When someone on the EcoModder forums asks about buying a used hybrid, there is usually a flurry of excitement coupled with cautions about the age of the car and the price of a new battery pack. Ecomodders, usually being budget-minded folks, are very wary of the seemingly astronomical price of battery replacement.

In the early part of this decade, some of the biggest worries about hybrids were how could the batteries possibly last, when would they finally give out, and how much would it cost to have them replaced. These days, concerns about batteries have largely faded out of the minds of new car buyers. Honda and Toyota have both had hybrids on the market for about a decade now, and there are no ominous junkyards filled with dead hybrids.

To underline the reliability of modern battery-electric hybrids, Honda says that out of over 100,000 hybrids on the road currently, only 200 have needed out-of-warranty battery replacement. Toyota, on the other hand, has only needed to replace 0.003 percent of its hybrid batteries out of warranty on the second generation Prius. Granted, these cars still aren’t all that old, and the batteries will likely fail eventually, but it seems that they are living up to manufacturers’ promises that they will last the life of a car.

Necessity aside, Honda and Toyota have both announced drastic cuts to the cost of replacement batteries for their hybrids. It will now cost just under $2,000 to have new batteries installed in you Honda Insight, and just under $2,500 for your Accord hybrid. These are about $1,000 reductions in the cost. Toyota, on the other hand, has dropped prices from ~$5,500 to $3,000, but that doesn’t include the installation, so the real cost is likely a bit more.

So, buyers of used hybrids, never fear! It’s unlikely that your batteries will fail prematurely, and even if they do, replacements are getting cheaper.

TAKEN FROM /www.ecomodder.com

click above image to view 28 pics of the 2008 BMW M3 Sedan

We’ve been waiting a long time for BMW to snap out of its haze and bring us a four-door version of the venerable M3 coupe. That time has officially come. And it turns out the leaked photo from earlier today was probably from BMW itself, as even though it wasn’t included in the official batch of images released tonight, it’s the same car you’re looking at here.

On the outside, the M3 sedan gets plenty of work done to its front and rear fascias, leaving everything between the A-pillar and C-pillar intact from the base 3-Series sedan (sorry, no carbon fiber roof for the sedan). The front end is a complete carryover from the M3 coupe, with wide fenders, a dramatic front clip, bulging hood and vented quarter panels. Out back, a small lip spoiler sits atop the trunk, while M-specific quad pipes let Bimmer cognoscenti know that they’re behind something special.

Naturally, the M3 sedan benefits from BMW’s new 414 (SAE) HP 4.0L V8, allowing the 3,531-pound four-door to reach 60 MPH in 4.9 seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 155 MPH. In a move that should make family-oriented speed freaks burst into tears, BMW will only be offering a six-speed manual version at launch. Although, according to previous reports, BMW’s dual-clutch M-DCT gearbox should be available at a later date. The chassis, suspension and interior also benefit from a host of upgrades, all available to read about in the press release after the jump and view in our gallery below. Look for the M3 sedan to debut in Los Angeles next month.
TAKEN FROM www.autoblog.com

 

The 2008 BMW 1-Series coupe has been officially, though somewhat anticlimactically, released. Considering most of the specs and details of the new four-seater rear-drive coupe have made their way online this past week, we’re surprised the BMW PR team has anything else to talk about. But they’ve found a few things, but it’s pretty much everything we’ve been talking about the past week, including the lack of a US diesel. So yes, it’s now official — the BMW 128i and BMW 135i are coming to America. Hopefully they will find a queen. Actually, forget the queen, as the 135i has the same twin-turbo, 3-liter inline 6 with 300 horses and equal level of torque sitting in the engine bay of the big brother 335i. Full press release in its enormous entirety after the jump.

TAKEN FROM jalopnik.com

These are our favorite “green” sports cars. Some get awesome gas mileage while smoking the competition, and others use advanced bio-fuels to eek out ever higher performance over their gas-guzzling brethren. Big Oil doesn’t like any of them, because they all mean one thing: if you buy them, Big Oil makes less money.

#1 Greenest Sports Car: Tesla Roadster

Built from the same chassis as the Lotus Exige 265E is a next green sports car, the Tesla Roadster. Tesla has taken the most radical approach to being green; they removed the internal combustion engine and substituted a small 70-pound electric motor. Powered by a 3-phase, 4-pole electric motor producing 248 horsepower, which is good for 0-60 mph in 4 seconds. Despite the 70-pound motor, the battery adds enough weight to bring the total weight up to 2690, which is 600 pounds more than the Exige and Elise. The one thing you don’t hear from the bio-fueled cars is gas mileage. The Tesla can proudly say it gets 135 miles per gallon equivalent.

