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VIDEO: Classic-car driver training encourages teens to pilot vintage iron

Thirty lucky kids learned to drive classic cars at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich., on Friday in celebration of Collector Car Appreciation Day. Hagerty Insurance partnered with local classic-car owners for the inaugural event, which aimed to foster an interest in vintage cars among young drivers and to introduce them to manual transmissions. Hagerty said today's teens rarely have access to manuals, since about 90 percent of new cars have automatic transmissions.

Cash for clunkers: Is it ready for prime time in America?

One proposed solution to prop up new-car sales in the United States involves paying bonuses to owners of older vehicles who send their cars to the scrapyard and buy new ones. Proponents say that not only does the auto industry benefit, but so does the environment, as emissions decrease and fuel economy typically improves in newer models. Critics, however, say that scrapping older vehicles hurts collectors by reducing the number of older models available and also hurts those least able to afford to buy newer vehicles by driving up the price of used cars.

Mercedes-Benz to cut production time, halve number of vehicle architectures

Mercedes-Benz is restructuring its global production network to cut the average production time for its models to 30 hours by 2015 from 43 in 2008. "We have increased productivity by 2 percent a year over the last few years. We will be accelerating our productivity efforts," Mercedes production boss Wolfgang Bernhard said during an investor conference that was part of the automaker's plant opening in Kecskemet, Hungary, on Thursday.