Filed under: Motorsports, Government/Legal, Celebrities

Some people we’ll just never understand. Like those who’ll look at a high-performance sports car and ask, “But where are you going to drive it?” Or the cops in Scottsdale, Arizona, who have given a speeding ticket to Danica Patrick yet again.

Never mind that for many police officers, a pretty girl batting her eyes would be enough to, um, get off…with a warning. And Danica’s a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, for crying out loud. But the IRL’s perennial favorite driver, former rookie of the year, winner of the Japan 300 and potential future F1 pilot was only going 54 miles-per-hour. Granted, that it was in a 35 mph zone, but come on. Danica’s used to going 200 with her silky hair on fire. The last time she got pulled over in Scottsdale (home to her sponsor GoDaddy.com), she was ticketed for going 57 in a 40 zone. We’ve heard it before, nobody’s above the law, yadda yadda yadda…. but somehow, this just ain’t right.

[Source: azcentral.com]

Raising Arizona: Danica gets another speeding ticket originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Crossovers/CUVs, Hatchbacks, Suzuki

Following in the footsteps of its European twin, the Fiat Sedici, Suzuki is slightly reworking its SX4 Crossover for next year. You’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice – all of the revisions are quite subtle – but the whole front fascia has been slightly remodeled. The most obvious change is to the grille area, which now has a slightly smaller opening that’s flanked by new concave recesses for the fog lights. Apparently, the faux rear skid-plate has been redone as well. Like we said: minor, discreet changes.

Inside, the Sedici has been upgraded with dual zone climate controls, so it would make sense that the SX4 would benefit from this new feature as well. We don’t expect any powertrain changes, which is just fine with us. We thought that the SX4 was plenty peppy with its standard 2.0-liter DOHC engine’s 143 horsepower and 136 lb-ft of torque when we had the sedan model in our garage earlier this year.

[Source: Carscoop]

Spy Shots: Suzuki SX4 getting facelift too originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Chrysler, LLC.

Every year, Chrysler rewards its top dealers with an all-expenses paid trip to some exotic location. But with the financial situation at the privately-owned automaker in the crapper, the Pentastar decided to cancel this year’s excursion. Chrysler spokesman Stuart Schorr told the Detroit News that “the state of the market and the financial challenges the company faces, it made sense not to hold this year’s reward meeting.” We’re sure the decision to cancel the trip to the Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico was monetarily motivated, but there are likely other motivating factors as well.

There is the matter of the $4 billion loan from the federal government that kept the doors open at the Auburn Hills, MI automaker. Chrysler already learned that spending money to thank Americans was probably a bad idea. The bigger lesson likely came from insurance giant AIG, who received major backlash for spending $440,000 to pamper top sales executives just days after receiving billions from the government. It’s good to see that Chrysler cancelled what sounds like a very fun trip, because the domestic auto industry doesn’t need any more negative press.

[Source: Detroit News]

Chrysler scraps dealer awards meeting in Mexico originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Car Buying, Time Warp, Government/Legal, Alfa Romeo, Australia, Humor

Studying history can be a tiresome pursuit, but once in a while something comes completely out of left field to make you sit up and pay attention. This is one of those moments. The Australian national archives have released government documents which reveal that, in 1978, the Australian government was prepared to endorse a deal that would have… wait for it… traded beef for cars. Alfa Romeos, to be precise.

To be fair, the deal wasn’t to trade sides of beef for actual cars. No, that would come too close to actually, you know… making sense. This deal would have traded 7,000 metric tons of beef and offal (entrails, hooves and whatnot) in exchange for quotas, as in the right to import Alfas into Australia. In the late 70′s, apparently, Australia had very tight regulations on the number of cars which could be imported from any particular country, while the European Economic Community had similar quotas on the importation of foreign meat. The deal would have allowed both parties – even though they were the governments themselves (Alfa was state-owned at the time) – to circumvent the trade regulations. Of course the deal didn’t go through, which is just as well because the whole ideal was utterly ridiculous.