Download Tesla Roadster desktops in the FastWallpapers.com Tesla gallery

#2 Greenest Sports Car: Toyota FT HS

The Toyota FT-HS finishes out the line up of environmentally friendly sports cars. The FT HS is the only prototype in the line up because it will be the first hybrid sports car. The FT HS promises to be a real performer with help from an electric motor and a 3.5-liter V6 engine. The combination electric motor and V6 are said to produce around 400 bhp and accelerate to 60 mph in under 4 seconds all while producing ultra low emissions.

See more pics of this sweet concept car by Toyota here.

#3 Greenest Sports Car: Lotus Exige 265E

Another offering from the British is the Lotus Exige 265E. The thing that sets this Exige apart from any other Lotus is its ability to run E85 ethanol and 95-octane unleaded fuel. Thanks to the 109-octane rating of ethanol, the boosted 1.8-liter Toyota 4-cylinder inline engine makes 46 more horsepower than its non-ethanol counter part, the Exige S. Its low weight of only 2061 pounds does not hurt either. The 0-60 mph acceleration drops from 4.1 to 3.8 seconds. Lotus has accomplished building the fastest car ever to leave their stables and the first Lotus to promote the use of renewable energy sources at the same time.

Click here to see more desktop background pictures of the Lotus Exige 265E.

#4 Greenest Sports Car: Trident Iceni

A small British company called Trident has produced a two-seater sports car called the Iceni. The Trident Iceni is the only Diesel fueled car that made it into the line up. Powered by none other than a GM sourced 6.6-liter V8 turbo diesel engine. The V8 produces 520 lb/ft torque at only 1800 rpm. That is enough power to propel the Iceni to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and a top speed over 200 mph. Most impressively, the Iceni can do all this with 60 mpg and 1,000 miles on one tank and it runs on pure vegetable oil. The Iceni is also the only car in the line up that will unfortunately never make it stateside.

Go to the Trident Iceni desktop gallery here.

#5 Greenest Sports Car: Porsche Cayman

Porsche has proved that sport cars can be just as fuel efficient as the common car, if not more so with the Cayman. The Cayman is Porsche’s greenest car ever with a 2.7-liter, 241 horsepower, and boxer-engine. The Cayman starts at $49,400, which is cheap for a Porsche. For under $50,000, you cannot have both the speed and style if you want a Porsche. Performance is good with Porsche’s 0-62-mph claim of 6.1 seconds. The Cayman’s fuel economy is a respectable 23 city/32 highway compared to the more powerful Cayman S’s 20/27 mpg. It’s no Toyota Prius, but it gets the job done, and in style.

See more desktop pictures of the Porsche Cayman here.

#6 Greenest Sports Car: Koenigsegg CCXR

Like Lotus, Koenigsegg has found the use of bio-fuels like E85 ethanol can add substantial performance to their already powerful engine. The CCXR bio-ethanol version of their CCX sports car is the fastest, most powerful sports car that can call itself environmentally minded. With 1,018 bhp, the CCXR will hit 60mph in 3.0 seconds. Its top speed is over 250 mph. This is a car that uses Green technology to increase performance.

TAKEN FROM fastwallpapers.com

We don’t know why, but the first thing we thought of when we saw these photos was a shark. Doesn’t really look like Lamborghini’s bull, but it’s definitely aggressive. So, what’s this, you might ask? Well, it’s the Lamborghini Embolado concept car created by Luca Serafini, student in final year of the Industrial Design Course at the University of Parma, Italy. And it’s a cool concept, not like the Lamborghini Alar, which we presented a few months ago and which was hideous.When Luca designed the concept, he thought of it as a replacement for the current Gallardo model and the whole design starts from the Gallardo. The name Embolado comes from a Spanish festival, named “Embolado Bull” (or Toro Embolado). Luca even created a Superleggera version of the Embolado. Of course, probably Lamborghini will never take this seriously, but still, it’s a great design. You can also check Luca Serafini’s page on deviantart.

TAKEN ROM www.autounleashed.com

This is the most recent picture of the upcoming Porsche Panamera mule; this particular model is one of the first spotted in the US. Caught by Fast Lane Daily viewer mcshin, who tells us:

Seen in Marina Del Rey, California today with a chase care behind. When I pulled my camera out the chase car would drive really close to the car and try and block my view. Thank goodness for the traffic.

The Panamera is Porsche’s first ever four-door, and should be htting the auto show stands in the very near future. Price estimates sit at anywhere from the high-$50,000 range all the way up to a $100,000+ Turbo model, competing right with the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Watch today’s show, with the Panamera spy shot featured!

