Brian’s homemade oil cooler may have looked crude, but it cut his oil change time in half.

Source: You Drive What?

Denis Leary said it best when he said: “Happiness comes in small doses folks. It’s a cigarette butt, or a chocolate chip cookie or a five second orgasm. You come, you smoke the butt, you eat the cookie you go to sleep wake up and go back to fucking work the next morning, THAT’S IT! End of fucking list!” … and God Damn if that isn’t that truth.

I threw that up because a car guys happiness is measured in much the same way… take this preview of the upcoming Tanner Foust video where he rapes Mullholland Drive! Man I can’t wait for march.

Remember years ago when “Limited” numbers meant that it was going to be produced in small quantities? Nowadays every company out there produces a “Limited Edition” something or other. Automotive manufacturers are notorious for this. Take the current crop of “Limited Edition” vehicles for the 2010-2011 model year.

Beautiful paint, nice drop.

Chris Roberts sent in pics of his one-of-a-kind Scion Xb. Tasteful on the outside in pearlescent Lamborghini blue and black paint, it’s the interior that sets this Xb apart.

Scheduled to debut next to the refreshed 2010 Volvo C70 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the new Volvo C30 R Design is a unique combination of upcoming trends and everything. Ford has done little to conceal their displeasure with Volvo’s market performance, yet they fail to take any substantial action to reverse the downward trend. Unlike the R badging of the 90’s and early 00’s, the new R-Design is nothing more than a sporty package designed to capture the attention of the flighty, easily-distracted younger demographic.

Last week we let loose the full fury of Detroit’s budget-minded tire-melter, the last of the F-Body Camaros, onto a hapless, unprepared internet. So we’re going to dial it back this week. You won’t have to worry about all of those cylinders, or that pesky rear wheel drive, or whether there was a Corvette motor under the hood or not. Today’s Rust-bait won’t bother you with any of those confusing options or trim packages … this baby only does things one way, and if you don’t like it, tough luck. Join us as we pick apart the Scion tC in this week’s Rust or Lust.

This Week’s Car: the 2004+ Scion tC

If you grew up in the occidental hemisphere, you probably have no idea what an “Avensis” is. That’s a good thing – the Avensis was kind of like Kate Moss – hardly there. Why anyone bought them, I dunno. But when Toyota was looking to add to the Scion stable a sporty coupe to round out their lineup of frumpy peoplemovers, they looked through the corporate parts bin … and decided that the Avensis platform would be a good place to start. We’ll assume they had their reasons.

Scion tC: One Of 25 Winners

A study by automotive consulting company AutoPacific turns out some interesting results about TRUE customer satisfaction. It is one thing to say that a new car performs satisfactorily for your own use, but according to the results of this survey, a vehicle has to perform in all sorts of other ways for a customer to feel comfortable recommending the car to their friends.

It makes sense. If you are going to recommend a car to a friend, you’d better REALLY like it. There aren’t many ways that would be more effective in turning a friendship sour than someone close to you resenting your automotive input into their new car. The top vote-getters in 25 categories are listed below.

Scion unveiled the iQ concept today at the New York Auto Show, which really wasn’t that surprising. Ever since its European debut, we’ve been expecting the iQ’s arrival as a competitor in the super-ultra-compact market against the Smart ForTwo. However, what was surprising was the modifications Scion had done to the Concept model–including extra-wide fender flares and fat 18” wheels.

Just like the production car, the iQ concept features an asymmetrical 3 + 1 seating arrangement, with the front passenger’s seat positioned just far enough in front of the rear passenger’s so as to allow actual human beings to sit inside comfortably. But Scion (being an undisputed driver’s car, of course) makes no compromises from the driver’s seat, so the left rear seat is suitable only for amputees, and possibly a buddhist and an indian, provided they are meditating or sitting, respectively.

The Concept also showed a handy new safety feature–a rear window airbag–for those in the back sitting (or praying) whose heads are butted up against the window wondering, “Are we there yet?”

There were also special lights and a crunk 10” pop up LCD display embedded in the dash.

While we doubt very seriously the best features of the Concept car will make it to production, we’d be even more surprised if Scion’s little toe-dip into the U.S. market here didn’t result in a production model for North America.

Check the Press Release after the jump for the complete run-down.

Suzuki's X90 is rolling in its grave as we speak.

Our top secret South Korean correspondent is reporting that Kia may actually produce the Soul’ster concept, leading us to consider whether the already genre-bending box can do double duty as a coupe-convertible too.

Limited Edition 2009 Scion xB

Toyota has announced pricing for the 2010 xB and to the joy of  its fans, and consternation of the emerging “boxy” car maket, the newest ”urban utility vehicle” from Scion will maintain last years pricing.  But wait, there’s more!