Half Marathon Pink 13.1 Chrome Metal Auto Emblem Car Decal Sticker on 2040-parts.com

The scramble for scarce tires

North American automakers are struggling with a nagging shortage of tires, caused in part by tire plant closings and rising demand for low-volume specialty tires. Automakers are paying much higher prices -- double-digit percentage increases from a year ago -- as tire makers gain pricing power. "We have been bombarded from every side for additional tires, and we can't keep up," said David O'Donnell, Continental Tire's vice president of original equipment in the Americas.

Frankfurt 2011 - Best in Show

Given the array of new cars at motor shows, it's often difficult to pick one as the overall star of the show. While, in theory, there appears to have been a glut of new concept and production cars to choose from in Frankfurt, in reality there were less than a handful of marked standout designs. Here are our picks.

BMW 2-series Active Tourer makes world debut at the Geneva motor show

Like it or not, BMW's front-wheel future is trundling our way fast: The new 2-series Active Tourer, a front-wheel-drive MPV powered by a range of transverse-mounted three- and four-cylinder motors made its official debut Tuesday at the Geneva motor show. There wasn't much we didn't know about the 2-series Active Tourer ahead of the show -- catch yourself up with our full breakdown -- but seeing it in the steel drove home the point that this thing is happening, and we're powerless to stop it. It won't be all bad, though.