Car Moon

Here's what you get for having far too much time on your hands; a five-door hatchback (or is the Sportback?) Lada turned into something that tries to look like a Ford Mustang. Truth to be said, the Ukrainian owner of the Ladastang went to great lengths to make the car almost indistinguishable from a conventional Lada, but the result is hardly exciting... More painful pictures after the break.

The new and improved for 2011, Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG made its online debut a week after the presentation of the facelifted CL63 AMG luxury coupe. The two cars share the same AMG 5.5-litre V8 biturbo, which replaces the naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 unit, albeit with different output numbers.

In the 2011 S63 AMG, the hand-built 5.5-liter V8, which combines direct petrol injection with bi-turbocharging and a start/stop system, pushes out 544HP at 5,500 rpm and 800Nm /590 lb-ft of peak torque between 2,000 and 5,500rpm. If you opt for the AMG Performance package, these figures are increased to 571HP and 900 Nm / 663.8 lb-ft.

Being a racing model, it's only fitting for Ferrari to inform us that professional drivers are taking part in the fine-tuning of the newly born 458 Challenge. The pilots that took on the role of test driver at the Vallelunga circuit this week were Maurizio Mediani from Italy and Jaime Melo from Argentina who currently races a F430 GT2 in the American Le Mans Series for Team Risi Competizione.

Fiat rolled out a facelifted version of its Idea small MPV initially for Brazil and then throughout South America. It remains to be seen if Fiat will also update the Idea in Europe. The South American model gets a new appearance that brings it line with Fiat's more recent models such as the Linea and Bravo, as well as a revised engine lineup.

The design upgrades are mainly to the front with larger headlamps, Fiat's new company grille and a redesigned bumper.

At the back, the rear lights are new while the tailgate is more sculptured and bumper has been reprofiled. Inside, the Brazilian Idea drops the European market model's center-mounted instrument cluster in favor of a more conventional layout.

Having being on the market since 2007, it's time for Nissan to give its Rogue compact crossover a mid-life facelift. Revealed ahead of the crossover's first public outing this Staurday at the 23rd Annual International Z Car Convention in Nashville, the refreshed Rogue features new styling elements and equipment upgrades, while retaining the same mechanical hardware.

The new Chevrolet Volt extended range electric vehicle won't go on sale before November - and only in seven States at launch, yet General Motors has already revealed plans to lift annual U.S. production capacity by 50 percent, from 30,000 units to 45,000 units, in 2012. The announcement on the production increase came as U.S. President Barack Obama toured the Detroit-Hamtramck facility, where the Volt is being built.

For most of us -hopefully- the car pictured above is nothing more than a Honda Civic Si Coupe with Ford logos and decals. But somehow, the owner of the Blue-Oval-badged Civic, Roger Grenon, managed to pass it on as a "very rare 2007 European Ford Capri RS Mark IV Concept car" designed by none other than "Carrozzeria Ghia SpA" at a Ford-only car show.

"I was told that I was not allowed to enter my car into an 'All Ford' Car Show so I made this up," says Grenon. Basically, all he did is swap the 'H' logos with blue ovals and add some RS, SVT and Capri decals. And oh, he also came up with an amusing vehicle history sheet that he post on the "Carpi Concept's" window (read it after the jump).

"Some people were fooled, some were confused, some were downright angry," Grenon said. "The main guy that was sponsoring the show was pissed off [wonder why..]. I heard him say "we are not giving this car a f'ng award!"

The tuning specialists over at MTM have launched a new line of upgrades for the recently confirmed for the U.S. market, Audi RS5 Coupe. MTM is still holding out on the power front, but the tuner has released new software for the factory speed limiter that allows the RS5 Coupe to reach a more attention-grabbing top speed of 303km/h or 188mph. This will cost an equally attention-grabbing €1,499 plus €125 for fitting.

For the past couple of years, the folks over at Edmunds' InsideLine have been raving about a convertible version of the Nissan Murano. In August 2008, they reported that a four-door version of the crossover with a soft top would go on sale in the Spring of 2010. In May 2009, the story changed to a two-door convertible version that would arrive at dealers before the summer of 2010.

In the third act, the two-door storyline holds, with the site reporting that the canvas-top Murano will have its world premiere at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show in November and go on sale next Spring.

Only 200 examples of the recently announced Fiat 500 BlackJack limited edition are in the... cards for the UK market. The matt black mini goes on sale next week and as with previous special edition 500s, the BlackJack will initially be available for order online through Fiat's official UK website.

Aside from the individual paint job, the BlackJack edition also gets 16-inch alloy wheels in matt black with red detailing, a glossy black finish for the exterior accents such as the mouldings, door handles, mirrors and license plate holder, and red brake calipers (only 1.4L model).

Another day, another recall-nightmare for Toyota Motor Corp. This time, the Japanese automaker said it was recalling around 373,000 of its 2000-2004MY Toyota Avalons, and approximately 39,000 of its 2003-2007MY Lexus LX 470s in the U.S. for unrelated problems concerning steering parts that may be defective.

