Pioneer Fra321 Auto Trans Flexplate on 2040-parts.com

Oh, puh-leeze: Lighten up, people

Rarely do I come to the defense of a competitive member of the fourth estate, but the people at Car and Driver are getting the hooey knocked out of them by everyone from "professional media representatives" to the NASCAR faithful. What was CD's egregious sin? Its editors concocted an April Fool's joke with them good ol' boys Chrysler and General Motors as its punchline.

Porsche uses phone-formatted bar codes to connect with customers

Porsche is harnessing the power of smartphones, using Microsoft Tag bar codes to provide dealership customers with unique information about the cars they're looking at. Buyers can scan the square stickers with a properly equipped phone, and the application will take them to dedicated microsites where they can see stats, videos and pictures of the car, along with audio clips of a flat-six engine revving up. Through the microsite, buyers can provide contact info for a follow-up call from Porsche salespeople.

GM to retool factory for new Impala

General Motors plans to idle the plant where it assembles the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid for four weeks starting next month to retool for production of the all-new 2014 Impala and a small number of 2013 Malibus. GM will close its Detroit-Hamtramck plant from Sept. 17 until Oct.