Car and Driver is currently sending out an APB for cast members to appear in two new web series. Check out the specifics below to see what we’re looking for, and if you fit the bill—or in the case of the second show, know someone who does—simply follow the directions for a chance to be featured on the shows!

Show no. 1: We need groups of three or four car-repair experts for a new web series; experts can range from professional mechanics to self-taught backyard grease monkeys. Submissions from NY/NJ/CT area only, please. All applicants must be outgoing and confident in their skills, and the groups must previously exist, i.e. be co-workers or members of a car club or similar. This ultimate gearhead competition will test these experts’ abilities to repair and modify beat-up crapcans for various challenges.

If you are interested in participating in the show, e-mail liontvcasting@gmail.com with “Battle” in the subject line and be sure to include the following information:

Name(s):
Contact Phone Number:
Business/Car Background:
Qualifications for Being Considered a “Car Expert”:

Show no. 2: We need horrible drivers for a new web series. If you or someone you know could easily be described as among the worst drivers on the planet, it just might be time for an intervention. This new series will help bad drivers improve their skills and hopefully save some lives—not to mention cars and property—along the way.

If you are interested in participating in the show, e-mail liontvcasting@gmail.com with “Bad Driver” in the subject line and be sure to include the following information:

Your Name, Plus the Name of Your Nominee (If Applicable):
Driver Age(s):
Contact Phone Number:
Why You or Your Nominee is Considered Such a Terrible Driver:

BMW won’t say how many manual-transmission 3-series it sells in the United States for “competitive reasons.” It’s not as many as in Europe, where 3-series sedans are sold in great numbers with small gasoline and turbo-diesel engines paired with manuals, but  enough are moved here to keep a six-speed manual on the order sheet as a no-cost option. In the States, the cheapest of the new F30-generation 3-series is the 328i sedan, equipped with BMW’s new N20 turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder and starting at $35,795. That’s a savings of $7500 compared to the 2012 turbo six-cylinder 335i sedan.

Keep Reading: 2012 BMW 328i Sedan Manual – First Drive Review

The 535i’s spartan mien did not stop it from becoming an instant long-haul favorite, however. Never mind the car’s shortcomings—numb steering, disappointing handling composure, and a hefty curb weight—that left it behind the Audi A6 and an Infiniti M37 in a ­comparison test August 2010; its odometer rolled past 20,000 miles in less than five months while visiting locations such as Myrtle Beach, Yellowstone National Park, and the Great Smoky Mountains. ­Editor-at-large John Phillips was one of many to commend the 535i for terrific interstate behavior, calling it “serene, composed, and quiet.” Yeah, that, and it was not unusual to hit 28 mpg on an interstate stretch. We averaged an impressive 23 mpg over 40,000 miles.

Keep Reading: 2011 BMW 535i – Long-Term Road Test Wrap-Up

Damian Kulash Jr. sits in one of the editing suites of a media-production house in downtown San Francisco, watching clips on a computer screen of a silver Chevy Sonic doing hand-brake turns in a dust cloud. The car is festooned with what looks like forks, hockey sticks, TV antennas, railroad horns, shark spears, and a couple of dead Persian cats, which are in fact large microphones fitted with furry windsocks. Inside the car, three guys plus Kulash—each in a driving suit and matching helmet of a different lollipop color—pull levers, finger small pneumatic keyboards called melodicas, and mouth the words to a song called “Needing/Getting.”

Keep Reading: Car Commercialism: The Making of OK Go’s “Needing/Getting” Music Video – Feature

Saab apparently is not dead—it’s just in a persistent vegetative state. A total of five parties have stepped forward to bid on all or parts of the Trollhättan-based automaker as a bankruptcy court in Sweden manages the sale of the company’s assets. The aim is to recover some money for Saab’s creditors. The three parties receiving the most attention are two Chinese companies and Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian automaker.

• Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. is said to have made a bid in the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars range for as much of Saab as it can get. Details of the offer haven’t been disclosed, but some very careful contracting must be on the table: Youngman tried to buy Saab before the bankruptcy, but General Motors ultimately vetoed that deal since it would have put so much GM-engineered Saab technology into the hands of a relatively small Chinese firm. It’s not clear what’s different this time around that might placate GM.
• Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company (BAIC) also has expressed serious interest in picking at Saab’s carcass. Saab sold the tooling and rights to build the old 9-5 to BAIC in 2009—it’s re-skinning them with more-modern sheetmetal—so this seems like a predictable move. Analysts like to say that the Chinese auto industry is developing quickly, which it is, but the benefit of building a car on even an old western platform can’t be understated.
• Indian firm Mahindra & Mahindra—a major manufacturer of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and agricultural equipment—is reported to have entered preliminary discussions to buy at least portions of Saab. These reports date back to December 30, however. As of this writing, Mahindra spokespeople weren’t available for comment.

If you’re confused by this quagmire of news, it’s understandable. And you’re not alone. Saab is a relatively large industrial firm, and it’s going through a sophisticated bankruptcy process in Sweden. State- and privately held Chinese manufacturers are in some cases declining to be forthcoming about their positions in negotiations—and in other cases are legally required to stay quiet. Even international news organizations with staff on the ground in Sweden and China are relying in part on second-hand information.

We’ll bring you more news if and when it develops.

Photo by Phil LaCombe

Saab apparently is not dead—it’s just in a persistent vegetative state. A total of five parties have stepped forward to bid on all or parts of the Trollhättan-based automaker as a bankruptcy court in Sweden manages the sale of the company’s assets. The aim is to recover some money for Saab’s creditors. The three parties receiving the most attention are two Chinese companies and Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian automaker.

• Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. is said to have made a bid in the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars range for as much of Saab as it can get. Details of the offer haven’t been disclosed, but some very careful contracting must be on the table: Youngman tried to buy Saab before the bankruptcy, but General Motors ultimately vetoed that deal since it would have put so much GM-engineered Saab technology into the hands of a relatively small Chinese firm. It’s not clear what’s different this time around that might placate GM.
• Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company (BAIC) also has expressed serious interest in picking at Saab’s carcass. Saab sold the tooling and rights to build the old 9-5 to BAIC in 2009—it’s re-skinning them with more-modern sheetmetal—so this seems like a predictable move. Analysts like to say that the Chinese auto industry is developing quickly, which it is, but the benefit of building a car on even an old western platform can’t be understated.
• Indian firm Mahindra & Mahindra—a major manufacturer of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and agricultural equipment—is reported to have entered preliminary discussions to buy at least portions of Saab. These reports date back to December 30, however. As of this writing, Mahindra spokespeople weren’t available for comment.

If you’re confused by this quagmire of news, it’s understandable. And you’re not alone. Saab is a relatively large industrial firm, and it’s going through a sophisticated bankruptcy process in Sweden. State- and privately held Chinese manufacturers are in some cases declining to be forthcoming about their positions in negotiations—and in other cases are legally required to stay quiet. Even international news organizations with staff on the ground in Sweden and China are relying in part on second-hand information.

We’ll bring you more news if and when it develops.

Photo by Phil LaCombe

If you’re like us, you’ve bored holes through pictures of the new 3-series sedan trying to discern the styling changes versus the outgoing model. Yes, there are some. A new face features headlights that puddle in toward the chrome-wrapped kidneys and a broad, blunt-faced front bumper that creates a sort of grimacing overbite into the lower grille. Move around to the sides and tail, and it all looks very familiar, even though the new car is 1.9 inches longer in wheelbase and 3.7 inches longer overall, which gives it more of a sleek, sprinter-on-blocks profile. But what’s really new about the F30, you ask? Well, after 600 miles in a brand-new 2012 F30-generation 335i Sport Line—and a couple of plates of South Carolina barbecue—we have a pretty good idea.

Keep Reading: 2012 BMW 335i Sedan – Instrumented Test

New information has been scarce regarding Infiniti’s range-extended electric sports car for this March’s Geneva auto show. But now we’ve got a name: EMERG-E. We’ll likely have to wait another month or so to see the entire car—only a few teaser photos like the one above have been released—but we do know it will feature a mid-mounted powertrain. Stay tuned for more details.

