammed...

  • 2012 Mercedes-Benz B-Class spy shots
    Report: Renault Engines To Power Next-Gen Mercedes-Benz A-Class And B-Class

    Last April Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and Renault-Nissan formerly signed an agreement to purchase shares in each other’s company and cooperate on future products. The deal would guarantee access to Renault’s range of compact gasoline and turbodiesel engines for...

  • 2010 Cadillac Aera Concept
    Cadillac Aera And Smart 454 Take Out 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge

    This past week’s 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show saw the Cadillac Aera and Smart 454 concepts take out the annual event’s competitive Design Challenge, which every year sees the studios of the major automakers battling it out to see who can come up with the best automotive design for a given...

  • 2010 Smart Escooter Concept
    2010 Paris Auto Show Preview: Smart Escooter Concept

    Last year we saw the C1-E electric scooter concept from BMW, and just yesterday MINI dropped images of its new Scooter E, and now rival company Daimler has released details of yet another electric scooter concept: the 2010 Smart Escooter. Set to debut next week at the 2010 Paris Auto Show, the new...

  • Smart Expressions vinyl-wrap option - plaid pattern

    HOLY CRAP, YOU GUYS! DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS? Don't stare, stupid monkeys. Just be quiet and act naturally.... Now pretend you're looking at something else -- that fire hydrant, maybe, or that halal vendor who's munching on a corndog between customers. Okay, now look over there. You see who that is, crossing the street with the Chanel bag? I KNOW! Kate Whosiewhatsits! Maybe "Hawn"? No, I don't think it's "Hawn", even though it should be, because she's Goldie Hawn's daughter or something. Kate...oh, Kate Whatsherface. Used to date A-Rod. Anyway: her. Quick: take a photo of us! I don't care if...

  • CEOs of Renault-Nissan and Daimler
    Official: Daimler And Renault-Nissan Announce Partnership

    Renault-Nissan and Daimler today announced a broad strategic cooperation to share everything from engines, platforms and even procurement services, and in the process potentially save billions of dollars for all parties involved. The two groups also announced an equity exchange that will give...

  • BYD e6 electric crossover, Electric Avenue, 2010 Detroit Auto Show
    Calling All College Students: Tell Us Your Automotive Campus Event

    We Want Your Help To Cover Stories College Goers Want To Read

  • daimler smart car2go 002
    Daimler Launching car2go Smart ForTwo Rental Program In Texas

    The car2go rental pilot program will kick off in Austin, Texas later this year.

  • Smart ForTwo Edition Highstyle
    Edition Highstyle Adds Extra Touch Of Class To Smart ForTwo

    The 'Edition Highstyle' is the latest special edition ForTwo, and offers upgraded materials and features.

  • Mercedes S400 Hybrid
    Report: BMW, Daimler to end hybrid partnership

    BMW and Daimler have been working more and more closely together over the past several years, especially since the need to share costs and improve bottom lines has become so sharp in 2009. But despite ongoing partnerships for vehicle safety technology, the hybrid partnership that spawned the...

  • 2009 Lexus LX 570

    When it comes to luxury-car quality, taste often plays as big a role as fact, but J.D. Power tries to boil the issue down to a simple metric: problems per 100 cars. The resulting ranks are dubbed the Initial Quality Study, and used to guide consumer decisions. As usual, Lexus rates at the very top, but this year Cadillac has shot up the charts, beating out some of the German competition. The overall initial quality title went to Lexus with its brand-wide average of just 84 problems per 100 cars, though the Lexus LX led the way for the whole industry with just 52 problems per 100 cars. Lexus's...

  • brabus smart fortwo electric drive 003
    Brabus electric Smart car features electronic exhaust noise simulator

    It's often cited as an advantage of electric cars, but it's also one of the biggest potential danger zones: silence. It makes for peaceful - if somewhat eerie - cruising at speed, but it also poses a huge risk to pedestrians and other road users. So Brabus is doing something about it in the case of...

  • Tesla Roadster
    Tesla delivers 500th Roadster

    Having recently formed a partnership with German auto giant Daimler, Tesla this week has announced more good news with the company delivering its 500th all-electric Roadster model to a customer in New Jersey. The lucky individual and latest to get their hands on one of the popular Roadsters is a...

  • Smart ForTwo
    Smart offering free upgrade to fix balky ForTwo transmissions

    Questions about safety, affordability, ultimate value and even performance are all well-worn topics for fans of the Daimler-built Smart ForTwo minicar, but to date mechanical problems haven't been a hot topic - aside from balky transmissions. Now Daimler has decided to fix the problem by offering a...

  • Mercedes Benz C-Class versus Smart ForTwo
    Small cars rated poorly in new IIHS crash test

    The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has just come to a conclusion that we suspect many motorists have known for years - when it comes to car safety, size does matter. Conducting tests pitting micro cars against larger midsize vehicles, the IIHS found that in many cases the smaller...

  • Daimler car2go
    Daimler bringing car2go vehicle sharing program to Texas

    Daimler commenced trials of a new mobility concept called the ‘car2go project’ in Ulm, Germany, in October last year in an attempt to provide a solution for increasing traffic volume in urban areas. The company is now expanding the program to the U.S., and plans to start the latest...

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