2003 Seadoo Rxdi Hood With Gauges on 2040-parts.com

Suncammer jams at Detroit Autorama

Let's say it's the hands. The difference between the North American International Auto Show in January at Detroit's Cobo Center, and Autorama in February at Cobo, is the hands. The auto show has well-manicured hands, soft hands, hands attached to high-powered executives and numerous public-relations people.

Road management proposals 'could save millions'

£2.6 MILLION IN TAXES could be saved over the next decade by reforming how roads are managed, the Department for Transport has said. Roads Minister Robert Goodwill unveiled a consultation on turning the Highways Agency into a Government-owned company. In a statement to MPs, Mr Goodwill said the reforms would mean the creation of a "road user watchdog" similar to Passenger Focus on the railways.

Watch the sad, final moments of a crusher-bound heap

Automotive wrecking yards are good places to reflect on the real-world values of heavily depreciated vehicles versus global current scrap-metal prices, and to see which cars have suddenly had the fix-it-versus-total-it line moved by insurance companies (the early-21st-century Subaru Legacy Outback, for example, appeared in large numbers in high-turnover wrecking yards just during the last year, as fairly minor collision damage on these cars is no longer worth fixing). You'll see the things that a car's last owner does in a desperate attempt to sell (or at least live with) an increasingly decrepit heap (as we learned in "Repo Man," you really will find a Little Tree in every car). During a recent trip to a San Jose, Calif., yard, I encountered this sad yet strangely compelling scene.