Window Switch Audi A6 1995 95 387890 on 2040-parts.com

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.

BMW's new i concepts revealed

It was meant to be a modest, intimate affair for a select group of media. Yet as we flew to Frankfurt the day before the unveiling of BMW's i3 and i8 concept cars, it became quite clear that this was not to be the case. With hundreds of journalists flown in from all over, a live web broadcast to the rest of the globe, and, for the first time in history, the entire BMW board present in one room, project i is clearly vital to BMW's future product strategy.

New Lotus Elan revealed

The new Lotus Elan I know, you’re starting to get bored and wondering how on earth Lotus can suddenly churn out a range of models that are seemingly poles apart from where they are, and expect it to be credible. But they’be done it. And they’re serious.