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Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Zombie cars roundup: Dodge has sold 3 new Vipers this year

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.

Infiniti's QX Sport Inspiration is still attractive, in Paris, and now gray

Yes, crossovers tend to be boring. But this one is pretty! Then we remember it's going to turn into the front-drive-based QX50, so we automatically lose some interest. But the wheels will be driven by Infiniti's new VC-Turbo engine, which is kind of exciting! And for the 2016 Paris show, those wheels are bigger – 22-inchers in place of the 21s that the QX Sport Inspiration concept debuted with in Beijing earlier this year. (It's hard to tell a difference in the photos, but you can bet the imaginary ride of this concept will suffer, imaginarily.) The 22s are also painted bronze now along with the brake calipers, and the whole vehicle gets a coat of matte gray paint to replace the silver it was originally shown with. There's also some new brown leather in the previously very black and white interior. It's still pretty black and white, actually. Then there's the variable-compression-ratio VC-Turbo engine that will power the production QX50. We're getting a better look at this 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo in cutaway form at the Paris show, and it continues to fascinate. It's a pretty neat thing, with a movable stroke position that allows it to vary the compression ratio between 8:1 for performance and 14:1 for efficiency (when the turbo isn't needed). That might not sound terribly cool, but it's a pretty big step forward in the march of efficient power. So yeah, crossovers can be boring, but at least this concept and the production car that will soon follow it have a few things going for them. Related Video: Featured Gallery Infiniti QX Sport Inspiration: Paris 2016 View 12 Photos Related Gallery Infiniti QX Sport Concept Related Gallery Infiniti QX Sport Inspiration concept for Paris View 10 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / Autoblog Paris Motor Show Infiniti Crossover Concept Cars Luxury 2016 paris motor show infiniti qx sport inspiration concept