Watch a Tug of War Between a VW Touareg V10 TDI and a Chevrolet Silverado Duramax V8

It seems that pickup truck owners throughout the country have a thing for competing in amateur pulling contests.

Only a couple of weeks ago, we witnessed the finesse, skill, and let's not forget, the…ahem…sportsmanship between two drivers in a Chevrolet Silverado and a diesel-powered Dodge Ram Cummins battling it out on a parking lot before they moved on to challenge each other in a traditional fist fight.

So, what do we have in this video, that was brought to our attention by reader Patrick K.?

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Which New Cars and Concepts Impressed You the Most in 2012?

Europe may be in trouble but many of its automakers are performing just fine and the rest of the world seems to be doing okay, as global new car sales are tipped to exceed 80 million units for the first time ever.

Therefore, you could say that 2012 has been a good year for the automotive industry, which rolled out a whole lot of new models.

With only three days to go until the end of the year, we found ourselves asking out loudly: which newly presented production and concept vehicles impressed us the most?

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Toyota and its Tuning Partners to Show at Least Five 86 / FR-S Concept Coupes at Tokyo Auto Salon

The much promising GRMN Sports FR Concept Platinum study with a twin-charged boxer engine pushing out 325-horses that we showed you earlier on Friday won't be the only concept version of the Toyota 86 (call it Scion FR-S if you live in North America) coupe to go on display at next month's Tokyo Auto Salon 2013.

Toyota and its tuning outfits will put on show 10 customized vehicles, half of which have already been confirmed to be based on the 86 – we wouldn't be the least surprised to learn that the rest of the models are also based on the brand's rear-wheel drive sports car.

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CAR Magazine Puts Together a Motley Crew in its Search for the World’s Best Car

Car of the year is so old hat; picking the world’s best car, on the other hand, is quite an ambitious undertaking. It’s an intriguing one, too, and probably that’s the reason CAR magazine decided to go ahead with it for their December 2012 issue cover story.

We bet the editors had a difficult time trying to narrow down the finalists to a reasonable number. In the end, they came up with five cars from different segments.

There’s a luxury SUV, a four-door, four-seat supercar, two luxury saloons and a two-door, four-seater supercar.

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China's BYD Wants to Build All-Electric Busses in the U.S.

The Chinese maker of all-electric vehicles that gained a lot of attention in 2008 when investor Warren Buffett bought a 10 percent stake in BYD for$230 million, is now actively looking to build an electric-bus assembly plant in the States.

Micheal Austin, vice president of BYD America, broke the news to WardsAuto, adding that the company has not yet decided on the location for the plant. "Clearly, there are a lot sensitive negotiations that must go on before any of that happens," said Austin.

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In Russia, If You Don't Succeed Hitting a Pedestrian at First, Try Again in Reverse…

Who knows why some people, or to be more specific, drivers, do the things they do. If you take a few minutes to watch the following video, you will understand what we mean by this.

One of the many recording devices used by Russian motorists captured a very bizarre incident in the country's capital city of Moscow. Approximately six seconds into the clip, we see the driver of a black Mercedes-Benz GL-Class making an illegal U-turn.

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Porsche Wins New York Case Over VW Takeover After Appeals Court Rejects Lawsuit

The issue of Porsche’s failed attempt to acquire Volkswagen in 2008 has surfaced again. Last week the automaker’s former CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and ex-COO Holger Haerter were formally charged in Stuttgart, Germany with market manipulation. Moreover, Porsche filed a lawsuit against the Pendragon fund and its manager in an effort to keep the case in its homeland. Read more »

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Suzuki Puts the Spotlight on its Wagon R Series with Two Concepts for the Tokyo Auto Salon

The troubled automotive division of Suzuki Motor Corp. will be heading to the Tokyo Auto Salon 2013 next month with an assortment of its latest production cars and two concept models.

For the tuning enthusiasts, the Japanese brand has prepared two studies based on the regular Wagon R and its more aggressively styled sibling, the Wagon R Stingray.

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EU Contests Peugeot’s Government Loan After Unnamed Competitor Files a Complaint

The €18.5 billion (US$24.4) refinancing deal struck between the French government and the ailing PSA Peugeot-Citroen group, which includes a €7 billion (US$9.3 billion) state guarantee, is causing headaches to the automaker for the second time in as many months.

In November, talks about advancing the alliance with General Motors’ European operations into a full-scale merger were put on ice because the conditions under which the funds are to be granted rule out any job cuts from the French automaker.