An Aston Martin DB5 convertible from 1965, complete with an extremely rare original factory-fitted hardtop, will be auctioned off by Historics at Brooklands at its second sale of the year on 25th September. Over two years of production, from 1963 to 1965, a mere 123 DB5 Convertibles were built and only a handful of those remain today with the steel hardtop.

As part of the year-long celebrations for the brand's 100th anniversary, Alfa Romeo has rolled out a special edition version of its GT compact coupe for the Japanese market. It's named "Quadrifoglio d'Oro", which literally translates to 'Golden Clover'. Alfa Romeo used this badge in the past to denote higher-grade versions of its cars.

In this case, the GT Quadrifoglio d'Oro comes with special gold badging, 18-inch five-spoke alloy wheels wrapped in beefier 225/40 tires, red brake calipers and chrome trim on the front bumper. Inside the cabin, Alfa Romeo has added several features to the equipment list including leather sports seats, aluminum sports pedals and sports dials with a red background, just to mention a few.

This year's edition of the Los Angeles Auto Show will play host to more than 20 world debuts as well as 20 or so North American premieres, organizers of the event revealed on Thursday. "The growing global significance of the LA show is clearly demonstrated by the number and importance of the debuts," said Andy Fuzesi, general manager of the LA Auto Show.

As some of you may remember, Toyota showcased the Tacoma TX concept pickup truck fitted with various TRD (Toyota Racing Development) items at last year's SEMA Show. Now, the Japanese automaker is introducing two new packages inspired by the concept that are called the T|X and T|X Pro and are available on the Tacoma V6 Access Cab or V6 Double Cab on both 4x2 PreRunner and 4x4 models. And if you're wondering, the "T|X" stands for Tacoma Extreme.

Come on, who hasn't whiled away a few minutes (or hours...) now and then playing childish games on the internet? If you're looking to waste some time at work or at home, then we suggest you hop over to Honda's CR-Z web page (click here) to check out a rather simple but nevertheless enjoyable arcade-style racing game featuring the Japanese carmaker's hybrid wannabe sport hatch.

There's not much to say about the new 2011 Hyundai Elantra that hasn't already been said, but thanks to a Carscoop tipster, we can show you a new video of the domestic market version, which is called the Avante and goes on sale in South Korea in the beginning of August. In global markets, the Avante will be pitted against the sedan variants of the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic. Be sure to check out our previous post on the new Elantra here after you watch the video after the jump.

General Motors is going with the times by hooking up its Chevy (that's Chevrolet for all you GM employees) salespeople with a new dealer app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The Chevrolet Dealer app features the entire Chevrolet lineup of cars, trucks and crossovers.

Aside from the obvious "wow" factor for consumers, GM says the dealer app allows a salesperson to work with a customer to pick colors, search for a matching vehicle in the dealership's inventory, look up offers that can be applied to the purchase or lease and submit and retrieve quotes, anywhere in the showroom, on the sales lot, or even if they're away from the dealership.

Audi may have confirmed the new RS5 for the States, but Americans won't be able to sample the scorching hot high-performance coupe until sometime in 2012. But when there's a will, there's a way, so the crew from Motor Trend headed to Germany to compare the two newest entries in the sports coupe segment, the Audi RS5 and Cadillac CST-V Coupe, with BMW's 'old-timer', the M3 Coupe.

We won't spoil the video for you by telling you won, so follow the jump to check it out along with the performance details on all cars and then don't forget to take our poll on which sport coupe would you be more likely to buy.

he Chrysler Group's Belvidere assembly plant in Illinois reached a major milestone on Wednesday, July 28, when the one millionth vehicle, a natural green Jeep Patriot, that will be delivered to B.Z. Motors Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealer in Lewisburg, Pa, rolled off the assembly line.

The ludicrously powerful Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport special may have set a new world speed record a couple of weeks ago at the VW Group's Ehra-Lessein proving grounds in Germany, but (apparently) the supercar is still being tested on normal roads. Our amigos from Diariomotor stumbled upon an undisguised example of the Super Sport hanging out with two more "standard" Veyrons somewhere in Spain and made good use of their camera and camcorder.

Now here's a "car" you can truly live in... What you're looking at in these pictures is the "Auto Residence" home and its sister project, "The Car . Das Auto" restaurant, both of which are located near Salzburg Austria. Although it may take a wee bit of imagination to figure it out, the design of the two buildings is themed after the classic Volkswagen Beetle.

Buckle up now so we can tell you the whole story. It all started almost a decade ago when the owners of mundane 70's style home built on the border of a nature preserve in Gnigl near Salzburg, turned to architect Markus Voglreiter with a crazy idea; transform their home into something that resembles a car and more specifically, the original VW Bug. Their dream came true with the completion of the project in 2003.