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FL man fatally shot after urging driver not to do donuts in a Mustang

Bradley Holt (pictured), the older half-brother of University of South Florida freshman quarterback Quinton Flowers, was killed in a random act of violence last week.
The 24-year-old Holt was throwing a football around with local kids in Allapattah, a neighborhood in Miami, when a yellow Mustang showed up and started doing donuts in the street. Holt, worried about kids playing in front his apartment complex, walked over to the driver and asked him why he was "driving so crazy with so many kids out here?"
The driver left. Holt's sister said the driver came back "about 15 to 20 minutes later" and fired two shots at Holt. One of them hit Holt in the back of the head, killing him.

Dodge Challenger outsold Mustang, Camaro in third quarter of 2019

The Dodge Challenger is nearly old enough to start driver's ed in some states, and it doesn't have a firm grasp on the increasingly crucial concept of downsizing, yet it beat the odds to become the most popular American two-door model during the third quarter of 2019. Its ballooning sales figures suggest buyers don't always want the latest, most advanced car they can get their hands on. Dodge sold 18,031 examples of the Challenger during the third quarter of 2019, a shocking 21% increase over the same period in 2018. It's a true muscle car, normally sardined in the same can as the Chevrolet Camaro and the Ford Mustang, a pair of smaller, nimbler two-doors that are much closer to the historic definition of a pony car. Semantics aside, the Mustang finished on the second spot of the sales podium with 16,823 sales, a 12.3% drop compared to the third quarter of 2018, and the Camaro took third with 12,275 sales, a 15% dip that alarmingly comes in the wake of two redesigns. More specific sales figures aren't available. We don't know what percentage of the sales mix V8s represent, or whether buyers prefer manual or automatic transmissions. The scoreboard looks different when we examine 2019's year-to-date figures. The Mustang takes first place with 55,365 sales, followed by the Challenger at 46,699, and the Camaro at 36,791. While the Challenger's recent ascent is encouraging, it can't mask the fact that two-door models no longer enjoy a favorable tailwind, and the entire segment — not just the American entries — is declining. The aforementioned year-to-date figures are down by 10.1, 11, and 7.6 percent, respectively. The third-quarter statistics revealed a handful of other surprises unrelated to the world of performance. Dodge notably sold three examples of the Dart, a sedan it hasn't built since 2016. That's a 93% drop compared to the 45 units that found a home during the third quarter of 2018.

Ford made three big mistakes in calculating MPG for 2013 C-Max Hybrid

It's been a rough time for the official fuel economy figures for the Ford C-Max Hybrid. When the car was released in 2012, Ford made a huge deal about how it would beat the Toyota Prius V, which was rated at 42 combined miles per gallon, 44 city and 40 highway. The Ford? 47 mpg across the board. How did Ford come to this place, where its Prius-beater turned into an also-ran? Well, after hearing customer complaints and issuing a software update in mid-2013, then discovering a real problem with the numbers last fall and then making a big announcement last week that the fuel economy ratings of six different 2013 and 2014 model year vehicles would need to be lowered, the C-Max Hybrid has ended up at 40 combined, 42 city and 37 highway. In other words, the Prius trumps it, as daily drivers of those two vehicles have known for a long time. The changes will not only affect the window sticker, but also the effect that the C-Max Hybrid (and the five other Ford vehicles that had their fuel economy figures lowered last week) have on Ford's compliance with greenhouse gas and CAFE rules for model year 2013 and 2014. How did Ford come to this place, where its Prius-beater turned into an also-ran? There are two technical answers to that question, which we've got below, as well as some context for how Ford's mistakes will play out in the bigger world of green vehicles. Let's start with Ford's second error, which is easy to do since we documented it in detail last year (the first, needing to do a software update, was also covered). The basic gist is that Ford used the general label rule (completely legally) to test the Fusion Hybrid and use those numbers to figure out how efficient the C-Max Hybrid is. That turned out to be a mistake, since the two vehicles are different enough that their numbers were not comparable, despite having the same engine, transmission and test weight, as the rules require. You can read more details here. Ford's Said Deep admitted that the TRLHP issue is completely separate from the general label error from last year. Now let's move on to last week's announcement. What's interesting is that the new recalculation of the MPG numbers – downward, of course – was caused by a completely separate issue, something called the Total Road Load Horsepower (TRLHP). Ford's Said Deep admitted to AutoblogGreen that the TRLHP issue had nothing to do with the general label error from last year.