We obsessively cover the auto industry…

Not having the luxury of speaking proper Spanish, we should be at a loss when it comes to the video embedded down below. Fortunately, any language barrier that would otherwise be blocking our understanding is torn down by a language we all speak fluently: a love of cars.

In this case, the car in question is a bright red Ferrari F430 Spider, which is following what appears to be a Renault Twingo somewhere in the Canary Islands. Though the screaming sounds like it's coming from a girl, some internet sleuthing tells us it's actually a young boy who's screaming like, well, a girl.

In any case, we all get a little too excited every now and then, so we're inclined to cut the kid some slack... though we'd hate to think what might happen the first time he lays eyes on a Prancing Horse that's a bit more exotic, say, an Enzo or something. We can already feel our ears bleeding.

Scroll down below to see for yourself.

It appears that the World Rally Championship has lost another key player. After word that Mini is leaving WRC comes news that Ford is pulling out as well. While Mini's departure was rooted in its tenuous relationship with Prodrive, Ford's exit from the sport is tied to the poor economic climate in Europe.

According to a statement from Ford of Europe's VP of Marketing, Sales and Service, Roeland de Waard, "Ford has a long and proud history in the WRC and this was not an easy decision." He continued, "At this time, however, we determined that it was better for the company and the Ford brand to reduce our commitment to the WRC and deploy our resources in other areas."

While Ford's factory backing might be out, the rally masters at M-Sport were running the Ford team up until this news and plan to stay on with the Fiesta WRC in the years to come. The racing outfit, run by Malcolm Wilson, has achieved 52 wins and 208 podium finishes in the 16 seasons that it has been racing with Ford. The M-Sport boss voiced his gratitude toward the relationship with the automaker saying, "I would like to thank Ford of Europe for their enthusiastic support and the faith shown in the team over the past 16 seasons. We understand that tough decisions have had to be made to safeguard Ford jobs."

M-Sport has run Ford's factory team since 1997, and is talking with Ford to receive support in the form of vehicles and engineering. The extent of that support remains to be seen, and it is unknown if Ford will return to WRC if economic conditions in Europe improve.

After a long and bumpy road, battery-producer A123 Systems has officially filed for bankruptcy. This news comes immediately after word that the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company may not have enough cash to fund operations, or even seek bankruptcy protection. This news has ramifications elsewhere in the industry, as A123 had contracts with Fisker Automotive as well as with BMW.

In a press release issued this morning, A123 announced that it will sell off all automotive assets to Johnson Controls. A123 will file Chapter 11, while Johnson Controls will provide $72.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing. The aim of the financing is to support A123 while it attempts to pursue alternative business operations.

To anyone following the battery maker closely, this news should not come as a shock. It was estimated that A123 lost about $67 million dealing with a battery recall for the Fisker Karma. In May of this year, the company posted a $125 million net loss. Shares for A123 have fallen 85 percent this year as the company has posted 14 straight quarterly losses.

With news of the bankruptcy, it wouldn't be surprising if A123 were be brought up in tonight's presidential debate. A123 received $249 million in federal grant money in 2009. The company also received $100,000 in 2006 under the Bush Administration, and additional tax exemptions and credits during Mitt Romney's time as a Massachusetts governor, so this issue has many sides.

For Fisker, the issue at hand is finding a new battery supplier. Johnson Controls has had previous hybrid ventures and continues to explore lithium-ion batteries. This could be an opportunity for the Milwaukee-based company to expand that part of its business, perhaps replacing A123 as Fisker's battery supplier.

When the Progressive International Motorcycle Show decided it wanted to build some buzz for its upcoming show, it knew that the "chicks on bikes" formula had already been played out. However, turning models (in this case, extraordinarily talented yogi-models) into the motorcycle hadn't ever been done before.

A brainstorming session along those lines led to a completely original photo shoot, wherein a group of artists and athlete models created some very wild images. In the video here, you'll see the full story of how the concept became a reality. Note that there are some slightly NSFW moments here – the models are naked after all, though artfully obscured with body paint.

Look Who Just Raised The Bar In The Compact Entry-Level Luxury Segment



We first slid behind the wheel of the Buick Verano, the American automaker's entrant in the $25,000 compact luxury segment, one year ago in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest. After motoring through scenic Oregon, we boarded our flight back home quite impressed with the small four-door. In our First Drive review, we mentioned that the General Motors offering had "exceeded our expectations" and that its combination of features and appointments "made a compelling argument for itself."

