AUTOS
Volvo announced today that it has acquired 100 percent of the tuning firm Polestar, maker of the divine and incredibly rare hot-rod Volvo S60 and V60 Polestar. This means more Polestars for everyone, which is excellent news for the tiny, fiercely loyal tribe of high-performance-Volvo fans worldwide. – We’re not joking about the rarity factor: Volvo built only 750 Polestar-tuned S60s and V60s for 2015, a mere 120 of which were brought to U.S. shores—80
-The deterioration of our asphalt roads poses a long-term maintenance problem, requiring extensive digging and construction (and horrible ruts and potholes when they simply aren’t maintained). So why not make roads out of easy-to-replace plastic slabs? – Working with the city of Rotterdam, a Dutch company called VolkerWessels has recently proposed exactly that. It wants to develop and construct plastic roads that are as easy to remove as they are
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—
––––––––––––––––––––––––—
– The Power Wagon has been around in various forms going back 60 years, but never has Dodge made one quite like this 1949 Power Wagon. – The original Dodge Power Wagon was introduced in 1945 as a civilian version of Dodge’s military WC series of trucks. Designed as a utility truck, it came standard with four-wheel drive and was powered by a 3.8-liter six-cylinder engine. – This truck, however,
-Google’s koala-esque self-driving car is definitely aiming for “cute” with its design. A bubbly little pod that looks like it should be emitting Jetsons noises as it trundles harmlessly through a picturesque Silicon Valley campus, it’s pretty obvious that the autonomous vehicle’s designers wanted it to come across as adorably inoffensive. – And this past weekend, Google brought its latest prototypes to Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain
-We knew it had to happen eventually, and now it’s here: Jeremy Clarkson has tweeted that he’ll soon take his very last lap of the Top Gear track. This really makes it feel like the end of an era. – – Right. About to do my last ever lap of the Top Gear test track. What car should I use? pic.twitter.com/xbaZkEi3sE – — Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) July 13, 2015 –
We’ve known for some time that, after its one-year hiatus from the U.S. market, Lotus will resume sales here this December with its more powerful and newly safety compliant 2016 Evora 400 coupe, which made its official debut in March at the Geneva auto show. We even know how much it will cost. Now, thanks to a report in Automotive News, we have learned that it will be followed six
– According to a report in Automotive News, Nissan will bring its European-market Qashqai crossover to North America, to slot below the Rogue as a smaller compact entry. – The Qashqai was recently redesigned after the debut version’s highly successful six-year run. The British-built crossover is offered in Europe with two diesels and a 113-hp 1.2-liter gasoline-powered four. A 161-hp 1.6-liter gas four-cylinder recently joined the lineup—presumably that would be the engine for our market.
Add another model to the ever-increasing roster of vehicles being recalled for potentially dangerous Takata airbags: Automotive News reports that the 2008-2010 Dodge Challenger is being recalled to fix the driver’s airbag, manufactured by Takata. – In all, 88,346 Challengers built between September 2007 and October 2010 are affected by the recall, according to the NHTSA. The newly added Challengers did not appear on parent company FCA’s original list of Takata
