Cars and Car Design

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Dorner 'Don't Shoot' Memes Hit The Web (Photos)

Strange days when those people "driving while black" in L.A. get a perverse empathy from folks of all backgrounds driving ... pickup trucks. It's true. Police have opened fire, in fact, on two pickup trucks (and the two Latinas and a white guy inside) in their search for disgraced ex-LAPD Officer C ... More >>

25: Tavern's Poached Pear Coupe

Celebrating this year's Best of L.A. issue -- now out in print and online -- we're counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 25: Tavern's Poached Pear Coupe. Like pretty much anything else you find on the menu at any one of Suzanne Goin's restaurants, the desserts at Taver ... More >>

Brad Sherman Faults Howard Berman For Personal Use Of Taxpayer-Funded SUV; Berman Admits Oversight, Reimburses $9.50

The Congressional battle between Howard Berman and Brad Sherman was never all that substantive to begin with -- they agree on most things -- but lately it's taken a turn for the trivial. Last week, Berman slammed Sherman for pocketing $460,000 in interest payments on loans he made to his campaign.Sh ... More >>

10 Awesome Cars Of Wasteland Weekend

See also: *Wasteland Weekend: It's My Apocalypse, And I'll Party If I Want To *9 Alternatives For Burning Man Lottery Losers At most car shows, guys hover over their beloved vehicles, circling and swabbing them lovingly with a ShamWow. But at Wasteland Weekend, dust is an asset -- in fact, the dirt ... More >>

Tony Scott Jumps to Death From Vincent Thomas Bridge

Updated at the bottom with a NEW report that Scott DID NOT have cancer. Top was rewritten to reflect our own confirmation of reports of Scott's death. First posted at 9:01 p.m. Sunday. Director Tony Scott jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro today, the L.A. County Coroner ... More >>

Maserati Thief Casually Drives Away From Downtown L.A. Dealer

It was a theft that will go down in history among criminals as a textbook case of how to do this with the utmost ease. Authorities say a man with a shaved head walked up to a salesman at a downtown area dealership, asked for a key so he could listen to a 2008 Maserati Gran Turismo's engine, and dro ... More >>

Richest Cities in California Slum For Rides, Prefer The Prius

California has more billionaires than just about anywhere in the world except the United States itself, China and Russia. Really. So, if you were to survey a couple of the Golden State's wealthiest communities, what car make do you think would enjoy top rates of ownership? Maybach? Maybe Ferrari? A ... More >>

Kanye West Doesn't Seem To Know Much About Lamborghinis

See also: *Color Me Badd Lyrical Dissection: What Does "We Can Do It 'til We Both Wake Up" Mean? *What The Hell Is Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" About? Anyone who tells you they know what's going on in the mind of Kanye West is a liar or a prophet. So just know up front: We have no idea wh ... More >>

I Hate When People Cheat in Traffic. But What Do We Do About It?

The last straw came about four weeks ago. I was passing by the Veterans Administration campus near the 405 freeway, heading east on Wilshire toward my breakfast meeting, feeling happy that I was going to be on time. I knew enough to give myself an hour to drive a mere eight miles to Beverly Hills. ... More >>

What I Learned While Driving a Clunker in L.A.

In our new column, First Person, L.A. writers tackle the good, the bad and the funny about life as they know it. Three years ago, I became the proud owner of a 1988 Toyota Corolla with 240,000 miles on it, approximately 40 dents -- I stopped counting -- and a broken cassette player. Times were tou ... More >>

Tesla's $130,000 Roadster Could Become Giant Paperweight if Battery Dies

So you paid nearly $130,000 for your new, environmentally friendly, Ed Begley Jr.-orgasm-machine known as the Tesla Roadster: Al Gore will be stopping by any minute to give you an autographed driving glove. But while you're waiting for the ex-vice president to congratulate you for saving the planet ... More >>

Grandson Shot Trying to Save Grandpa During North Hollywood Robbery, LAPD Says

Updated at the bottom with two suspects arrested. The story changed after our first report (the victim was the grandson, not son), and our headline changed soon after to reflect that. First posted at 6:05 a.m. Jan. 10. A man was killed when he tried to defend his father during a robbery in North Ho ... More >>

Winning the Future: Car Thieves Prefer Domestic Makes for First Time Since 2002

​President Obama should be damn proud of the 2010 car-theft report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, craftily titled "Hot Wheels": Nationally--and for the first time since 2002--thieves preferred domestic makes over foreign brands. Ford took three spots, Dodge two and Chevrolet held o ... More >>

Bill Rosendahl's Questions About the AEG Stadium Linked To Majestic Lobbyist John Ek

Bill Rosendahl​Councilman Bill Rosendahl made headlines last month with his long list of questions about the AEG football stadium proposal for downtown. Rosendahl got into arcane details of the project's financing, its potential to interfere with conventions, the parking, and a host of other conce ... More >>

Somebody Stole Guy Fieri's Lamborghini

Food Network/Alan PoulinGuy Fieri​ Ah, the perils of fame, money and expensive cars. And no, sorry, this is not a Charlie Sheen story. Food Network star Guy Fieri (Minute to Win It, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) had his $200,000-plus Lamborghini sports car stolen, and not just ripped off by an ... More >>

