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The no-show cars: a reader rant on mad concepts

Instigated by Harley Earl at General Motors in the late 30s with the quaintly named Buick Y-Job, show cars, or concept cars, were presented to an excited public eager for new things. As the world recovered from a depression and then a war, these vehicles pointed to a better future that many people believed in, including the people who produced them. And, although many of the concept cars of the 50s, with their Jetsons plexiglass roofs and notional nuclear powered engines seem ludicrous now, in their time they weren’t that cynical.

VIDEO: Classic-car driver training encourages teens to pilot vintage iron

Thirty lucky kids learned to drive classic cars at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Mich., on Friday in celebration of Collector Car Appreciation Day. Hagerty Insurance partnered with local classic-car owners for the inaugural event, which aimed to foster an interest in vintage cars among young drivers and to introduce them to manual transmissions. Hagerty said today's teens rarely have access to manuals, since about 90 percent of new cars have automatic transmissions.

Nissan Renault have sold 100,000 electric cars

Nissan Renault have sold 100,000 electric cars like the Renault Zoe (pictured) Nissan Renault are the only mainstream car maker to have embraced the idea that the electric car is the future, so they’ve been busy building and marketing their EV offerings for a couple of years and have now reached a sales milestone – 100,000 EVs sold. It sounds a lot, but in terms of worldwide car sales it’s a drop in the ocean. Still, it’s an important milestone nonetheless.