2012 Convertible Fiat 500c Rare Style-metallic Sparkling Paint on 2040-cars

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Fiat 500 Abarth appears in its fastest form yet

Fiat ended the Abarth-trained 500's career in the United States, but the fun-sized hot hatch is still around in Europe. It just spawned a new limited-edition model named 695 EsseEsse that's lighter and quicker than the production car. Offered exclusively as a hatchback, the 695 EsseEsse wears a redesigned hood that weighs 25% less than the standard car's because it's made out of aluminum instead of steel. If you're taking notes for a car-spotting trip to Italy, keep in mind the new-look panel features a pair of domes not found on the standard 695. Out back, the EsseEsse inherits a sizeable spoiler from the 70th Anniversary model whose angle can be manually adjusted from 0 to 60 degrees. When set to 60 degrees, the wing provides up to 93 pounds of additional downforce. Abarth made no major mechanical modifications to the 695, so power comes from a turbocharged, 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine tuned to develop 180 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. It spins the front wheels via a five-speed manual transmission operated with a carbon fiber shift knob, and it exhales through an Akrapovic exhaust system that's lighter than the unit fitted to the standard 695. We're told it sounds better on and off the track, too. Hitting 62 mph from a stop takes 6.7 seconds, and Abarth quotes a top speed of 140 mph when the rear wing is set to 0 degrees. Koni shock absorbers ensure the EsseEsse is just as thrilling on a twisty road as it is in a straight line. Abarth will make 1,390 units of the 695 EsseEsse, and production will be split evenly between Scorpion Black (pictured) and Campovolo Gray. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but it's of little interest to American enthusiasts because nothing suggests the 500 and its Abarth-tuned derivative will make a comeback in the United States. What's in a name? Rewind to 1964, when the 500 used a rear-mounted air-cooled engine and Abarth operated as a tuner rather than as a sub-brand. It transformed the tiny 500 into a sports car by increasing the two-cylinder's displacement to 690 cubic centimeters (42.1 cubic inches) and fitting it with wider wheel arches, among other modifications. The end result was a 38-horsepower pocket rocket capable of reaching 87 mph, an unbelievable speed at the time.  Abarth named its creation 695 SS, and it wrote out the acronym on the engine cover instead of using the two letters. It's like if Chevrolet had fitted "Impala EssEss" badges to the Impala SS. Production was capped at 1,000 units.

Fiat Chrysler, surprise, had to buy a lot of emissions credits

The world of carbon emissions uses some unusual units of measure. Take, for example, 8.2 million megagrams. Who needs to know how much that is? Someone at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, that's who. FCA had to buy that many greenhouse-gas emissions credits from greener automakers, Reuters says, citing a report from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Because its vehicles' collective fuel economy continues to trail the industry average, FCA purchased the emissions credits at of the end of 2014 in order to meet US emissions regulations. About two-thirds of those credits were acquired from Toyota, while the rest were purchased from Tesla and Honda. Daimler and Ferrari, not surprisingly, were among the other automobile companies that had to acquire emissions credits in order to meet US greenhouse gas regulations. Because the price for these credits is set privately by the companies, the EPA didn't disclose how much FCA had to pay to stay on the green side. The reason for the millions FCA likely spent is because the company is making a slow progress building and selling cleaner cars. The company did increase average fuel efficiency by about one mile per gallon to almost 22 mpg for the 2015 model year, but it wasn't enough. Such a performance likely only put the automaker in a last-place tie with General Motors. The emissions credits purchased from Tesla are notable because that California-based maker of electric vehicles has long generated substantial revenue by selling various credits to its less-electrified counterparts. In 2013, Tesla sold more of California's ZEV credits than any other automaker, but Nissan took that title in 2014. While these are not the same as the EPA's GHG credits, they do offer another way to track which automakers are meeting the targets and which need help. Related Video: News Source: ReutersImage Credit: Flickr/Ian YVR Government/Legal Green Chrysler Fiat Fuel Efficiency mpg

Zombie cars: A dozen discontinued vehicles people still buy new

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.