1949 Plymouth Hood Ornament Nice! on 2040-parts.com

Fiat 500L gets a helping hand from P Diddy (video)

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs gives Fiat a helping hand with the 500L Fiat has done well to convince a trendy section of American car buyers that the Fiat 500 is a funky, cute and desirable runaround – especially if you live in the city. But having effectively put all their eggs in the 500 basket, they have the problem of convincing sceptical US car buyers that the much bigger Fiat 500L is an appealing – and much more practical – proposition for families. So Fiat has enlisted Sean Combs (P Diddy, Puff Daddy, Diddy or whatever moniker he’s using this week) to give the Fiat 500L a bit of much needed profile.

Volkswagen launches Car-Net in-car assistance system

Volkswagen has launched an in-car assistance system which will offer a number of convenience and diagnostic features. Not too dissimilar from some other systems already on the market -- such as BMW Assist, Mercedes-Benz'sMbrace, and GM's On-Star -- VW's system will offer roadside assistance, service appointment scheduling, and automatic crash notification. The latter triggers a call from the vehicle to a Car-Net customer specialist when the airbags in the car are deployed, which will then connect the occupants with a local public safety answering point, which can send emergency vehicles to the scene if needed.

Kia unveils KH/K9 rear-drive sedan photos on Facebook, asks for naming help

Unlike Peter Schreyer's striking Optima, which clearly thumbs its nose at his previous masters in Wolfsburg by showing them what the new Volkswagen Passat could've looked like, Kia's new full-size sedan has some serious post-Bangle BMW happening. The new rear-driver, built on the Hyundai Genesis platform, previously code-named KH and known in South Korea as K9 (yeah, we love old-school Dr. Who, too) is actually--