White Truck Bedliner Gator Guard Ii Bed Liner Kit on 2040-parts.com

Will your next new car stop itself?

Last week in Park City, Utah, a group of us were discussing the chutzpah that some manufacturers have in charging hundreds of dollars for outboard mirrors that dip downward when the vehicle's placed in reverse. The consensus was, “Since the electric motors in the mirrors are already there, and the computers know the car's set to back up, it's only a line of code. A very expensive line of code.” The European Union seems to be thinking along the same lines.

BMW Concept X5 eDrive: Driving impressions

We got a chance to sample the BMW Concept X5 eDrive, a plug-in hybrid version of the BMW X5 luxury SUV, ahead of its appearance at BMW's New York auto show press conference. While comprehensive driving impressions will have to wait for a longer test, we were able to get some quick impressions of the new BMW hybrid at the company's New Jersey headquarters. The X5 eDrive made short work of the hills and curves around BMW's campus, with all mechanical systems working pretty seamlessly.

Infiniti EV put on hold to concentrate on volume sales

An Infiniti EV based on the Nissan LEAF (previewed by the LE Concept above) have been put on hold Nissan’s luxury arm, Infiniti, is on a global push to try and make inroads in to the dominance of Lexus in the luxury Japanese car arena, and has ambitious plans to be selling 500,000 cars a year by 2017. But Infiniti sold only a third of that total in 2012, so any chance of hitting the lofty target of 500k cars in the next five years means they must concentrate on volume cars, not niche cars like a Nissan LEAF based EV. That means the LEAF-based Infiniti LE EV Concept we saw at the New York Auto Show in 2012 will stay as a concept for the foreseeable future as Infiniti boss, Johan de Nysschen, seeks volume cars that will push the brand forward and bring proper sales numbers.