Marpac Premier Elite Series Hour Meter on 2040-parts.com

First Sight: Holden VE Commodore and Statesman

GM Holden last week launched its biggest program ever, the $1 billion all-new Holden VE Commodore range. Designed at Holden's Port Melbourne design center, the 4th generation Commodore is the first all-new model of the series to be fully designed and engineered in Australia. Previous generations of Commodore since 1978 have always been based on lengthened and widened Opel large car platforms of the day but since the demise of the European Omega in 2003, GM lacked a suitable rear-wheel-drive donor platform for a new Commodore, hence the clean sheet approach for the latest VE model.

Video: Jaguar XF clay model gets axed

Jaguar recently gave a trio of clay modelers the task of deconstructing the original model of their carefully and lovingly sculpted XF sedan by handing them axes and sledgehammers in front of a camera crew. The modelers – dressed in black t-shirts and jeans – are shown taking apart the model piece by piece, perhaps taking out their frustration with designers who feel the need to get a little too hands-on with their artisan handiwork. Perhaps some other car manufacturers could using this as inspiration to destroy some of their cars, maybe – naming no names – before reaching production.

Hyundai drops out of shrinking Tokyo auto show

The incredibly shrinking Tokyo auto show just got even smaller. Hyundai Motor Co., the last major foreign automaker which was scheduled to participate in next month's show, has decided to pull out with just weeks to go, organizers say. “Hyundai called last week and orally confirmed their intent to cancel,” said Toyokazu Ishida, who administers the international exhibition for the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.