Garmin 430/530 Datacard (non-waas) on 2040-parts.com

Fisker to show Surf shooting brake at Frankfurt

Fisker will show a new Karma-based shooting brake called Surf at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show. This is the first picture of the Fisker Surf, issued after CAR broke the news of the shooting brake earlier in the week. Customers of the Karma have been disappointed by the boot space – pinched by the bulky batteries and range-extender hardware – so Henrik Fisker's team has designed a new shooting brake to offer an expanded luggage hold while retaining the grace of the four-door coupe.

Consumer Reports gets top vehicle picks mostly right

Despite the publication's uncomfortably broad definition of reliability -- it spans everything from "the engine fell out" to "the touchscreen display shows fingerprints too easily" -- automakers still clamor to get on the Consumer Reports recommended vehicle list. This year's winners cover a broad spectrum of vehicles, and for the most part, we're in agreement with the magazine's editors, with one significant exception at the top of the list. Best overall vehicle went to the Tesla Model S.

Concept Car of the Week: Bertone BMW Pickster (1998)

The creation of new niche products is an ongoing process for car manufacturers and sometimes combining different segments into one can provide a popular solution. Nowadays, all these mongrels are usually categorised under the same label ‘Crossover', which doesn't mean much anymore a part perhaps for an artificial off-road appearance. But back in America's sixties, the combination of a pick-up's functionality with the style and driving performance of a sports car became so successful that it created a whole new segment.