Martin Padgett, Editorial Director
Articles
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We've told you about Bugatti's Veyron L'Or Blanc, maybe the first supercar to elevate porcelain to the pantheon of supercar cues, right up there next to digital gauges and carbon-fiber trim. After...
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2012 Buick Regal GS: First DriveBuick has been transformed, and in automotive terms, it's a towering achievement. It took Toyota three generations to get its full-size trucks right. It took three decades for Mercedes to realize its cruise-control stalks were ergonomic gotchas. Buick's taken just four years to get from the days of...
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Peter Falk, RIP: May Columbo's Peugeot 403 Convertible Putter OnAs Columbo, Peter Falk played one of the more memorable detectives ever to ply the airwaves, but his trademark fedora and trenchcoat weren't his only distinctive calling cards. Can you imagine Elliott Stabler driving...a 1959 Peugeot 403 Convertible? As a fan site describes it, Columbo's Pug was...
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2012 Ford Fusion, F-150 Get SYNC App LinkTen new Ford vehicles will let drivers steer mobile apps by voice or by steering-wheel controls--while Ford promises it's actually less distracting that way.
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Flo Rida Has A Bugatti Veyron--And Now, A DUI To MatchRap phenom Flo Rida is riding a little lower today, now that his $1.7 million Bugatti is off-limits after an early-morning DUI arrest in Miami Beach. The 31-year-old Tramar Dillard (from Florida, hence "Flo Rida") had been showing off his driving skills at about 3:30 in the morning. Unfortunately...
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White Ninja Crashes Honda Accord Into Apple Store; Your Move, Mr. JobsLike you, we're fed up with waiting on Apple to put out, whether it's the white iPhone 4 or any iPad 2. Or maybe a Genius Bar waitron who doesn't give you the idiot look when you don't "live" TCP/IP protocols. The dude in the Honda Accord above obviously couldn't wait for Apple to get its act...
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If you're into tough little trucks with incongruously fancy touches, flick your browser over to Craiglist, to this restoration of a 1972 Datsun pickup.
It's a project done by Atlanta's Heritage...
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Indy 500 -Related Cars You Can Own Today: Found on AutoTraderIt's not often you get the chance to drive a piece of racing history, like in 1991 when A.J. Foyt sold off one of his original Indy 500-winning racecars. But you can own something that flies a little closer to the ground, something like one of these four cars that have a stronger connection to the...
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2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG Spy ShotsWe've shown you spy shots of the upcoming AMG-powered version of the 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK, but a fresh crop of photos reveals even more detail on the two-seat sportscar. While taking the clearest set of photos yet, our spies says the engine sounded like a V-8, which could mean the twin-turbo AMG...
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Ugly Car Guide: 1945 VW Studebaker Wiesel"We call it the tank," the ad proclaims, and if ever there was an ugly relic that best summed up the military-industrial history of two countries, it's this one. According to the sellers out of Littlerock, California, this here's a 1945 Studebaker Wiesel. As far as we can tell, it's a Robot...
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Ugly Car Guide: Toyota Celica SunchaserWe know it's officially convertible season and all, but while the tagline for this particularly rank Toyota Celica says "Sunchaser," we suggest you run away instead, quickly, in the opposite direction. The Sunchaser was an aftermarket conversion of the second-generation Celica--carved out of the...
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Audi Goes Mobile With New Roadside Assistance AppAudi's newest product offering comes to owners of the Apple iPhone, as well as BlackBerry and Android devices, in the form of the Audi Roadside Assistance app. The free app delivers some emergency and concierge services to users' phones--everything from locating dealers to connecting with the...
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It's a little early in the week to be cruising Craigslist for your next illicit car fling--or is it?
We won't judge, but we will go bro-to-bro to steer you clear of this 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass...
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Mercedes-Benz mbrace: Let Your Phone Do The Driving?Mercedes-Benz was late to the telematics game, but now that its mbrace system has been available for a while, it's looking like a trailblazer, compared to systems just hitting the market--Hyundai's Blue Link, Kia's UVO and Toyota's Entune, among them. At the recent New York Auto Show, we talked...
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Sirius XM Changing Lineups, Starting TomorrowStarting tomorrow, drivers who subscribe to SiriusXM in their cars are going to find a changed landscape on their tuners. Effective May 4, SiriusXM says they've "re-ordered our channels to make it easier for you to quickly find what you want to hear." The new lineups make better sense of the...
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Ugly Car Guide: Citroen CX25Every so often, we bring you the Ugly Car Guide--the spotters' Bible to the stuff that'll make you heave in a parking lot even if you haven't been up 'till 3 a.m. dualing Jaegerbombs and butterscotch-pudding shots. This week, Ugly Car Guide comes to you from the Green Mountain State of Vermont...
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Saab Gets (Another) Lifeline, And Possibly A Chinese PartnerSaab's rollercoaster backstory took another climb today as CEO Victor Muller announced a short-term loan to get the company's production lines running again. Nearly a month ago, Saab was forced to stop building new vehicles as it ran out of working capital to pay parts suppliers. Without payments...
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2012 BMW 6-Series Coupe Priced From $83,875; M6 ConfirmedBMW says its new 2012 6-Series Coupe--by the numbers, the 650i--will be priced from $83,875, including destination, when it goes on sale later in the year. The new Coupe is the star at a press preview today in Baja Mexico, where BMW confirms the hardtop two-door will go on sale late in the summer...
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Like their MINI cousins before them, the 2011 BMW lineup will have access to Pandora, the music-streaming app that's colonizing car audio systems from Ford to Toyota.
Bringing Pandora service into...
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2012 Aston Martin Virage: The DriveNo one needs an Aston Martin in their lives, but life is a damn sight better when you have one. This is what all the great philosophers--Deepak Chopra, Dr. Andrew Weil, Paul John Teutel--meant by enlightenment. I'm cruising some little Spanish town with my own senior-citizen section cheering me on...
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Toyota's Entune To Bow In Prius V; Camry, Tacoma In FallWhen the 2012 Toyota Prius V arrives sometime, we hope, this year--it's been delayed by the aftermath of the Sendai tsunami--it will be one of the first Toyota vehicles to showcase Entune, the automaker's new telematics service. With Entune, which was unveiled earlier this year at the 2011 CES...
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Hyundai Blue Link: Next Step, The CloudHyundai takes its first steps into the buzzy field of in-car telematics with Blue Link, which bows later this year in the 2012 Sonata sedan and the new 2012 Veloster sport coupe. Blue Link uses the Web, human operators, and data hardware inside the car to fuse mapping and mobile services and enable...
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2012 Mazda Mazda3 Goes SkyActiv; CX-5 Gets RealHere's the 2012 Mazda Mazda3, a mid-cycle refresh of the current compact sedan, joined on stage at the New York auto show by the production-bound Minagi concept crossover. The new Mazda3 is one of the first vehicles from the company to get SKYACTIV, the "umbrella" name for a suite of greener engine...
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Scion FR-S: Live from the New York Auto ShowIt's been in gestation for...well, forever, it seems. But today at the 2011 New York Auto Show, the rear-drive, Subaru-powered Toyota sports coupe took another step toward production as the Scion FR-S Concept. Scion president Jack Hollis says FR-S could stand for "friggin' really sweet," but in...
Martin Padgett