Snap-on Socket Set 3/8"drive Deep & Shallow Metric 8mm-21mm. Custom Wood Tray! on 2040-parts.com

Autoweek Best of the Best/Truck - Chevrolet Silverado

When we first saw the new Chevy Silverado, we thought, “Hmmm, styling's conservative, interior quality looks a bit better … these things better drive well or Chevy's in a heap of trouble.” No doubt, the new Silverado is an outstanding full-size pickup, so much so we put one on our June 24 cover and said that it was “more refined than ever.”And that's really the story here. In our Best of the Best testing, we found the Silverado to be as quiet, refined and smooth as one could ask from a full-size pickup. Testers also were impressed with the body control (for a large truck) and outstanding ride.

Mercedes Vito London Taxi comes out fighting

Mercedes has come out fighting against the Nissan NV200 London Taxi with an assertion of the benefits of the Mercedes Vito Taxi. Yesterday we had the news that Nissan, not content with just undermining the Crown Victoria as the NYC Yellow Cab, have turned their attention  to the London Taxi with their NV200 take on the Black Cab. So far, LTI hasn’t responded to the imminent threat to their business from Nissan (but then they still haven’t really reacted to Mercedes entry in to the market), but Mercedes has, coming out fighting this morning with a press release extolling the virtues of the Vito Taxi.

Demise of kei cars on the horizon?

The kei car has long been a staple of the Japanese automobile industry and its car culture. Too diminutive for Western markets, the tiny cars and trucks are a strong influencer of design in Japan. Now, as The New York Times reports, the Japanese government has hit kei cars with increases in sales tax, gasoline prices and has reduced the kei car tax break introduced to make the cars popular in the first place by 50 percent.