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XCAR has taken a look at what could very well be one of the most quintessential British cars ever built: the 1973 Rolls-Royce Corniche. The question at hand is whether or not expensive luxury items like artisan foods, designer clothing and yes, high-end automobiles are worth their monetary cost. Do they bring some undefined additional value to the table over their low-buck counterparts, or are they simply an excellent way to part a fool from his dollar bills? While the video below can't comment on four-course meals or $400 jeans, our valiant host does have a word or two on the joy a Rolls-Royce can bring to your life.

That's even true of a model like the '73 Corniche. Built during one of the darker days of the company's history, the convertible was designed and manufactured by an automaker on the verge of collapse. Still, it manages to hold on to that essential spirit of luxury so crucial to the Rolls-Royce brand. Check out the video below to see what we mean.

Now, from the "weird little French car" file, we give you the 2013 PGO Automobiles Cévennes speedster. Powered by a turbocharged 1.6-liter BMW four-cylinder engine mounted midship, the little roadster serves up a healthy 181 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. The modest muscle gets to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission. Consider our interest piqued.

PGO Automobiles says the new model tips the scales at a scant 2,200 pounds and features a theoretical top speed of 140 miles per hour. That's plenty fast enough to get you in trouble or get you dead. Fortunately, engineers also managed to bolster the car's rigidity by 15 percent and a new MacPhereson strut setup front and rear helps the car handle the twisties with a bit more composure than previous efforts from the automaker.

As you may recollect, PGO Automobiles got its start manufacturing kit cars modeled after the Porsche 356. Its clear the company's designers have held on to some of their favorite elements from that car. Rounded fenders front and rear as well as familiar-looking headlights all harken back to the little German droptop, but elements like the smallish windshield and variety of air inlets clearly identify the car as French. We dig it.

Sydney's University of New South Wales Sunswift team has worked on a number of solar-powered cars in the past, enough that they call themselves "Australia's premier solar car racing team." The team is headed in a new direction now, though, with the Eve, which dispenses with the ultra-efficient design meant to win races and instead moves a bit into "normal" car territory.

Project director Sam Paterson said in a statement that the Eve is intended to be more mainstream. "This year's vehicle, unlike some of our previous models, has four wheels, doors and is designed to be safer and more practical. It departs from the typical spaceship design of most solar cars and looks like an actual car," he said.

Actual performance details for the Eve are not yet available, but we expect we'll hear more when the car is officially unveiled on August 9th. If you're in Australia, or want to go, you can get tickets to the event through the crowdfunding site Pozible, where the team is collecting pledges to try and build the Eve. The team set a $20,000 (Australian) goal and is currently sitting at $15,390. For added geekiness, the Pozible page is full of Eve-centric memes.

The Sunswift team is made up of students from a variety of courses at UNSW (engineering, business, science and industrial design are the examples listed) and has been going since 1995. The Sunswift Eve is the team's fifth-generation solar powered supercar.

Since the official Sunswift website loads sloooowly and causes an "unresponsive script" for some of the Autoblog team, we recommend connecting with UNSW over on their Facebook page. A short (30-second) video of the Sunswift Eve being unloaded is available below.

Despite looking fresh and fancy as ever, the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is nearly four years old now. Its design was first shown to the world at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show, and judging by these spy photos, it looks like a couple of small changes are in order for Merc's gullwing baby (or not, seeing as how the test car spied this time around happens to the the Roadster). The timing of the update is interesting, seeing as how Mercedes introduced a new GT model that effectively replaced the standard car last June. The SLS AMG GT didn't receive much in the way of optical attention, however, so perhaps this is just the Three-Pointed-Star keeping things fresh.

The only real camouflage on the test car seen here is found up front, where it looks like the SLS' fascia has undergone a slight nip/tuck. The grille shape has been modified a tiny bit, and it appears that the lower lip gets the majority of the changes. Our spy shooters tell us that we shouldn't rule out more changes down the road, possibly to the headlamps and taillamps. Of course, there could be further massaging under the hood or inside the cabin, but it's unclear if any of that is going on based on these photos.

PickupTrucks.com has gone and thrown the latest batch of half-ton pickups into a cage match to see who would come out on top. The site put the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra 1500, 2013 Ford F-150, Ram 1500, Toyota Tundra and Nissan Titan through a battery of tests. Those included 0-60 miles per hour acceleration, 60-0 mph deceleration, fuel economy, a hill climb, and payload and towing. They even threw the rigs on an autocross course to evaluate overall handling. Each truck was given points based on how it scored in each evaluation.

Who came out on top? Somewhat surprisingly, the 2013 Ford F-150 walked away with the gold, though fewer than 50 points separated first and fourth place. Head over to PickupTrucks.com to read the full evaluation and the final results. You may be shocked to see exactly where some of the segment's newest additions placed. You can also watch a video on the test below.