TAKEN FROM www.fastlanedaily.com

Ironhide as he appears in the film, Transformers

Of all the GM rides playing Autobots in Transformers, one of the favorites around here is Ironhide (above), who rolls as a completely tricked GMC TopKick 6500 pickup truck when he’s not kicking ass, taking names, and intimidating Chihuahuas as the Autobots’ weapons specialist. Monroe Truck Equipment, which modifies rides like the TopKick for business owners, has partnered up with Hasbro to offer the ultimate adult Transformers toy: a near-exact Ironhide replica (minus the giant transforming robot element, of course).

Ironhide buyers get twin big-rig-style smokestacks, 20″ black wheels wearing massive tires in lieu of the TopKick’s standard dualies, custom, powder-coated front and rear bumpers, and a monster winch up front. The only real differences we see on the Monroe Truck version are the amber running lights (Ironhide’s are blue) and the non-aero (but more useful) mirrors. As for the look of horror on Prius drivers’ faces when you thunder by in this thing, well, that’s an intangible that you can’t put a value on. Ironhide effing rules!

TAKEN FROM  

Click the image above for more images from Best Car.

Within days of announcing Toyota’s formation of a “Committee to create interesting cars,” this summer’s Best Car Plus magazine reveals that the long-rumoured new AE86 type car has indeed been spawned by the group and should be in showrooms in the winter of 2008.

The new article goes into some detail of the new car’s spec. Under 4m long and 1.7m wide, it’s pretty low at 1.35m tall, and engineers have been directed to keep weight below 1,000kgs. Power will come from a 1.5L 2NZ-FE good for 120 horsepower. What has been unknown until this time is where Toyota would source a cheap RWD drivetrain, but Best Car has learned that it will come from new partner Fuji Heavy Industries - better known to you and me as Subaru.

And the best news of all? The committee’s final directive is to keep the new car’s sticker price below 1.5million Yen. That’s about $12,300 USD in today’s money.

TAKEN FROM  www.autoblog.com

The British company Prodrive envisioned a new concept for a vehicle with an enclosed body and the width of a motorcycle. Its concept Naro however has four wheels and works with a tilting mechanism to prevent it from tipping over in curves in the road. Check out those cool pictures of those two city concept cars:

Naro: “NARROW CITY VEHICLE” is a city vehicle designed to diminish the traffic congestion and pollution in urban areas. With its narrow body, the four-wheeled Naro is able to drive through traffic congestions much in the same way as a motorcycle. The two passengers sit behind one and another in the fully enclosed body, which offers a passive safety level comparable to a small modern passenger car. The front-positioned driver however sits higher above ground level and therefore has a better view over the road.

A conventional four-wheeled vehicle with a similar narrow track and high centre of gravity would tend to fall over sideways when turning at high speeds. To avoid this problem, the Naro is equipped with a carving mechanism which makes all four wheels and the body tilt sideways during cornering. The amount of tilt during cornering depends on the driving speed.

Prodrive envisions various applications for the Naro, including a passenger vehicle, city taxi and delivery vehicle. The company has completed a first prototype and is conducting road-tests during 2006.

Another enclosed motorcycle concept is in development by a European consortium, on initiative of the Technical University in Berlin, Institute for Motor Vehicles. This three-wheeled vehicle, named CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport), is designed as a city vehicle for two people, which requires little space, has a low weight, a low fuel consumption and low emissions.

The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) is a compact city vehicle for two people, which requires little space and has a low weight. In turn, the vehicle requires just a small engine in order to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. The CLEVER is under development by a European consortium, on initiative of the Technical University in Berlin, Institute for Motor Vehicles. In 2006 a prototype vehicle was built by the University of Bath in Great Britain.

The two occupants sit behind one another in the streamlined, narrow cabin. To prevent the danger of tipping over, the cabin of the vehicle is designed to tilt when cornering. The CLEVER is driven by a single-cylinder engine of 230 cc displacement, running on natural gas.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
DRIVE SYSTEM:
Direct drive with single-cylinder 230 cc engine
POWER OUTPUT: 12.5 kW (17 hp) @ 8,600 rpm
FUEL: Natural gas
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 2.4 l / 100 km (98 mpg US)
ACCELERATION 0 – 60 KM/H (37 MPH): 7.0 sec.
MAXIMUM SPEED: 100 km/h (62 mph)

Vehicles such as the Naro and CLEVER could replace conventional cars for daily commuting. But an implementation problem is that most people would still require a full-sized family car to drive in the weekend and on holidays. This means they would need to invest in the purchase and maintenance of two vehicles. To make this a realistic scenario, the commuting vehicle would have to be cheap enough to purchase and offer great savings on fuel consumption in order to replace the family car as the daily driver.

