Acdelco Oe Service 214-1024 Air Check Valve-secondary Air Injection Check Valve on 2040-parts.com

One Lap of the Web: Remembering the dearly departed

-- With news that Toyota is leaving the great state of California for the greater (by landmass, anyway; your own opinion may vary) state of Texas, it's worth reminding ourselves that Toyota in America started as one lonely building on 6000 Hollywood Blvd., having taken over a former Rambler dealership. (The site is still a successful Toyota dealership.) That first year of sales in 1958 saw 287 Toyopet Crowns and one Land Cruiser sold -- more as curiosities than as practical transportation, we'd wager. -- At any rate, Toyota's move from California to Texas is moving from "one of the most eco-friendly states in the union," according to Ward's Auto, "to the U.S.’s equivalent of China." -- Ten years ago today, the last Oldsmobile rolled off the line at Lansing Car Assembly.

Video: A Nissan GT-R drag races a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8

Godzilla versus an SUV? That doesn’t sound like a fair fight, yet Drag Times arranged exactly that matchup--between a 550-hp Nissan GT-R Stage 2 and a force-fed, 640-hp Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8. The results are perhaps predictable, but closer than one might imagine.

New Skoda Octavia (2013) revealed

The new Skoda Octavia arrives as a third generation offering more room, more efficiency and a new look. Arrives in the UK spring 2013. We’ve had a trio of new cars built on the VW MQB platform  recently – the new VW Golf, the new Audi A3 and the new SEAT Leon – and now we have a quartet with the arrival of the new Skoda Octavia.