This past weekend saw many of us expressing our love to those we hold hear for Valentine’s day but, while those gestures were primarily between couples, one automaker went above and beyond, reuniting a few guys with their childhood crush.
Four friends from New Zealand, Will Radford, Jeremy Wells, Anthony Dawson and James Shatwell, pulled money together while they were at university to purchase a 1957 Series 1 Land Rover Defender. The “Landy” became a fifth member of the group, taking the boys on numerous adventures across the rugged wilderness of both New Zealand and young adulthood. Time caught up with the aging Defender, however, sadly seeing it relegated to languish inoperable in a shed.
The quartet attempted a few restoration attempts, but as marriage and family priorities grew, the young men decided to say goodbye, listing it for sale on a used car site.
Amazingly, a team from Land Rover new Zealand discovered the post, buying the car anonymously, and conspiring with Will’s wife Claire to restore it to original condition.
From there, the team took the busted vintage Defender and got to work rebuilding the chassis, engine, and just about everything else. They even replaced the original stickers that accumulated on the car over the years. What wasn’t changed were the bangs and dents the Landy had picked up along its adventures, giving the car its distinct character.
Land Rover then carefully arranged for a Valentine’s day surprise for the four adventurers that they’ll never forget. All this is made even more poignant as the Defender goes out of production this year, with every one made until now directly descending from Landy’s generation.
Sort of makes that goofy card and box of Godiva chocolate you gave/received a little weak, doesn’t?
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.