The Car Tech blog

Fisker Automotive took a prototype of its planned $80,000 electric sedan for a spin on a track in California, giving gawkers the first first look of the luxury sedan in action.

The photos, which were thought to be "spy photos," were actually taken by the company's PR firm and distributed to the media, according to published reports.

The Fisker Karma luxury electric sedan. Click on the image to see photos of a prototype on a test track.

(Credit: Fisker Automotive)

In any case, the photos show the Karma, a plug-in hybrid sedan that Fisker says it will deliver in the fourth quarter this year, manufacturing 15,000 a year.

Fisker is now embroiled in a legal suit with its rival Tesla Motors, another luxury electric car maker. Tesla has accused Fisker of stealing car designs and trade secrets. CEO Henrik Fisker called the suit "nonsense."

Tesla opened up its first showroom earlier this month and is taking orders for its two-door Roadster. It plans to make an electric luxury sedan, called the Whitestar, as well.

Fisker first unveiled the Karma at the North American International Auto Show in January. Click here for a video of the Karma at the Auto Show.

The car is being designed to go 50 miles on its batteries before recharging. An on-board generator, which charges the battery, runs on a liquid fuel.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

The TomTom One 130 and TomTom One 130S mark a new beginning for the company's line of basic GPS. You still get TomTom's hallmark ease of use and community features, but the portable navigation systems now boast more compact designs as well as a new vehicle mount that can be easily and neatly stowed away with the device. The One 130S also includes text-to-speech functionality, which is nice to see in an entry-level device, and it's reasonably priced at $249.95. However, during our road tests, we discovered that the speaker volume on the One 130S is incredibly low, and we could barely hear the voice prompts. And if you can't hear the directions, what's the point of the GPS? It's truly unfortunate since the TomTom ONE 130S is an otherwise solid navigation system for first-time buyers.

Read the TomTom One 130S review.

Click here to see our photos.

While some concept cars look as if they come from a future that never will be, others represent cars that will actually go into production. We've gathered the most realistic concept cars from the last auto show season to see how the near future will look.

Click here for photos of concept cars that could or will enter production.

(Credit: Crave Asia)

What do you get when you decide that a bicycle needs only one main wheel while declaring that the seat and handles are useless? You get the Magic Wheel, which functions like a foot scooter but looks a little like an Andy Warhol installation.

We first spotted this odd conveyance while on our way to lunch, and our initial thought was that this was a little late for an April Fool's joke. But shockingly, we found out it's an actual product.

Despite its unusual design, the distributor claims that it takes only a couple of hours to master the Magic Wheel. At $229 a piece, it costs as much as a full-fledged mountain bike and a lot more than a skate scooter. Though it doesn't look as irritating (or deadly) as Heelys and takes up less space than a bicycle, we'd rather take a pair of rollerblades anytime.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Fiat's massive advertisement shows off the minuscule 500.

(Credit: Fiat)

Last year Fiat built a mammoth version of its new Fiat 500 mini car for the Frankfurt auto show, and now, in a fit of more size-conscious advertising, Fiat put up a mammoth advertising display for the tiny car in Berlin. This giant display is 3,100 square feet per side, and it is set up near Checkpoint Charlie, the former Berlin wall gate between West and East Germany. The cool feature of this advertising monument is that you can text it. According to Fiat, if you send a text to 84000 with the password Fiat 500, the message will scroll across a 65-foot display on the sign. We imagine Fiat censors the messages, but it's a good chance to brush up on your German.

Click the image to read the full review.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

With the Brisbane SD48, Blaupunkt is proving that it can make car stereos for the digital age. As a testament to the migration of mobile music from CDs to digital files, the system features an SD-card slot, a USB port, an auxiliary input jack, but no disc player.

Check out our full review right here.

Supercar Life maintains a stable of exotics for track driving.

(Credit: Supercar Life)

Today and tomorrow, some lucky people are driving a set of supercars, including a Ferrari F430, a Lamborghini Gallardo, and a Porsche Turbo 997, around the Auto Club Speedway track in Fontana, Calif. To get this lucky, all you have to do is pony up $4,990 to Supercar Life, a company with a fleet of very fast cars that it uses to host track events. The company provides professional instruction to the drivers, taking the morning of the event day to show them how to drive on the track. During the afternoon, the clients take the wheel.

For people who want to pilot some very expensive cars, and don't mind being confined to public roads, there's Club Sportiva, a company that offers timeshares on a garage full of cars. Club Sportiva offers memberships beginning at $3,500, for 12 days a year, and a garage that includes a Maserati Quattroporte, Lotus Elise, and a Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Among the higher-priced echelon of radar detectors, the Beltronics Pro RX65 includes solid features and easy user programming, along with demonstrated threat detection. Its interface choices range from a simple warning to a highly technical frequency display. While its simple three button interface is easy to use, its volume control leaves something to be desired.

Read the review.

Hyundai brings its cars upscale, starting with the Genesis sedan.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

Microsoft and the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group announced today an agreement to put Microsoft's Automotive Platform, the technology behind the Ford Sync system, into Hyundai and Kia cars by 2010. Ford Sync lets users integrate MP3 players and cell phones with their cars, allowing for hands-free calling and voice-command music selection. There are no details yet about what features will be offered, but we can expect similar functionality to Ford Sync, along with anything else Microsoft can come up with in time for the assembly line. Hyundai Kia has been pushing hard over the last few years to go upscale, with the upcoming Hyundai Genesis luxury sedan being hotly anticipated. At this year's New York auto show, Kia showed off its first use of a GPS system, in the Borrego.

We spoke with Martin Thall, head of general manager of Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit, about the deal. He emphasized that the current announcement only covers the strategic partnership, and doesn't detail which models might carry the new system, or even how Hyundai Kia will brand it. Mr. Thall stated that Microsoft is interested in developing a strong speech experience with its automotive platform, and looks to a future where the platform becomes the head unit in vehicles. He also suggested that automakers are looking for low-cost navigation, and said one solution might be using dashboard left/right indicator lights for route ... Read more

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)

BMW's announcement of the 135i hit us like Pavlov's bell, the one he used to make his dog salivate. Once we got into the 2008 BMW 135i Coupe, all of our expectations were met, and more. BMW threw its best engine into its smallest car, leading to impressive acceleration for a car in this price range. But don't expect BMW engineers to content themselves with this simple concept; no, they tuned the car appropriately, such as making sure its tires would hold the road while being turned by 3-liter, twin-turbocharged power.

You usually have to pay for fast cars with poor gas mileage, but the 135i doesn't extract that penalty. Instead, the price you pay is a smallish back seat. We can live with that. BMW also makes its raft of cabin tech options available in the 135i, including navigation displayed on a pop-up LCD, Bluetooth cell phone integration with voice command, and a premium stereo system.

Read the review.