2006 Mercedes Slk350 Graphite Designo Edition Convertible 29,265 Miles!!! on 2040-cars

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Wingsuits are somehow involved in new season of 'Top Gear'

It's a shame that Matt LeBlanc is leaving "Top Gear," but there's a bit of solace in the situation: There's still one more season of him as frontman. BBC just released the new trailer for series 26, and it shows LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid getting into all sorts of shenanigans around the globe. "Top Gear" announced LeBlanc's imminent departure back in May 2018, but he still had to finish one more season before leaving. Thus, the upcoming series will be his last, and it looks like he'll go out in a whirlwind of dust, bent metal, water spray and burnt rubber. The trailer shows everything expected from a season of the storied automotive show (well, everything except Hammond, May, and Clarkson, if you're one of those people). There will be precision driving, dubious stunts, name-calling and gobs of stunning videography. In the short one-minute clip, there are flashes of numerous attention-piquing vehicles. The new Bentley Continental GT, a Bentley Le Mans racer, Porsches, Ferraris, the Aston Martin Vantage, and the Mercedes-AMG GT all make appearances. And for some random fun, the boys are seen in wingsuits (doubtful it's actually them), and playing polo in some three-wheel rickshaws (before wrecking said rickshaws). We'll update with more information as soon as we know when the show will start. Related Video: News Source: BBC Celebrities TV/Movies Aston Martin Bentley Ferrari Mercedes-Benz Porsche Videos Top Gear chris harris matt leblanc rory reid

Comparison test: 2019 Acura RDX vs. compact luxury SUV competitors

Truth be told, if we were to compare the all-new 2019 Acura RDX with those compact luxury crossover SUVs it would most likely be cross-shopped against, you'd be looking at a different list. Even Acura admits that Lexus and Infiniti are the most likely bogies, but with the 2019 RDX, Honda's luxury brand is attempting to attract those customers who think as much with their hearts as with their heads. And for the most part, those folks have been buying from German brands: the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class. So, to show how the new RDX compares to them, Acura actually provided examples of each during the recent press drive along with a Volvo XC60. All were determined to have greater emotional appeal than the last RDX, and we would certainly agree. For, as much as the previous-generation RDX made sense on paper, it was really hard to get excited about it. And when you're paying extra for a luxury vehicle, shouldn't you get a little excited? Well, as luck would have it, Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and I were on hand in Whistler, British Columbia, for the press launch. We didn't have an abundance of time in each RDX competitor, but in conjunction with our usual comparison chart, our impressions should provide a good first taste of how the new RDX compares. Performance and fuel economy Contributing Editor James Riswick: On paper at least, the RDX is gutsier than its comparably powered European rivals. It also weighs the same or less, which logically should mean it'll be the quickest in a straight line. During my brief drives, though, I'm not sure it really stood taller than the three Germans. It at least matches them for smoothness, which is something that can't be said about the Volvo. Fuel economy is lower than them all when you consider all but the Mercedes come standard with all-wheel drive. It's also worth noting that all the competitors are available with engine upgrades, and unless Acura's forthcoming resurrection of Type S models includes the RDX, it should stay that way. Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski: Line 'em all up in a drag race, and I have a feeling the Acura would squirt away to victory. A good bit of that, though, would be due to its 10-speed automatic transmission, which offers a huge spread of ratios and fires off extremely quick shifts. In the real world, I'd guess fuel economy will be similar across the board, so I'm willing to call that category a draw.

VW, Fiat, Mercedes could be CNG winners in Europe

Fiat ads in the US try to play up the exotic, sexy side of Italian culture. On the home front in Italy, however, passenger-vehicle sales are marked by something less edgy and quite a bit more practical: the growth of compressed-natural-gas (CNG) powered car sales. In fact, Italy is leading a group of European countries where CNG sales are on the upswing and may be benefiting automakers like VW, Fiat and Mercedes-Benz, according to Automotive News. VW started sales of its Golf TGI natural-gas vehicle this year – the company's fourth in Europe – while Mercedes-Benz added a natural-gas B-class model. Fiat accounts for about 50 percent of CNG vehicles sold on the continent. In all, Europe's CNG sales through September totaled about 67,000, up seven percent from a year earlier, Automotive News Europe says, citing research firm JATO Dynamics. And the number of CNG vehicles on Europe's roads could jump tenfold within the next decade. The draw is a combination of lower refueling prices and a CNG drivetrain that typically emits less CO2 than diesel vehicles. As for Italy, about five percent of new-vehicle sales are CNG. To put that into perspective, hybrids, battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and diesels combined to account for about 4.2 percent of US vehicle sales last year. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Volkswagen Green Fiat Mercedes-Benz Volkswagen Natural Gas Vehicles CNG