There are plenty of sites on the Web to help you with automotive research and car buying. There are just as many that appeal to your need for the latest automotive news and cool stories. Soon there will be an all-new site that does both, by taking the best research tools and features and combining them with the best automotive content on the Web.

 

To do this, MSN Autos has partnered with Motor Trend to create an all-new, immersive online automotive experience that will significantly change the way people look at, talk about and shop for cars – all in one place. Motor Trend content has always been popular on MSN Autos — almost 2 million people read last year’s Motor Trend Car of the Year story alone — so we’re very excited that Motor Trend Web content will be exclusively available on MSN. For 65 years, Motor Trend has set the standard for unbiased, entertaining automotive journalism of the highest quality.

 

The new site will be called Motor Trend on MSN and will replace the current offerings from MSN Autos and MotorTrend.com.  Launching in early 2014, this partnership will pair Motor Trend’s industry-leading expertise with MSN’s massive scale. The result: a powerful, trusted and entertaining autos resource designed to appeal to the automotive shopper as well as the automotive enthusiast.

 

After years of influencing automakers to integrate its iPod and iPhone devices into new cars, Apple now wants them to adopt its infotainment system. 

At the company's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday – an annual pilgrimage where Apple devotees learn what products they'll be lining up to buy in a few months – Apple unveiled a vehicle-specific feature to its new iOS 7 mobile operating system.

Called iOS in the Car, the feature integrates music, messaging, navigation and other functions from a connected Apple device straight into the dashboard. The conference marks the second year in a row where the company revealed its evolving automotive plans. 

Copenhagen, Denmark, is trying to go “carbon-neutral” by 2025, and it's taken the first step with a delivery of 15 Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cells for its municipal fleet.

How does this help Copenhagen? Well, the car – a European version of the Tucson – is powered exclusively by hydrogen, and the only thing coming out of the tailpipe is water vapor – which Hyundai morbidly pointed out in a commercial mocking suicide. More appropriately, the delivery by Hyundai Motors Europe coincided with the opening of the first hydrogen filling station in Denmark. No mention of the price of hydrogen at said station, though.

During the handover, Byung Kwon Rhim, president of Hyundai Motor Europe, said that hydrogen would be "the fuel of the future for Europe." The company has made ix35s available to European Union policy-makers in Brussels through a program called the EU Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking and wooed 100 European business reps at a special event in Berlin with test drives and product demonstrations. In May, Hyundai signed up with the U.S. Energy Department's H2USA program, which will combine government and industry forces to find ways to promote hydrogen-powered technology.

 

Chrysler is recalling 14,800 Dodge Dart sedans to fix sudden stalling, the automaker said Monday evening.

The 2013 Dart can stall shortly after being started. In company testing, Chrysler said a Dart stalled after being started in below-freezing temperatures and that Dodge dealers have reported "similar incidents." The recall affects only Dart models equipped with the optional turbocharged 1.4-liter MultiAir engine and dual-clutch automatic transmission. About 12,900 of the cars are in the United States, Chrysler said.

Dealers will reprogram the engine control unit at a later date. Dart owners can call Chrysler at 1-800-853-1403 for more information. 

Range is a constant concern when driving an electric car, although various onboard and offboard features and apps allow you to calculate just how far you can go before running out of power.

But what if you own an electric motorcycle? It’s not as if you have a free hand to fiddle with a screen or an app while balancing on two wheels.

That’s why electric motorcycle maker Brammo is offering a range calculation app for its Empulse model that can be displayed on a smartphone and mounted on the bike's handlebars for easy access. While the app allows Empulse riders to see their EV range at a glance, it also takes into consideration traffic conditions and performance data. Plus, it can even learn individual driving habits to further fine-tune range calculations.

 

For better or worse, we know what the 2014 Jeep Cherokee looks like. Now, we know how much it will cost as well: $23,990. That's the base price of $22,995 plus a $995 destination charge.

In base Sport trim, the Cherokee will retail for a few hundred bucks cheaper than the outgoing $24,320 Jeep Liberty it replaces. Plus, it comes with looks that are sure to spark conversations -- or at least get people whispering things behind your back.

Four trim levels will be available: Sport, Latitude and Limited come in two-wheel and four-wheel drive configurations; Trailhawks are four-wheel only.

Here's how the trim level pricing will break down, according to Chrysler (all prices include a $995 destination charge):

 

The U.S. government is investigating two car models for airbags that can inadvertently deploy and brake lights that can fail to switch on while stopping, according to filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

NHTSA received six complaints from owners of 2003-2004 Honda Odyssey models alleging that their front airbags deployed without warning or a crash. The agency said it received 41 additional complaints regarding illuminating air bag warning lights, although the two issues are not necessarily linked. Honda sourced its airbags from supplier TRW, which also supplied airbags for nearly 920,000 Jeep models that were recalled in November for inadvertent airbag deployment. The Odyssey's airbags contain the same electrical circuit that was prone to "overstress" in the Jeep models, the filings said. As many as 320,000 vehicles may be affected.

In December, Honda recalled 870,000 vehicles for faulty ignition interlocks that can let the autos roll away unexpectedly when parked, including the 2003-2004 Odyssey.  

For as long as new cars have been for sale, buyers have had to decide on options before they sealed the deal. Of course, they could add things later, such as new wheels, radios or other accessories, usually through the aftermarket. But making changes and additions to existing infotainment systems -- especially as cars have become more sophisticated and components have become more integrated -- is difficult, if not impossible.

Ford’s Sync system, which set a new standard in many respects when it was introduced in 2007, was the first to shift this paradigm via software updates. By downloading an update from an owner website to a USB drive and then uploading it to a Sync-equipped vehicle through its USB port, an owner who bought a car in, say, 2008, could add Sync features that were introduced in 2009 or later.

When Ford introduced the MyFord Touch system in the 2011 model year, an owner could add navigation capability later via an SD card, and earlier this year Chrysler announced that dealers could enable navigation on existing vehicles with the Uconnect Access system after the sale. But both of these involve a visit to a dealer.

The next evolutionary step in this process is over-the-air software updates that are easier and automatic. Systems like the Mercedes-Benz mbrace2 and Ram’s Uconnect Access use an embedded cellular modem to download and install software updates, and to potentially add new features in the future.