Autos

You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle. This is what the 2013 Subaru BRZ might say if it could talk. The all-new, rear-wheel-drive sports car starts at $26,265, and boy is it honest - perhaps more so than any other car on the market today, save for its mechanical twin, the Scion FR-S. The two were jointly developed by Subaru and Scion's parent company, Toyota, with both assembled by Subaru in Japan. The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty?

From the rides of kings to a king of rock 'n' roll, auction house Gooding & Co. has scored a couple of notable entries for its annual auction at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in August. The Santa Monica seller of high-end collector cars will put up for auction a 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Stelvio once owned by Prince Louis Napoleon, the grandson of the nephew of Emperor Napoleon I of France and noted World War II resistance fighter. Although the prince was forbidden to live in France for much of his life because of former laws banning the top heirs of French dynasties from living in the nation, he was fond of French vehicles, especially Bugattis.

Ford Motor Co. will offer about 90,000 U.S. salaried retirees and former employees vested in its pension plan a lump-sum payment to buy them out of monthly benefits. Ford, which also reported lower first-quarter earnings Friday because of losses in Europe and Asia, said the plan was an innovative strategy to reduce its pension obligations. The automaker won't put up any operating cash but rather will make the one-time payments from existing pension plan assets. "We believe this is the first time a program of this type and magnitude has been done in an ongoing pension plan," said Bob Shanks, Ford's chief financial officer.

It's one of the most buzzed about questions in the video game world: When will Grand Theft Auto V hit stores? The hugely anticipated sequel to one of video gaming's best-selling franchises was first announced by developer Rockstar Games last November. Fans know that it will be another huge open-world game and that it will take place in a thinly veiled version of Los Angeles, much like 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV took place in a virtual replica of New York City.

American Honda Motor Co. said Friday that it would stop making its Element utility vehicle after the 2011 model year. In the U.S., the company has sold 325,000 of the boxy vehicles, which are popular among dog owners and bicycle enthusiasts because of the way the interior space can be arranged. Several bikes can be stored in the rear compartment standing up and without wheels being removed. Honda said that the car had been overshadowed in its own lineup by the CR-V small SUV and that competitors had come out with other small utilities that compete with the Element.

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to be more honest and you just bought Honda's new 2012 CR-V, you may be up a creek without a spark plug. You see, you'll want to tell inquisitive friends and neighbors that the SUV you just bought is all-new. And the 2012 CR-V certainly looks like it. It has a degree of styling and refinement that just didn't exist in the three previous generations. It also rides and handles with confidence born out of recent engineering and development.

The collector car market, which slumped with the economy, is coming back along with the rest of the auto industry. But don't expect to pick up a classic Tucker or Duesenberg without ponying up money like a Facebook executive. Many of these cars are selling for well over $1 million. By one measure, the value of collectible cars has surged 33% since the depth of the recession in 2009. The Hagerty collector car blue-chip index - a Dow-like gauge that averages the values of 25 of the most sought-after collectible automobiles of the postwar era - climbed to $1.25 million from $940,000 in September 2009.

In another sign of the Internet's increasingly influential role in auto sales, dealers are in the middle of a fight between Honda and TrueCar.com over prices displayed online. American Honda Motor Co. has told its dealers that it won't give them advertising allowances if they offer vehicles below invoice on TrueCar, the fast-growing online auto sales service. The Japanese automaker believes that disclosing cut-rate prices damages its brand and makes its dealers compete with one another for buyers rather than with other automakers.

Many automobile owners are spending more than they need on motor oil, believing that it should be changed every 3,000 miles even though almost no manufacturer requires such an aggressive oil-change schedule. The long-held notion that the oil should be changed every 3,000 miles is so prevalent that California officials have launched a campaign to stop drivers from wasting millions of gallons of oil annually because they have their vehicles serviced too often. "Our survey data found that nearly half of California drivers are still changing their oil at 3,000 miles or even sooner," said Mark Oldfield, a spokesman for the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery, which has launched the Check Your Number campaign to encourage drivers to go with the manufacturer's recommendations.

It appears Cadillac's design studio has finally found a remedy to U.S. automakers' inferiority complex. For decades, the neurosis has afflicted the studios of Detroit, causing them to turn out bland, awkward or copycat designs, while their German and Japanese counterparts created strong visual identities unique to their brands. Now comes a dose of the 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe. Whether you love it or loathe it, there is no denying that it is bold, brash and uniquely American.