Our one gripe, however, was aimed at the Verano's standard naturally aspirated (NA) four-cylinder engine. With 180 horsepower and 171 pound-feet of torque, we found its performance rather lethargic in the 3,300-pound sedan. As we noted, "The power from the 2.4-liter was adequate, but much of its steam was lost above legal speeds when attempting two-lane passing maneuvers."

For 2013, Buick has handily addressed the power deficit by fitting its sedan with GM's turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder – an action that packs another 70 horses under the hood. Of course, there were other upgrades and enhancements to accompany the additional muscle.

We just spent a day in the heart of the Bluegrass State, on the other side of the country, putting the 2013 Buick Verano Turbo through its paces. Fall is a near-perfect time to visit Kentucky, and the Buick proved to be an excellent companion for touring the land of horses, tobacco and those wonderful bourbon distilleries.

After dealing with flailing global economies, numerous recalls and safety allegations and then the depleted inventory from the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Experian Automotive says that Toyota is finally back on top when it comes to consumer loyalty in the US. Toyota edged out General Motors and Ford Motor Company to grab this loyalty crown for the first time since the third quarter of 2009.

The metric for this title was determined by owners of a vehicle choosing from the same corporate automaker for their next vehicle purchase. For Toyota, this means that 47.3 percent of its current customers will purchase a Scion, Lexus or Toyota model as their next car compared to 46.2 percent for GM and 46 percent for Ford. Honda and Hyundai rounded out the top five in this list.

In terms of individual brand loyalty – when buyers come back to the same brand – Ford took the spot in this category with 44.7 percent of buyers returning to the Ford showroom for their next purchase, including six cars in the top 10 for overall loyalty. Ford Fusion customers are the most loyal with 59.9 percent buying another Ford, but Flex, Edge, Five Hundred, Escape and Fiesta are all in the top 10. Oddly enough, the top vehicle among brand loyalty was the Chevrolet Sonic (which has only been on the market for less than a year – we're not sure what to make of that...) with 60.3 percent of its buyers trading in for another Chevy product.

Other interesting facts to note from Experian Automotive's study include the median age of vehicles has increased from 9.8 years up to 10.8 years since 2008, indicating that people are keeping their cars for an extra year before trading them in. Besides Toyota, Chrysler was the only automaker listed as having increased its market share and vehicle purchases in the second quarter of this year.

Scroll down for Experian's press release or click here for the informative infographic in PDF form.

The Nissan DeltaWing is set to tackle the American Le Mans Series as a fully classified car for 2013. That means the odd-looking racer will be eligible for points starting next year, but we won't have to wait until the new season kicks off to see the machine on North American soil. As we've previously heard, the DeltaWing will run in this weekend's Petit Le Mans competition unclassified as a factory entry. Nissan campaigned its racer in a similar fashion at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. IMSA plans to collect data on the DeltaWing at the upcoming race at Road Atlanta in order to craft a set of rules for the race car.

Organizers should have no shortage of information to analyze. Petit Le Mans is a 10-hour slog that covers 1,000 miles in 2.54-mile laps of Road Atlanta. This weekend's race kicks off at 11:30 AM EST on October 21.

TomTom has released its congestion index for the second quarter of 2012, and Istanbul, Turkey took the dubious honor of being the most congested city in Europe. With a rating of 57 percent, the city suffers from more than double the average congestion of the rest of the continent. Warsaw, Poland came in second with a 47-percent rating, though morning peak traffic sees that number swell to 93 percent. Marseille, France, Palermo and Rome, Italy round out the top five.

But TomTom didn't just put an eye on Europe. The navigation company also turned its analysis on North America.

Not surprisingly, Los Angeles walked away with the top slot with a rating of 34 percent. Vancouver, Canada came in at just one percent behind LA, while San Francisco took the bronze. Montreal and Toronto filled out the North American top five this go around. You can head over to the TomTom site for a closer look at the breakdown as well as the company's methodology.

Ford has issued a recall for a segment of 2011 to 2013 model year Fiesta subcompacts that concerns improper deployment of the side curtain airbags. Cars recalled were manufactured between November 3, 2009 and September 21, 2012 – 154,604 units in total.