Also parking of all these extra vehicles is a very relevant issue. The American MTI Medialab believes a solution could be found in a network of its small electric City Cars, which are available to anyone subscribed to the system. No individuals own such a car. They can be found all over the city, efficiently parked in Vehicle Stacks.

TAKEN FROM /thecontaminated.com/

During World War II, the P-51 Mustang was hailed as a savior of aviation and certainly played a major part in ending the conflict. This long range fighter escorted Allied bombers over Europe and Hermann Goering, the head of Germany’s Luftwaffe, summarized the plane’s role by stating, “The day I saw P-51 Mustangs flying over Berlin, I knew the jig was up.” Today, at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the jig is up for the rest of the Ford Mustang tuners as ROUSH Performance unveiled the P-51A Mustang automobile which, at 510 horsepower and 510 lb.-ft. of torque, is sure to be held in as high a regard as the airplane has been in the history books and will help to save the streets from the invasion of the foreign brands.

“I’ve often said that there was never a Mustang built that I didn’t like and that includes both the car and the airplane,” said Jack Roush, an aviation enthusiast who currently owns two P-51 Mustang warbirds. “This is the type of product that ROUSH has wanted to produce for at least 10 years but the right platform, the right technology, and the right timing never intersected until now.”

Roush P-51A Mustang. Click image for more high resolution pictures.

The ROUSH P-51A is easily the highest horsepower Mustang that the company has ever produced, and represents the first time that internal engine components have been upgraded by ROUSH technicians in their Livonia, Mich., facility. It was determined that the only way to give the P-51A moniker its due was to completely break into the 4.6L, 3V and rebuild several of the functional internal components, which include a forged steel eight-bolt crankshaft, forged aluminum pistons with increased dish to lower the compression from 9:8 to 8:6, and forged steel H-Beam connecting rods. These upgraded parts were necessary for the stock Ford engine (which comes with 300 horsepower from the factory) to be able to withstand the additional power generated from the newest iteration of the legendary ROUSHchargerTM supercharger system.

Additional alterations include a custom aluminum upper and lower intake manifold for the high capacity air-to-water intercooler and ROUSHchargerTM. ROUSH installs a custom fuel rail and high-flow fuel injectors, a high-flow capacity fuel system, as well as a dual electronic throttle body.

The new ROUSH P-51A engine has a preliminary rating of at least 510 horsepower and 510 lb.-ft. torque. It is anticipated that final figures may even be slightly higher than this when final testing and calibration is approved by the ROUSH engineering staff.

The changes to the ROUSH P-51A don’t end under the hood. A ROUSH aerobody kit will be installed, which includes a front fascia, chin spoiler, hood scoop and rear spoiler. The ROUSH black high-flow grill is added along with cooling side shields to give the car the aggressive look it needs while stalking the streets.

Internally the car will come with ROUSH sport leather seating and custom floor mats, both with an embroidered P-51A emblem. The white face gauges and billet aluminum pedals will get a lot of use as the driver bangs through the gears with the ROUSH short throw shift lever and retro black ball.

For those who look behind the 18-inch ROUSH forged five-spoke wheels will see the vaunted Stage 3 suspension underneath this vehicle. Designed to handle even the tightest twists and turns, this suspension includes specially-engineered and tuned front struts, rear shocks, front and rear springs, front and rear sway bars and jounce bumpers. The front brakes are also upgraded with 14-inch front two-piece rotors and four-piston calipers. Each component was specifically engineered so that ride comfort was not compromised at the expense of the tremendous gains in performance.

As an interesting side note, the yellow and red accent colors on the vehicle come from those used by the 357th Fighters Group, Eighth Air Force ETO (European Theater Operations) who were unofficially known as “The Yoxford Boys” after a village near their base. Its victory totals in air-to-air combat are the most of any P-51 group in the Eighth Air Force and third among all groups fighting in Europe. The 357th flew 313 combat missions between February 11, 1944 and April 25, 1945 and is officially credited by the US Air Force with having destroyed 595.5 German airplanes in the air and 106.5 on the ground. Pilots in this group included Captain Clarence E. “Bud” Anderson who flew a P-51 named “Old Crow.” One of Roush’s personal P-51 fighters is painted as a replica of this airplane.

Pricing for the ROUSH P-51A Mustang has not been set, but will be announced shortly. The vehicle is slated to begin production in the first quarter of 2008 and will be limited to 100 vehicles. As with all ROUSH vehicles, the P-51A will carry an industry-leading 3 year/36,000 mile warranty.

taken from www.mustangevolution.com