Motor News

If you’re as car obsessed as we are and also like to watch stuff, you understand that the automobiles in movies are often as memorable as the actors. Casting the right vehicle can be as important as landing Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks. So for this episode of Window Shop, we challenged the crew to find Oscar-worthy film cars. Oh, and we set the budget at $20,000 because this show used to be about shopping for used cars on a budget.Contributor John Pearley Huffman raids the Disney vault for an obvious but admittedly iconic choice. Although his find isn’t an exact clone of the car in the movie, it does have a sunroof, which is critical to the plot, and it could easily be modified to match the screen star. Deputy testing director K.C. Colwell is inspired by an ’80s film that gives the original Ford Taurus a starring role. But instead of trying to find a replica of the movie car, Colwell wisely presents the best version of the Taurus, the excellent SHO. Senior editor Joey Capparella picks a first-gen Audi A4 that makes a cameo appearance in a relatively obscure animated Japanese film that most of us haven’t seen. He gives the movie two thumbs up and tells us that although the A4 isn’t central to the plot, the animators went through considerable effort to properly depict it.Contributor Jonathon Ramsey and yours truly find cars that are perfectly cast and deliver award-winning performances in great films—okay, maybe Ramsey’s film isn’t great, but we do discover that one of the shoppers saw it at the impressionable age of six. My pick is identical to the Cadillac driven by Henry Hill in Goodfellas, and Ramsey finds a front-drive RV dressed in military garb. As is our way, we bicker and list faults with one another’s choices. And in the end, like the academy, we crown a winner.
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Last year was full of new car debuts, which means there’s a lot to be excited about this year. Now you choose which ones you’re looking forward to the most. More

Massachusetts announces a plan to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
The plan mimics one from California that was announced in September as well as a goal set by New Jersey earlier this year.
Other states may soon follow the lead of California and Massachusetts while President-Elect Biden has said that he will push for the adoption of electric vehicles.
While EVs are still in the single-digit area of overall vehicle sales, they continue to climb and have already surpassed the sales of vehicles with manual transmissions. Now it seems that the electrification investments made by automakers are getting a boost from another part of the country.

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Massachusetts is joining California with a plan to ban the sale of new gasolined-powered cars by 2035. Governor Charlie Baker released a 2050 decarbonization road map that includes the reduction of emissions from passenger cars. Massachusetts states that 27 percent of statewide emissions come from light-duty vehicles (passenger vehicles). The goal is for the state to reach net-zero fossil-fuel emissions by 2050.
In order to make sure those EVs are actually usable, the state plans to expand the public charging infrastructure to take into account that many people don’t have a garage in which to charge an electric vehicle.
The initiatives by California and now Massachusetts could be the beginning of a trend by states to slowly ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles. Several European countries have the same types of measures in order to battle climate change. Meanwhile, President-Elect Joe Biden has a plan to speed up the electrification of vehicles in the United States that includes replacing the country’s fleets with EVs.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, while stopping short of a mandate, in October also set 2035 as its goal for eliminating internal-combustion vehicles as well.
With the cost of EVs expected to reach parity with gas cars within a few years, some of the sticker price issues that turn off potential buyers will disappear.
Currently, Massachusetts and California are only requiring that new vehicles sold by 2035 be electric. Used car sales of gasoline-powered vehicles will still be allowed. In other words, you can still own a V-8–powered Corvette when you ring in the new year in 2035. It will still be a while before the roads in either state are populated entirely by EVs.
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From the Archive (1997): We talked with the two-time Rolex 24 at Daytona winner about his complex life, including prison for marijuana smuggling with his father. More

Lincoln has announced pricing for the updated 2021 Nautilus SUV.
It starts at $42,395 and has an updated interior and a few other small tweaks.
The 2021 Nautilus is expected to start arriving at dealerships sometime in January.
Lincoln is charging a bit more for the updated 2021 Nautilus, which benefits most notably from an upgraded interior that looks considerably nicer and more modern than before. The mid-size SUV starts at $42,395, a $360 increase, while the Reserve trim level starts at $50,405 (a $910 increase) and the top Black Label model starts at $66,085 (a $1290 increase).

