Wheels

It's all crossovers these days. From the polo grounds of Malibu to the campgrounds of Maine, nearly a fifth of all vehicles sold in the U.S. last year resided somewhere in this netherworld between a car and an SUV. So the stakes were high for Toyota's overdue redesign of the RAV4, a pioneer of the segment in the mid-1990s that had grown stale in comparison with competitors. Often resembling small sport utility vehicles, crossovers are truck-like vehicles built on front-drive car platforms.

Planet-hunting scientists were dealt a major blow Wednesday when NASA officials announced that a crucial wheel on the Kepler space telescope had ceased to function and that the craft had been placed in safe mode. Even as NASA officials raised the possibility that they could get the telescope back up and running, scientists began mourning the potential loss of a spacecraft that they said had fundamentally altered our understanding of alien planets in the Milky Way - and Earth's place in an increasingly crowded galaxy.

Your choices in San Francisco hotels are overwhelming. The prices can be too. So during our staff visit to the City by the Bay, we looked for reasonably priced hotels that had charm, location or both. We came back with 14 ideas on places to bed down. It's not a complete list, but it is eclectic, like the city itself. Mystic Hotel. This property, which opened in April, stands on a tunnel-adjacent block of Stockton Street that you'll never see on a picture postcard, yet it has style, as do the Burritt Tavern bar and restaurant downstairs.

The country's largest wireless carriers have joined together for a national advertising campaign to discourage mobile users from texting while driving. AT&T announced that competitors Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile and more than 200 other organizations have joined its "It Can Wait" campaign. The effort will focus on the months between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which have been called the 100 deadliest days on the roads for teen drivers. The campaign kicks off Monday, with the four wireless carriers bringing a multimillion-dollar co-branded advertising blitz to raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving.

Don't worry, baby boomers, Chevrolet hasn't forgotten about you. GM's everyman brand has in recent years launched one impressive small car after another. The compact Cruze, subcompact Sonic and tiny Spark have all done well for the company, both in terms of sales and in capturing younger buyers. Photos: First drive of 2014 Chevy Impala Now Chevy brings us the all-new 2014 Impala, a full-size, front-wheel-drive sedan. The Impala is aimed at competitors such as the Toyota Avalon and Hyundai Azera, both of which were recently overhauled.

Magnus Walker steps between the scarred carcasses of Porsche 911s lining his garage wall. He pauses and points to a gaping hole where the car's front hood should be. "Cars in here have to die," he says, "so others can live. " With a chest-length beard and finger-thick dreadlocks, the 45-year-old English immigrant doesn't look like a prototypical buttoned-down Porsche collector. But for more than a decade, Walker has worked in downtown L.A.'s arts district, transforming scrap heaps into one-off custom 911s, earning him the nickname "Urban Outlaw.

'Hell on Wheels' Where: AMC When: 10 p.m. Sunday Rating: Not rated

A solution to the world's urban transportation problems could lie in two wheels, not four, according to executives of General Motors Corp. and Segway Inc. The companies plan to announce today that they are developing a two-wheeled, two-seat electric vehicle designed to be a safe, inexpensive and clean alternative to traditional cars for cities across the world.

Paddle wheel tours and wine tastings will be part of the second annual Sample the Sierra  festival in South Lake Tahoe on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4) . . . . Ceiba del Mar, near Cancun, is touting 24-hour room service, including “breakfast discreetly delivered to each room through a hidden door ” . . . . Sand Masters (Rusty, Kirk and the team) jump into the deep end at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on the Travel Channel, Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. . . . Tickets start at $19.95 for Herman's Hermits and the Turtles , at the Cannery Casino in Las Vegas,  Sept.

Regarding Susan Spano's article on traveling light (Her World, "Packing Light?" July 12): Her apparent premise that most women travelers are young is wrong. The vast majority of women travelers today are elderly and well-heeled. (The idea of their running for a bus is ludicrous.) Also, they are already well-stocked with mix-and-match travel clothes and would not have to go out and buy a new wardrobe in black. Of course she is right that everybody should travel light. My motto is: "Never carry more than you can heft up or down a curb for a few blocks."

AMC is getting into the Saturday business. The network announced Monday that it was moving its third-season western drama "Hell on Wheels" to Saturday nights beginning Aug. 3. It marks yet another push by the network beyond its destination Sunday night programming. Last year, it launched its reality block on Thursday nights -- a night once home to "Mad Men" in its early days. Saturdays would see the network build up a third night of programming. PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times “A new episode of 'Hell on Wheels' on Saturday night after a full day of western fan favorites is going to be like the saddle on top of the horse,” Charlie Collier, the network's president and general manager, said in a statement.

