Cars are a lot of things, but “biodegradable” isn’t one of them. Not that car makers haven’t been trying for years: ever since “biodegradable” became a buzz word in the mid-90s, they’ve been doing their best to design a car that will eventually rot away, instead of being unearthed by future civilizations and mistaken for a coffin or something.

Of course, they didn’t go quite as far as the Phoenix, here…

Made entirely out of bamboo, rattan, nylon and a little steel, the Phoenix was built in ten days and is designed to, well, rot eventually. In fact, the skin of the car (i.e., the bamboo part) is only designed to last five to ten years, which is about how long people hang onto cars.

Naturally, a new skin can be attached to the car.

Needless to say, this hasn’t been put through any sort of crash test, which would be our first question if somebody tried to sell us a wicker car: in fact, it doesn’t even have a motor in it yet. It’s been entered in a design competition and mostly exists as just a concept.

But, hey, it looks neat, and it sure beats some of the terrible designs you see at auto shows, anyway.

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LoJack put out its most recent report on who’s stealing what and where they’re stealing it, and, once again, everybody’s favorite Japanese import brand, Honda, tops the list, with the 2000 Honda Accord disappearing the most from parking lots and garages across the nation. But don’t think there isn’t enough jacking action for everybody, what other cars made the thieves’ most wanted?

Mostly, unsurprisingly, the Japanese. The “winners”, so to speak are:

Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Toyota Camry
Acura Integra
Cadillac Escalade (wait, still?)
Toyota Corolla
Dodge Ram (a new addition to the list, and a little surprising)
Nissan Altima
Nissan Maxima (also new, and proving thieves have no taste)
Chevy Tahoe

Ah, but that’s only half the story! What states have the highest car crime, which will be latched onto by idiot Internet commenters to prove various political points which this has nothing whatsoever to do with?

California
Texas
Florida
New York
Massachusetts
New Jersey
Arizona
Maryland
Georgia
Nevada

Fun fact: this list is virtually unchanged from last year. Nobody fell off the list, and only Georgia and Nevada switched spots.

The moral of the story? Don’t take your Honda with you to the Golden State, or it’ll be stolen. They’ve got subprime mortgages to pay, dontcha know.

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Whether it’s a zippy Tesla Roadster or a sedate Nissan Leaf, all electric cars have the same problem: range. You’ve got to plug them in and charge them up, and if you’re running low on charge, you’ve got to get back home fast before the power runs out.

But, it turns out that if you’re too far away from home to recharge, power can come from an unlikely place: your local RV park.

If you know the specifications of RVs, especially ones designed to be lived in for a while, it makes more sense: your typical Winnebago is a power hog, and needs a dedicated electrical hookup, just like a house, in order to operate properly. It turns out that those power hookups are also ideal for charging up your EV.

Keep in mind you’ll pay for the privilege, although not the cost of a tank of gas, and not all RV parks offer this service. Also, you’ll be there for four hours or so, so we hope you brought your laptop, or possibly a book, to keep yourself busy while you wait. Still, it’s cheaper than a tow and can save you a lot of money, or at the very least frustration. A good trick to know, as EVs become more common.

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Car salesman have a richly earned reputation as scumbags, especially used car salesmen. Heck, used car salesmen being little more than weasels in cheap suits is practically an American icon. We even have movies like “The Goods” and “Used Cars” celebrating what douchebags these guys are.

But that kind of becomes less funny once you discover they’re using the same financial scams that wrecked the economy…and so far, they’re politically immune.

The report on common scams and fraudulent behavior comes courtesy of The Center for Public Integrity, and it’s an important one anybody shopping for a vehicle should read.

To give you an idea of how bad it is, one salesman in the article relates that his boss told him that “if you can’t f*** your family you have no business working here.” Remember those subprime home loans that destroyed the economy? They do the same thing with car loans. That low, low financing rate? The salesman jacked it up a few percentage points and uses it as a kickback. There’s literally an account of one of these guys ripping off a little old lady on her trade-in and overcharging her for a car by $5000.

Finally, an important lesson: if you sign a contract for a car, drive it off the lot, and then get a call that your financing fell through, treat it like a scam, because it probably is one. Return the car, get your trade-in, and get out. Turns out, not being able to trust a car dealer isn’t so funny, after all.

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Electric vehicles are starting to catch on with automakers, especially since the millionth Prius rolled out in the U.S. The Nissan Leaf, aimed squarely at urban drivers who don’t need a lot of range, is showing promise and more electrics are aimed squarely at that market, especially with gas hitting $4 a gallon and threatening to cross the $5 barrier.

Including Audi’s e-tron, which has a big advantage…and a big disadvantage.

First, the disadvantage: at 130 horsepower, this is no drag racer or otherwise remotely impressive, taking eleven seconds to get up to 60 miles per hour. This was rather obviously not designed to impress anybody except those looking to save some serious money on gas: it’s entirely battery powered.

On the other hand, the charging time is one of the fastest for a plug-in hybrid we’ve seen. With the special 400-volt charger, the e-tron can be fully charged in four hours. But if you don’t want to shell out for a special charger and just want to plug it into the wall, that will run a painful…oh, wait, it’s nine hours.

