Categories: Reports

When you buy a new smartphone or computer, you have about a week of enjoying owning the coolest, latest technology. Then, it's replaced by something with a more powerful processor, better screen or cooler feature. A year after you bought your phone, it's so obsolete that the manufacturer is replacing it with an entirely new version. Your consumer electronics really don't have that much of a shelf life. According to a new study, the car may be the next consumer good to experience a micro shelf life.

Subaru has issued a recall of 5,379 Outback and Legacy models built between February 15 and June 15, 2012 all designated as 2013 models. It seems that these cars may be susceptible to having defective inner and outer steering shafts on their steering columns. These shafts may become disengaged from one another, which could cause the operator to lose the ability to steer the car and result in a crash. Subaru has begun contacting owners, but if they have not been contacted yet, they may call Subaru at 1-800-782-2783 to schedule a free repair to the steering column. Read on for the full report...

Over at GM, you have the all-new 2014 Corvette, and its sure-to-follow packages like the ZR1 and Z06. Then you have the Camaro, and all its packages including the ZL1 and all-new Z28. At Chrysler, you have an all-new super muscle car in the SRT Viper, and you have SRT Viper packages like the Time Attack. But what you don't have is a Challenger package in the vein of the ZL1 (or Ford Mustang Shelby GT500). Yet. According to several reports, Chrysler is working to fill that void with an all-new 6.2-liter HEMI V8 engine that will debut on the next-generation Challenger.

When the topic of conversation turns to ways to save on gas, it seems that everyone has an opinion. But, while all these suggestions are well-intended, not all of them are equally valuable. Take changing the air filter as an example. While it can do your car a world of good in other ways, it won’t boost your MPGs, despite what many people believe.

Other folks swear that the trick is to buy gas early in the morning, so it comes out of the pump cooler. This, too, has no effect on fuel use. So how do your separate fact from fiction when it comes to boosting your car's efficiency? Here's a look at 10 popular tips for saving gas. We'll see how much truth there is in each one.

Back in the 1980s, the automotive industry underwent a golden age of technologically advanced sports cars. Cars like the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 used technologies never before seen on the road, and as time went on, that technology trickled down. Tech-heavy cars are more common here in 2013, but we appear to be on the verge of another technological golden age involving Porsche and Ferrari. Porsche is developing the 918 Spyder, a sort of spiritual successor to the 959, and Ferrari recently revealed the LaFerrari, a direct descendant of the F40. A cornerstone of the new era will be hybrid power. Both the 918 and LaFerrari have hybrid units, and, at least in Porsche's case, plug-in hybrid technology will be trickling down to its entire line.

It's a good week to be Tesla. On the heels of announcing its first profit in 10 years of business, the electric luxury carmaker gets a nearly perfect rating on its Model S. After testing the sedan, Consumer Reports slapped a big, old "99 out of 100" on it, a first for an electric vehicle.

Back in 1899, a Scottish immigrant named David Buick decided to try his hand at building horseless carriages. At the turn of the last century, automobile manufacturing was the new boom industry. Much like the dot com boom a century later, there was a fledgling car company on every corner. And nearly all of them would eventually run out of money, and go belly-up. Just a few years after Mr. Buick started his automotive venture, it too went bankrupt, and the company was taken over by a man named Billy Durant.

Mr. Durant was a very wealthy man, having turned his small wagon/carriage business, the Flint Road Cart Company, into the world's largest horse-drawn wagon manufacturer. His wagons were sold all over the world, and he decided to replicate his success In the automobile business. The Buick Motor Company was his first automotive acquisition, and it would eventually become the cornerstone of his new car-making conglomerate called General Motors.

A decade ago, gas was cheap and SUVs had their own zip codes. Americans didn't care about fuel economy. We just wanted big vehicles to traverse our big country, as we slurped on our Big Gulps. But that all changed when gas prices spiked in 2008. Customers were forced to abandon their 15 mpg ImpressUVs, and car makers were forced to start building vehicles that offered a similar experience, without sucking down $900 worth of gas every week.

After billions in combined R&D, automakers have been able to develop a bevy of fuel saving technologies, that have turned today's vehicles into fuel-sipping wonders. For example, SUVs like the 2013 Chevrolet Equinox can achieve 32 MPG on the highway, while providing a total of 63 cu-ft of cargo room, 1,500 lbs of towing capacity (the V6 can pull 3,500 lbs), and there's even a built-in mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the 4-cyl FWD Equinox at 22 city/32 highway/26 combined.

The Nissan Versa Sedan, the cheapest new car available in the US, is getting a little sweeter next year. Not only will its price not increase a dollar, but it will come with a few new goodies.

It's a little too early to start naming "best ofs" for the 2014 model year, since not every car has launched yet, but Chevy is coming out early and declaring the 2014 Spark EV the most fuel efficient US retail vehicle. The EPA rated the Spark EV at a combined city-highway mileage of 119 mpg-e.

Honda has announced yet another recall of three of its big time models:  The CR-V (2012-2013), Odyssey (2012-2013), and its higher end Acura RDX (2013 model only). This recall mirrors a recent run on the same issue other car companies have had as well. The mechanism that blocks the automatic gear selector from slipping out of Park may, in fact, be defective. Honda has said that this seems to happen only during sub-freezing temperatures—the selector may not work as quickly as it should, and could let the car shift even without having the brake pedal depressed.

The recall is expected to star the middle of next month. Honda will replace the defective mechanism with one that has been updated to deal with the colder temperatures, free of charge. Owners may conctact Honda at 1-800-999-1009. Read on for the full report.