Holden to stop making cars in Australia

Fresh from the news that General Motors (GM) will be pulling its Chevrolet brand out of mainstream markets in Europe, the automotive giant has now confirmed that its Australian subsidiary, Holden, will stop making cars Down Under by the end of 2017. It’s further bad news for GM, but even more so for the 2,900 Australian people who are set to lose their jobs as a result of the closure. And it’s a sad and disappointing end for the famous Holden marque, which can trace its history back as far as 1856.

One Lap of the Web: Mock the Week Edition

-- Mazda Europe designer Peter Birthwhistle talks about the future of Mazda: potential hybrid and electric powertrains for the Skyactiv-obsessed company, and how we'll all be driving Mazda-branded pods in the 22nd century. But he also mentions, rather interestingly, how certain Mazdas capture a quintessentially long-hood, RWD look -- and not just the Miata, either, which is RWD. No, it's the exhaust systems on those Skyactiv engines that force a longer, larger hood compartment, and the "long, flowing looks" not usually found on FWD engines.

Drivers fail car insurance test

On a 10-question, multiple-choice test asking respondents to choose correct definitions for basic auto insurance terms, the average score was 32 percent out of a possible 100 percent, according to insurance.com. The test group included 500 drivers of all ages and from various regions of the United States, but apparently no matter what the details, nobody really knows much about car insurance. When broken down into demographic segments, women outscored men by about 8 percentage points on average, and drivers in the south beat out those in the northeast by 10 percentage points.