Nissan Leaf Charger on 2040-parts.com

Fiat's U.S. sales increasing with new ads, 500 Abarth interest

After a slow start, Fiat 500s are starting to move off of dealer lots, according to an article in the Detroit Free Press. Fiat executives claim that the public debut of the 2012 Fiat 500 Abarth at the Los Angeles auto show and some provocative advertising have led to increased interest in the Fiat brand. February was the best sales month yet for the model that Fiat chose to reintroduce Americans to sub-$100,000 Italian cars.

Cars in the living room--art or furniture?

It takes a special kind of person to put a $100,000 supercar in the living room instead of the garage, but we say if you have the means, go ahead and do it. A photo collage that appeared on www.home-designing.com last week showed Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis sitting in houses as showpieces, like the works of art they are. Our enthusiast side says the owners should be out driving these spectacular pieces of machinery, but something tells us that if you have a Gran Turismo in the rumpus room, there's probably another one in your garage, too.

Driven: BMW i8

When BMW unveiled the Vision EfficientDynamics concept at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show, we wrote: "for our money, it's the first time a major carmaker has really attempted to communicate ‘green' technology in an aesthetic sense." Fast-forward five years and we've swapped the show halls of the IAA for a beauty spot on the north-west coast of Scotland. And, while the car's name has changed to i8, our sentiment towards this genre- and era-defining car remains. Admittedly the production car's design execution hasn't received the universal praise of its concept forebears, but, on a remote outpost of the British Isles, a Protonic Blue i8 couldn't look more exotic.