K Source/fit System 62644g Door Mirror Driver Side on 2040-parts.com

Will your next new car stop itself?

Last week in Park City, Utah, a group of us were discussing the chutzpah that some manufacturers have in charging hundreds of dollars for outboard mirrors that dip downward when the vehicle's placed in reverse. The consensus was, “Since the electric motors in the mirrors are already there, and the computers know the car's set to back up, it's only a line of code. A very expensive line of code.” The European Union seems to be thinking along the same lines.

U.S. Transportation Department opens probe of 2010 Toyota Prius brakes

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday that it is opening a formal investigation of the 2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid to determine whether the vehicle suffers momentary loss of braking capability while traveling over bumpy surfaces. NHTSA, an agency that is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has received 124 consumer complaints, including four reports of crashes.

Fords at SEMA – A Preview

Ford has the biggest display space of any manufacturer at SEMA – 27,000 square feet – and plans to pack it with every kind of truck, tuner and Transit Connect. Yes, this year at SEMA Ford will have ten customized Transit Connect small business haulers in a celebration it's calling “Vandemonium.” So far we have a picture of just of one of them, the “TC – Pentech,” a Transit Connect with two driving simulators in the back. Info on the other nine hasn't been released yet but suffice to say Vandemonium could make the Transit Connect the PC Cruiser of the new millennium.