2013 Nissan Juke NISMO: More Photos

Nissan has a new treat this Halloween: The NISMO version of its already odd-looking Juke compact crossover amps up its styling, inside and out. Some may disagree, but I think it looks more menacing than scary with its LED-accented fog lights, smoked headlights, red pinstriping and matching red-colored side mirrors. It also wears a body kit with lower front and rear bumpers, wider wings and side skirts, a unique grille and a new tailgate spoiler. Inside, the Juke is trimmed in gray and red suede and features sports seats and NISMO badges. 

Check out the gallery below; Cars.com photos by Evan Sears.

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2013 Nissan Juke NISMO at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show
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Tennessee Continues To Get Semi-Tough On Texters

The murder rate is up in Tennessee for the second year in a row but the state highway patrol has a solution: spending hundreds of dollars per hour to catch drivers who are texting.

It's been going on for a while, but Tennessee is still eighteen (or at least ten) wheels-a-rollin' against people with the temerity to send messages about ravioli and formuoli and whatnot from behind the wheel. There's some mild irony in play here: The federal government, in its eternal wisdom, doesn't much care for Tennessee's texting-and-driving law, because it isn't strict enough. The feds want the state to bust drivers who endanger lives by texting when the car is not in motion. Why that's dangerous to anyone isn't quite clear. I suppose that if you were texting while stopped and the light turned green and you missed it as a result, and the guy behind you was a top-ranking member of the Los Angeles Crips, somebody might be in danger.

The good news for daredevils who want to stare Death directly in the face is that the THP semi-truck is well-marked, including "State Highway" on the mandatory tinted-Lexan bug deflector, so if you get caught it's probably a sign that you really aren't paying enough attention to the road.

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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Subaru to Unveil Levorg Concept at Tokyo Motor Show

A new gold dawn for touring cars is upon us if Subaru is to be believed. Come November, the automaker will unveil the future of the Legacy and Outback at the Tokyo Motor Show: The Levorg.

The sport tourer concept — whose name is derived from legacy, revolution and touring — comes equipped with Subaru's next-gen EyeSight pre-crash braking system, wraparound LED headlamps, a turbocharged 1.6-liter direct-injection boxer, and other wonderful, ephemeral goodies concept cars usually receive.

The tourer (don't call it a wagon around the hipsters lest their stretched earlobes snap) has a bit of muscle in its appearance, as well, with sculpted fender flares, a slanted backside, and a round nose with an air scoop ready to direct cold air through the engine for more power.

Subaru will also unveil the Cross Sport Design Concept at the Tokyo Motor Show, a concept with a small body for better seat access and maneuvering through the tight streets of Tokyo and, perhaps in the future, a street near you.

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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2014 Cadillac CTS: Car Seat Check

Redesigned for 2014, the Cadillac CTS is a midsize luxury sedan that grabs attention on the road and in the parking lot. Thanks to its redesign, the CTS is more than 4 inches longer than the previous generation, but those additional inches don't impact the 2014 model's rear legroom. The 2014 CTS' rear legroom is 35.4 inches, which is about a half-inch smaller than the 2013 model. How does this affect car seat installation?

How many car seats fit in the second row? Two

What We Like

• There are two sets of lower Latch anchors in the outboard seats. The anchors sit in pockets in the leather, and to use them we had to angle the Latch connectors to get at them.
• The forward-facing convertible fit well in the backseat after we raised the head restraint.

What We Don't

• To fit the rear-facing infant and convertible seats in the backseat, we had to move the front passenger seat forward.
• Seat bolsters caused our high-back booster seat to sit an angle.
• The short, floppy seat belt buckles fell behind the booster seat, and these buckles can be difficult for young kids to use.

Grading Scale

A: Plenty of room for the car seat and the child; doesn't impact driver or front-passenger legroom. Easy to find and connect to Latch and tether anchors. No fit issues involving head restraint or seat contouring. Easy access to the third row.

B: Plenty of room. One fit or connection issue. Some problems accessing third row when available.

C: Marginal room. Two fit or connection issues. Difficult to access third row when available.

D: Insufficient room. Two or more fit or connection issues.

F: Does not fit or is unsafe.

About Cars.com's Car Seat Checks

Editors Jennifer Geiger and Jennifer Newman are certified child safety seat installation technicians.

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible seat and Graco TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted for a 6-foot driver and a 5-foot-8 passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver's seat, and the infant and convertible seats are installed behind the front passenger seat.

We also install the forward-facing convertible in the second row's middle seat with the booster and infant seat in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit; a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. If there's a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible.

To learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks, go here.

Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat.

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Marchionne Acknowledges Mistakes With Cherokee Launch

Acknowledging that a number of mistakes were made in the development and launch of the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne vowed to learn from those mistakes and never repeat them.

"What we've learned is that we'll never repeat it. We're never going to take a plant down and be out of the market for over a year," Marchionne told analysts in a conference call on Wednesday. In August of 2012, Chrysler shut down the body shop section of their Toledo assembly facility and spent a half billion dollars to prepare for Cherokee production. "We were just naked in 2013," in the mid-sized SUV segment after production of the Jeep Liberty ended in 2012. The Liberty had been the Jeep brand's third best seller at 75,483 units, about 5% of Chrysler's total sales volume in 2012.

Deliveries of the all new '14 Cherokee didn't start until last week, four months after production started at the Toledo Assembly Complex.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sergio Marchionne in 2011, announcing a $500 million investment to build the new Cherokee at the Toledo Assembly Complex.

The Jeep Cherokee went into production June 24, about a month later than originally planned, at Chrysler's Toledo Assembly Complex, but didn't start being delivered to dealers until last week. The new Cherokee features an all-new 9 speed automatic transmission Chrysler makes under license from ZF and a unique disconnecting rear driveshaft. Though production had started, Chrysler had apparently not completely refined the software that integrates the transmission, driveshaft and the two available engines. The engines were also first applications, new displacement versions of Chrysler's four cylinder Tigershark and six cylinder Pentastar powerplants. With all that new hardware to integrate in an all new car, Marchionne said, "We were naïve that it would be a seamless introduction."

"What made this unnecessarily unique and painful is that we were introducing a never-installed transmission," Marchionne said. He added that concerns that the new Cherokee and its transmission are too complex are "probably exaggerated," defending the new gearbox. "That transmission has all the elements that we feel are essential to our front-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive portfolio," Marchionne said, citing the fact that it will also be featured in the next generation Chrysler 200 sedan, which will launch in the second quarter of 2014.

from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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