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British Designer Envisions an Entry Level Range Rover Small Crossover for Two

If you must have a Land Rover and for some reason the compact Evoque is too big for your needs and tastes, then you're out of luck in the real world (at least for now), but in the creative realm of art, British design student Joshua Picton has imagined a new entry-level model for the company's sub-brand Range Rover, aptly named the Coupe Concept. Read more »

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Jeep Driver is Having an Unexplainable Hard Time Backing Out of This Parking Spot

Granted, the Jeep Commander isn't a small vehicle, but at 188.5 inches (4,788 mm) long, the crossover isn't huge either, which makes it kind of tough to explain why this driver is having such a hard time backing out of the parking space.

As is almost always the case with people filming these type of incidents, the men behind the camera are far more concerned about cracking a joke than going out to help the woman who is clearly struggling to move her car…

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Infiniti Tries to Scare Us with New Q50 Sedan's Angry Looking Headlamps

After sharing the news about its new badging theme that will see all 2014 models gaining a 'Q' in their name, Infiniti has presented an official teaser video of the first car to adopt this naming strategy, the Q50.

And what exactly is the Q50, we hear some of you ask? Well, it’s the car that will replace the current G series sedan and which will be formally introduced in a world premiere at January's 2013 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit.

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Spy Shots: This is the Revamped 2014 Buick LaCrosse Sedan

Back in September, just before the Paris Motor Show kicked off, General Motors came out with an announcement saying that over the next 12 months, its Buick brand is set to receive five new or refreshed models.

Among the cars including in the list were the Enclave and Encore crossovers, and the 250hp Verano Turbo that we've already seen, and the Regal and LaCrosse sedans.

We still have to wait and see what Buick has in store for the Regal, but as far as the LaCrosse is concerned, these spy shots of a camouflage-free prototype found in China, pretty much tell us the cosmetic story.

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Nissan's Born-Again Datsun to Share Platforms with Lada

From the moment Nissan announced that it will revive its dormant Datsun brand with the goal of conquering emerging markets, we knew that cars like the 240Z were out of the question.

At the time, one CarScoop commentator projected that the new generation of Datsun models "are going to be rebodied Dacias", which as it turns out, isn't too far from the truth.

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Flogging a Gold-Finished Lamborghini Aventador Around an Empty Port Looks Fun

Unless you're stuck in traffic, it doesn't really matter where you drive to enjoy an Italian exotic like the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, but doing so in a gold-wrapped example in an empty port in Miami, is an experience not many people will get in life.

Enter the world of NueVueProductions and its unnamed driver who had the unique opportunity to have some slippery fun with Prestige Imports Miami's Project AU.79 Aventador during the shooting of a short film in Florida.

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Gazoo Preparing Unique Looking Toyota 86 – Scion FR-S Concept with 325HP Twin-Charged Engine

The 2013 edition of the Tokyo Auto Salon is turning out to be quite the event with many surprise debuts being announced as we approach closer to the grand opening that takes place on the weekend before the Detroit motor show in mid-January.

Today we learn that Toyota's motorsports and tuning partner Gazoo Racing will host the world premiere of a unique looking Toyota 86 coupe (Japan's version of the North American Scion FR-S) named the GRMN Sports FR Concept Platinum.

From the few cropped pictures we were able to get our hands on, we can see that the study will feature a unique body with different front and rear ends over the stock 86/FR-S along with some interior upgrades including bucket seats.

If the concept's name rings a bell, that's because under the sheetmetal, it shares its performance upgrades with the GRMN Sports FR Concept revealed at the Goodwood Festival in the UK this summer.

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Peter Schreyer Becomes Kia's First Non-Korean President

The man who played if not the, one of the most important roles in turning around the global reputation of Kia as the firm's Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer, has been appointed to the role of president, the first non-Korean to hold that title in the automaker's history.

Schreyer, who will keep his position as Kia's design boss, is one of three presidents at the company. His promotion is a sign that the Hyundai and Kia group wants design to play an even greater role in the future as it continues its global expansion challenging Germany's car industry.

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Reckless Truck Driver Thinks Other Motorists Are Stupid for Pulling Over During Blizzard

Imagine that there's a snowstorm going on outside with visibility limited to 30 feet (~10m) or less and you're driving a large truck; what do you do?

Well, we would like to think that in this scenario, most people would pull over to the side and cross their fingers that other motorists do the same, but that's not the case with this driver who is featured in the dashcam video.

