Ford cites a strong housing market, a stronger economy and pent-up demand as reasons why truck sales have been so strong. Ford is also adding 2,000 jobs to its Kansas City plant in response to this optimism.

The tips here are mostly obvious, but it’s always good to be reminded on ways to save gas. One to consider is keeping heavy stuff out of your car. Check your trunk and you might be surprised what’s been sitting in there for months.

On January 23, 2000, a famed American football player, Derrick Thomas, lost control of his 1999 Chevy Suburban on a main road that was covered with snow and ice, and the car rolled. His friend, Michael D. Tellis, was declared dead at the scene, while Thomas died two weeks after from a pulmonary embolism.

Thomas’ mother initiated a lawsuit against General Motors, claiming that flaws of the Surburban’s design were at fault. In 2004, a jury declared the Thomas family to be due no money. Neither Thomas nor Tellis had been wearing seatbelts, while a third passenger, John C. Hagebusch, had used a seatbelt and suffered only minor injuries. Witnesses attested that Thomas had been driving excessively fast and weaving between traffic.

While the SUV was surely clearly not at fault in this instance, it caused “SUV” and “safety” to be mentioned in the same sentence. The scandal of the tyres of the Ford Explorer SUV from 2000 to 2002 was firmer cause for concern over the safety of SUVs. People came to believe that SUVs were unsafe, which is something anyone contemplating which are the best SUVs will wish to settle conclusively.

The Safest SUV

The Ford Ranger, arguably the safest SUV around

It can be strongly argued that the Ford Ranger is the safest SUV. It made motoring history when it received a five star rating from both the European New Car Assessment Programme and the Australian New Car Assessment Programme. A Ford Ranger review by Motoring will provide full details.

The Safety of SUVs

Figures released by the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) showed that large and mid-size SUVs are safer than regular cars. An SUV’s size and weight entail that any car with which one collides will probably be more at risk. Car makers have greatly changed SUV design, making the centre of gravity lower. Some safety features are as desirable in SUVs as in any car, but three are particularly useful.

Rollovers, and One Way to Prevent Them

According to another US body, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in excess of 10,000 people – over a third of fatalities – die yearly from rollover-related crashes, and most occur in SUVs. Technology, however, has improved this, and the fatality rate of SUVs has fallen by two thirds in the space of a decade.

Electronic stability systems can prevent some of the circumstances that cause rollovers by applying anti-lock brakes when control of the SUV is lost. The IIHS reported that these can reduce the risk of rollover by as much as 75 percent. Manufacturers proliferated this safety feature even before the US government made it compulsory in all vehicles for models built from 2012 onwards.

Rollover Prevention Systems

Dedicated rollover prevention systems are also available. These are widely considered to be the Holy Grail of SUV safety. They detect an impending rollover and trigger the electronic stability system to avoid the prospect.

Side Curtain Airbags

Side curtain airbags deploy downwards from the ceiling to cover side windows. While other vehicles are more likely to strike the doors of an SUV, these airbags protect occupants in the event of a rollover over several rolls. To be worthwhile, the airbags should be designed to deploy during a rollover, and the third row of seats should also be protected, if one is present.

Anyone wishing their SUV to be safe should ensure that the SUV they purchase possesses these features.

This video shows the beauty of the new Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid. We’re seeing more and more luxury and performance hybrids, so this one will get plenty of attention.

Check out this video and you’ll see the next innovation that will shake up the auto industry. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids are driving up fuel mileage, along with more efficient gasoline engines. But now by incorporating compressed air technology into the formula, we have a new source for clean power.

If you’re looking for a hybrid with superior mileage per gallon, then compressed air may be your thing. PSA Peugeot Citroen says its new C3 VTi 82 hatchback–which it unveils at a motor show next month–will go 81 miles, in optimum conditions. That’s compared to the Toyota Prius’s roughly 45 mile performance. And there’s no need for expensive, and heavy, lithium batteries. The compressed air system provides power as well as storage: as with other hybrids, it recovers energy from a gasoline engine when you brake or slow down.

Check out the video and this article and you’ll be amazed.

I’ve been off road on a Ford Raptor with a professional driver and it’s fun as hell, so I can really appreciate this cool video.

Hat tip: Guys Gab

Check out this gallery of Death Race 3 cars from Bullz-Eye.com who was on location in South Africa for the filling of the third installment in the Death Race series. The car pictured about is Frankenstein’s Monster.

Porsche had a great year in 2012, and the new 911 Carrera S in the video above was one of the drivers of the sales growth.

Here’s a cool video from the passenger seat of a Ford Mustang FR500 at the New Orleans Motorsport Track doing a hot lap around the track with a professional driver at the wheel.

We’re now in an era where Super Bowl ads debut online instead of during the game, so I guess that’s one of many reasons why Mercedes chose the beautiful and incredibly popular Kate Upton to star in its new ad for the Mercedes CLA. Many have commented, however, that the ad is rather boring. Yes, Kate looks great as usual, but is this the best they could come up with for the CLA, which looks like an impressive vehicle?