01 Yamaha Bear Tracker 250 Gas Tank & Fuel Petcock on 2040-parts.com

New Mercedes-Benz S-class spotted in SoCal

The new Mercedes-Benz S-class must be hustling toward the developmental-cycle finish line, because it's been spotted en masse in places such as Toronto (where it must be undergoing cold-weather testing) and Irvine, Calif. (where it must be gauging the interest of Benz-crazy vox populi). Because as devoid as it is of bodywork-breaking pillboxes, camera-obfuscating swirl paint, and surly engineers, the fact that it's seen here in little more than some sticky paper and a pair of cheap sunglasses on the driver means that the elder statesman of the automotive world is readying its next debut.

World’s oldest unrestored Austin Mini fetches £40k

1959 Austin Mini Seven went for £40k The oldest unrestored Mini in the world was expected to fetch £12-15k in auction last week. It actually went for £40,250. Just a couple of weeks ago we reported that the oldest unrestored Mini in the world was going under the hammer at the Bonhams sale at the RAF Museum in Hendon, expected to fetch as much as £15k.

July 6: The skinny from the power company

After getting a full recharge at the 120-volt wall plug in the parking garage at work I drove home and only used maybe three bars. It was about 3/4-full when I got home that night. I didn't plug it in all weekend and it still had that amount of charge when I went to Southern California Edison (SCE) for a meeting today.