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Nissan Extends 2011-2012 Leaf's Battery Warranty to Address Capacity Loss Issues

After some Leaf owners located in hot-weather climates complained to Nissan about their car's lithium-ion battery losing performance , the Japanese automaker decided to take action and bolster its warranty program that will apply retroactively on all 2011 and 2012 models, as well as the new 2013 version starting from next spring. Read more »

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Scoop: 2014 Volvo XC60 Facelift Captured Undisguised in China

As was the case with Volvo's subtly refreshed 2014 S80 sedan, the facelifted XC60 crossover has also been scooped without any camouflage in China, which, coincidentally or not, happens to be the home of the Swedish brand's owner, Geely.

Although there's always the possibility that the cosmetic changes seen on the XC60 may be for China only, we expect the facelifted crossover to be offered globally.

Most updates take place up front where Volvo's designers removed the inner lights between the headlamps and the grille, which has grown in size and now sits on the front of a redesigned and more pronounced hood. The headlamps themselves are also new as is the bumper.

The revamped exterior mirrors with longer turning signals, the addition of a chrome strip on the tailgate and the re-sculptured rear bumper with new exhaust tailpipes complete the exterior revisions.

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Future Audi Models will Differ More in Design from Each Other, Says R&D Boss

Things are looking great for Audi: in the first 11 months of the year, its sales have already exceeded 2011’s total, recording a 12.7 percent increase and it’s nigh impossible to find a niche in which it doesn’t compete.

Alas, in their efforts to create a family look its designers have taken things a bit too far. In fact, in certain cases, it’s difficult to distinguish one model from the other, especially from the front…

That’s not nitpicking but a fact that even Wolfgang Dürheimer, the ex-Bentley boss who since September is Audi’s board member responsible for research and development, acknowledges.

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New Mitsubishi Mirage to be Offered in the States with a Three-Cylinder Engine from Fall 2013

The car that Mitsubishi believes will help it grow again and increase its sales on a global basis and especially in developing markets, the new Mirage, will join the brand's range in the United States next year, but we already knew that.

What a report from Car and Driver adds is that the Japanese carmaker's no-frills sub-compact will be revealed in U.S.-specification at the 2013 New York Auto Show in April, and that it will go on sale in September of the same year.

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Bentley Fires Plant Priest Before Christmas Because it Doesn't Want to Offend Non-Christian Workers…

Reverend Francis Cook was employed by Bentley for the past 10 years. Once a week, he visited the VW Group-owned luxury automaker’s factory in Crewe, England, and chatted to its employees, run Christian courses and written messages in the company’s newsletters.

Just a few days before Christmas (…), he was told that his services were no longer required and he should vacate the premises.

“The reason I have been given is that there are too many people of different faiths to warrant a Christian chaplain”, Cooke told UK daily newspaper The Mirror. “There have been no complaints made against me and my position is to help people, and not just those who are Christians.”

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BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe with M Sport Package Vossen-ed Up

When owners of new BMW models want to add some visual pizazz to their rides, their first choice is to tick the M Sport Package box from the options list, which usually comes with an aerodynamic kit and bigger alloy wheels for the exterior, and sport seats and trim for the interior. Read more »

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Jay Leno Walk us Around Four Pristine Pieces of Corvette History

Most of you are already aware that American comedian and TV show host Jay Leno is a very serious car enthusiast who also likes to share his passion with others gearheads.

With the eagerly anticipated 2014 Corvette C7 just around the corner, Leno invited vice president of General Motors Design Ed Welburn to his garage. Welburn didn’t come alone, of course: he brought with him four Corvettes from the past.

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The Top 10 Cars Most Likely to be Targeted by Thieves in Britain

General insurance company Swiftcover has released a list with the top 10 vehicles that are most likely to be stolen in Britain.

The company states it analyzed more than 2,300 theft claims among the UK vehicles it insured from February 2011 to February 2012, while taking into account the estimated numbers of cars on the road and removing models with less than ten cases of theft per year.

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Why You Shouldn't Hide in a Car's Engine Bay to Scare Your Mechanic

Well, despite the fact that this young prankster succeeded in frightening his victim, you could chalk this one up as a fail as at it came at a personal cost.

You see, some bright adults came up with the idea of hiding a kid in the empty engine compartment of an old Chrysler Sebring to scare a mechanic once he opened up the car's hood.

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Ford Faces Federal Class-Action Lawsuit Over C-MAX and Fusion Hybrids MPG Numbers

It was probably a matter of time before someone picked up the Consumer Reports review that accused Ford of misstating the 2013 C-MAX Hybrid and Fusion Hybrid fuel economy numbers and filing a lawsuit.

The publication contested the 47 mpg city/highway/combined figure and said that the two Ford hybrids had the “distinction” of recording the greatest difference between the EPA-approved mpg and the ones it achieved during its own tests.

