We obsessively cover the auto industry

If you live in Fort Collins, Colorado, congratulations, your city is the safest driving city in the nation, according to Allstate. In its seventh-annual Allstate America's Best Drivers Report, the company determined that Fort Collins residents can expect to be in a collision once every 14 years. That's 28.6 percent better than the national average of once every 10 years.

This is the second year running that Fort Collins has made the top spot, an honor city officials say is thanks to their residents' care on the roads. Allstate started the survey to increase awareness of road safety, the company said. Click past the jump to see the full press release. To see where your city ranks, head to www.allstatenewsroom.com

It's a big deal when the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety honors a vehicle with a Top Safety Pick designation, and now the 2012 Audi A6 and 2012 Volkswagen Passat can join the big deal club. The IIHS gave both VW Group vehicles the award after they received top scores in stringent front, side and rear impact testing. Both vehicles also feature electronic stability control; a must for any Top Safety Pick winner.

The last check mark any Top Pick needs is a top score in roof strength testing. Top Safety Picks need a roof that can withstand the pressure of four times the overall vehicle weight, and the IIHS says that the A6 can withstand 4.9 times its weight, while the Passat can withstand 6.3 times its weight. Hit the jump to read over the IIHS press release.

Yes, it's resemblance to the Porsche Cayenne may be cunning, but what you're looking at here is the "world's first Super-SUV," created by British carmaker Eterniti Motors. It's bulgy and aggressive-looking, but we just can't shake the fact that this is clearly a Cayenne ripoff. Still, we like the Cayenne, so how bad the Eterniti creation be?

Called the Hemera, the Eterniti Motors sport-ute will allegedly go into production at the end of 2012. It will be hand-built in London, and will feature amenities like power rear reclining seats, iPads and a drink chiller for rear passengers – part of what Eterniti calls the Hemera's "limousine-like" cabin. Powertrain details are unknown as of this writing, but Eterniti states that the Hemera will produce 620 horsepower, have four-wheel drive and will reach a top speed of over 180 miles per hour.

We'll get the full story on the Hemera next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show. In the meantime, hit the jump for Eterniti's press release, and be sure to check out the Hemera from a few angles in our attached high-res image gallery.

Volkswagen created the Fun Theory two years ago, but the idea has maintained a bit of momentum. The basic premise of the theory revolves around examining if people will do the right thing, if that thing is made a bit more fun. Nevena Stojanovic from Serbia came up with a new way to put the Fun Theory to use when she devised a way to make young passengers more likely to wear their seatbelts.

It's a simple idea, but a rather smart one. Stojanovic proposed that rear-seat entertainment systems fail to operate unless the car senses that the seatbelt has been inserted. If a kid wants to get his Yo Gabba Gabba fix, then he or she needs to buckle up. The entire concept is so basic that we're kind of surprised no automaker has put this into practice yet.

Click past the jump to learn more about the Nevena Stojanovic's idea, and how it relates to the VW Fun Theory.

We'll go ahead and say it, America needs a Type R Honda. Badly. We're not getting one though, so we'll have to live vicariously through the rest of the world. The United Kingdom in particular has us especially jealous due to the healthy Honda and Mugen relationship it so enjoys. To rub a bit of salt in the red H badge-shaped wound, Mugen has announced a new hotted-up version of the Type R Civic.

Mugen had produced a 2.0-liter Type R variant in 2010, of which just 20 were built. Now Mugen is back with a new version powered by a turbocharged 2.2-liter four-cylinder motor, which produces 256 horsepower and nearly 180 pound-feet of torque. Add in the upgraded suspension bits, brakes and aero kit, and you have a Civic that is built to perform.

Mugen is still working out how many 2.2-liter Type R coupes it plans to produce. Of the 20 cars from 2010, four still remain, and it's possible that Mugen will upfit those with the 2.2-liter engine. Also, Mugen is considering an upgrade plan for owners of the 2.0-liter car. It's all being worked out, and, although we'll most likely never see a version Stateside, we're eager to hear what Mugen decides to do.

Audi has been racking up motorsports wins all over the world thanks to its R8 LMS track star. The GT3 racer has compiled over 100 victories in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. Now it's time for the four-ringed race car to earn a few checkered flags in North America, as Audi has announced that it is bringing the R8 LMS Stateside to run in the Grand-Am series.

If you're the owner of a racing team here in the U.S., now is the time to get excited. Audi will sell you a Grand-Am-ready R8 LMS, and offer support through its Audi Sport customer racing group. The R8 LMS will make its U.S. debut at the 50th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Principles of racing teams, click past the jump to read the full press release. OK fine, even if you don't own a race team, you can still read it.

Go to the British Grand Prix and the local fans will be cheering on their hometown heroes Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. At the Australian Grand Prix they'll cheer for Mark Webber. In Spain they pull for Fernando Alonso. In Germany, it's showtime for Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. Not every country with a Formula One race is represented on the grid as well, but India will be when the F1 circus rolls into town in late October.

The subcontinent has only had a couple of F1 drivers in its history with Karun Chandhok and Narain Karthikeyan, both of whom have achieved limited success. Chandhok contested a handful of grands prix for HRT last season and one for Lotus earlier this year, but has failed to score a single point.

