no, not our todd.
don't know if this has been posted yet.
from the times:

Rundgren Joins Cars

Todd Rundgren, the veteran singer and record producer, is to join two members of the Cars, Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes, for a new incarnation of the band, Billboard reported. Mr. Rundgren will stand in for Ric Ocasek, who said he has no plans to participate in the project. The group is to tour and possibly record an album next year. The original band split up in early 1988 after 12 years. Ben Orr, the bassist and one of the singers, died of cancer in 2000.

I deeply like Todd and have most of my life, but it's not the Cars without Ocasek and Orr.

Rundgren says it's a chance to pay the bills, play for a big audience and hang out with some people he likes for awhile. Good for him, but it's not The Cars.

yeah that's kind of weird.

Maybe they should change it to Rental Cars.

I guess the thought behind this is that they'll play off the Cars name which will bring certain people in, and then let Rundgren play a few tunes to bring out a few more people. Pretty savvy actually. Still won't pay for it though.

this is almost as bad of an idea as that Queen reunion.

Tour sponsorship would certainly be easy to come by.

Awful, just awful.

Yeah, I like Todd, but I think it's dishonest to pass this incarnation off as the Cars. Can we wager on some Waters/Gilmour-style litigation between Ocasek/Easton?

ridiculous.

I doubt it. Actually, Hawkes has always been the caretaker of the Cars and he and Ocasek are close. Greg writes all the liner notes for the compilations and is the only member to have co-writing credit on any Cars songs (Moving In Stereo and a couple of others). I'd be willing to bet Ocasek just didn't want any part but grudgingly gave his blessing if they wanted to go play. I sincerely doubt anyone (Rundgren included) is seriously hurting for cash so much that they need to do this. I'll bet they just want to get out and play in front of more people than they could draw right now with any other vehicle.

Also, the original breakup was allegedly because Ocasek just couldn't stand Orr anymore and they had had a falling out. I don't have anything juicy beyond that, but on the Live in Germany DVD I have, there's a "reunion" interview from 1999. Orr has lost a lot of weight and is clearly on his deathbed (which makes the whole thing extremely eerie), and most of the talking is done nervously by David Robinson and Elliott Easton (and Hawkes) as Orr and Ocasek kind of sulk most of the time, as far apart from each other as they could be.

No. Runt-A-Car.

fp

I just read this earlier on another discussion board. I didn't even know Ben Orr died, that is so sad...I thought he died this year at age 45 though? Way sad

Lord, no. I remember the night he died. I heard the news, stumbled down to the karaoke bar determined to do a tribute. All they had was Drive, but I did it anyway.

Rundgo Starr and His All-Carr Band