Omc Cobra 2.3 L Waterneck #912479 on 2040-parts.com

Toyota Yaris (2011): first official pictures

Toyota has issued these first pictures of its new Yaris supermini. It's the third-generation Toyota Yaris and seems to mix some of the Vauxhall Corsa creases with the proportions of a Renault Clio. It's a pert, very Euro piece of design, neatly incorporating the latest Toyota motifs - and you can judge for yourself when it goes on sale here in summer 2011.

Watch the sad, final moments of a crusher-bound heap

Automotive wrecking yards are good places to reflect on the real-world values of heavily depreciated vehicles versus global current scrap-metal prices, and to see which cars have suddenly had the fix-it-versus-total-it line moved by insurance companies (the early-21st-century Subaru Legacy Outback, for example, appeared in large numbers in high-turnover wrecking yards just during the last year, as fairly minor collision damage on these cars is no longer worth fixing). You'll see the things that a car's last owner does in a desperate attempt to sell (or at least live with) an increasingly decrepit heap (as we learned in "Repo Man," you really will find a Little Tree in every car). During a recent trip to a San Jose, Calif., yard, I encountered this sad yet strangely compelling scene.

Classified Catch: 1979 Dodge frog dystopia shag carpet molester van

From the bowels of the earth--California via Texas, in this case--comes one of the most wonderfully appalling automotive creations we've seen in quite some time. Feast your eyes on the Van. Originally birthed as a 1979 Dodge B200, this claimed 31,000-mile example boasts a two-barrel carb 318 bolted to the requisite Torqueflite automatic, Cragar mags and a CB for callin' out the smokeys.