According to recent reports, the Cadillac Escalade luxury SUV is the first on a list of United States’ most stolen vehicles. Nothing weird so far, right? I mean, it’s a nice and expensive car, thieves have all the reasons to steal it. But it’s not the case. Because it looks like, though it costs a lot money, the Escalade is one of the easiest cars to steal, due to a security flaw. Even though the ignition key has a computer chip that prevents the Escallades from being started, the car doesn’t have steering wheel interlocks, or have weak ones, so thieves can easily break a window, force the shift level out of the parking position and then just push the car away or use another car to do that. And all this, in only 14 seconds.

And apparently the Escalade is not the only one with the problem, but the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon Denali also. The good news is that Cadillac already announced stronger theft-prevention measures for the Escalade.

[Source: USA Today]

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Security flaw makes Cadillac Escalade most stolen car in the United States

Mercedes are currently working very hard on the next generation SLK and to prove that they released a set of picture with prototypes being tested in Death Valley, United States. With these photos, they also released a teaser photo with the nee SLK’s panoramic roof. Nice, but nothing spectacular so far, right? Well, Mercedes is actually very proud of this roof, because it features what they call Magic Sky Control, an option which will be available for 2,000 euro ($2,772) and which can make the roof either transparent or darkened, only by pushing a button. We’re not very good at chemistry, but Mercedes said the technology features some special particles in the glass roof which react to electrical voltage. Also, they mentioned their Death Valley testing showed that the temperature in the interior is 10 degrees Celsius lower than with traditional green glass panoramic roofs.

No official dates so far, but we’re expecting the next generation 2012 Mercedes Benz SLK to debut next year at the Detroit or Geneva motor shows, with sales starting later next year.

[Source: Mercedes Benz]

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Mercedes Benz teases next generation SLK

After 84 years of existence and about 40 million vehicles sold, on Saturday, October 31, Pontiac was officially pronounced dead. Marketed as GM’s performance division and living some glorious years in the past, Pontiac had an awful fate in the last decade, forcing GM to officially announce the company’s funeral.

Pontiac’s best years were the ’60s and the ’70s, especially after the GTO, the car that started the muscle car movement, was launched in 1964 and peaking with 1973, when 920,000 Pontiacs were sold, making it the third most sold brand in the United States. Since then, the company started going down and even though efforts were made in the ’90s and ’00s to revive it, 2009 was the year GM announced what everyone was expecting, that Pontiac will disappear by the end of 2010. And they kept their word. R.I.P. Pontiac!

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RIP Pontiac (1926-2010)

Not sure if this guy even remembers how lucky he was because he looks really wasted, but one thing’s for sure…he should build that truck driver a statue for allowing him to live another day.

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Drunk pedestrian lives to drink another day [video]