The fall and rise of the budget car

Twenty years ago, the classic bargain brands like Lada seemed to be going the same way as the Soviet empire that spawned them. Woefully dated and badly made, only a weirdo would have bought a new Lada rather than a second-hand model from Ford, Vauxhall or VW. However, one of the big trends in the car industry today is the re-emergence of bargain cars.

Heifer fuel

Unlike most people, when Michael Doyle drives past a herd of cattle grazing in a field, he doesn't see future tenderloins or T-bones. He sees fuel. The company Doyle co-owns, North Star Biofuels, is about to start production of biodiesel at a new $15 million, 20,000-square-foot plant in Watsonville, Calif., about 60 miles south of San Francisco.

Futuristic, self-balancing Gyro-X to be restored

Alex Tremulis was an eclectic visionary who saw the future in swoops, curls, bubble tops, and hand-formed metal. At the precarious age of 19, without any training, he landed at Cord Automobile and helped develop the legendary Model 810. In the 1940s he penned the Tucker and the Chrysler Thunderbolt.