Meanwhile Karthikeyan scored his only points at the controversial 2005 United States Grand Prix, where he drove for Jordan. After returning with HRT earlier this season, Narain was replaced by Red Bull's Australian protégé Daniel Ricciardo a few races ago. However it's now being reported that HRT will put Karthikeyan back in the driver's seat to race in front of his home crowd for the inaugural Indian Grand Prix five races from now.

Of course HRT and Karthikeyan will have to vie for fans' loyalty against the Force India team, which currently stands at seventh place in the constructors' standings, behind Renault and Sauber and ahead of Toro Rosso and Williams.

Do you happen to be a gamer? Are you also a car fanatic? If that's the case, Electronic Arts has a message for you: We still have Porsche.

As we reported a short while ago, Electronic Arts happens to hold the licensing agreement to include cars and trucks from Porsche in its video games. Competitors routinely get permission from EA to include Porsche vehicles in their own games, but when Turn 10, makers of the Forza series, contacted EA in regards to the 35 Porsche models it planned to include in Forza Motorsport 4, EA declined.

That means there will be no Porsche 911, no Cayman and no Boxster in Forza 4. Not a Cayenne or Panamera to be found. It's a sad day for Porschophiles who prefer the Forza franchise over Need for Speed.

Apparently not content to leave well enough alone, Electronic Arts has uploaded a new video to YouTube showing real in-game footage of the 2012 Porsche 911 Carerra S in its latest game, Need for Speed: The Run. A none-too-subtle jab at Forza, no? Check out the video after the break.

Thanks to all manner of spy shots, we know that Cadillac is hard at work perfecting its upcoming ATS sedan. The machine, which will slot in below the current CTS in the automaker's lineup, is rumored to be headed to market with a 2013 model-year designation, and, if that's the case, it could very well be hitting dealers in the fall of 2012.

GM head honcho Mark Reuss recently spent some time behind the wheel of a preproduction ATS sedan, and he brought along a video crew to commemorate the event. Naturally, Reuss had plenty to say about the car in the resulting two-minute video, calling it "a soul for Cadillac in this segment that we haven't had before."

Besides the commentary, you'll be able to witness a few bits and pieces of the car, both inside and out, that offer another perspective from what we've already seen in spy photos. See for yourself in the video after the break. Warning, it autoplays.

Turns out that Car and Driver was wrong about Kia's upcoming rear-wheel-drive concept for Frankfurt being called the Veredus. The pulp and ink mag itself stumbled upon a bevy of newly leaked images showing Kia's four-door coupe concept, and lo and behold, one of them reveals what this car will actually be called: GT.

One of the images is a nice elevated rear 3/4 shot that shows a decorative license plate bearing the "GT" moniker. The new photos also reveal more of the car's design than we could tell from the aggressively cropped set that Kia distributed last month. Also included are the first views of this concept's interior, which appears simply executed with high-end materials and a driver-oriented cockpit, but nowhere near realistic enough to be ready for production.

Check out all of the new Kia GT concept images in our gallery.

According to The Detroit News, The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration has closed its investigation into 2.7 million Ford pickups for fuel tank straps that may have rusted and failed. Affected models included 1997-2001 F-150, 1997 to 1999 F-250 and 2002 to 2003 Lincoln Blackwood trucks.

A total of 339 complaints were received from Ford and NHTSA, of which there have been nine confirmed cases of straps so deteriorated that the fuel tank completely dislodged and fell to the ground, with many more cases involving at least one failed strap. It seems that road salt and other chemicals used to melt snow and ice were blamed for the corrosion.

In response, Ford issued a recall that covered 1.1 million trucks that were operated in cold-weather states. That action was good enough for government work, says NHTSA, so the case has hereby been closed.

Sergio Marchionne, the man in charge of both Fiat and Chrysler, has been named... the man in charge of both Fiat and Chrysler. Marchionne currently wears the CEO title for both automakers, and now he has officially been crowned as Chrysler's chairman. Besides a nice addition to his resumé, this move consolidates Marchionne's dual roles into an official position as the all-encompassing leader he already is.

Marchionne still has big plans for both brands, and one of his goals is to turn two into one. Fiat and Chrysler will eventually become one massive automaker, as the Italian company continues to gobble up more of an ownership stake in the American company. Right now, Fiat owns 53.5 percent of Chrysler, but that figure should rise to nearly 60 percent by the end of the year.

Normally our response to something called a Merdad Mehron GT would be "The what what?" Having seen it, however, our response is: "That's hot." The British tuning firm that normally occupies itself turning Porsche Cayennes into hot, swollen messes has looked homeward and out of nowhere done a bang-up job with the McLaren MP4-12C. As impressive as McLaren's offering is out of the box, to our eye, Merdad has made it better.

It has done so with a body kit that beefs up the svelte lines of the standard car. Up front is a new splitter with cues from the Ferrari 360 and GT by Citroën. Along the sides, gone are the twin gills, replaced by a single, massive vent that elegantly separates a fine front form flowing into a meaty business end. In back are new vents and color-cued diffusers and provide the type of rear end you'd expect from the house of the F1.

Merdad hasn't said much about it, but rumor is that we'll see it next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and it will be released next year along with a GT3 version. We should find out at Frankfurt what's been done to the cabin and, more importantly, what's been done to the powerplant. We can't wait.