Kelley Blue Book has announced its picks for the Top 10 Coolest New Cars Under $18,000. To make the list, the editors at KBB.com thought like consumers, picking cars that they felt were safe, good in fuel-economy, interior size, comfort, technology and fun-to-drive.

Now remember just because a vehicle is listed first doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the cheapest or the coolest on the list. All cars on the list are considered cool and are under $18,000. They are just listed in alphabetical order.

All the cars on the list were chosen using Kelly Blue Book’s New Car Blue Book Value which reflects real transaction prices and provide a useful comparison to the MSRP of the car.

Let us know what you would buy in the comments section below.

Click through for press release and the list.

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While Toyota may not be offering a Prius convertible anytime soon, you can get yours today from Newport Convertible Engineering, an aftermarket tuning company that makes convertibles out original cars that manufacturers don’t to offer in topless variant.

We’re going to refrain from bashing the car on its looks but we’re just wondering how the fuel-economy is affected when the top is down. 

NCE also offers convertible versions of the 2008 Cadillac CTS, HUMMER H3 and the Chrysler 300.

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Toyota Prius Convertible by NCE:

   

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The Saleen S5S turned major heads at the 2008 New York Auto Show. But the question on everyone’s mind is whether or not this sleek concept car will ever enter production. Speaking to Automobile, Chris Theodore, Ford’s former head of North American product development and now Saleen’s vice chairman and CTO (chief technical officer), said that the Saleen S5S Raptor concept has serious potential to be a production model.

“Yes, the car has the potential for reality. We are well aware that the sweet spot in supercars is between about $150K and $200K,” said Theodore in an interview with Automobile.

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No we’re not calling you fat and telling you to hit the gym so you can save a couple of bucks on gas. With fuel-economy being one of the most important factors for new car-buyers, automakers are looking to reduce weight of new vehicles as much as possible.

The redesigned 2008 Ford Focus lost over 70 pounds after engineers and parts suppliers looked for hundreds of ways to cur the excess pounds on the compact car.

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Hooray; Land Rover is celebrating its 60 year anniversary today under Tata Motors. Land Rover made its first market debut at the Amsterdam Motor Show on April 30, 1948 with the Defender currently known as the Series 1. That’s all nice and dandy, but we’re intersted in something new and something interesting that the Land Rover press release stated today.

We’ve heard many rumors from news sources that Land Rover will put the new LRX concept into production. Today, however, we have the first major hint from Land Rover themselves.

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If you’re big movie-buffs like us here, you’re probably looking forward to this Friday when the Iron man movie hits theaters. Also, if you’re crazy about cars like us, you’re probably looking forward to seeing Ironman’s Audi R8 in action.

Check out these two new behind the scene videos of the Audi R8 and Audi Q7 stunts that you’ll see in the movie on May 2nd.

Director Jon Favreau and his stunt team tell how much of a pain in the arse it was to work with the R8 and the Q7 due to the quality of the engineering and design that went into the cars.

Click through for the videos.

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After Daimler sold its majority control in Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management in August 2007, it retained a 19.9 percent stake in the American automaker. However, Daimler has now reduced its stake in Chrysler by almost two-thirds after Chrysler made a 340 million euro punch to Daimler’s pretax profits in the first quarter of 2008.

According to Wall Street Journal, Daimler now values its stake at 547 million euros, down from the original 1.4 billion euros when it sold Chrysler to Cerberus.

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A source familiar with Fiat’s future plans told Automotive News Europe, that the company’s Zastava plant in Serbia will build a new Fiat minicar smaller than the Fiat 500. The plant will also produce a new family of low-cost models that will debut in 2010 for central and eastern Europe.

The model to be built is dubbed the Topolino, an iconic two-seat minicar that Fiat introduced in 1936 called the Topolino 500. Based on the A-platform used on then Fiat 500 the Topolino will be a four-seater car. However, the platform will be reduced by 3150mm in length.

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We’ve heard Mazda was considering it before and we now have confirmation from AutoExpress. Work on the Mazda2 MPS (Mazdaspeed in the U.S.) is almost complete. Using the new three-door Mazda2 hatchback as the basis, power is expected to come from a turbocharged version of the 1.5 liter engine producing up to 230-hp.

AutoExpress also tells us that an MPS version of the new Mazda6 is also on the way and it will definitely be a head-turner with body enhancements such as new spoilers, larger intakes and lowered side skirts. Rumor has it that Mazda will use a turbocharged version of the new 2.5 liter 4-cylinder engine producing up to 280-hp.

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According to its own research. Swedish automaker Volvo says that it is focused to reduce the world-wide crash total of 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries each year.

Volvo has set a trager to eliminate death and injury in its vehicles by 2020. Volvo is the only automaker to set a firm date to make such a move.

Click through for the video.

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Here is a comparison between two special edition Porsches that recently hit the market. Our friends at CARhave put the new Porsche Boxster RS60 Spyder against the new powerful Cayenne, the Cayenne GTS.

Refresher:

Porsche Boxster RS60 Spyder: Power comes from a 3.4L mid-mounted engine that delivers 303-hp and 251 lb-ft of torque. 0-60 comes in at 5.1 seconds with at top speed of 170mph.

Porsche Cayenne GTS: Powered by a 4.8L V8 engine that produces 405hp giving it the ability to do 0-60 in 6.1 seconds

Click through for the video.

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Honestly, we’re tired of writing ‘lucky Europeans’ in almost every other post we make here at eGMCarTech. Nonetheless, they have gotten lucky once again. Volkswagen has announced that its most power Passat ever, the Passat R36, is now on sale in the UK.

Power comes from a naturally-aspirated 3.6 liter V6 engine that produces 300-hp and 258 lb-ft of torque. It is mated to a 6-speed DSG gearbox and a 4MOTION all-wheel-drive system. The 0-62mph sprint comes in 5.6 seconds for the sedan while the estate or wagon does it in 5.8. Both models have a top speed of 155mph.

Along with more power, the R36 gets all the R-ness design and ‘R’ badging all over the car. Prices start at £30,990 for the Passat R36 sedan and £32,150 for the estate. Talking to InsideLine, Volkswagen of America’s spokesman Keith Price said that there is ‘no timetable’ for the stateside R36.

Volkswagen Passat R36:

   

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Along with Brembo and the Marsiaj family, founder of Italian seat belt maker, Enzo Ferrari’s son will be amongst those to purchase a stake in coach builder Pininfarina.

Piero Ferrari, currently vice chairman of Ferrari, will acquire a part in the 100 million Euro capital increase at Pininfarina. The increase was approved by Pininfarina at its annual meeting on Monday and will help finance a restructuring to revive the sluggish company.

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