Auto blog

Toyota, Lexus dominate KBB's Best Resale Value Awards

Toyota and Lexus stormed the 2014 Kelley Blue Book Best Resale Value Awards, winning a combined 18 categories including best brand and best luxury brand. This marks the third year in a row that both automakers have won the Brand and Luxury Brand resale value awards. In all, Toyota won 11 categories and Lexus won seven.
Honda made a good showing, as well, winning two segments (Accord Plug-In Hybrid and Civic Si) and putting one car on the top-10 Best Resale Value list (CR-V). Chevrolet did even better, winning two segments (with the V6 Camaro and the Corvette) and placing three cars on the top-10-overall list (again, the Camaro and Corvette, plus the Silverado 1500).
The other winners came from Jeep, Dodge, Infiniti, Subaru and Audi. To give you a clearer picture of the Toyota and Lexus domination, their 18 mentions represents more than half of the 34 awards (including the top-10-overall list).

Texas student drives Barbie Jeep to school after DWI

A Texas college student who lost her license when she was charged with a DWI this spring found a creative way of getting around campus. Tara Monroe, 20, is a student at the University of Texas at Austin. She had her driver's license automatically suspended when she refused a breathalyzer test after leaving a Waka Flocka concert on March 4. He dad took her car away and left her with a bike. But that just wasn't classy enough for Monroe. "Riding a bike around campus sucks," she told MySA.com. "Like really sucks." She searched Craigslist to find an alternative and settled on a bright pink Fisher-Price Barbie Jeep Power Wheel toy to help lug her stuff around campus. She named it after the original owner, a little girl named Charlene. The unorthodox ride has turned Monroe into a minor celebrity. Pictures of her slowly making her way around campus in the toy car have been popping up on social media. "This is the best way I could have gotten my 15 minutes of fame," she said. "Basically, it was the best decision I've made in college, yet..." The Barbie Jeep has a 12-volt battery and only goes about five miles per hour. Monroe says she loves the attention she is getting from her immature hijinks. If you enjoy the sight of adults crammed into Power Wheels check out our attempt to cruise around the Autoblog office in a tike-sized Ford F-150. News Source: mySA.com Humor Weird Car News Jeep Driving Electric Videos college power wheels student barbie

Chrysler teases upcoming outlay of SEMA cars

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is hauling a multitude of modified models to the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas this November, and the company is releasing the first teasing sketches of many of them.
Unfortunately, FCA isn't giving many solid details on any of the concepts other than saying the vehicles from Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Fiat all benefit from tuning from its Mopar performance brand. The teaser photos include a sinister-looking Chrysler 200S, Fiat 500 Abarth with two-tone paint and a scorpion on the hood, a red and black 500L, seemingly two different takes on the Jeep Renegade, a green Dodge Challenger wearing the T/A badge, an orange and black Dart, a very neon Charger, just the outline of a red and black Viper, a Ram ProMaster in Mopar livery and a Ram pickup called the Outdoorsman.
Take a look through the gallery to see what you think of the sketches for these concepts, and scroll down for the full announcement from FCA.