Unlike Tiger Woods who gave in to publicly apologize for his sex scandal, The General has finally called it quits and divorced his Swedish beauty, Saab. In all fairness, GM didn't have any offspring with Saab so the financial complications weren't too bad to work out in court. It also helps when there's always someone (Spyker Cars, Dutch supercar maker) who desperately lusts after a Swede native with a good-looking behind.

Japanese cars in the years past have dominated the Consumer Reports' Top Pick Cars. So it is a nice change of pace to see more diversity this year with German and American automakers joining the list. Among the ranks are the MKVI GTI from Volkswagen, Traverse and Silverado from Chevrolet. Follow the link to read the press release from Consumer Reports.

The Automotive Recyclers Association Education Foundation (ARAEF), developer of educational programs for the automotive recycling industry, announced a collaboration agreement with I-CAR.

In a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the two organizations outlined plans for mutually promoting the level of knowledge and skills required to improve communication and educational exchanges between the recycling and repair industries.

"Our planned partnership presents an enormous range of potential benefits to the automotive recycling and collision industries," said ARAEF Managing Director Virginia Whelan. "This collaboration will undoubtedly result in new educational training tools and endeavors with tremendous potential for innovation and far-reaching benefit."

"A mutual understanding of each other's industries can go a long way in improving communications and meeting customer expectations," said Jamie Jacobs, I-CAR Instructional Designer. "This agreement between the ARAEF and I-CAR is a big step forward toward this goal, and provides a commitment from both industries to continuing education with regard to the considerations for recycled parts usage during collision repairs."

The ARA Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization formed to research and develop learning materials for automotive recyclers. The ARAEF is the founder of the ARA University, an online training platform for the automotive recycling industry.

Source: Collisionweek (requires login)

Since the Humvee first reported for duty decades ago, all branches of our military have changed their BDUs more than once. It is now time for the Humvee to retire (and for China to play catch-up with its pending purchase of Hummer).

The Humvee's replacement, BAE Systems M-ATV is the right choice for the modern warfare. It's designed for the tough terrain of Afghanistan and sports a camouflage of what looks like 8-bit graphic from a Nintendo NES game. The M-ATV is equipped with a fully independent suspension, turbocharged V8 diesel, a powered weapons ring turret on the roof, and the all-important blast-dispersing V-hull bottom.

Some of the specs:

* Commercial turbo charged V8 diesel engine
* Top speed of 80 mph
* Best-in-class fuel economy
* Fully independent suspension (offers better mobility than traditional MRAPs, which have straight axle systems)
* Can generate 20 kilowatts of exportable power for mission equipment.

AAA Auto Salvage joined force with Lehman's Garage to bring Christmas joy to a deserving Minnesotan family this past holidays. We donated the entire front clip (retail value of $2,000) for this Impala. AAA is proud to be a part of this wonderfull effort, working together with automotive service partners for the good of the community. Below is the gallery of this event. Follow the link to read Automotive Service Association's press release.