EV maker Coda trims staff

Not much more could go wrong for electric-car maker Coda, which has struggled to sell its four-door EV in the United States since officially launching it here in March. But Web reports, first seen at www.plugincars.com, say the company laid off 50 employees, or 15 percent of its workforce, last week, mostly in the sales and marketing departments. Efforts by Autoweek to contact Coda have not been successful.

Audi supercars

By Ben Oliver 28 July 2008 12:35 Audi is the fledgling player in the supercar arena. Yes, it's shown numerous concepts over the years, but it wasn't until the 2007 R8 arrived that we could actually drive a supercar with Ingolstadt's four rings writ large on the grille. And what an effort: straight out of the box, the R8 has delivered a car with the poise of a 911 Carrera 4S with the ease-of-use of a Honda NSX.

Build your Mini Cooper Hardtop

We suspect that your initial inclination upon the discovery of a new model's configurator is to throw gobs and gobs of equipment at a car to see just how high the price will go. After all, that's what we tend to do. It's especially satisfying with German automakers — notably Porsche and BMW — who seem to have turned option pricing into something bordering on absurdist theatre.