Project Car Hell, Rock-and-Stick-Simple Off-Road Trucks Edition: Land Rover or Scout?

Last week, the Hell Garage Demons went back 100 years for a couple of challenging centenarian projects, and the temperature of the Automotive Lake of Fire—conveniently located between the junkyard that always closes five minutes before you show up and the parts store whose counter guys have never heard of your make of car—accordingly rose another few hundred degrees. This week, we've decided to go with the kind of vehicles you'll want when society collapses and "rugged individualists" will need to drive many miles down a road of skulls and broken whiskey bottles to barter rat pelts for handy Clovis points. That's right, simple off-road trucks with few moving parts and a heritage of simplicity—none of this complicated computerized crap, modern alloys and independent suspension (at either end) here, just a steel box with enough running gear to make it move.

Fisker about to be bought by Volvo’s Chinese owner Geely?

It’s reported that China’s Geely – which bought Volvo from Ford – is about to take a majority stake in Fisker Automotive. But Fisker has run in to big problems when its battery supplier - A123 Systems – went bust leading to Fisker production grinding to a halt. That has now been resolved with China’s Wanxiang Group buying up A123 Systems and it looks like Fisker is heading East too with Geely set to grab a majority shareholding.

Tata Nano: the CEO’s plans to sell it in Europe

Carl-Peter Forster, CEO of Tata Motors, has told CAR of his hopes for Tata’s expansion in Europe – with plans to launch the Nano here with a diesel and possibly an electric version. You can read the full interview with Forster in the new July 2010 issue of CAR Magazine out this week. Tata is already the world’s fourth largest commercial vehicle producer and it is a strong force in the Indian car market.