Audi was smart with this. It’s a commuter car. Plug it in when you get home, make dinner, get some sleep, then drive to work in the morning. We think Audi’s going to see a lot of green with this.

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Want to hear something funny?

China has vehicle safety standards! No, really! The same country that gave us the Chery Amulet, a car that crumples like a tin can at forty miles an hour during impact tests! There are cars they won’t accept!

In this case, the Jeep Wrangler, because it keeps catching on fire for some reason.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine can’t do their job with products made within China, apparently, but they can with imported products. They claim to have received several reports of imported Wranglers catching fire thanks to faulty automatic transmissions. So, until Chrysler fixes the problem, no Jeep Wranglers can be imported into China.

Could this actually be a problem? Maybe. Companies have a long record of offloading defective products on countries with low consumer quality standards, and China fits that bill. On the other hand, China also has a long history of punishing companies it doesn’t like, or that some state sponsored body is about to flagrantly rip off, by claiming their products are terrible and keeping them out of China’s market. Considering this is the first we’ve heard of Wranglers catching fire, we’ll withhold any opinion until more information becomes available.

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There are literally thousands of different types of cars on the road, each with different systems and different safety features in different places. Normally, all this means is you sometimes need to find a specialized mechanic, but if you’re in a car wreck, it could be the difference between being pulled from the wreckage unharmed or pulled from the wreckage dead.

Fortunately, thanks to Bohemian Innovation, there’s an app for that.

No, seriously. It’s an app. Called “Extraction Zones”, it’s designed to show rescue personnel the simplest, most direct way to use the Jaws of Life to pry accident victims out of their wrecked vehicles. Working with a professional extraction company, the app shows the location of all vehicle systems and safety features so that firemen know where to cut.

It sounds a bit over-the-top and unnecessary, but the truth is, cutting in the wrong place is extremely risky. While there’s no substitute for your being a safe driver (something to think about the next time you blow off a speed limit sign), this will go a long way towards saving lives.

But, uh, let’s hurry up and get it on more platforms, guys. We don’t want to count on our firefighters all owning iPhones.

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We’re used to seeing some absolutely wild stuff. Car companies really can’t think of an idea so outlandish they won’t at least try it out on a concept before packing it in, whether it’s jet engines or bodies made out of bamboo.

So, when we say BMW is creating a transmission that uses GPS signals, topography, current speed, and other data to choose the precise and correct gear in an eight-speed transmission, you probably think it’s just another wacky idea.

Nope. BMW wants it in cars within the decade.

The technology alone is pretty incredible. It’s not just designed to automatically select the best speed: it’s designed to anticipate the road. For example, it can sense that there’s a curve ahead, the angle of the curve, and the grade of the curve, combine that with the speed you’re going, and shift into the proper gear, all without breaking a sweat.

If that sounds like a dream come true, well, it is. BMW’s been working on this system for years. Why? Safety. Keep in mind that they’re in Germany, a country noted for driving like maniacs (and if you think otherwise, hit the Autobahn at 3pm on a weekend and see what you think then). This technology will reduce crashes and save lives.

Oh, and also give BMW a huge advantage in all those races it participates in, but that wasn’t a deciding factor at all.

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We hate ugly rims as much as the next guy, but as far as we know, they’re street legal in every state in the nation. Unless, apparently, the police arbitrarily decide they’re not, if you live in Ohio.

The Cincinnati police have apparently been pulling over cars, ordering the driver and passengers out of the car, and then towing it to an impound lot, where the owner can expect to pay a hefty $800 fee that includes a required inspection fee. That is, you pay the nice state of Ohio for riffling through your car without a warrant, your being there, or any sort of oversight whatsoever. Oh, and they also give your car a mechanical inspection.

Who’s being subjected to this treatment? Anybody with fancy rims. The police claim it’s because oversized rims could kill somebody, which would be a totally legitimate fear if true…the problem being it hasn’t actually happened yet as far as we’re aware, and also we couldn’t find anything in the laws of Ohio about rims in the first place, so basically they’re towing the cars because they feel like it.

That and the fact that a police spokeswoman suddenly got all cagey when asked whether the owners of the car could remove their personal belongings before it got towed makes us think something shady is going on in Cinci. We’ll keep an eye on this as it unfolds.

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Yes, we know Toyota recently held a vote and insists the plural of “Prius” is “Prii”. We’re pretty sure 4Chan was involved in that one.

Anyway, as you might have guessed, the original green status symbol and butt of thousands of jokes by cranky old people who don’t get why the kids care so much about that durned global warming Glenn Beck told them was fake is officially grown up, selling a big-boy 1 million cars as of April 5th. So what’s next?

According to Toyota’s press release, just keep on keepin’ on. The Prius has sold three million cars globally, with two million of those sold in 2010. It’s consistently stayed at the top of the hybrid charts, which is a bit like saying you totally dominated the Children’s section of the Billboard charts, but hey, a sale is a sale.

Granted, it took eleven years to sell three million of these cars, for most of that decade your choice was a Prius or nothing if you wanted a hybrid, and the competition in this arena is finally starting to pick up a bit, meaning the Prius is finally facing a challenge. But it’s coming from a position of strength.

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