2009-2011 Nissan Pathfinder Right Headlight on 2040-parts.com

Subaru Forester tops small SUVs in new crash test

The Subaru Forester and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport have won top honors from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, becoming the only small SUVs to ace the group's new "small overlap" crash test. The Forester, which Subaru redesigned for the 2014 model year, earned Top Safety Pick+ accolades by scoring a "good" rating on the small overlap test, in which the front corner of the vehicle on the driver's side strikes a five-foot-tall barrier at 40 mph. "With the redesigned Forester, Subaru's engineers set out to do well in our new test, and they succeeded," Joe Nolan, vice president for vehicle research at IIHS, said in a statement.

From Hooniverse: Spintires is a Soviet trucker video game

If you’ve ever spent an entire workday watching YouTube clips of Soviet-era logging trucks traversing the wilds of Siberia (who hasn’t?), then you’ve no doubt spent even more time cruising Russian classifieds for vehicles with three-letter names ending in AZ. Now, you may not have to import an eight-wheeled Russian monster truck to get an idea of what it might be like to run roughshod over some pristine forest. As our friends at Hooniverse report -- in great detail -- there’s a Kickstarter on and it’s aimed at bringing Spintires into reality.

Opel Ampera plug-in hybrid design sketches leak out

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 February 2009 09:28 These pictures allegedly reveal the production-spec Opel/Vauxhall Ampera a fortnight ahead of its Geneva show debut. A Spanish website claims to have stumbled across the technical design sketches at a European patent office and – if authentic – they spill the beans on the new plug-in hybrid electric concept car that’s bound for a showroom near you within two years. The Ampera is Opel/Vauxhall’s version of the Chevrolet Volt, the breakthrough car that could just save GM if it survives its current crisis.