2011 Bmw 535i on 2040-parts.com

Few cars perform well in new insurance group crash test

The insurance industry has unveiled a new, tough frontal-crash test. The first batch of 11 luxury and near-luxury cars put to the test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety didn't fare so well--only three were rated as good or acceptable. The test rams the front corner of a car into a fixed barrier at 40 mph.

The Chevrolet El Camino turns 55 today

When your author was 14 years old, his first car, a 1975 Chevrolet El Camino, arrived in his parents' driveway. You can read all about that particular swivel-seated malaise special elsewhere on this site. Today, that is not so important.

Recall is last linked to fire hazard, Ford says

Ford Motor Co.'s new recall of vehicles that pose potential fire hazards will be its last because the latest action covers all remaining cars and trucks with cruise-control switches made by Texas Instruments, even if those switches don't pose safety risks, a Ford spokesman said today. "We did this to reassure customers and make sure there will be no future actions connected to this," spokesman Wes Sherwood said in an interview. "We've gone to extra lengths to include both vehicles with risks and those that don't show risk." Yesterday, Ford announced a recall of 4.5 million vehicles--its eighth in the past decade involving cars and trucks with faulty cruise-control deactivation switches.