Honda Xr200r Air Box on 2040-parts.com

Project Car Hell, Rock-and-Stick-Simple Off-Road Trucks Edition: Land Rover or Scout?

Last week, the Hell Garage Demons went back 100 years for a couple of challenging centenarian projects, and the temperature of the Automotive Lake of Fire—conveniently located between the junkyard that always closes five minutes before you show up and the parts store whose counter guys have never heard of your make of car—accordingly rose another few hundred degrees. This week, we've decided to go with the kind of vehicles you'll want when society collapses and "rugged individualists" will need to drive many miles down a road of skulls and broken whiskey bottles to barter rat pelts for handy Clovis points. That's right, simple off-road trucks with few moving parts and a heritage of simplicity—none of this complicated computerized crap, modern alloys and independent suspension (at either end) here, just a steel box with enough running gear to make it move.

Elio three-wheel prototype revealed

Elio Motors unveiled a prototype of its two-passenger, three-wheeled vehicle Wednesday, confirming the all-new vehicle will have a $6,800 base price when it goes on sale in June 2014. Paul Elio, company founder and CEO, said the vehicle is targeted at first-time or cash-strapped buyers, as well as for families who already have a family car and are seeking something inexpensive for daily commuting. Its sub $7,000-base price makes it almost half the price of the cheapest car in the U.S.

First customers are key to EV sales success, execs say

Word of mouth is a key element to generating buyers for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Today, it's the early adapters, tech-savvy buyers who are embracing the technology and buying the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt and the battery-powered Nissan Leaf. But for these vehicles and similar models to go mainstream, anxiety about the technology needs to be eliminated.