auto

For those that find the Mini too, well, mini, the BMW-owned brand is launching a stretch version, spy photos of which appeared on Spanish automotive site Km77.com. We saw various Mini concepts at the 2005 auto shows based on this new stretched Mini, but the new photos show the real deal. Km77.com apparently caught Mini shooting video of its new model in preparation for its launch at the 2007 Frankfurt auto show. The car will be named the Mini Clubman, taking its name from the original Mini Clubman launched in 1969.

Although previous spy shots of the new … Read more

Teenagers, persuade your parents to buy this lawnmower and you can get your weekend afternoons back. The LawnBott seems to have some competition.

The Auto Mower from Husqvarna eliminates noise, hassle and is environmentally more friendly than your average gas-powered lawnmower.

It works similarly to the Roomba robot vacuum in that it self-charges at a docking station, navigates on its own and can be set to run on schedule. You shallowly bury a boundary wire around the general perimeter of your lawn and any gardens to let the machine know its limits. It can handle inclines, rain and simply reverses … Read more

It's probably not generally known to the allergy-free public, but we pollen sufferers have been known to stay in our cars for temporary relief. Why? Because it's as close to a controlled air system as we can get, next to a plastic bubble. So it's actually not so weird that a major automaker has created what it calls an allergy-free model, especially at the height of hay fever season.

With its "Mondeo," which is about to go on the European market, Ford claims to have accomplished this by "abolishing chrome and nickel from the … Read more

The new Tesla Roadster is getting some buzz. Being built as an all-electric car, Tesla's engineering aims to minimize resource consumption per mile. CNET News.com reporter Stefanie Olsen watched a Tesla engineer answer questions from a roomful of Silicon Valley engineers. He said his Tesla will go 4,900 miles on 1 megawatt of energy while a hydrogen car would go about 1,800 miles because of the energy needed to produce the hydrogen.

The Tesla on display was the second engineering prototype. Last fall, CNET captured video of an earlier prototype.

Tesla has already sold 180 of … Read more

The Nokia N95 is here! Check out Bonnie Cha's First Look video on CNET TV. I took the phone home for a few days last weekend and played around with the video camera, taking shots of my dog and shooting a short description of my friends impression of the new Tarantino/Rodriguez double feature, Grindhouse. Great-looking camera and a cool phone with cool features, but as my CNET TV colleagues will tell you I am a Treo addict, so no QWERTY keyboard is a real drag for me.

Another favorite video from this week is the music show featuring … Read more

It looks like Hyundai is vying to be the Samsung of the automotive world. The South Korean automaker showed it is gearing up to take on the high-end Japanese (and German) competition with the unveiling of its Concept Genesis luxury sport sedan at this week's New York auto show. The rear-wheel-drive Genesis, which will be put into production for the 2008 model year, is driven by an all-new 4.6-liter "Tau" engine, mated to a ZF six-speed automatic transmission. Hyundai says the car will produce "well over 300 horsepower," and it will go from 0 … Read more

This car is not as boring as it looks.As we have written about at length, ethanol fuel is gaining momentum as a possible alternative to gas.

The Saab BioPower E100 concept vehicle, which is at the New York Auto Show, runs on E100 (100 percent bioethanol fuel). The BioPower E100 would be a turbocharged 2.0 liter engine that offers 300 horsepower and runs on bioethanal.

While the BioPower E100, which debuted at the Geneva Auto Show, is only a concept, Saab does sell the Saab 9-5 BioPower, which runs on E85.

The Saab 9-5 BioPower, which is sold … Read more

Find Ferraris just a little too pretentious? How about a Maserati with a Ferrari engine whose interior looks like it stepped right out of the Saville Row for cars?

The 2008 Maserati GranTurismo had its North American debut at the New York Auto Show on Thursday. While Maserati will say otherwise, this car is more about speeding in style than those into down and dirty performance.

The car takes 5.1 seconds to go 0 to 60 and has a maximum speed of 177 mph (notably not 185). The car has a 405-horsepower 4.2-liter V8 engine mounted in a … Read more

Given Callaway Cars' close proximity to New York City in Old Lyme, Conn., this week's auto show was the logical locale for a debut.

Arguably the best work from Callaway Cars designer Paul Deutschman, the C16 cabriolet was introduced to the public at the 2007 New York International Auto Show on Thursday. Company founder Reeves Callaway introduced the car.

The cabriolet incorporates the same bulging bodylines and race inspired "form follows function" design of the C16 coupe, which was based originally on the Corvette C6. The loss of a top, however, has resulted (thankfully) in the loss … Read more