Automobiles

In tough times, Nissan Motor Co. is hoping less is more. On Friday, the Japanese carmaker said it would begin selling a cut-rate version of its Versa sedan in the U.S. for $9,990 -- more than $1,000 less than the cheapest new car currently sold in America. The frills-free Versa -- which is made in Mexico and will be available starting Nov. 18 -- will come without power windows or air conditioning and will be the only new car available in the U.S. for less than $10,000.

In their cocoons of leather upholstery, soothing high-tech sound systems and automatically activated personal seat settings, drivers have come to regard their car interiors as mobile extensions of the homes that are their private refuges. The courts have tended to disagree.

It's going to be a long, cold, lonely winter for carmakers, but spring could be heavenly for hot rodders (if they have some dough). An all-new Chevy Camaro and a refreshed Ford Mustang are about to make it to showrooms, with prices starting in the low- to mid-$20,000 range, along with a new sub-$30,000 car making more than 300 horsepower from a surprising place -- South Korea.

Animal rights activists destroyed one vehicle and badly damaged two others in a Palms-area arson attack last week, authorities said. The incident occurred Nov. 20 and appears to be part of a botched attempt to target a UCLA animal researcher, authorities said. Activists with the group Students and Workers for the Liberation of UCLA Primates claimed responsibility for the attack, stating on an animal rights website that the destroyed car belonged to Goran Lacan, a UCLA "vivisector."

The title character in Clint Eastwood's Motor City morality tale is, by the reaching light of history, a fairly negligible hunk of machinery: a green 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport, with a sleek "SportsRoof" and a gold "Laser Stripe," one of many million overfed, undersprung and largely unlamented muscle cars that poured out of Ford, GM and Chrysler factories in the early 1970s. Why not something heroic, a Chevrolet Camaro or Corvette? Why not a Dodge Challenger or even a boattail Buick Riviera?

In the world that is the Tournament of Roses, the retirement of Els Hazenberg -- official decorator of the antique cars that ferry Rose Parade dignitaries -- feels like an earthquake. The parade has printed special pins to commemorate her creative work. A museum-style poster sits on an easel at the entrance to the tent where she decorated all weekend, chronicling the history of her unique parade craft. After three years of practice, a replacement is ready.

Vandals set fire to about 400 cars overnight, and police said they arrested more than 250 people, as violence marred France's New Year celebrations. Setting cars on fire has become a regular event in France during New Year's Eve celebrations, especially in the deprived suburbs that ring many cities. A police spokesman said there were fewer problems than a year ago, when youths attacked trains in the Paris region and the country's southeast.

Hybrid vehicles are proof of the old saw that you've got to spend money to save it, a new study shows. In recent years, studies by Consumer Reports and others have shown that most hybrids won't save owners enough money on fuel alone to make up for their higher initial prices. But a new study by Los Angeles-based Intellichoice.

Ever wonder what happens to your car after you deem it too unreliable, uncomfortable and unremarkable for your upwardly mobile lifestyle? You sell it to a kid who's light on cash but heavy on tattoos that he'll regret later. He happily rolls over the odometer--twice--before deciding that it's too unreliable, uncomfortable and unremarkable now that he's got a real job and an actual girlfriend. Plus, it won't pass smog.

Car shows are geared to appeal to the motor-heads among us: The wildest concept models and biggest engines get all the attention. And there was plenty of that at the North American International Auto Show this year.