1986 Toyota Mr2 Automatic, Original Condition, Florida Car, No Reserve, on 2040-cars

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CARB uses tricked-out RAV4 EV to measure air pollution in California

The old-school Toyota RAV4 EV you see above is the California Air Resources Board's version of a non-participant observer. The all-electric vehicle cruises around the state measuring airborne pollution. Since it's powered by batteries, there are no tailpipe emissions created as CARB tries to get a handle on how dirty the roadway air is. The problem, CARB says, is that it is difficult to measure air pollution levels, "during calm conditions at night and in the early morning." There are over 250 stationary air monitoring sites in California today, but the Board wanted a way to expand where and when it can test for things like ultrafine particles, carbon dioxide and nox. The original plan for the Mobile Monitoring Platform – as the RAV4 EV is officially called – was to "Investigate Spatial, Diurnal and Seasonal Pollution Gradients" on California's highways and ports. The RAV4 EV was originally expected to cost $280,000 (see pages 11-12 in this PDF from 2009), but a new report in the Modesto Bee says it had a total of $300,000 just in monitoring equipment. Michael Benjamin, CARB's chief of air monitoring, told the Bee that the MMP, "paints a thorough picture about what air quality is in any given community." More importantly, the stationary and mobile testing equipment can tell CARB when and where the air is getting cleaner. Which is the whole point, after all.

2014 Toyota Tundra appears with revised styling, same mechanicals

Toyota has pulled the curtain back on its 2014 Tundra, showing a truck that has gotten its most significant refresh since its launch as a 2007 model. For better or worse, however, the changes that Toyota has made to the fullsize pickup are mostly cosmetic, with the underpinnings of the vehicle staying unchanged.
The most obvious revision for 2014 is to the bluff front fascia of the truck. There's a new, taller squared-off grille decorating the Tundra's nose, along with a revised, three-part front bumper design. The optional black grille-frame strikes us as an acquired taste, to say the least, but other models, like the Limited above, is all clad in chrome. Fenders and wheel wells are more square than in the out-going truck, too. Perhaps most significant is the revised bed design, which Toyota calls "all-new," with new sheet metal on the sides, a revised tailgate and a very subtle integrated spoiler.
Inside, Toyota has given buyers some new seats and a new-look instrument panel. A backup camera (always handy on big trucks) is now standard equipment on all grades, as is Bluetooth connectivity. Blind spot monitoring is a new, optional feature as well. In all, as with the exterior mods, the changes in-cabin are far more evolutionary than revolutionary.

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.