[Source: Drive.com.au]

Fair Dinkum: Aussie gov’t once considered trading beef for Alfas originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss the crisis in the Gaza Strip as calls mount for an end to the hostilities.

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A gunman has shot and injured two Israeli men at a shopping mall in Odense in central Denmark.

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The Israeli cabinet has rejected a French proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which was to allow humanitarian aid to be taken in.

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Filed under: Trends, Etc., Euro, Porsche, Lifestyle

Remember the 80′s? Frankly, we’d rather not, what with all the neon colors and fifth-grader graphics. But some people just won’t leave it alone. Like sneaker freaks, who need to have those Nike high-tops they had (or didn’t) as a child. Or Porsche, with their obscenely bright-colored 911 GT3 RS. The two may seem at diametrically opposite ends of the spectrum, but it was only a matter of time before someone brought them together.

That someone is Purchaze, a German retro clothing company. Upon opening its newest location in Holland, a nearby Porsche dealership hooked them up with a Cayman S for promotional purposes. (We would have figured some neon-colored slant-nose would have served better, but what do we know.) As a thanks for the loan, Purchaze whipped up the series of sneakers you see above. Inspired, supposedly, by the GT3, each pair of kicks features the Porsche badge on the tongue and are colored in the shades of the GT3 palette: one pair in orange, one in green, another in black and a fourth in silver. The sneakers were presented to the team at the Porsche dealership, who are wishing they had irregularly-sized feet to use wear them in the pits at an upcoming race. If you want to get your hands on a pair of these, you may have less taste than boiled chicken you can’t, because they were made exclusively for the dealership, but Adidas offers a line of Porsche Design shoes that may not, you know, be a cause of embarrassment when worn in public.

[Source: High Snobiety via Jalopnik]

Nike outlet puts the “RS” in “sneakers” originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: China, Recalls/TSBs, Safety

In 2004, China set up an official government body to regulate the business of automobile recalls. Previous to that, some car companies simply wouldn’t recall faulty vehicles due to the lack of regulation. The head of that official body recently announced that in the four years it has been tracking recalls, there have been 1.84 million vehicles that needed a little more work done.

If that number is accurate, it’s astoundingly low. China is the world’s second largest auto market – in 2006, it was reported to have sold 7.22 million vehicles. By contrast, there were something like 15 million car sales in the US that year, and 10.6 million vehicles recalled. We have a feeling that China is still learning the ins-and-outs of this whole recall business. China’s most recalled nameplate over the past four years has been Mercedes-Benz, with 19. Their biggest single recall? 420,000 Honda Accords in 2007.

[Source: Gasgoo]

China tallies 1.84 million recalls over last four years originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons, Government/Legal, Green, Bentley, Celebrities

Britain’s royal family may not have the power to legislate any new initiatives, green or otherwise, but the heads of state still wield influence over public opinion and have taken up the cause of environmentally-conscious motoring. Following the lead of her son and heir Charles, the Prince of Wales – who had his Aston Martin converted to run on old wine and his Range Rover, Jaguar and Audi to run on discarded cooking oil – Queen Elizabeth II is having her bespoke Bentley limos converted to run on bio-fuels.

The Bentley State Limousine is based on the Arnage, but custom-crafted in-house by the company’s Mulliner coachbuilding division. Only two were ever made, at a reported cost of over $14 million a piece, one of which was presented as a gift to Her Majesty upon her Golden Jubilee in 2002, while the second was commissioned by the crown as a back-up. The four-ton armored vehicles, continuously maintained by Bentley, are powered by the company’s perennial 6.75-liter V8 producing 400 horsepower, and will be converted to run on bio-fuel. Bentley says the royal family are big supporters of Crewe’s initiative to switch to bio-fuels, as Bentley aims to offer all its models with flex-fuel capacity by 2012.

[Source: The Daily Mail via Luxist]

From Royal Blue to Green: the Queen retrofits her Bentleys to run on bio-fuel originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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