Author: Tabitha

The Italians are known for their artistic designs in art and manufactured products. The Italian-created Rhino Multi-tool probably won’t win any beauty contests, but it’s hard to beat its practical nature. Small enough to fit on a key ring, the Rhino comes with enough built-in features to help you out in a variety of ways. Four of the most popular screwdriver bits and three different wrenches can be deployed (including one for removing and tightening lug nuts). There’s also an ice scraper and the obligatory bottle opener. All of these features are contained inside a tough plastic holder that’s about…

For camping or preparing for unexpected emergencies when traveling, it’s hard to imagine anything more useful than the BioLite CampStove. The compact (8.25 by five inches) stove works using twigs, leaves, pinecones and other combustibles for fuel so there’s no need for external propane tanks. The unique design also means that one liter of water can be brought to a boil in less than five minutes. The neatest part of the stove is the power module attachment. A built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery runs a small fan that converts heat to electricity for charging cell phones, MP3 players or LED flashlights…

Volkswagen has committed to launching 30 electric cars by 2025, and to achieving annual sales of zero-emission vehicles of between two and three million units by the same date, equivalent to 20-25 percent of total unit sales expected at that time. The embattled automaker, struggling to repair its reputation in the wake of the diesel-engine emissions scandal, predicts about a quarter of all new-car buyers will seek an electric vehicle by 2025. The automaker has at least one modular platform designed for smaller electric cars, notes lifestyles Web magazine, Autos Cheat Sheet, which it previewed in the Budd-e concept earlier…

With performance tweaks provided by in-house tuner Polestar, the XC90 T8 ‘Twin Engine’ plug-in hybrid is not just the most powerful production Volvo ever built, it’s an example of how automakers are generating power and performance using hybrid technology. With Polestar upgrades, the T8 model produces a combined 421 horsepower and 501 pound-feet of torque in hybrid mode, notes alternate-vehicle Web magazine Green Car Reports. That’s compared to 400 horsepower and 472 pound-feet in the standard XC90 T8. It’s enough to move the full-sized tall wagon to 100 km/h (62 mph) from zero in 5.5 seconds, putting it in sports-car…

One of The Sleuth’s juicier tidbits concerns Volkswagen’s interest in bringing the Skoda brand to North America. Skoda was founded in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) back in 1895 and was acquired by VW in 1991. With U.S. VW sales having slowed recently due to the diesel-emissions scandal, the automaker is considering a trio of Skoda vehicles for its dealers to sell. They include the Superb sedan, Octavia hatchback and wagon and the Yeti all-wheel-drive tall wagon. All three are popular in Europe and elsewhere and generally sell for less money than their German-made counterparts. That would likely…

The Sleuth sees this Hyundai subsidiary as becoming all things to more people and that includes buyers with decidedly sporting intentions. That side of the Korea-based automaker’s offerings will be revealed early this fall with the Stinger. The four-door coupe, which is set to arrive for the 2018 model year, will be loosely based on the 2011 Kia GT concept and will sit on a version of the new Hyundai Genesis rear-wheel-drive platform. The Stinger will also get the same 365-horsepower twin-turbocharged 3.3-liter V-6 engine as the new Genesis sedans, but more modest four-cylinder and V-6 engines will likely be…

Many movies and TV shows are memorable for more than their plots or acting. Often the vehicles depicted in these films can be equally memorable. The car collection of posters from Cars And Films contains many that you might expect to find, such as James Bond’s Aston Martin, the Cadillac ‘crash wagon’ from ‘Ghostbusters’ and the ‘Back To The Future’ Delorean. But there are some lesser-known vehicles in the collection including Mr. Bean’s Mini, the VW Microbus from ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ the Checker cab from ‘Taxi Driver’ and the recreational vehicle featured in the TV series ‘Breaking Bad.’ There’s even…

Keeping your car’s interior cool is important during the hot summer months and year-round for sunbelt regions or for keeping ice and snow off your windows elsewhere. You can block 100 percent of the sun’s rays with the Cool Cap from Reflectionite. The products are designed to fit a wide variety of vehicles, including sedans, sports cars, sport utility vehicles, minivans and pickup trucks. Because the products securely attach on the outside, the company claims that the Cool Cap’s reflective material will significantly reduce much of heat entering the interior through the windows as well as the roof. Prices range…

Nissan has developed a new kind of-fuel-cell drivetrain for cars that taps an onboard tank of ethanol instead of pressurized hydrogen, delivering a cheaper, safer ride that it says is more user friendly. Dubbed an e-bio fuel cell, the new technology aims to combat a common hurdle to deploying traditional hydrogen fuel cell vehicles: the lack of a hydrogen fueling infrastructure, reports industry watchdog Automotive News. Nissan’s system uses bio-ethanol, derived from renewable crops like corn and sugarcane, the refueling infrastructure for which largely exists. Nissan aims to bring the technology to market in fleet vehicles by around 2020. Not…

Honda’s unsuccessful CR-Z Sport Hybrid Coupe looks to be on its way out of production. Neither sporty nor a coupe, notes automotive lifestyles webmag, Motor Authority, year-to-date sales as of early June in the United States totaled fewer than a thousand. Honda recently unveiled the CR-Z Final Label for the Japanese market, ‘and it’s likely we’ll see something similar in the United States, or perhaps it will just go out quietly.’ The CR-Z Final Label gets a few cosmetic touches, including 17-inch alloy wheels with a matte finish. No changes were made to the powertrain, in this case a 1.5-liter…