Supercars: When Too Much Is Almost Enough

Drive-By Paintball Gang Launches Yellow 'Shooting Spree' on Unsuspecting Pedestrians in Burbank

Creative NerdsPaintballs to the face in Burbank​The neighborhood hooligans must have been getting restless out in Burbank last week. In a span of two days, they launched a whopping 11 paintball-gun attacks on innocent sidewalk people in the Hillside and Valley areas of the suburban city [Burba ... More >>

NHRA: Sixty Years of Thunder

Hot Chicks Don't Get Tix? Mercedes Driven By Moms Top List Of Most-Ticketed Cars

imagevenue.comIf memory serves, this is Britney Spears famously stepping out of a Paris Hilton's Mercedes SL -- and into the Brazil-wax hall of fame.​Hot chicks don't get tix, right? Maybe. Jerks in douche-mobiles (the always-leased Audi A4, the self-important Mini or the self-righteous Prius) ... More >>

Dodgers Outfielder Manny Ramirez Donates Rare Porsche To Charity

​An online charity auction of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez's 1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6 will begin on Friday. Proceeds from the auction will benefit ThinkCure!, which funds research to cure cancer and Maryvale, a Rosemead resident placement home for girls. ThinkCure!, a non-p ... More >>

Top 10 'Green Cars' Announced: Which One Is Your Roadside Status Symbol?

Number one.​Remember when Escalades, Navigators and Hummers were all the rage? Dubs (20-inch-plus wheels), loud exhaust and bass music, right? Doesn't that seem like a million years ago? Today to be a true player in L.A., more modest hybrids are the status symbols to have. Kelly Blue Book on ... More >>

Toyota Suffers Another Blow As SUV Deemed A 'Safety Risk'

ToyotaLexus GX in L.A.​Toyota's having a bad 2010. A week after learning that 200 lawsuits over so-called "sudden acceleration" and other alleged Toyota defects would be heard here in Los Angeles, the carmaker's North American leaders in Torrance woke up to the headline that Consumer Reports m ... More >>

More Food in Cars: Sonic Drive-In Opens in Duarte

If you get hungry on Monday and are driving anywhere near Duarte, Sonic Drive-In officially opens its new store in that town at 6 a.m. Cherry limeades, extra-long chili cheese Coneys, whatever. The new Duarte location is the closest of the chain's drive-ins to the actual city of Los Angeles, so live ... More >>

Home Invaders Flee In Porsche

2001 Porsche 911 Turbo.​For nearly 45 years the Porsche 911 has been everyman's object of desire in the U.S., an exotic and sometimes super car for a fraction of the cost of a Ferrari. Despite its quirky, rear-engined configuration and back seats that could only comfortably accommodate Oompa-L ... More >>

Industry Titans To Discuss Fossil Fuel Alternatives For Auto Industry

Ahead of this week's Los Angeles International Auto Show, a select group of industry titans is gathering at the Hammer Museum in Westwood Tuesday to discuss alternative fuels and new technologies for the auto industry. Scheduled attendees include Henrik Fisker, CEO of Fisker Automotive, John Krafci ... More >>

Production Of Cool, All-Electric Car Coming To L.A. Area; Ed Begley Jr. Proud

It looks like production of the 2011 Tesla Model S is coming to Los Angeles County. The District Weekly in Long Beach and the Downey Patriot report that Tesla is setting up shop for the new, moderately priced sedan at a former NASA facility in Downey. "We're very close to being able to make an offi ... More >>

Has L.A.'s Auto Show Overshadowed Detroit and Tokyo?

In the wake of the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, a downsized Detroit auto show that saw the likes of Nissan, Porsche and Mitsubishi pull out, and a Tokyo auto show subsequently passed up by the Detroit three automakers, is L.A.'s own annual showcase next the place to be for the auto w ... More >>

Auto Design Discussion

Car Exhibit

No Sign of BMW Dealership on Flattened Wilshire Space

"Build it and they will come." Maybe, but first you have to build the thing. As it is, finds Curbed L.A., all that a local BMW dealership has dug is "two bald construction spots on Wilshire Blvd." A planned dealership's emergence near La Brea Avenue has sputtered in the face of the perfect storm: Co ... More >>

Four Electric Seconds

Who's Resurrecting the Electric Car?

Forget those poky little golf cars — the battery-powered muscle car is just around the corner

6 Highs and Lows of American Automobilia

6 Highs and Lows of American Automobilia

The Capital of Car Design

L.A. is, once again, where the action is

The Alficionado

A man and his (other) car

Photo Essay

From the Red Car to the Hummer

An automotive timeline

Pops

Babes in Hummerland

Hummer Bummer

Going for a test drive the day after explosions rip through a dealership

Inside the ELF

Meet the public face of radical environmentalism

What Would Satan Drive?

Brave New Year

Out of Gas

Auto industry cancels plans to kill anti-global-warming bill at ballot box

Luxury SUV Comes to Complete Stop

Letters

Tough Driving

SUV owners: Park it — right now, before I hurt you