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Couple arrested after carjacked Jaguar breaks down

A couple that played musical chairs with allegedly stolen luxury cars was arrested in suburban Salt Lake City following a carjacking and police pursuit after one of the cars drove over a “stop strip” tire deflater and the other was a Jaguar suffering from mechanical problems. Police arrested Brock Hansen, 33, and Brittney Price, 23, on Sunday in Taylorsville, Utah, following the incidents, which were reported by local media and spotted by Jalopnik. They began, police say, when an officer out on patrol spotted what he suspected was a stolen BMW. The officer began to trail the car to run the license plate numbers when the BMW came to a stop to pick up a man, later identified as Hansen, who was walking on the street. The officer then continued to follow the car, was able to confirm that the BMW was, in fact, stolen, and called for backup. Police at one point used a stop stick — a triangular tube filled with tire-puncturing nails — to try and stop the duo, but Price instead made a U-turn after driving over it and continued on with a deflated tire. She eventually pulled into a gas station, where surveillance footage shows Hansen exiting the vehicle, walking over to what appears to be a Jaguar X-Type sedan whose driver was standing at the pump, climbing nonchalantly into the drivers seat and taking off, following the stolen BMW. Price eventually stopped and exited the BMW to try and get into the Jaguar but was apprehended by police after a brief foot chase and scuffle that left an officer injured, KSL-TV reported. Hansen then took off and led police on a chase — “at relatively low speeds,” according to ABC4.com — before he stopped the car and surrendered to police without a fight. Both were taken to jail. “What we learned from the owner of that Jaguar is that heÂ’s been having some issues with that Jaguar and he believes that the Jaguar just wasnÂ’t going to go anymore and was bogging down Â… so may have picked the wrong vehicle to try and run from the police in today,” Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake Sgt. Melody Gray told ABC4.

NHTSA slaps BMW with $40M fine for slow Mini recall

BMW is on the hook for a $40-million fine after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration slapped the automaker over not recalling Minis that failed to meet minimum side-impact crash standards. The civil penalty from NHTSA concerns 2014 and 2015 Mini Cooper hatchback models that "failed a crash test designed to determine whether the vehicle met crash-protection minimums," the government agency said in a press release issued this week. An October 2014 test revealed the first problem, and the Mini was subsequently retested in July, only to fail again and finally prompt a recall of more than 30,000 cars. But according to NHTSA's investigation that was opened in October, BMW waited too long to issue a recall after it knew the cars did not meet standards and bring them into compliance with more energy-absorbing materials installed by Mini dealers. This is the second time NHTSA slapped BMW with a major penalty, following a $3-million fine back in 2012 failing to report recalls of its cars and motorcycles. "For the second time in three years, BMW has been penalized for failing to meet that obligation," NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said in the release. "The company must take this opportunity to reform its procedures and its culture to put safety where it belongs: at the top of its priority list." In a separate release issued this week, BMW Group said it, "is committed to further improving its recall processes to better serve its customers," and that the company, "respects the role of NHTSA and looks forward to working with them to develop solutions for the future." National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fines BMW $40 million for failing to meet safety requirements Fine is auto company's second since 2012 WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has imposed a $40 million civil penalty and a series of performance requirements to automaker BMW North America for a series of violations of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and NHTSA regulations. Under terms of a Consent Order issued to BMW, the company acknowledges that it violated requirements to issue a timely recall of vehicles that did not comply with minimum crash protection standards, to notify owners of recalls in a timely fashion, and to provide accurate information about its recalls to NHTSA. NHTSA imposed a $3 million civil penalty to BMW in 2012 for similar violations.

Playboy reveals its 2013 Cars of the Year

Vaunted men's magazine Playboy knows that its readers are nearly as interested in cars as they are in the female anatomy... sorry, we thought we could write that with a straight face. Anyway, the buff-book does occasionally fill some of its spreads with sexy metal, to accent all the rest of the sexiness.
To wit, the magazine has unveiled its feature on the 2013 Cars of the Year. Without giving us much in the way of criteria for the awards, nor a clear framing of the categories ("Responsible Ride" is a particularly challenging concept, especially when you consider that the Mazdaspeed3 was the winner), Playboy has nevertheless highlighted what we assume to be it's favorite 12 or 13 (depending on how you count) cars from the 2013 model year.
Headlining the class is the Porsche 911, which Playboy writers single out for having "remarkable electronic voodoo." BMW M5 is named "Slickest Sports Sedan" though the Cadillac ATS then follows on because "we couldn't resist giving the new Caddy a shout-out." The rest of the picks are pretty conventional (save, perhaps, the Honda Fit EV as "Ace Electric"), even if the categories and methodology are fairly wonky. Cruise through or gallery for a taste or check out the full list, here. The site is safe for work, and you can legitimately (this time) say that you were reading it for the articles.