The Fiesta models affected by the recall will not deploy their side curtain airbags, which cover both front and rear passengers, during a side impact collision if the front passenger seat is empty. This means occupants in the rear on the passenger side won't be protected by the side airbag in a collision if the front passenger seat is empty. These side curtain airbags were actually designed not to deploy in a scenario where the front passenger seat was empty (why that is is unclear), but that information was not properly presented to Fiesta owners in the manual.

Ford is currently notifying Fiesta owners whose vehicles are covered under this recall, and reprogramming the vehicle software to allow the side curtain airbags to deploy during the aforementioned side impact situations.

Just how important are all the luxury touches of a Lincoln compared to a Ford? They'd better be worth a two-miles-per-gallon penalty, since that's what buyers will be hit with if they choose the MKZ Hybrid over the 47-mpg Fusion Hybrid. Ford announced today that the MKZ Hybrid has been certified by the EPA to get 45 mpg in the city, 45 mpg on the highway and 45 mpg combined.

Granted, 45 mpg does put the MKZ into the top-of-its-class fuel economy range, beating the Lexus ES Hybrid by five mpg combined and delivering "more miles per gallon than any luxury vehicle in America." The MKZ Hybrid is also available for the same price as the non-hybrid model. The more efficient 2.0-liter, four-cylinder automatic MKZ gets 26 combined mpg, 22 in the city and 33 on the highway. The MKZ Hybrid will go on sale later this year and the press release is available below.

The Glickenhaus team is hard at work on its Ferrari P4/5 Competizione. The machine was recently spotted getting a thorough thrashing around Imola, and YouTube user Marchettino was kind enough to grab a few clips of the terror in action.

Last we heard, Glickenhaus was considering using the machine for competition in the LMP1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014. That ambition will require more than a few sponsors, and Glickenhaus has cautioned that nothing is set in stone as of yet. Even so, it's encouraging to see the P4/5 Competizione hammering some tarmac.

The machine makes use of a 4.0-liter Ferrari-derived V8 engine good for around 500 horsepower, though a new KERS system developed by Magneti Marelli serves up a bit of additional thrust. Sounds like fun, but will it be good enough to tangle with the rest of the LMP1 class? We can't wait to find out. You can check out the Glickenhaus Ferrari P4/5 Competizione in the video below.

In August, Lexus held its Unleash the LFA contest on Facebook, with the winner getting to spend the day in its LFA supercar (at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, no less), receive track instructions from pro driver Scott Pruett and also win a three-day High Performance Driving Experience at Skip Barber Racing School. In a random selection, Mark Clemons of Culver City, California was the lucky winner, and on September 18, he collected his prize.

After warming up with some autocross action in a Lexus IS F and getting some instruction about Laguna Seca, Clemons was let loose on the challenging 11-turn track with the 552-horsepower LFA. Then it was Pruett's turn behind the wheel, and he proceeds to give Clemons the ride of his life, something that almost almost goes without saying.

Scroll down to watch the video where there's plenty of great footage showing Clemons piloting and riding as a passenger in the LFA at the legendary track.

Nissan has created a new system to help reduce the likelihood of pedal misapplication. Called the Emergency Assist for Pedal Misapplication with Carpark Detection Function (catchy, huh?), the technology uses a version of the company's ingenious Around View monitor to detect if the vehicle is in a parking space. If so and there are solid object such as other vehicles or walls near by, the vehicle's cameras will automatically control acceleration and apply the brakes to prevent a collision if inappropriate throttle use is detected. Nissan showed a similar – and presumably related – technology last year dubbed Acceleration Suppression For Pedal Misapplication, but the Elgrand figures to be the first production application of this unintended-acceleration-combating technology. Currently, the technology is slated to debut on an updated version of the Nissan Elgrand minivan in Japan.

We wouldn't be surprised to see the system show up in other markets and on other members of the family soon, including the company's gadget-happy Infiniti line. Nissan says Emergency Assist for Pedal Misapplication is part of the company's Vision Zero goal, which aims to reduce traffic deaths by countering threats at every stage of a potential accident. For more information, scroll down to watch a video showing Acceleration Suppression For Pedal Misapplication in action, and while you're there, check out the press release.