cars

The foundation of every good relationship is the ability to listen and understand one other. How fitting then, that our Valentine's Day delivery to the CNET Car Tech garage should be the Acura TL-S, one of the most understanding cars in the world. We climbed into the cabin of this souped-up version of Acura's midsized technosedan, and in no time we already were making ourselves understood with perfect clarity.

"Driver temperature, 65 degrees," we ventured after a press of the Voice button on the steering wheel. "Driver temperature, 65 degrees," responded TL's empathetic … Read more

"Does your dog bite?"

Just the thought of those four little words has sent me laughing ever since my mother introduced me to the genius of Peter Sellers.

If you know the rest of that routine from The Pink Panther Strikes Again, then you can imagine my delight at seeing the Coolest Gadgets write-up on a Pink Panther car.

Unfortunately, upon reading the seller's description on eBay, I found that the car is the MGM studio car from The Pink Panther Show, the cartoon series featuring a pink panther, available for about $146,000.

It is not … Read more

To celebrate this Feb. 14, what better way to show your affection than to fire off an audio Valentine to a fellow motorist who cuts you off? Horntones has taken the concept of custom ringtones and applied it to the car horn for use on those special occasions.

The FX-550 won't actually be ready to order until the day after this Valentine's Day, but that will give you more time to look for just the right tunes to match your various bi-polar moods on the road. Uber-Review says you can store eight audio files that can be loaded … Read more

Gizmag is gushing over the 2008 Can-Am Spyder roadster that was recently unveiled by Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), the Canadian motorcycle, ATV and snowmobile manufacturer.

Unlike other hybrid vehicles that tout stealth, satellite navigation or energy efficiency, this vehicle claims to be the offspring of a motorcycle and a sports car.

The three-wheel motorcycle has rear wheel drive, with two wheels at the front and one at the back. The trike is powered by a Rotax 990 V-twin liquid-cooled engine with a five-speed manual transmission.

It has antilock breaks, traction control and dynamic power steering as on a car. The … Read more

The idea of a car-board black box doesn't bother us, despite the obvious issues of data privacy and commentary on modern society. We are, however, offended by another aspect: aesthetics.

Just take a look at the most recent version from Gadget Universe. Would you really want to mount one of these things on your dash or in the rear window of your car? It's almost as bad as a dog with a bobbing head.

Sure, it's possible that your recorded evidence could come in handy after an accident. But what if you were at fault because your … Read more

It's not exactly the highest tech, but many of humankind's greatest advances have come with few moving parts. We think this is one of them: the "Pad Concept" baby car seat.

This ingenious invention allows frazzled parents to change their kids' diapers while they're still in the seat. The seat reclines and swivels, turning it into an instant changing station that can be positioned for easy access. If you don't have children, this won't sound very interesting, but those of us who do could well find this a life-changing (and Huggies-changing) experience.

It'… Read more

Tintin, a boy journalist featured in a popular series of comic books and cartoons, drove and rode in a wide variety of cars throughout his adventures. We were just e-mailed the URL of a Web site that not only shows each car as drawn in the comic books, but also includes pictures--in most cases--of the real car that the comic car is based on. Just click a thumbnail on the All Tintin Cars page (or Toutes les autos de Tintin, for you purists), and two pop-up windows show the original comic and a photo of the real car. As Tintin … Read more

Scion, Toyota's ultrahip brand, used the second morning of the Chicago Auto Show to launch the second incarnation of its hugely popular Scion xB. The boxy urban utility vehicle gets a makeover inside and out for its 2008 model year, with an all-new external profile, a bigger engine, bigger wheels, and some nice-to-have interior tech features. With rounded corners, wraparound headlights, and more sheet metal than its predecessor (1 foot longer, 3 inches wider, and 1 inch shorter), the 2008 xB has nearly eight more cubic feet than the previous-generation xB. To move its newly sculpted carcass around, the … Read more

Well, at least the marketers of this in-car video system made some kind of attempt to make their product seem road-safe: They portrayed it on the passenger side, not the driver's.

Nice try, but we seriously doubt that the "Sun Visor TV/DVD Theater" could be ignored by anyone in the car, especially the driver sitting right next to it. It's not that we have anything against video entertainment on the road; we'd love to have a 7-inch LCD and FM transmitter like this one seen on Red Ferret, especially for extended trips, and it … Read more