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CDC Performance Bolts on a Supercharger to the Ferrari California [w/Video]

For its second project after the Maserati Quattroporte that was released earlier this summer, German sports car tuner CDC Performance has worked over the most affordable Ferrari model, the California hardtop roadster.

Beginning with the engine, CDC Performance introduces a supercharger system complete with intercooling, and a custom made exhaust system fitted with a valve to control the V8's noise levels, bumping output from 483hp (490PS) to 594hp (602PS), and torque from 505Nm (372 lb-ft) to 600Nm (443 lb-ft).

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Toyota Agrees to Pay US$1.4 Billion to Settle Unintended Acceleration Lawsuits

In the past 10 years, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received nearly 3,100 complaints about sudden acceleration issues in Toyota vehicles. Those complaints alleged 93 deaths, but the Administration has confirmed a direct link in just five of them.

The issue made headlines in 2009 after a wrongly installed floor mat on a loaner Lexus ES caused the vehicle to crash, resulting in the death of the driver and his three passengers.

Toyota was forced to recall 7.1 million vehicles in the U.S. and another 5.3 in the rest of the world over the issue and was slapped with US$70 million in fines by the NHTSA as it failed to recall the affected vehicles on time.

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Lamborghini Test Drive in China Goes Awfully Wrong; Ferrari Owner Crashes Car After Buying it

If you should be careful the first time you drive a mainstream vehicle, then you really need to watch out when you sit behind the wheel of a supercar from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini.

The first accident we found on the crash-loving website Wreckedexotics reportedly involves a Chinese customer of Lamborghini who took a Gallardo roadster for a test drive out in the rain and somehow ended up killing a tree and parking it on its side…

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Why Does Toyota Think that a Pink Crown Athlete Symbolizes its…Athletic Nature? [w/Videos]

Perhaps you can help us figure out what’s with the pink-colored 2013 Toyota Crown Athlete that was presented this week in Japan under the soothing sounds of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the night", since our knowledge of the Japanese language is limited to words like "Konnichiwa" and "Sayōnara" and the company doesn't allow access to its "Re-Born" website for visitors outside of Japan.

We looked up the available colors for the new Crown Athlete, and pink wasn't among the shades offered on the car's online configurator.

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Does the Front End of This Hyundai Genesis Coupe Remind You of Something?

Here's a couple of hints; the car we're referring to in our title comes from Britain and is named after the limited number of models that were produced in 2009-2010. Some chromed slits on the Genesis Coupe's modified grille would have helped it bear a stronger resemblance to the vehicle we're talking about.

While we leave you think about it for a moment, let us tell you that this Craigslist find is a 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T Track Edition fitted with a force-fed turbocharged four-banger driving the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox.

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Turkish Designer Imagines a Mercedes-Benz Sub-Compact Hatch to Sit Under the A-Class

It took Mercedes-Benz two generation of models, but third time was a charm when it came to the firm's A-Class compact hatchback, which has been a wild success in Europe having secured more than 90,000 orders from September to mid-November, when Daimler last told us about the sales numbers.

Inspired by the more aggressive styling and proportions of the A-Class Mk3, Turkish industrial design Uğur Göküş took it upon himself to visualize a smaller model positioned between the Smart series and the A-Class.

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Stand Your Ground, the Russian Pedestrian Edition

Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' law, which gained national attention after the high profile shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, states:

"A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

We don't know if there's a similar law for pedestrians in Smolensk Oblast in Russia, but this man sure knows how to 'stand his ground' when drivers disregard the signs and don't slow down to let people cross the road. See what happened in the video that follows the break.

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Analysts Predict U.S. New Cars Sales to Grow to 15 Million Units in 2013, Used Car Prices to Fall

New light-vehicle sales in the States are gradually recovering from the slump that began in 2007 with the global credit crunch and will continue to grow in 2013, albeit at a slower pace than previous years, according to most automotive analysts.

Edmunds.com projects 15 million new car sales in 2013, a four percent increase over 2012, which is expected to end with around 14.5 million units. It will be the first time since 2007 that the U.S. market will surpass the 15 million sales mark.

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Mcchip Turns Porsche 993 GT2 Into a Formidable Track Racer with 596-Horses

While some tend to believe that certain cars are like a fine bottle of wine that improves with age, truth is that, once you begin counting a vehicle's age in decades, the more attention it needs to keep it up and running.

When time came to spruce up his car, this owner of the classic 993-generation Porsche 911 GT2 from the mid-1990s, decided to not only restore but also turn the German sports coupe into a street-legal track racer.

