1995 Pontiac Sunfire Gt Coupe 2-door 2.3l No Reserve on 2040-cars

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NHTSA could add 1M cars to GM recall

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may expand a recall campaign for faulty brake lamps. The agency is currently looking into complaints that certain 2004-2011 Chevrolet Malibu models as well as some 2007-2009 Saturn Aura sedans may have brake lights that do not illuminate when the driver presses the pedal. Alternatively, the lamps may also illuminate without input from the driver. General Motors recalled 8,000 Pontiac G6 models from the 2005 model year for the same problem, and NHTSA is currently investigating whether to add 550,000 more G6 models built between 2005 and 2009 to the list for the same issue.
In addition, investigators are currently examining 97 complaints from Malibu and Aura owners with the same trouble. If NHTSA adds those models to the recall campaign, more than one million units could be covered. GM, meanwhile, says there have been no accidents or injuries as a result of the problem.

1970 Firebird Trans-Am with front-mid-engine to be immortalized as a Hot Wheels car

Each year, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour scours the country to find the coolest real-life cars and chooses one to be made into a $1 diecast toy. Earlier this month, the search came to an end when Riley Stair's heavily modified 1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am won the honors. In a normal year, the Hot Wheels Legends Tour would visit multiple cities, holding a car show where judges would select one winner for that stop. At SEMA, each city's winner would then compete for the top spot. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year the contest was held virtually and globally. And since SEMA was canceled too, the finale was held on the "Jay Leno's Garage" YouTube channel with Leno, Snoop Dogg, Gabriel Iglesias, and Hot Wheels designers as judges. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. What set the Firebird apart was, for starters, its front-mid-engine layout. Its LSX V8 was pushed so far back into the firewall that one bank of exhaust headers had to flow forward before curving around the front of the engine to a side-dump. Of course, all of this was custom fabricated, like the roll cage and front tube frame, with professional-grade welds. The body was also heavily modified, flared and channeled to give it a mean stance. But it's the custom Ohlins suspension with independent rear that give it its track-ready look. Perhaps most impressively, this car, which could go toe-to-toe against (and frankly exceed many) six-figure pro builds at SEMA, was built in the side yard of Stair's parents' house. Aside from body and paint, this was a shadetree job. Stair says it took a couple of years, devoting nearly every night and weekend to transforming a rusty and dented Firebird into his dream machine. Other finalists included a Street Freak-style 1969 Corvette from Florida, cartoony 1959 Chevy Ute nicknamed the "Hulk-amino", Rocket Bunny-style Cayman, 1,000-horsepower Chevy Apache, V8-powered Mini Cooper, stanced Fiat 126 from Germany, chopped VW Brasilia from Mexico, and a race-ready 1976 Hillman Imp from the U.K. Cars were judged on creativity, authenticity, and built-not-bought spirit. Look for the Trans-Am to appear in the 2021 Hot Wheels lineup. Related Video:   Featured Gallery Hot Wheels Legends Tour 2020 View 16 Photos Toys/Games Pontiac Coupe Performance Classics

German prosecutors have recorded calls between VW bigwigs talking dieselgate

It's barely possible to believe how poorly Volkswagen continues to handle dieselgate. Depending on which day you catch the news, the German carmaker embodies the corporate venality of "Michael Clayton," the comic blundering of the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading," and the every-man-for-himself vengeance of "Reservoir Dogs." Today is Tarantino day, with news that German prosecutors have recordings of phone calls between former Audi and Porsche development boss Wolfgang Hatz, ex-Volkswagen Group executive Matthias Muller, and current Porsche executives Oliver Blume and Michael Steiner. Hatz made the calls to the trio in November 2015, two months after Volkswagen admitted its diesel-particulate sins to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Hatz was still employed at the time, and in his company car. Who recorded the calls? His wife. Hatz and his missus apparently saw the storm coming and started stacking defenses early. Hatz's wife, who can be heard encouraging Hatz during at least one call, sent the recordings to Hatz's attorney from her mobile phone. According to a Google translation of the German newspaper Handelsblatt's report, she included the note, "Here is a very long, but quite informative conversation on the current situation with useful formulations." The report in Handelsblatt said that in Germany it is generally "not allowed" to record a conversation and pass it on to a third party. We don't know how the authorities will handle this matter, since prosecutors found the recordings in e-mail attachments on Mrs. Hatz's mobile phone. Remember, when the diesel scandal broke, VW spent months saying that only a small number of low-level personnel were behind it, and all of the higher-ups had been blindsided. Ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn claimed to be "stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group." Winterkorn successor Matthias Muller said, "according to current information, a few developers interfered in the engine management." Former VW USA honcho Michael Horn told a congressional committee that "a couple of software engineers" programmed the software for reasons no one could understand. In the recorded conversations, Hatz apparently called Muller to find out how VW planned to treat him.