Look around you the next time you're on the road. Chances are, you'll see someone still holding a smart phone to their ear, someone else with the phone on the steering wheel as they text, another peering down at something in their lap rather than looking at the road in front of them. A new survey released Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has determined that there is an army-sized group of 660,000 drivers out on the roads at any given moment of the day, texting, tweeting or otherwise partially preoccupied by something other than driving.

General Motors is recalling some model year 2013 Buick Encores with steering wheel fasteners that may not have been properly installed. The problem could cause the steering wheel to come loose or separate from the steering column. If the steering wheel separates from the steering column while driving, the ability to steer could be lost, increasing the risk of a crash. The recall involves 144 Encores equipped with a heated steering wheel and manufactured between Dec. 9 and Dec. 28. GM issued a statement about the recall, saying there were no known crashes or injuries related to the problem.

Scion kicked off the second day of the 2013 New York International Auto Show by unveiling a refreshed version of its tC coupe. The two-door compact car is Scion's biggest seller, so the 2014 model is a relatively minor upgrade from the version Toyota's youth-oriented brand started selling in 2010. "The sustained success of the tC, which accounts for 40 percent of all Scions ever sold, challenged designers to enhance the 2014 sports coupe in ways that keep it exciting to today's drivers without losing its core appeal," Scion Vice President Doug Murtha said.

Don't worry, baby boomers, Chevrolet hasn't forgotten about you. GM's everyman brand has in recent years launched one impressive small car after another. The compact Cruze, subcompact Sonic and tiny Spark have all done well for the company, both in terms of sales and in capturing younger buyers. Photos: First drive of 2014 Chevy Impala Now Chevy brings us the all-new 2014 Impala, a full-size, front-wheel-drive sedan. The Impala is aimed at competitors such as the Toyota Avalon and Hyundai Azera, both of which were recently overhauled.

Ferris wheels are totally old-school fun, but they're becoming the latest pop-up landmarks worldwide. Travel + Leisure magazine 's March issue names Pacific Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier among the coolest in the world for the ride that debuted in the 19th century. Here's why we should cherish our local spinner: It's the only solar-powered Ferris wheel on the planet, which makes it a pretty clean ride for those concerned about their carbon footprint, and at night it's illuminated with 160,000 energy-saving LED lights.

The sinister-looking black coupe sits in a corner of the showroom floor, oozing macho and muscle. Square headlights. Evil sneer for a grille. Six cylinders of turbocharged fury. If Darth Vader drove a car, this is what you might find in his garage. This new car is 23 years old. It's a Buick Regal GNX, and in 1987 car enthusiasts including celebrity collectors Reggie Jackson, Burt Reynolds and Sylvester Stallone snapped them up. This menacing Buick ? one of only about 500 ?

The first question my well-meaning acquaintances ask is, "Do you take that thing on the freeway?" Since that thing is a 1.2-liter engine on two wheels and a 600-pound body, that's actually a rather silly question. But I know it's only a warm-up for what's really on their minds: "Are you one of those who cut in between cars?" Yes, I am. And I'm aware - even without the disapproving tone of the question - of the emotions I raise when you see me in the rear view mirror, or worse, become aware of my presence as I cross the plane of your windshield: momentary panic, then relief, and last, outrage.

Triumph Motorcycles is recalling a small number of certain model year 2011-2012 Daytona 675 and Street Triple motorcycles and 2012 Thunderbird and Thunderbird Storm motorcycles. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said the wheels were assembled with bearings of an unknown quality. Wheel bearings of poor quality could fail unexpectedly, increasing the risk of a motorcycle crash. The recall notice said about 250 motorcycles are believed to have the problem.

On July 17, 2010, after a P90X workout, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his police bodyguard began riding mountain bikes west in the bike lane on Venice Boulevard. About 6:30 p.m., heading toward La Cienega Boulevard, they were cut off by a taxi cab. Villaraigosa flipped over the handlebars. His elbow shattered on the asphalt. Two days later, with his arm in a cast, he told his staff, "Let's use this as a teachable moment" -- and for good reason. He and the city had a lot to learn about how to make bikes safer to ride and how to integrate them into the transportation system.