Wheels: Why My Heart Aches When Worthless Cars Go to the Crusher

Benjamin Preston A V-8-equipped 1965 Rambler Classic is taken to the crusher at a scrap yard outside Denver.Expanding upon my previous rumination about today’s worthless cars becoming tomorrow’s relatively pricey classics, I had another experience involving a car that isn’t worth a whole lot that was dumped, whole, into a line of cars to be crushed at a scrap yard on the...

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Wheels: Maserati to Recall 7,400 Cars for Suspension Problem

C.J. Gunther Maserati will be issuing the recall for rust-prone tie rod ends that could lead to component failure and increased crash risk.Maserati will recall about 7,400 vehicles because a rear suspension failure can cause the driver to lose control, the automaker has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in a report posted over the weekend on the...

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Wheels: Argentines Win the 2013 Mille Miglia

Jerry Garrett Juan Tonconogy and his co-driver, Guillermo Berisso, streaked toward a Mille Miglia victory Saturday in a 1927 Bugatti T40.BRESCIA, Italy — A sky-blue 1927 Bugatti T40, driven by Juan Tonconogy of Argentina, on Saturday won the 2013 edition of the Mille Miglia Storica. Mr. Tonconogy, and his co-driver, Guillermo Berisso, arrived at the finish line shortly after...

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Wheels Blog: Franchitti and Castroneves Pause in New York Before Indianapolis 500

Richard Drew/Associated Press Scotland’s Dario Franchitti, left, and Brazil’s Helio Castroneves were interviewed in New York on Monday.On Monday, IndyCar sent the drivers for this Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 on a press tour to cities around North America. New York can rest easy in its title as the media capital of the world: it got the only pair of three-time Indy winners in...

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Safety: 2014 Forester Gets Top Rating in Offset Crash Test

The 2014 Subaru Forester was the only one of 13 compact crossovers and S.U.V.’s to earn the highest rating in a new, more severe front crash test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The new Forester was rated Good, and the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport received the next-highest rating, Acceptable. The insurance institute, which is financed by the insurance industry, began conducting the new test, called the small overlap test, in 2012....

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Wheels Blog: Consumer Advocacy Group Calls for a Recall of 5 Million Jeep Grand Cherokees

Chrysler The Center for Auto Safety wants Chrysler to recall five million Jeep Grand Cherokees made from 1993 to 2004 for a potential fire hazard from their gas tanks.The Center for Auto Safety is asking top officials at the Chrysler Group and its parent company, Fiat, to recall about five million vehicles. The nonprofit consumer advocacy group said, “Children are dying in...

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Wheels: Monday Motorsports: Ed Carpenter Qualifies for Indy 500 Pole Position

Geoff Miller/Reuters The 2013 Indianapolis 500’s first row: (left to right) Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter (pole) and Carlos Munoz.Ed Carpenter, whose family owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, qualified for the pole position for the Indianapolis 500 on May 26. The top qualifying position was worth a $100,000 prize, but Carpenter says the boost for his team, which he owns,...

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Ford Plans to Shut Its 2 Plants in Australia

The U.S. automaker’s Australian unit will close its engine plant in Geelong and its vehicle assembly plant in Broadmeadows, both in the state of Victoria, with the loss of 1,200 jobs, Bob Graziano, chief executive of Ford Australia, said Thursday. Ford, which built 37,000 vehicles in Australia last year, has been in the country since 1925 and employs more than 3,000 people. But it has been battling sliding sales, high costs and an Australian dollar...

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Behind the Wheel | 2014 Subaru Forester: Subaru Forester: A Crossover Jostling to Fit in Showrooms Already Full

Not that Subaru is doing badly. Sales in the United States have increased in each of the last four years, setting records. But the Forester — last reworked in 2008 — has not been part of that growth, with sales shrinking some 10 percent in 2011 and stalling at that level last year. The Forester has, in part, been a casualty of the brawl in the compact sport utility market in recent years, with automakers landing blow and counterblow by improving...

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Wheels Blog: Aston Martin Shows the CC100 in Germany

Aston Martin Aston Martin showed off its CC100 Speedster Concept at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring race last weekend.Among the many 100th birthday activities Aston Martin had going on during last weekend’s Nürburgring 24-hour race, almost lost in all the events was the introduction of the CC100 Speedster Concept.“I have nicknamed it DBR100 because of its affinity to the great...

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Wheels Blog: Wheelies: The Inexpensive E.V.’s Edition

General Motors Chevrolet announced Thursday that the Spark EV will be available for lease for $199 per month at some dealerships. In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:• As of Thursday morning, General Motors jumped into the heart of the electric car fray with an announcement from Chevrolet that it would offer a $199-a-month lease for the Spark EV. That...

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Wheels Blog: Wheelies: The Luxo-Fisker Lutz Edition

Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency VL Automotive – headed by former G.M. executive and vocal car guy Bob Lutz – made a bid with a Chinese parts manufacturer to buy ailing Fisker Automotive.In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:• What do Bob Lutz and a Chinese auto parts manufacturer have in common? If they have their way, they’ll be the new owners...

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Movie Review: ‘Fast & Furious 6,’ With Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson

Your auto insurance policy probably has clauses specifying whether you are covered for damage from missiles, falling objects, riots, civil war, earthquakes, hail, radioactive contamination, discharge of a nuclear weapon. But it’s time once again to check that it also addresses whether you are insured against accidentally driving onto the set of a “Fast & Furious” movie. If you blundered into the shooting of “Fast & Furious 6,” for instance,...

