Ford King Ranch Hitch Cover Plug on 2040-parts.com

Terrafugia's next flying car to be a tiltrotor?

It took Bell, Boeing and the United States military decades to get the V-22 Osprey from idea to deployable platform. But with one flying car in the final stages of development, Terrafugia's looking to the military tiltrotor for inspiration. With their Transition model slated to begin deliveries in 2015 or 2016, Terrafugia's TF-X has hit the drawing board.

Volkswagen hits back, weighs making a bid for Porsche

Volkswagen is considering an audacious reverse-takeover bid for its majority shareholder, Porsche, in a twist in the drawn-out struggle for control between the two German carmakers. The Volkswagen Group's supervisory board is said to be weighing the possibility of purchasing Porsche AG, in a move that would relieve its holding company, Porsche SE, of massive debt that industry analysts suggest the company may not be able to fund should the world's financial crisis drag on well into 2010--a scenario put forward this week by the International Monetary Fund. The secret plan emerged as shareholders were set to convene at Volkswagen's annual meeting on Thursday, and it comes after Porsche revealed that it is carrying some 9 billion euros ($11.73 billion) in debt, most of it owing to interest on loans taken out to purchase its 50.8 percent stake in VW.

Watch: 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel video walkaround

Mike Cairns, chief engineer for Ram, says that people just can't help but pester him with the same damned question: “Why don't you put a diesel engine in a 1500?” Thanksgivings were, we imagine, brutal. The coming 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel ought to steer family dinners back to less abrasive topics, like partisan politics. Get an up-close look at the truck in this video walkaround hosted by none other than Cairns himself.