What if the black box in your new car becomes a tool to invade your privacy? What if, on the other hand, it winds up saving your life after an accident?

Those are some of the questions being raised this week over black box data event recorders in cars. Privacy advocates worried on Thursday that the data could be misused. Safety advocates argued on Friday that a watered-down version of the recorders would slow safety innovations.

In the former camp is the Electronic Frontier Foundation and this scenario: The friend you loaned your BMW to decides to create his own ultimate driving experience, and your insurance rises because of his 120 mph freeway jaunt.

San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (their motto: Defending your rights in the digital world) is concerned because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to make black box event data recorders mandatory for all cars.

Nate Cardozo, staff attorney for Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that the black...

Martyn Donaldson leans hard against the hulking 1948 Tucker 48 and rolls it out of his small restoration shop in Pacoima.

Although the color on its build sheet is listed as maroon, the midafternoon sun reveals a metallic luster in the showroom quality paint job. Electric raspberry, Donaldson calls it.

This Tucker 48, just the third in a total run of 51, has spent the better part of three years at Donaldson's shop. The Tucker expert thoroughly restored the car's engine and electrical system, and installed a new transmission and interior. Before it arrived in Pacoima, the Tucker's chrome and body were restored to original specifications at a shop in nearby Sun Valley.

Photos: Rare 1948 Tucker 48 "Torpedo" headed to auction

Now that this 48 is as fresh as it was when it rolled out of the Tucker factory in Chicago in 1948, it will head to Amelia Island, Fla. RM Auctions announced Thursday that it will put the car on the auction block at its Amelia event March 9. The company estimates...

It is like having a “booth babe” come out of the print advertisement. 

Overseas, Toyota has used a cross-dresser to sex up its advertising. Now the Japanese automaker, known for its conservative cars, is leveraging Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue published Tuesday and smartphone technology to juice up the advertising for its new Lexus IS here in the U.S.

In a print ad it calls “Blend Out,” Toyota said it cast three swimsuit models to pose with the Lexus IS and “camouflaged the models within the scene — actually making them part of the set design.”

Readers can use smartphones to scan a QR code on the ad so that “when they place their phones on the page, the models come to life, walking out from the background and revealing themselves in their swimsuits.”

The QR code triggers a video of the sexy models cavorting next to the new IS. The viewer can slide the phone to the next model in the advertisement and see her...

Supporters of green-car technology like hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric cars say they were happy to hear that automakers like Ford and Honda are expanding the number of dealerships who can sell those cars.

Honda's 2013 Honda Fit EV, launched in California and Oregon in July, will be added to dealerships in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New York and New Jersey. Ford Motor Co. is accelerating dealership certification for its plug-in electrified vehicles from 200 to 900 dealers.

Kirk Brown, managing director of Plug In America, said the expanded expertise is needed both to encourage prospective buyers and to help support new owners over the learning curve required to get the most out of their purchase.

"There has been an upside-down notion that EVs and plug-in hybrids should easily sell as well as conventional cars," Brown said. "And there's an assumption that the dealership network is as well educated about them as they are about conventional cars."

In fact, it isn't that...

Lexus, Porsche, Toyota and Lincoln had the best records in the 2013 J.D Power and Associates vehicle dependability study.

In good news for car owners, the study found that overall, cars are becoming more reliable. Other top scorers included Buick, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Acura.

Land Rover scored the worst, with owners of its vehicles reporting problems at more than three times the rate of Lexus. The Dodge brand was the second worst and Mitsubishi third worst.  Other poor scorers included Jeep, Volkswagen and Jaguar.

The study measures the number of problems owners have experienced over the last 12 months in cars purchased during the 2010 model year.

Overall, the cars experienced an average of 126 problems per hundred vehicles. That was a decline from 132 the previous model year and the lowest average since J.D. Power launched the study in 1989.

“It is great news for consumers,” said Raffi Festekjian, J.D. Power’s director of automotive global research operations....

One list has four sports cars and six trucks. The other list has nine small vehicles and one sedan. You don't need to be a "Jeopardy!" contestant to figure out which list is for men and which list is for women.

Edmunds.com found this out when it compiled top-10 lists of the vehicles in the Los Angeles area with the highest percentages of male and female ownership. Using new-vehicle registrations for 2012, the website was able to determine which cars and trucks were most likely to be owned by men and women.

The data aren't perfect, Edmunds points out. Because the lists were gleaned from registrations, a husband registering his wife's car in his name would be counted as a "male car." But the information isn't a sample, and includes all vehicles registered in L.A. in 2012.

Photos: L.A.'s vehicles most likely to be owned by men and women

The data reveal some interesting tidbits.

The car most likely to be registered to a man? The Chevrolet Corvette, then in its final year of production...

McLaren is just weeks away from unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show full details on its next P1 supercar. While we'll have to wait until then to learn of the car's powertrain, we've already seen the exterior up close. Now McLaren is giving us a look at the interior.

The automaker released a trio of images of the inside of the million-dollar-plus supercar. Like the chassis and exterior body panels, the minimalist interior is largely constructed from carbon fiber to save weight. McLaren said the entire car is expected to weigh less than 2,900 pounds.

Thus, the material will be used in the dashboard, floor, headliner and doors. The company said the final layer of resin on these panels has been removed for a natural look -- and a whopping 3.3 pounds of weight savings.

Photos: McLaren's all-new million-dollar P1 supercar

The seatbacks will also have thin carbon fiber shells, McLaren said. Their angle will be fixed and the seats' height will be individually set for each customer. Owners looking...

Honda and Ford are expanding the reach of their green car offerings to U.S. consumers.

Honda's 2013 Honda Fit EV, the electric vehicle first launched in California and Oregon in July 2012, will be added to select East Coast dealerships in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New York and New Jersey.

Customers will be able to lease the Fit EV, which has an EPA estimated range of 82 miles, for three years at a cost of $389 per month.

"Expanding the availability of the ultra-efficient Fit EV to the East Coast is the next logical step in Honda's strategic and customer-focused approach to growing the market for low-CO2, sustainable mobility technologies," said Steve Center, vice president of the American Honda Environmental Business Development Office.

Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Co. is accelerating dealership certification for the sale of its plug-in electrified vehicles to 900 dealers across the U.S.

That's sharply up from just 200 dealerships in November. The 900 dealers represent about...