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The available powertrains haven’t changed for 2021. All-wheel drive is a $2500 option on the base model and $2495 extra on the Reserve. A 250-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four and front-wheel drive remain standard, although a more powerful 335-horsepower twin-turbo 2.7-liter V-6 is a $2700 option on all-wheel-drive Reserve models and comes standard on the AWD-only Black Label.

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Lincoln

The interior changes include a huge new 13.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system that’s standard across the board, which uses Ford’s latest Sync 4 software. It’s capable of over-the-air updates and offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Lincoln has also rearranged the dashboard and center stack and says the materials are improved.
Lincoln says the 2021 Nautilus will be arriving at dealerships sometime in January.
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The Department of Transportation is proposing two possible small rules changes, both meant to give people with disabilities better driving options.
The first involves rental cars and would give rental agencies the ability to temporarily disable knee airbags so they don’t cause metal hand controls to hit the driver if there’s a crash.
The second is about rear-mounted carrying shelves for wheelchairs and power scooters, which can get in the way of backup cameras. The DOT wants to approve both measures and is giving the public until January 27, 2021, to chime in.
Finding the right balance between keeping all of a vehicle’s safety features in operation for all drivers and allowing people with disabilities more access to transportation sometimes requires digging into the minutiae of federal regulations.
That’s the case with a new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation that would allow people with disabilities to drive vehicles that have had one of two notable changes to their safety features. First, if approved, the rule would allow rental car companies to rent vehicles with their driver’s-side knee bolster airbags temporarily deactivated for drivers who need hand pedals. This change was prompted by questions from the Enterprise rental-car company, the DOT said.

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Second, a rule change would allow vehicle dealers and repair businesses to install “rear-mounted transporters for wheelchairs and power scooters,” which might otherwise be forbidden because they can block the view of backup cameras. This rule change was petitioned by Bruno Independent Living Aids, which said it wants to be sure that installing its transporters would not run afoul of the rules as they currently stand.
These changes can certainly reduce a vehicle’s safety, but there are logical reasons that drivers with disabilities would benefit from these changes. Regarding the first, the DOT said, turning off the knee airbag would mean that people with disabilities who need hand controls could rent vehicles safely. The DOT said that if a knee-bolster airbag deploys in a crash, “The resulting force of the deployment could cause the hand controls to strike the driver with extreme forces and create a serious risk to the safety of the driver.” For the second change, allowing rear-mounted transporters would “improve mobility for drivers and passengers with disabilities” in general, the DOT said.
“This rule will make it easier for individuals with disabilities to achieve greater mobility and freedom in their lives,” U.S. transportation secretary Elaine Chao said in a statement.

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Generally, the Federal Code makes it illegal for any “vehicle manufacturer, distributor, dealer, rental company, or repair business” to “knowingly make inoperative any part of a device or element of design installed in or on a motor vehicle in compliance with an applicable [federal motor vehicle safety standard].” If this proposed rule goes into effect, registered companies would be allowed to make these specific changes as long as they also add a permanent label to the modified vehicle that makes it clear the vehicle no longer complies with the safety standards.
The two proposed rule changes are further modifications of a 2016 rulemaking notice that exempted vehicles driven by people with disabilities from some roof crush resistance safety standards. A public comment period for these changes ends January 27, 2021.

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Jeep is reportedly planning to expand further into the world of factory customs by opening a dedicated facility near where it builds the Wrangler and Gladiator in Toledo, Ohio.
According to the Toledo Blade, Jeep will build a customization facility on a complex of properties formerly owned by Textileather and MedCorp, the most recent of which shut down in 2013. Fiat Chrysler is paying $1 for the site and plans to build a new 250,000-square-foot facility on it. The new location will be operated by an unnamed supplier and employ over 300 people.

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Jeep confirmed the sale to Autoblog but did not discuss further details on what exactly it plans to do inside. Considering its proximity to the Wrangler and Gladiator assembly complex, also in Toledo, it’s likely we’re about to see a lot more factory customs based on the two off-roaders coming in the near future. Since these are the most often customized models in Jeep’s lineup, it makes sense to see the company put such significant investment behind this.
“The iconic Jeep brand has a special connection and history with Toledo and all of its residents,” FCA spokesman Kevin E. Frazier told the Toledo Blade over email. “We appreciate the city council’s consideration of this proposal and would like to thank the city of Toledo and the mayor’s office for all of their efforts. At this time, we have no further details to provide.”

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