How Volkswagen Quietly Stashed Half A Million Rigged Cars Around The Country

How Volkswagen Quietly Stashed Half A Million Rigged Cars Around The Country:

Volkswagen bought back hundreds of thousands of emissions-cheating cars. We just discovered what it has done with them all

As Bloomberg reports, the German automaker agreed last year to buy back about 500,000 diesels that it rigged to pass U.S. emissions tests if it can’t figure out a way to fix them. Except for a handful of 2015 models, VW dealers can’t sell the cars until – and unless – the company comes up with repairs to satisfy regulators. The question they face then is – what to do with the hundreds of thousands of diesel cars it is being forced to buy back?

Well, now we know… the company is hauling them to storage lots across America…

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Real Flying Car Will Be Available for Preorder This Year

Real Flying Car Will Be Available for Preorder This Year:

The future is here: The first-ever production-ready flying car is set to be revealed in just over a week.

Slovakia-based engineering firm AeroMobil unveiled its flying-car prototype in 2014, but it was not made commercially available at the time. The company recently announced, however, that its latest model will be available for preorder this year (though there has been no word on pricing yet). This new model has not yet been revealed, but it’s set to debut at the Top Marques Monaco, known as the world’s most exclusive supercar show, on April 20.

Read moreReal Flying Car Will Be Available for Preorder This Year

The Next Subprime Crisis Is Here: 12 Signs That A Day Of Reckoning Has Arrived For The U.S. Auto Industry

The Next Subprime Crisis Is Here: 12 Signs That A Day Of Reckoning Has Arrived For The U.S. Auto Industry:

In 2008, subprime mortgages almost single-handedly took down the entire financial system, and now a new subprime crisis is here.  In recent years, the auto industry has been able to boost sales by aggressively pushing people into auto loans that they cannot afford.  In particular, auto loans made to consumers with subprime credit have been accounting for an increasingly larger percentage of the market.  Unfortunately, when you make loans to people that should not be getting them, eventually a lot of those loans are going to start to go bad, and that is precisely what is happening now.  Meanwhile, automakers and dealers are starting to panic as sales have begun to fall and used car prices have started to crash.  If you work in the auto industry, you might remember how horrible the last recession was, and this new downturn could eventually turn out to be even worse.

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Trump’s Old Ferrari F430 Sells Auctioned Off For $270,000

Trump’s Old Ferrari F430 Sells Auctioned Off For $270,000:

A Ferrari once owned by President Trump was sold at auction this weekend at a record $270,000, despite failing to meet an earlier reserve price of $250,000 resulting in a private transaction. The buyer was not revealed.

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Soaring Lease Returns Set To Wreak Havoc Used Car Pricing and Auto Industry Profits

Soaring Lease Returns Set To Wreak Havoc Used Car Pricing and Auto Industry Profits:

Falling used car prices have already started to take their toll with Ford shaving $300 million from its financial-services arm’s profit forecast for this year but is Ford just the “canary in the coal mine?”

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Google gives driverless cars the green light for business, but are we really ready for AI piloted vehicles on our roads?

Google gives driverless cars the green light for business, but are we really ready for AI piloted vehicles on our roads?:

It all sounds so futuristic and exciting, this concept of driverless cars, but the reality is, our society may not be nearly as ready for it as other people in other lands may be. That’s because if there is one thing Americans are infatuated with, it is the automobile.

And yet, the technology is here and it is getting better every year. So we may have little choice about whether or not we want our vehicle to do the driving for us in the near future.

Indeed, the technology has even advanced to the point where media and technology giant Google has given them a “greenlight” for business, The New York Times reported recently.

Read moreGoogle gives driverless cars the green light for business, but are we really ready for AI piloted vehicles on our roads?

Toyota developing free piston engine linear generator for hybrid cars

H/t reader kevin a:

“This is an Amazing engine.”


toyota-linear-generator-876

Toyota developing free piston engine linear generator for hybrid cars:

Toyota is hot on hydrogen fuel cells for its next-generation cars, but it’s not going cold on internal combustion just yet.

The company’s R&D division has developed a Free Piston Engine Linear Generator that can convert gasoline and other fuels into electricity more efficiently than existing systems.

It’s a technology that could lead to lighter, more efficient, better-packaged powertrains for plug-in hybrid cars.

Read moreToyota developing free piston engine linear generator for hybrid cars