2000 Cadillac Sts. Pearl White, 83,000 Miles No Reserve on 2040-cars

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Brock Lesnar does M. Bison impression on Cadillac CTS

There's no doubt that a huge amount of physicality is required to survive night after night in the ring as a professional wrestler. Conversely, the storylines that tie all the action together are as staged as any soap opera. However, there's nothing fake about watching two axes being embedded in a Cadillac CTS by WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar. Lesnar's prodigious brawn was really putting this luxury sedan out of its misery, though. With matte black stripes on the hood, fake fender vents, camouflage along the side, and a decal proclaiming "Redneck" on the windshield, this particular Cadillac was far from the standard of the world. In favor of the CTS' build quality, Lesnar's hatchets didn't immediately do quite as much damage as you might expect, and he had to take several swings to achieve the destruction here. If you think that destroying a sedan one piece at a time sounds like something from a video game, you aren't alone. Someone else noticed a definite similarity to the bonus round from Street Fighter 2 where you get points for beating up a car at the dockside until it falls apart. Appropriate sound effects were even added, but having Lesnar throw a few pixelated fireballs would have been a nice inclusion, too. For the significantly longer, original version, check out the one embedded below. After Lesnar crushes the CTS, the actual wrestling does eventually ensue. The Caddy even briefly acts as a prop for some of the action.

Bosch builds an infotainment system that just might not suck

As far as we've come with in-car infotainment and interfaces over the past decade or so, we still have a long way to go — as most current systems show. Whether it's high-end brands like Mercedes-Benz with its kludgy COMAND system, which we hope will be replaced with the MBUX platform revealed at CES, or more mainstream vehicles like Hondas (with their frustrating, knobless Display Audio interface), getting the kind of content and ease of use in the car that we're used to having on other connected devices is far too complex and sometimes costly. While Apple and Google have tried to ride to the rescue with CarPlay and Android Auto, respectively, they're limited solutions. No automaker or tech supplier has been able to deliver an easy, economical, flexible and non-distracting infotainment solution. But Bosch could be closing in on this elusive goal, given the digital cockpit concept demo I recently received at CES. Displayed in a Cadillac Escalade, the concept featured five interconnected color screens: one in the instrument cluster, two in the center console, and two more in the front-seat headrest for second-row passengers. The digital cockpit concept demo had cool features such as haptic-feedback touch-screen controls that created an edge-like feeling similar to a physical button, facial recognition to confirm driver credentials, and the intelligence to know the location of a phone in the car to lock it out to keep the driver from texting. The most significant aspect of the Bosch digital cockpit concept wasn't visible — but shows the company's vision for a future of seamless, convenient, cost-effective and safe in-car infotainment. It's powered by a single electronic control unit (ECU) that can simultaneously run multiple operating systems and also separates vehicle and infotainment controls for critical safety and cybersecurity reasons. Most modern cars can have as many as 100 separate ECUs, Philip Ventimiglia, product manager for Bosch Car Multimedia North America, explained at CES, and several just for infotainment functions. "The goal is to reduce that to about 10 so that we can save cost throughout the vehicle and enable new technologies," he added. "OEMs want to put more technology into cars, but it costs money," Ventimiglia said.

2014 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year finalists announced [w/poll]

The 2014 North American International Auto Show is right around the corner, which means it's high time we found out which cars and trucks would be finalists for the prestigious North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards.
The finalists - three in cars and three in three trucks/utilities - are dominated by American brands, with two-thirds of the finalists hailing from either General Motors or Chrysler (don't worry Ford, there's always next year), while outliers from Mazda and Acura can be found in each contest. Here now is the list of finalists for the big prizes:
2014 North American Car of the Year: