Teen Allegedly Crashes Audi S4 at 155mph, Police Supposedly Find Video Evidence on Youtube

According to a report from 'Channel 3000', a Middleton High School teenager driving an Audi S4 was involved in an accident that occurred earlier this month on a highway south of Verona. While there's nothing surprising about that, here's where the story gets interesting. It is reported that before the crash, the youngster was going 155mph or 250km/h and that one of the passengers recorded his 'accomplishments' on video which he then uploaded on Youtube.

The report goes on to say that the video was discovered by the police and that the authorities are "consulting with the district attorney about additional charges - possibly reckless endangerment because passengers were in the vehicle."

Truth is, we're kind of cautious about the details. For one, it is said that no one was injured during the crash - something that we find extremely hard to believe if the accident happened at a speed even remotely close to 155mph.

Furthermore, the video on Youtube shown here is not the original, it was uploaded by another user claiming that the original had been removed. We also checked the press releases from Dane County Sheriff's department and the Dane County Government, but didn't find anything on the specific crash/incident. We're not saying it didn't happen this way, but we'd like to see something more official before we make any conclusions.

Source: Channel3000 , Via: Jalopnik

NYPD Introduces Nissan Altima Hybrid Police Cars

The boys in blue are going green in New York as the police department announced it will replace 40 of its squad cars with Nissan Altima Hybrids. They're the first gas-electric hybrids to be used as regular patrol cars by the largest police department in the U.S. The 40 hybrid vehicles -18 marked and 22 unmarked- will be used in patrol precincts and other units in all five boroughs of the city.

At $25,391 per vehicle, the Altima hybrids cost about $1,500 more than the conventional Impala. However, due to the fact that the hybrids return 35mpg for city driving compared to the Chevy's 16mpg, NY Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that they will cover the difference in a short period of time.

"These new patrol cars will help fulfill the PlaNYC goal of reducing City government's carbon footprint," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Through savings in fuel, these Altimas can quickly cover their additional cost, from then they will save taxpayers money – another example of how going green is good for our environment and our pocketbooks."

New York City officials said that after a after a year of monitoring the Altima Hybrids performance the Department will determine whether or not to further expand them into the fleet.

Photo: NYC

Opel Astra OPC Limited Edition Black - No Pun Intended

You may think that we're horsing around with the controversial subject of the AVUS Audi RS6 Avant, but honestly, we're not. Now, what you seen in these photos is not an official model from the German automaker but a cool initiative from an Opel dealer in the Netherlands that decided to create a blacked out version of the Astra OPC Nurburgring Edition. Aside from the black matte finish, the modified Astra OPC also features a carbon-fiber-like finish for the hood and rooftop and dark alloy wheels.

There aren't any changes under the bonnet with the OPC retaining the stock 2.0-liter turbo engine that cranks out 240 horsepower launching the sporty hatch from zero to 100 km/h (62mph) in 6.4 seconds and to a top speed of 244 km/h or 151mph. As with the standard OPC, the front-wheel drive model comes with a six-speed manual gearbox.

Via: Autoblog.nl

By the Numbers: Chrysler LLC vs Fiat Group

So now that the alliance deal between Chrysler LLC and Fiat S.p.A. has been sealed, let's take a quick look at some of the numbers concerning the two companies starting off from sales and their corresponding market shares. In 2008, the Fiat Group that includes the Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Iveco, Maserati and Ferrari brands sold around 2.4 million vehicles compared to 2.0 million units of Chrysler LLC that consists of the Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge brands. The Chrysler-Fiat combination is the world's sixth- largest by vehicle sales, behind Ford Motor Co.

Surprisingly, even though Fiat sold only 20 percent more cars than its American counterpart, it has more than triple the number of employees according to the data provided by the two companies (Fiat: 180,227 employees at the end of December 2007, Chrysler: 54,007 employees at the end of December 2008).

As for regional market shares, North America aside where Chrysler dominates with 11.3 percent of the market compared to Fiat's or shall we say, Maserati's and Ferrari's combined 0.1 percent share, the Italians are better everywhere else.

	FIAT GROUP	CHRYSLER LLC
Worldwide Sales	2.4 Million	2.0 Million
North American Market Share	0.10%	11.30%
South American Market Share	19.10%	0.70%
European Market Share	7.60%	0.50%
Distribution	190 Countries	125 Countries
Worldwide Employees	185,227 (12/07)	54,007 (12/08)

Manufacturing Facilities Chrysler LLC: Overall, the Chrysler group operates twelve assembly, five engine, six stamping and seven transmission / casting / machining / axle plants (January 2009)

Manufacturing Facilities Fiat S.p.A.: Fiat has manufacturing operations in Italy (five plants), Poland (one plant), Brazil (two plants) and Argentina (one plant). Manufacturing also is performed through either joint ventures or licensing agreements in Italy (three), France (one), Turkey (one), India (one), Russia (one), Serbia (one) and Hungary (one).

Data: Fiat S.p.A and Chrysler LLC

General Motors' April Sales Down 34 Percent, Inventories Drop 10 Percent

Like FoMoCo, General Motors' car sales in April were slightly better than the previous months of the year, with the automaker delivering 173,007 vehicles in the U.S. which is a 34 percent drop over the same month a year ago but up 11 percent or about 16,600 units when compared to March, 2009. GM also revealed that its inventories dropped to around 742,000 vehicles at the end of April, down about 82,000 vehicles (or 10 percent) compared with last year.

Last week, the American automaker announced that it would shut down 13 of its factories for multiple weeks to lower production by approximately 190,000 vehicles through the early part of the third quarter in order to reduce inventories to an expected level of about 525,000 vehicles by the end of July.