Author: Tabitha
There are portable coolers and then there’s the ARB refrigerator/freezer designed specifically for extreme outdoor use. The unit’s 50-quart-capacity compressor can keep ice from melting, even on 90 F days, while drawing less amperage than required to power a single headlight, says ARB. You can plug in to your vehicle’s 12-volt power source or a 120-volt wall socket (the refrigerator is also solar-panel- and generator-compatible). The interior includes separate compartments for fruit and dairy products plus a removable shelf for chilling larger items. The ARB fridge retails for $924, not including an optional insulated canvas transit bag that costs an…
Your Intrepid Spy guy confirms that the Swedish automaker will launch the S90 flagship luxury sedan later this year followed by a wagon equivalent dubbed the V90. Although this style of body doesn’t normally sell as well as traditional trunk-equipped cars, Volvo has had more success than most brands going all the way back to the late 1960s. As with the S90, the V90 is expected to arrive with a choice of a 240-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder engine, a unique 316-horsepower four-cylinder that’s both turbocharged and supercharged, and a plug-in hybrid model that makes 410 horsepower. The hybrid’s electric motor powers…
With nearly every upscale brand bringing its own all-wheel-drive tall wagons to market in the next year or two, it’s no surprise to The Sleuth that Maserati is also on that list. What does surprise him, though, is that the nearly finished vehicle will go by the name of Levante, which is a region in Spain. It also looks only vaguely similar to the Kubang concept that Maserati first displayed in 2011 (The Sleuth prefers the latter design over the Levante’s). Power choices for the North American Market will reportedly be limited to a turbocharged 3.8-liter V6. It will make…
The automaker will offer a few hundred 2016 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks with its latest eAssist hybrid drive system, seeking feedback with a view to making it a permanent option. The numbers are small, notes alternate-vehicle Web site Green Car Reports: just 500 Silverados and 200 Sierras this year against sales of 530,000 and 212,000 respectively. The ‘mild’ hybrid system is adapted to the 5.3-liter V8 that’s core to the pickup line, rather than the four-cylinder engines it was previously used with in vehicles such as the Chevrolet Malibu. The addition of eAssist will cost buyers just…
The Ampera-e electric car will be built in Michigan for the European market alongside its sibling, the Chevrolet Volt, says German business magazine Automobil Produktion. Essentially a re-badged Chevrolet Bolt, the Ampera-e will be produced alongside the Chevrolet at a General Motors’ plant near Detroit, Mich. GM CEO Mary Barra announced in mid-February at an industry conference in Germany that Opel, a GM subsidiary, would start selling the Ampera-e in 2017 as a long-range, affordable, five-seat electric car. Neither Barra nor Opel said where the vehicle would be built and Opel declined to comment on the Automobil Produktion report when…
Toyota will launch a new compact tall wagon in Europe this year before bringing it to North America in 2017. Based on the C-HR concept, the model will include a hybrid variant. The automaker did not say whether the new vehicle would carry the C-HR nomenclature, or adopt another name. The vehicle was originally intended to debut as part of the youth-oriented Scion-brand product, but Toyota is dropping that subsidiary division so it will debut instead as a Toyota vehicle. The production C-HR will be built on Toyota’s new TNGA global architecture, which designed to lower the number of platforms…
Already sold in other markets, the sedan version of the Mitsubishi Mirage subcompact is coming to North America this spring. The Japan automaker showed the four-door Mirage G4 at the recent Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto sporting a suspension tuned specifically for North American ride preferences, It also has bigger brakes than the Mirages sold in other countries. Other than the trunk and mildly different styling, the G4 is largely the same as the updated 2017 Mirage hatchback. The sedan also shares the hatchback’s 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine that drives the front wheels through either a five-speed manual transmission or continuously…
That’s what Achates Power Inc. of San Diego, Calif., believes. The company has developed a unique three-cylinder two-stroke turbo-diesel engine. As you might recall, two-stroke engines are notoriously noisy, smoky and thirsty, but they have a lot of grunt because the power stroke occurs once for every crankshaft rotation instead of every two rotations as is the case with a four-stroke engine. So, with Achates’ design, two pistons at the opposing ends of each cylinder meet at the mid-point of the cylinder where combustion takes place. The company claims that its 4.9-liter powerplant is cleaner burning and considerably more fuel-efficient…
Are you or any of your friends and family huge NASCAR fans? They why not acknowledge the passion with an equally huge poster of your favorite driver from Fathead of Livonia, Mich. And by huge we mean about 78 inches tall by 45 inches wide. The company carries a wide variety of color posters featuring such stars as Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt (Senior and Junior), to name just a few. Fathead will also sell you life-size posters of various drivers as well as posters of their car’s numbers. Prices start at $100 for either…
The Max Speed Speedometer Car Watch displays the time of day in the form of miniature dashboard gauges, with a tachometer showing the hour and a speedometer showing the minutes. Two other smaller gauges indicate a.m. or p.m. plus the day of the week. The white-on-black hour and minute hands are in red, while a press of a button on the side of the watch creates a blue light behind the appropriate hour and minute (the hands on the tach and speedometer dials are just for show). The timepiece comes with a chrome bezel, while a rubber strap adds to…