Toyota Corolla Camry Tercel Paseo Geo Prizm Stainless Steel Antenna on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Miniature mania, police-trimmed BMW Isetta and tweeting at automakers

-- Michael Paul Smith doesn't have a fancy camera. What he does have is a fuzzy beard, a lot of time on his hands, and the ability to create amazingly realistic scenes using scale-model cars and a handful of tiny model buildings. Smith's secret to bringing his nostalgic visions to life?

CES: GM to open the dashboard to developers

At last year's Autoweek Design Forum, father of the iPod and Nest Labs co-founder Tony Fadell suggested that automakers concentrate on designing and building cars, leaving handset makers to handle infotainment. The latest announcements from Ford and GM -- in conjunction with the International CES -- suggest that automakers would rather treat the dashboard space as a handset. Yesterday, Dearborn, Mich., announced the Ford Developer Program, which opens up Sync to outside application development; now General Motors has announced a similar initiative.

Volvo C30 Electric: A severe cold-weather bashing

Voilvo has been cold weather testing the electric C30 at temperatures as low as -20C We do have more than a degree of scepticism when it comes to electric cars. Actually, it’s not the electric cars that cause us to be sceptical, more so the claims – or a lack of transparency - by car makers, which gets right up our nose. There’s an implication that the electric car is a replacement for the ICE car.