Moody's Investors Service raised the credit rating of Ford Motor Co. to an investment grade, giving its seal of approval to a corporate turnaround of the business that started with heavy borrowing at the end of 2006. The move Tuesday returns control of the automaker's famous "Blue Oval" logo back to Ford. The logo, with the Ford name written in distinctive script, was first seen on a Model A in 1928 and was pledged as collateral to obtain the loans. Moody's raised its assessment of the creditworthiness of Ford's automotive operations to Baa3, up from Ba2. Ford Motor Credit Co., the automaker's finance arm, now has a rating of Baa3, up from Ba1. The investment rating is an important measure of corporate health and will reduce the automaker's borrowing expenses.

Here's a big oops for Ferrari, the maker of megabucks sports cars: It made a mistake making the crankshafts for the engines in its California and 458 Italia models and now will have to repair or replace them, depending on what the owners prefer. Ferrari said it would recall the 2011 and 2012 model-year cars because the crankshaft error could cause the engines in the vehicles, which sell for $200,000 or more, to freeze suddenly and possibly cause a crash. The Italian automaker learned of the problem in a uniquely embarrassing way. The first of the cars to have its engine freeze was the one the company lent to critics to review.

A bill that would allow self-driving cars on California's roads has passed the California Senate. The bill, SB1298, sponsored by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), establishes guidelines for "autonomous vehicles" to be tested and operated in California. The bill now goes to the Assembly for consideration next month. Tech giant Google Inc., Caltech and other organizations have been working to develop such vehicles, which use radar, video cameras and lasers to navigate roads and stay safe in traffic without human assistance.

American Honda Motor Co. said it would recall 52,615 model year 2007-08 Acura TL sedans in the United States to replace the power-steering hose. The automaker said the hose may deteriorate and leak fluid. That might cause a loss of power-steering assistance or, if it leaks onto a catalytic converter, may result in smoke or fire, Honda said. No crashes, injuries or fires have been reported related to this issue. The company said it wanted "to encourage owners of all affected vehicles to take their vehicles to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification of this recall from Acura.

MARTINS FERRY, Ohio -- Joe Biden Thursday mocked Mitt Romney for attempting to claim credit for the rebound of the American auto industry, linking the GOP hopeful's past criticism of the Obama administration's rescue plan with his role as the head of venture capital firm Bain Capital. The setting for Biden's latest attack on Romney was a Chevrolet plant in the southeast corner of Ohio, to a crowd of 450 invited supporters standing before three Chevy Cruises. The vice president praised Obama for stepping up to save Big 3 automakers General Motors and Chrysler from "liquidation," to preserve what he called an "iconic industry that helped build the middle class.

If you want to save money on a new car, look for an older model that is about to be replaced. That's the advice of auto information company Kelley Blue Book, which says some automakers are offering big discounts on models that they are replacing in the coming months with redesigned versions of the same nameplate. Nissan Motor Co., for example, this month began production of its new-generation Altima family sedan at its factory near Nashville and is clearing out its 2012 models.

Less than two years after emerging from bankruptcy,General Motors Co.has regained the title of the world's largest automaker. GM's worldwide sales rose 7.6% to 9 million vehicles in 2011. The Detroit manufacturer last held the top spot in 2007 before it was surpassed byToyota Motor Corp.the next year. Chevrolet, GM's flagship brand, set a record by selling nearly 4.8 million vehicles. That was more than what many entire auto companies posted in sales last year, including Nissan and Honda.

Jerry Seinfeld once said, "There's no such thing as fun for the whole family. " Ask anyone who has tried cramming himself or his kin into the third row of seats in a crossover sport utility vehicle, and it's likely they'll agree. Doing so is an adventure often requiring a pickax or perhaps a healthy application of Crisco. Once you're installed, there's no guarantee that you're comfortable. Or ever getting out. Yet three-row crossovers have no trouble selling to buyers who are immune to the siren song of practicality seeping from the island of Minivan.

You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle. This is what the 2013 Subaru BRZ might say if it could talk. The all-new, rear-wheel-drive sports car starts at $26,265, and boy is it honest - perhaps more so than any other car on the market today, save for its mechanical twin, the Scion FR-S. The two were jointly developed by Subaru and Scion's parent company, Toyota, with both assembled by Subaru in Japan. The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty?

A gas station that also offers E85 ethanol and biodiesel fuels has opened in Fullerton, becoming the first of more than 200 so-called clean mobility centers slated for the state. The Propel Clean Mobility Center at 1124 E. Chapman Ave., which opened Wednesday, was partially funded by grants from the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Energy Department. "People are looking for alternatives. They're looking for transportation options that aren't dependent on petroleum," said Matt Horton, chief executive of Propel Fuels in Redwood City, Calif., which at its new Fullerton station also offers a self-service bicycle repair station, recycling containers, free air and water, and maps of rail stations, bike paths and busways.