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Wheels Blog: Euro Tuner Cars Rally For Cheesesteaks

Nathan Laliberte Jameson Willoughby, a copy machine repair technician from Northern Virginia, eating a Philly cheesesteak on the rear deck of his Lotus Elise.Last Saturday, I rode shotgun in an all-black BMW M3. Behind the wheel was Andrew Pollock, 26, an engineer from New Jersey, who had allowed me to be his co-pilot for the fourth annual Euro Philly Cheesesteak Run, a road...

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Wheels Blog: Tesla vs. Chrysler: Who’s on First?

Twitter Part of the Twitter battle between Elon Musk and Chrysler over which American company paid off its federal loans first.The Twitter messages are once again flying from Tesla Motors.In a Wednesday announcement, the Palo Alto, Calif., automaker said it had paid off the entire loan made to the company by the Energy Department — and added that it was “the only American...

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Bucks Blog: A Car Towing Tale of Woe

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times A car being towed in New York City.5/17/13 | Updated with comment from towing company’s lawyer.When we were looking for a home in a new city a few years ago, my family took a welcome break from house hunting to eat dinner.We emerged from the restaurant just in time to see our car speed by — on the back of a tow truck. Apparently, we had mistakenly...

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Wheels Blog: The Flamboyant Cars of Liberace

Marty Lederhandler/Associated Press Liberace with a 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I, which he used in a Radio City Music Hall show in 1985.“Behind the Candelabra,” the new HBO movie about Liberace, has a scene in which he drives up to his Hollywood home (it’s actually Zsa Zsa Gabor’s home, but that’s another story.) in a Mercedes-Benz 450SL, and arrayed around the driveway...

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Wheels Blog: Taking a Spin Around a Dirt Track in a Pro Lite Unlimited Racing Truck

Mike Caudill/Driven PR This Pro Lite Unlimited race truck is powered by a 347-cubic-inch Ford V-8.LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. – Casey Currie drummed in one message last Friday during our laps around the track at Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park: “Slow! Slow down! Slow into the turn!” Currie, 29, who has motorcycles and Baja 1000 trucks, had good reason to worry.After he had first...

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Subaru Joins the Fray

The 2014 Forester offers more room, new features and better fuel economy, all based on the underpinnings of the redesigned Impreza introduced in 2011.View the original article h...

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Design: Tailgate Party: Fire Up the Grilles

“A fist in the wind” is how Mr. Peters describes the pickups’ design. The new G.M. trucks are not alone in looking as if they can deliver a punch. The latest full-size pickups from G.M.’s crosstown rivals, Ford and Ram, step into the ring with flattened noses, their huge, blunt grilles often slathered in bright trim. A special edition of the latest Toyota Tundra seems to have as many bars as Milwaukee, capped with a flat, wide nostril. “There is...

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Face Forward

The Atlas concept truck appears to borrow the muscular look of Ford’s Super Duty line of larger, more powerful pickups. The face of the Atlas adds vertical elements to the horizontal bars of the current F-150; the grille’s frame forms a shape that suggests the nostrils of a bull.View the original article h...

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DealBook: In a Plus for Electrics, Tesla Repays a Big Federal Loan Early

Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Tesla Model S was introduced at the 2013 North American International Auto Show.The taxpayer no longer has to worry about Tesla Motors.Tesla, the maker of electric cars, paid off a $465 million loan on Wednesday that the Energy Department made in 2010. The repayment is a lift to the Obama administration, whose clean-energy...

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DealBook: Bid for Cash by Tesla Motors Is Likely to Energize Company and Critics Alike

Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto AgencyFranz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer, showing the company’s Model X at the North American Auto Show in January.Tesla Motors announced plans on Wednesday to tap the markets for more cash, a move that will buy it time to meet its ambitious goals but will also fuel debate over its prospects.Tesla, the maker of electric cars founded...

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Wheels: Wheelies: The Joint-Venture Edition

Toyota/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Akio Toyoda, left, the president of Toyota, shaking hands with Norbert Reithofer, the BMW chairman, after they announced a partnership in January.In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:• Something is brewing between Toyota and BMW, in the form of a four-part joint venture aimed at using lightweight materials, fuel-cell...

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Well: Spring Pasta Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Whole grain pasta with mushroomsTo make a quick meal with spring vegetables, try one of these new pasta dishes from Recipes for Health columnist Martha Rose Shulman. She writes:The beautiful, sweet vegetables of spring ? artichokes and peas, favas and tender young asparagus, spring garlic and sweet spring onions ? come and go so quickly...

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Quick Study: Walking may prevent memory problems in older people

THE QUESTION Might a regular walking regimen protect against the memory loss that occurs when the brain shrinks in old age? THIS STUDY involved 299 people who averaged 78 years old and had no cognitive problems at the start of the study. The distances they walked weekly were recorded, MRI scans measured their brains' gray matter (the part of the brain responsible for thinking) and they were given standardized cognitive tests. After 13 years, 116...

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Ask Well: Ask Well: An Exercise Plan for Middle Age

‘‘It’s a movable feast’’ in terms of workout options, says Dr. Michael Joyner, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Pedal or swim if you have a bike or gym membership. But walking is, physiologically and logistically, the simplest exercise, Dr. Joyner says. Just put on comfortable sneakers — they don’t need to be new or expensive — and set off. Try to walk for half an hour. ‘‘Thirty minutes of moderately vigorous physical activity...

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