Aston Martin has pulled back the sheets on the company's new Gulf livery for this weekend's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Penned by Jonathan Wesley, the Number 97 Vantage GTE will wear the colors throughout race week as the car prepares to compete in the 90th 24 Hours of Le Mans. Darren Turner, Stefan Mucke and Peter Dumbreck will all take turns behind the wheel of the car. Wesley said he designed the livery using the four Gulf corporate colors arranged from lightest to dark, with the right side painted white and the left painted dark blue to symbolize the change in race conditions from daylight to dusk.

Fans chose Wesley's design from a spate of others as part of a Gulf contest. As a result, the designer will spend Le Mans weekend as a VIP guest with Aston Martin. The company says the No. 97 car will compete along with four other Vantage GTE bruisers, but will be the only one to carry the special livery. You can read the full press release below for more information.

J.D. Power and Associates has released its annual Initial Quality Study, and this year, Porsche and General Motors took the spotlight. The study, which asks new car owners to report problems experienced during the first 90 days of ownership, found that overall, the industry averages 113 problems per 100 vehicles.

Porsche managed a score of just 80 problems per 100 vehicles, while GMC took the second spot on the podium with 90. Lexus filled out the top three with 94 problems per 100 vehicles, followed by Infiniti at 95 and Chevrolet at 97. The study also looks at specific models, and found the Lexus LS to enjoy the best initial quality at 59 problems per 100 vehicles.

Interestingly enough, the report found that around two-thirds of most owner problems experienced in the first 90 days are attributable to vehicle design instead of mechanical failure. Specifically – echoing a refrain we've been hearing for the last few years – owners are having a hard time figuring out how to use the technology present in their new vehicles. Head over to the J.D. Power site for more information, or scroll down below for the company's related press release.

It looks as if the Local Motors Rally Fighter will soon have some competition. The Korres Project 4 boasts a 7.0-liter LS7 V8 lifted from the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. With 505 horsepower shoved into a 3,527-pound package, the creation should have no trouble covering ground very quickly. Dimitris Korres, the Greek architect behind the Project 4, says his creation can clip to 60 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of 186. That's all par for the course, but it's the machine's innovative suspension that makes it stand out from the crowd.

Capable of increasing or decreasing its ride height as necessary, the Project 4 can cover all sorts of terrain at speed. With locking differentials front, center and rear, the creation has the potential to be very impressive. You can check out a pair of videos below for a better look. Note that the photos in the gallery show the bruiser with its body panels removed for a better look at its innovative suspension and bare aluminum chassis, and check out this link for more.

Recent reports have suggested that Chrysler may soon phase out its long-running Dodge brand, and while the company remains mum on the subject, you can't blame analysts for thinking that's the direction the Pentastar's everyday brand is heading. After all, Chrysler has shown a willingness to shutter brands, having killed off Plymouth back in 2001, and it's putting big dollars behind its bid to build Fiat into a North American force. Chrysler also recently took the step of spinning off its trucks into the stand-alone Ram brand and relocated its halo Viper supercar under the SRT banner.

Couple that with long-held gossip that the full-size Dodge Durango utility vehicle and the Avenger sedan are both living on borrowed time, and you've got a dwindling product portfolio. That would leave Dodge with the Dart compact (a model that isn't selling particularly well), the Charger (which has a mechanical twin in the Chrysler 300) and the Challenger, which could be supplanted by a rumored Chrysler/SRT Cuda. On the people-mover front, Dodge offers the aging Journey and the Grand Caravan, which is the twin to the bigger-margin Chrysler Town & Country.

Stories for some time have pegged Chrysler as only moving forward with one minivan, though there has been some waffling as to whether the next-generation MPV would wear the Town & Country badge or that of the Grand Caravan. A new report out of Canada – where the vehicles are built – says that the winner in the sippy-cup derby is the next Chrysler Town & Country, which will carry a 2016 model year designation. In addition, sources report that T&C production at the Windsor Assembly Plant will be joined by an as-yet-unnamed large near-luxury crossover for 2017, another long-rumored model that could be similar in concept to the long-defunct Pacifica. The brand for this new model? You guessed it – Chrysler.

Jaguar's new F-Type is a pretty potent little pouncer. And while we do love a good roadster, many of us at Autoblog are perhaps more excited about the upcoming hardtop version of Jag's stylish new entry-level sports car. Why? Because even here in heavily camouflaged prototype form, the thing looks really, really good – the sleek roofline blending rather nicely into the F-Type's shapely rump, allowing for better distinction of its pronounced hips over the rear wheel wells.

Mechanically speaking, the F-Type Coupe should be identical to its droptop sibling. That means the supercharged 3.0-liter V6 and 5.0-liter V8 engine lineup should carry over unchanged, though we've heard rumors about a four-cylinder application as well. There's also talk of hotter R, R-S or R-S GT models coming down the pipeline, and based on what we've experienced in things like the XKR-S, we certainly can't deny the allure of such a model.