VW's current system (above) can now be considered old and busted—MIB is the new hotness

Volkswagen’s upcoming MQB vehicle architecture is going to underpin every new VW car—excluding the upcoming Phaeton, but including more than a few Audis—that arrives from this point forward. It’s a component set of engines, suspension pieces, and transmissions, sure, but its adoption also will mark the debut of many other modular bits, including an infotainment system dubbed Modular Infotainment System, or MIB. (No Will Smith jokes, please.)

The MIB setup—the initialism comes from from the German Modularen Infotainmentbaukasten—is basically a platform for in-car electronics, and it will be based on common, hidden hardware used across many vehicles. Hiding electronic hardware isn’t new, of course, but using the same basic stuff in everything from budget boxes to expensive sleds is more novel, and it will allow for technologies currently found in higher-priced rides to trickle down to more lowly models. Even entry-level cars such as the Golf will have the option of an eight-inch touch screen, high-res 3D navigation maps, and free map updates.

In Volkswagens, MIB will be based entirely around capacitive touch screens; as one example, this will allow VW to adopt Audi’s navigation input system, whereby you write letters with your finger. As you may have surmised, VW’s version of the technology will use the capacitive screen rather than a touch pad, as currently found in the Audi A6, A7, and A8. (Audi will stick with its button, knob, and touch pad MMI setup in the future; its version of MIB was previewed in the next-gen Audi A3 interior shown at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show.) Volkswagen’s MIB rollout starts with the seventh-generation Golf, which goes on sale in Europe this year.

Another trick feature will be a sensor that knows when a hand is near the touch screen. This allows, for example, the navigation map to be completely free of options (e.g. zoom, orientation, and drop-down destination functions) most of the time, but when a driver wants to interact with the map, he needs only to reach for the screen and the functions will appear. And, taking a page from the Apple, scrolling between music tracks will be done with swipes of your finger, not tapping an arrow.

The basic setup will involve a five-inch capacitive touch screen. To go bigger—5.8- and 8.0-inch screens also will be available—individuals will have to opt for more features, and, in the U.S., such MIB options likely will be bundled in a more expensive package. Wireless tethering via your phone will be available, and the systems also will feature the expected Bluetooth, SD, and USB connectivity.

We’re excited by the tech, but what we actually like most are the cost savings VW will reap from the system’s commonality. With similar hardware found in all models, the individual unit cost will be relatively small. This will in turn free up cash for, say, additional chassis development, or perhaps better interior plastics for our American non-GLI Jetta. VW’s plans for world domination may have just taken another step forward.

Today, Audi released pricing for the lightweight R8 GT sports car’s droptop Spyder iteration and revealed how many cars from the 333-unit production run will be allocated for the U.S. market. First, the cost: The 2012 GT Spyder will start at $213,350, including gas-guzzler tax. This gives it the distinction of being the most expensive R8 variant available. The nearly identical—save for the roof—GT coupe previously held that title, with a base sticker $13,200 less than the GT Spyder’s. For reference, the topless GT commands a $38,300 premium over the V-10 R8 Spyder 5.2 with the R tronic automated manual transmission.

Like the GT coupe, the Spyder is lighter and more powerful than its R8 5.2 counterpart; its V-10 engine puts out 560 hp (35 more hp than the standard R8 5.2 Spyder’s), and the whole car weighs about 100 fewer pounds. However, because the R8 Spyder is heavier than the coupe to begin with, the GT Spyder’s weight savings pretty much bring it down into non-GT coupe territory. Besides a reduction in weight, the GT Spyder gets a stiffened and lowered suspension, a larger rear diffuser, an aggressive front splitter, a fixed rear spoiler, and 19-inch wheels. It also gets Audi’s single-clutch R tronic automated manual standard, which is much less fun than the gated six-speed manual that is available in non-GT R8s. If you’re interested in snagging one of the limited-edition R8 GT Spyders for yourself, we suggest you hurry—Audi’s only sending us 50 of the 333 units slated for production.