With gas approaching $4 per gallon a lot of folks are starting to think about getting an econobox for their daily driver. There are a lot of cool options out there. My buddy keeps threatening to buy a Honda Fit. I kind of like the looks of the Yaris–I loved this one at SEMA. And the new Fiat 500 really needs to come to the US. How about old school econoboxes? Of course Jen loves her Escort. And I have a soft spot for Mark 1 Ford Fiestas. But if I had to pick I’d probably go with the Mark 1 Rabbit or the original Mini.

What’s your favorite econobox?

• Over the weekend we showed the first part in Alpine’s Sinister Six demo car build videos, and we wrapped it up with Part 2. It’s still hard to believe this beast started life as an $80,000 BMW 645…. The resemblance is there, but this demo car is a work of art!
• Griffin sent us a few of their in-car iPod charger/wireless transmitters to take for a test drive and we just finished our review of the first product. The gadget worked very well – we were impressed!
• Pioneer’s MINI-mino impressed us both on CarDomain and SoundDomain, so we couldn’t resist writing about it either! We got a few details on the product line-up and modifications, but not much info was available at press time. It’s definitely worth a second look and we’ll do our best to get even better details!

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy—whew, say that three times fast!—just released a list of the greenest and meanest cars in America, and on the green side, Toyota’s Prius came up a big, fat loser. Sorry. It actually came in second, behind Honda’s greener-than-Kermit-the-Frog-on-a-lilly pad Civic GX, which runs on compressed air. As expected, small cars and hybrids make up the remainder of the green list, and also as expected, the rides on the mean list look way, way more fun. The VW Tourage—with the CFC-belching diesel V10—took the top "honors," while dream machines like Bugatti’s Veyron and Lamborghini’s Murcielago came in at numbers two and six, respectively. Of course, neither one of those models probably sees 1/10 the annual miles a Ford Focus—number nine on the green list—does, so in reality, they probably pollute a lot less. But whatever, check out the full breakdown over at Wired.

…and the latest is this custom Mini Cooper pickup that Pioneer is building for its booth at the Paris Tuning Show. The Mini-ute is lowered, body-kitted, and rolling on 18-inch wheels. It’s sure to be packing a heck of a lot of car audio, along with on-board nav. But you’d better learn how to rip it up on a shortboard, because your 9’0" just wouldn’t look right on that roof. See more pics after the jump.

Via CarScoop

Continue reading "Everybody Wants a Little Ute" »

Check out the aftermarket woodgrain, um, "styling" kit you can get for the New Beetle. Striving to evoke the look of classic woody wagons, VW Woody produces molded faux-wood kits for a range of late-model rides, including the Mini Cooper, Ford Focus, and Honda Element. Sure, they’re just decals; but seeing as woody wagons have used fake woodgrain for at least the last 30 years, maybe this isn’t so much of a travesty…

By Jen

Editor

Paul Ireson’s AWD Mini pickup, a recent HIN show-winner, is easily the most insane thing I’ve seen at SEMA so far. Not only does the wildly-sculpted body use just about every shade in Planet Color’s catalog; it’s also got two built and turbocharged Honda B16a2 engines, front and rear, one directly driving each set of wheels. These motors produce a total of 1100 HORSEPOWER. To truly appreciate this little piece of insanity, you’ve gotta check out the walkaround video. And don’t miss the custom cockpit, either!