It's unclear exactly when Jaguar will show the production F-Type Coupe (at the Frankfurt Motor Show, perhaps?), but the car is expected to go on sale sometime in 2014. Check it out in our latest spy gallery, above.

With five months left until the 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder enters production, Porsche engineers are still putting the hybrid sports coupe through a battery of last-minute tests. To give us new reasons to ogle over the car – as if we needed any more – Porsche has released a short video showing the 918 Spyder undergoing shakedown tests in the hot Nevada desert. And you can't drive through Nevada without visiting Vegas, too, right?

Although there's really nothing new to see in this video, it's still fun to watch as Porsche approaches one million test miles logged on this exciting new high-performance model. One interesting part (at around the 0:37 mark) shows the car taking off under electric power and then transitioning to engine power, which results in a mix of whirs and growls as the 918 Spyder switches from a 127-horsepower electric vehicle to an 887-hp hybrid supercar. Scroll down to watch – and hear – Porsche's latest creation in motion.

Unexpectedly, This Opposite Attracts



Back in 2007 when the Fiat 500 was launched, I was unrepentantly nuts about the thing. From the first time my eyes clapped on the Nuevo Cinquecento at the Geneva Motor Show that year, I wanted one. Since there were no plans for a North American model at the time, I had to settle for purchasing a 1/18th-scale diecast at the expo. When Fiat finally returned to the US and the Cinquecento went on sale in 2011, I was no less excited.

And then I drove one, and the bloom was off my little Italian rose. Oh, I still appreciated its size and high style, but I found it wholly unsatisfying to drive, something that wouldn't be rectified until the Abarth arrived. It wasn't that the standard 500 was slow – I expected that – it was that its wonky driving position, lackluster transmissions and ropey steering all stood in the way of appreciating its other virtues. The Abarth's characterful powertrain would eventually come along to alleviate most of those pains, but not all of them.

Now with the advent of the 500L for 2014, it appears I'm living the same scenario, albeit in reverse. My first encounter with this new, larger Fiat was also at the Geneva show, only this time, when the sheet was yanked off its flanks in 2012, I didn't like what I saw. The Italian marque hadn't just name-checked the Cinquecento with this larger five-door, it attempted to appropriate its amusing and iconic design by repeating key styling elements like its circular light fixtures and simple chrome bar grille (collectively known as the "whiskers and logo face"), along with rounded interior forms painted in body colors. To my eyes, the design just didn't work, yet I was still intrigued about the promise of a larger 500 and more polished driving experience.

In April, Mazda introduced a marketing campaign titled "Game Changers" to showcase how certain people have made significant impacts in their respective sports, and now it's the Japanese automaker that is changing the game by creating an innovative way to launch a new product. Mazda is teaming up with Xbox to offer a first-of-its-kind live-streaming global debut of a new product. Mazda didn't say which model will be debuted, but our guess is that it will be the next-generation Mazda3.

The actual reveal will take place at 9 pm on June 26 during a live concert from the band Metric in New York City, but there will be other live events preceding the concert in Melbourne, St. Petersburg, Istanbul and London. Mazda will be promoting the event on social media using the hashtag #GameChanger, and there is also a contest on Xbox where one winner will receive $2,500 to attend a music event of their choice. Scroll down for the full details of the contest and vehicle debut event.

Back when the first Tesla Model S electric vehicles were rolling off the assembly line in California, CEO Elon Musk was literally checking each vehicle before it went out into the wild. As production ramped up, this was no longer possible. And, not that we're suggesting the two issues are directly related, now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Tesla are announcing the first big Model S recall. Tesla's first NHTSA recall affected the Roadster back in 2009.

The Model S recall affects 1,228 vehicles that were made between May 10 and June 8 of 2013 and is about a possible failure of the seatback mounting. Specifically, "an improper method for aligning the left hand seatback striker to the bracket may have weakened the weld between the bracket and the frame of the vehicle." What does that mean? "In the event of a crash, the left hand seatback may not stay mounted, increasing the risk of injury to passengers."

"Tesla has revised assembly procedures and retrained manufacturing technicians."

The problem happened because Tesla redesigned the joint between the bracket and vehicle to "improve function and reduce weight," and the new joint was put into place May 10. The new bracket worked just fine, but then, "on June 7, 2013, a technician on the assembly line was adjusting the alignment for the newly designed left hand second row seat striker utilizing a slide hammer when he noticed the action caused the striker to become loose. ... Upon review, Tesla Quality determined that the weld and bonding between the second row left hand seat striker mounting plate and the vehicle was compromised due to this method of adjustment." Since then, "Tesla has revised assembly procedures and retrained manufacturing technicians."

There have been no complaints or reports of injury about this issue. Tesla will repair the issue in the affected cars, but has not yet said when. Owners should be on the lookout for notification from Tesla if their car is subject to the recall.

You can read more in these PDFs (1, 2), which are letters between Tesla and NHTSA regarding the recall. You can also find more information on the NHTSA site by searching for campaign number 13V249000, and the text of the recall can be seen below.