2012 Nissan Leaf Includes Additional Equipment, Costs More Money, and Has Expanded Availability

The 2012 Nissan Leaf will be available soon in more markets than it was for its launch year, and all Leafs are now more winter-ready with the addition of newly standard cold-weather equipment.

The Nissan Leaf first launched in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, and now the electric hatchback will be available in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Nissan plans to further expand Leaf availability to Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York by the fall. Finally, by the end of 2011, the company will offer customers in Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island the chance to own a Leaf.

Primarily for owners in the chillier new markets, a battery warmer, heated steering wheel, and heated front and rear seats are standard kit for the 2012 Leaf—even those sold in the arid Southwest. Nissan also is making DC fast-charge ports standard equipment for Leaf SL models after finding that most customers chose the $700 option. The new standard equipment does drive up the price of the Leaf considerably: the entry-level SV now costs $36,050 before any tax incentives—a $2420 increase compared to the 2011 SV. The uplevel SL’s price swells by $3530 to $38,100 before any give-backs.

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Mini Commissions the One-Off “Red Mudder” To Raise Money for AIDS Charity

May 23, 2011 at 3:29pm by Alexander Stoklosa

While it might look like Canada’s latest national rally car, the Mini Cooper S “Red Mudder” is actually a factory-commissioned one-off. The minuscule dirt plugger was presented at this week’s Life Ball event, an annual fundraiser for AIDS-fighting projects. This is the 11th time Mini has prepared a special vehicle for the event; past Life Ball galas have seen Minis warmed over by designers such as Donatella Versace and Diesel. A Canadian design firm called DSQUARED2 designed the Red Mudder, which explains the massive maple leaf festooned on each side of the vehicle.

The Red Mudder has been “armed for adventures of all kinds” with the addition of a front brush guard with four driving lamps, a raised suspension, knobby tires, and a hatch-mounted spare. We’re likely not alone on this, but the Red Mudder’s setup looks like a good start to an awesome special-edition Cooper S off-roader. Are you listening, Mini?

Tags: Mini, Mini Cooper, Mini Cooper S |

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Farewell, Time. Goodbye, Money. Hello, Rust: We Review the New eBay Motors App

“Dammit Johnson! Stop being useful! Now I’m looking at 914s! [expletive redacted]”

We received the preceding note in an e-mail from contributor Sam Smith while waiting in the Hell Line at our local DMV office. The impetus for Mr. Smith’s consternation? (Besides the fact that he’d recently become involved in a multi-party vintage Alfa Romeo project-car purchase?) The new eBay Motors iPhone app, from which we’d alerted him of what seems like a pretty nice ‘70 1.7-liter example of Ferry’s first bastard child. We also found the above “PORSCHE”-emblazoned brassiere, certainly a boon for one lucky bidder.

As a mirror site, the Motors app is of course part dealership, part obscure-parts emporium and part dream-fodder. Unlike the site, it loads quickly and is a breeze to navigate. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s much more fun to use, which, depending on the state of one’s pocketbook, could be a rather dangerous thing. Bonus? The only unfortunate HTML pops up in the sellers’ descriptions of their wares, often accenting the unintentional hilarity of their listings. Said descriptions are hidden by default.

While the app lacks some of the site’s useful features—searches can’t be pre-filtered by “Lighting & Lamps” within a parts-search inquiry, for example—if you know exactly the piece you’re searching for, some prudently-worded searches should produce the results you’re after. You can, however, add your car to your “My Vehicles” garage simply by scanning its VIN barcode using your phone’s camera. Brokedown luddites, without UPC-encoded vehicles, will have to  to enter theirs old fashioned way. (You know, by tapping on the glass of a futuristic communications device.) Once a vehicle is added to the garage, you can ask the app to search for only those parts that work with your whip.

Naturally, it’s also a snap to share a listing with friends and easily distracted coworkers, whilst you both suffering through meetings. Perhaps our favorite feature, though, is the opening-screen slide show. When the app first launches, you’re presented with a parade of items selected specially for you, based on previous searches and items you’ve checked out. We’re wondering if, with use, said cavalcade of exotica will devolve into an endless stream of Wartburgs, gray-market Lada Nivas, barely-salvage-grade 308 GT4s, ‘70s personal-luxury coupes, and 917K-replica balsa shift knobs. We rather hope so.

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