LAS VEGAS -- About three months ago, officials at Toyota’s Scion brand handed a 2013 Scion FR-S and a check for $15,000 to three custom-car builders and told them to come up with something special.

It was a pretty simple idea. The designs, though, are anything but simple.

Scion revealed the winner of the $10,000 Tuner Challenge this week at the Specialty Equipment Market Assn. trade show.

Photos: Highlights from the 2012 SEMA Show

The winner, built by Chris Basselgia of Lebanon, Pa., was named Minty FReSh because of its unique paint job. The FR-S has a customized sleek body with a molded duck bill spoiler, smoked headlights and race mirrors. The interior of the car was designed in a root beer-colored distressed leather and black ostrich.

One of the runners-up is Daniel Song of Orange County and his FR-S GT. The all-black Batmobile-esque car is covered in a carbon fiber wrap and fitted with a custom wide body kit and large rear spoiler. The interior is completely gutted to give the...

Hurricane Sandy blew away tens of thousands of auto sales and destroyed an undetermined number of cars. After expressing the appropriate sympathy for the victims of this week’s disaster, the industry is now jumping on the opportunity to sell those victims new cars.

General Motors Co. and Nissan North America’s Nissan and Infiniti brands all plan to offer special incentives and discounts for buyers of new vehicles in regions battered by the storm. More automakers are expected to follow.

GM, for example, is offering $500 toward a purchase or lease, on top of existing incentives, to people living in a federally designated disaster area. They must have proof of an insurance claim. The automaker said it considered the discount as a way to help victims offset their insurance deductibles.

Nissan and Infiniti are extending employee discount pricing and financing to disaster victims.

Automakers are announcing the deals as they post their monthly sales totals for October. The industry...

Subaru's latest will have two engine choices. The base will be the same 2.5-liter Boxer engine that's in current models. It's good for 170 horsepower and 174 pound-feet of torque and will be paired with either a six-speed manual transmission or a CVT.

Meanwhile, an all-new 2.0-liter turbocharged engine with direct injection will be optional, and is expected to crank out a healthy 250 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. This model, seen below, comes with one transmission option: a CVT with a manual mode simulating six or eight speeds.

Both models keep the outgoing Forester's all-wheel drive, 8.7 inches of ground clearance and basic exterior dimensions. Subaru gave the SUV a more rugged face with sharper angles than its predeccesor. Turbo models get a slightly different front bumper and larger, more aggressive wheels.

Inside, Subaru says...

LAS VEGAS -- Over at the Ford booth, with scores of people milling about, sits a dazzling copper 1940 Ford coupe made by the six-man crew at Hollywood Hot Rods in Burbank.

The classic car was built from entirely from scratch and has spent the last six months appearing at auto shows from coast to coast and in Canada. Its last stop is at the Las Vegas Convention Center at the Specialty Equipment Market Assn. trade show.

The thing is: The coupe was driven to each event. That’s a rarity in a world in which showpiece cars are treated as gently as Faberge eggs. In all, the roadster has more than 16,000 miles on it.

Photos: Highlights from the 2012 SEMA Show

“It never saw a tow truck, not one,” said Troy Ladd, Hollywood Hot Rod’s 43-year-old founder. “That’s pretty crazy for an untested car.”

The hot rod features a 430 hp Coyote 5.0 crate engine, nicknamed the “Coyote,” and a four-speed transmission. The all-new reproduction steel body...

Auto sales posted another good month in October, with business strong enough early in the month to overcome sales lost to Hurricane Sandy over the last week.

Chrysler Group said its U.S. sales rose 10% to 126,185 vehicles compared to the same period a year earlier. It was Chrysler’s best sales total since 2007.

General Motors Co. also reported its highest October sales since 2007, with deliveries up 5% to 195,764 vehicles.  Passenger car sales grew the fastest of any of auto segment.

“GM had a solid October in a month that was marked by a devastating national tragedy,” said Kurt McNeil, vice president, U.S. sales operations.  “All of us at GM are deeply saddened by the loss of life and the extensive damage caused by the storms, but we’re really encouraged by the national and local response, which will speed the recovery.”

Ford Motor Co. saw sales rise less than 1% to 168,456 for the month. The automaker’s passenger car business grew faster while...

Ford Motor Corp. has named Mark Fields, the chief of its North American business, as the automaker's new chief operating officer and handed him responsibility for the day-to-day operations of its global business.

The announcement Thursday by Executive Chairman Bill Ford was designed to quell speculation about the future of the automaker’s chief executive, Alan Mulally.

Mulally, 67, is credited with restructuring the company's operations and guiding it through the recession without the bankruptcy reorganizations and federal bailouts of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group. He will to continue to serve as Ford president and CEO through at least 2014, the company said.

Mulally will focus on the long-term strategic development of the company and on bringing Ford’s struggling European operations back to profitability.

"Whatever happens, Alan is here for a least two more years. ... And it could go longer," Bill Ford said, adding that the personnel moves were decided on at an Oct. 19...

Money couldn't buy him love, but it could buy him an Aston Martin.

A 1964 Aston Martin DB5 originally owned by former Beatle Paul McCartney sold Wednesday at an auction in London at the hammer price of $496,613. The hammer price is what an auctioned item sells for before any fees or commissions.

According to RM Auctions, the Canadian company that held the auction, McCartney ordered the car during the summer of 1964 and owned it for six years. In that time, the Beatle is believed to have put some 40,000 miles on the car, and a 1967 Time magazine profile said "Bachelor Paul" "is a movie addict, loves 'the look of London,' and tools around town in a spiffy blue Aston Martin DB5."

Photos: Sir Paul McCartney's Aston Martin DB5

The DB5 was the first Aston Martin that McCartney purchased and was ordered in the Sierra blue paint you see here. He bought this DB5 with options such as chrome wire wheels, a Motorola radio and a Philips record player. RM says McCartney also ordered the stitching...

If anecdotal evidence gleaned from trips through L.A.'s moneyed coastal enclaves like Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Manhattan Beach is any indication, there's a new automotive trend for the outdoorsy yuppie. It's a station wagon.

Too culturally sensitive to be caught in an SUV, yet ever mindful of the curbside erratum that is the minivan, those with an active lifestyle or projection thereof clearly seem to be finding solace in the 2013 Audi Allroad.

The car is essentially a more rugged yet equally sophisticated cousin of the A4 station wagon (nee Avant) that Audi no longer sells in the U.S. Think Zac Efron in crampons or Gisele Bundchen in a ski parka. To cruise around the ocean communities is to see there is no shortage of buyers willing to part with at least $40,495 to get the look.

This blending of concepts starts with the Allroad's exterior. Audi recently refreshed the nose and tail of its A4 and A5 lineup, and this station wagon shares the new aesthetic. Sleek new headlamps with...