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Facelifted Ford Fiesta Van Gains Aston Martin-Esque Schnozzle

Joining the refreshed range of Fiesta hatchbacks in Europe is the facelifted, commercial version of the series aptly named the Fiesta Van, which is available to order now in Britain, with customer deliveries from early January 2013. Read more »

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New Mercedes-Benz Citan Van Receives One of its First Tuning Jobs

The new Citan urban delivery van is the fruit of the partnership between Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler and the Renault-Nissan Alliance. It is based on the French firm's successful Kangoo series and is available in three different body variants.

While it hasn't been on the market that long since European sales began in October, the Citan has already caught the attention of tuners, with German aftermarket company KTW Tuning presenting, if not the first, one of the first programs for Mercedes' smallest commercial vehicle.

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Hyundai Elantra Sets New Sales Record in the States, Could Pass 200,000 Units this Year

Now in its fifth generation, the Hyundai Elantra has set another all-time sales record in the States in 2012, exceeding last year’s total of 186,361 units earlier this month. Read more »

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Toyota FJ Cruiser Jumps Sand Dune in Saudi Arabia, Lands Face First and Tumbles Down…

The good thing with hot deserts and sand dunes located near highways is that they're easily accessible by drivers feeling adventurous or who simply want to blow off some steam.

On the other hand, this also means that just about anyone driving an SUV or a crossover capable of going off-road can jump off the highway at any time and try whatever comes to mind without taking any precautions or acting in a sensible way.

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U Spy: Facelifted 2014 Hyundai Equus Luxury Sedan Spotted in California

When CarScoop reader Hunter L. emailed these scoop shots he took of a camouflaged prototype sedan parked in a garage in California, he told us it's likely a 2014 model Hyundai, something we agreed with him, with our first thought going to the new Genesis saloon that we caught off guard testing in Europe earlier this month.

While the two prototypes may look similar, upon a more careful examination of the photos and specific details such as the lights, the dashboard and the window line, we determined that this is not the new generation of the Genesis but the North American market 2014 Equus facelift, which has been announced in South Korea.

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MT Tests the 2013 SRT Viper GTS to Find Out How Sharp its Fangs Are

When the third-generation Viper was launched back in April at the New York Auto Show, SRT boss Ralph Gilles had said that the company “simply would not let the performance icon of the Chrysler Group die.”

Love it or hate it, the Viper is undoubtedly an icon. Its two previous incarnations followed the same recipe: aggressive styling, a big-displacement V10 up front with huge torque driving the rear wheels and…that’s about it.

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New Mazda6 Already Offered with Styling Packages in Japan

If you have been keeping an eye on our news today, you will know that Mazda will display three customized concepts of the new Mazda6 at next month's Tokyo Auto Salon.

In the States, the Mazda6 in sedan form only will go on sale in January as a 2014 model, which means we will probably have to wait until fall next year and the SEMA aftermarket show to see what kind of tuning options will be available for the Japanese carmaker's promising mid-size model.

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New Mercedes-Benz CLA Already Available in…Die Cast Miniature Form

While Mercedes-Benz is trying to keep a tight hold on the upcoming CLA compact sports saloon, having only released bits and pieces of information along with pictures and videos of camouflaged prototypes, we've already had the opportunity to see official photos of the car.

If that wasn't enough, now, pictures of what is said to be a 1/18 scale a die-cast model of the new CLA have surfaced on the internet!

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Trolling a French Police Car in Paris with a Quadcopter Drone

While the debate on privacy rights and government power over the use of surveillance drones goes on, some talented folks from Team Black Sheep (TBS), which specializes in both filming equipment for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as well as aerial video services, found some time to fool around in France while attending the LeWeb 2012 Conference.

What TBS did on a street just outside of Paris is fly a remote controlled quadrotor, also called a quadrotor helicopter or quadcopter, equipped with a live-feed recording device.

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First Photos of Mugen's New Honda CR-V Design Study

Among the many new customized vehicles being prepared by Honda for a world premiere at the Tokyo Auto Salon in mid-January, is the Mugen CR-V Design Study, which was announced, but not included, in the automaker's teaser photo gallery that we shared with you earlier today.

To satisfy our curiosity, we snooped around and found two photos of the Mugen-fettled concept that will most likely lead to a production model sometime next year.

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Early Reveal for Bentley's New 616hp Continental GTC Speed

Official pictures of the new Bentley Continental GTC Speed model have dripped on the web, ahead of a rumored world premiere at next month's North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Other than the photos, we don't have anything else on the latest addition to the Continental's range, but it is evident from the pictures that the GTC Speed's styling cues are identical to the coupe model of the series.

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