Toyota will never stop developing mutations of its FT-86 sports car, which will be released sometime between now and the real Rapture. Maybe. But news from Japan indicates, finally, when we can see the officially official ultimate final production version: the Tokyo Motor Show, in December. Both Toyota and Subaru will launch versions of their...
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After years of teasing us with concept car after tantalizing concept car, Toyota is finally set to unveil a street version of all those FR sports cars—but with one minor change: this one doesn’t have an engine. Yep, this is a custom downhill racer built for Red Bull’s Soapbox Derby, and unlike the cardboard-ramshackle boxes...
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It takes a lot of guts to piss off the traffic police in Venezuela, apparently. Hang a couple people from the side of a bus, no problem. Drive erratically in a Soviet-era Lada belching blue smoke in front of the elementary school, sure. Your ride’s missing a wheel? Who cares? Why would you, when gas...
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The ever-popular Toyota Prius is on hold, due to supplier shortages from the Japan earthquake, but it could return to near-normal levels soon—as early as next month. Bob Carter, Toyota’s vice president for US sales, expects Prius supplies to return to 70 percent of its normal rate—i.e. before the earthquake. “If I had twice as many...
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Citroën was once the company bizarre enough to dabble in hydraulic suspensions, power steering, and swiveling headlights before anyone else. It’s good to see that legacy of damn-it-all innovation carry through to today, where the Gallic carbuilder has mounted the brakes in the passenger side. Not on purpose, anyway. Turns out that the C3 Picasso...
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Chevrolet‘s popular Volt is getting a production boost—GM is increasing annual production from 15,000 to 16,000 per year. GM is gearing up to build the European version of the Volt: of this new 16,000-vehicle figure, approximately 3,500 will be sold in Europe as the Opel Ampera. About 2,500 jobs are expected to be added to the...
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Those who snapped up an all-wheel-drive Nissan Juke might not know that they’re driving around with a smaller gas tank than advertised. Outrageous! But wait, there’s more—Nissan is throwing in money too, just to make up for it. Turns out, the AWD model’s gas tank is slightly smaller at 11.8 gallons, when it had originally...
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The wagon version of the Audi A6 has been released in Europe, with a sleek new roof and six engines (though not in the same car). The new A6 Avant’s engines are split between two gasoline and four diesel units, with the standard outfit of direct-injection and efficient turbo technologies. Power ranges from a 177-horsepower...
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China may be booming for cars—and luxury cars, at that—but American automakers still haven’t cracked the market. Cadillac saw a sales increase of 139 percent in 2010. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Not when you realize that it equates to around 17,000 vehicles—by contrast, Audi sold 115,353 A6 sedans alone. The Germans have dominated the Chinese...
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Bentley customers know what they want. They want a luxury behemoth with animal-crushing abilities, swathed in more cow than a Texas Roadhouse, and the ability to “waft” from nightclub to penthouse and back. What they don’t want, according to Bentley, is a small one—after all, what is this, Rolls-Royce? Oh ok, fine, Bentley said, we’ll...
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Two car designers, one classic BMW, and one of the most infamous road races in the world—sounds ripe for a buddy comedy from the 80s, but it was actually the 2011 Mille Miglia: featuring BMW designer Adrian van Hooydonk, Swiss industrial designer Alfredo Häberli, and a classic 1930s BMW 328. What do a bunch of turtleneck wearers...
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Outspoken curmudgeon and former GM badass-in-charge Bob Lutz has been popping up from retirement, serving as a consultant to General Motors and Lotus. And his former company’s bankruptcy restructuring left the company “in good hands,” he said. Speaking at a conference, Lutz said that the outsiders who served as CEO and CFO during the two-year restructuring...
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The movers and shakers of China are buying up luxury cars, and cars in general, at a dizzying pace. And Maserati is nothing if not on fire intuitive, so the skyrocketing sales in China are motivating the Italian company to expand even faster. There have been past murmurs of a “baby” Quattroporte, but the current...
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April has been a very good month for Porsche: it saw sales increase by 53 percent, or 11,741 vehicles total. But the cars that skyrocketed during this period aren’t the 911, or any variants thereof. Diehard Porsche fans are going to rage: what’s selling hot isn’t the 911, or even the Boxster/Cayman duo—it’s the Cayenne...
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Honda is looking for the next great songwriter, the one that can capture in lyrics the emotions of the human condition. Or at least someone to sing about the new Civic. Yes, just as “Rocket 88” was the first great rock song, and just as Bob Dylan went electric at Newport, Honda is banking on...
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A big-name outlet like Edmunds.com may get a lot of sports cars, but it’s not all burnouts and apexes—they have to pay for them as well. So they tallied up the fuel costs among 9 sports cars over one month to see what $4-gallon gas gets you these days if you’re not schlepping about in...
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BMW‘s little urban runabout is almost ready for the limelight, and some tantalizing details have been released: when it goes on sale, uh, eventually, it will be priced at $35,000, or around the price of a 3-Series Coupe. And what does that $35k get you? Well, 150-horsepower, for starters—a lot for its size, and good...
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In their ongoing quest to assuage the guilt of the fabulously wealthy, Aston Martin will be electrifying their ugly-duckling née-Toyota Cygnet—in case wealthy city-living socialites still think Cameron Diaz has a thing for environmentally caring men. Aston Martin’s EV Cygnet will reduce its corporate emissions levels, allowing the British luxe automaker to keep building the Vantage and...
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Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are looking to jump-start the American electric car industry, to use the hackneyed pun. With Department of Energy research funding going towards battery development, Chu believes that their goal of a car that can make LA to Las Vegas on one charge, and sell for...
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You’d think Lamborghini, masters of Italian seduction, would have the good sense to tease us a bit. Maybe don’t give us the goods so soon, and all that. But no, it seems like they’re laying it all out there for us: Lamborghini is going to build a range-annihilating SV model of its Aventador, and approximately 3...
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General Motors is pumping $109 million into its Ecotec program in Michigan, in order to support ongoing production of the 1.4-liter engine shared by three Chevrolet models as well as keeping/adding 96 jobs in Michigan. $84 million of that money goes to GM’s engine plant in Flint to increase production capacity, while the rest is...
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Reports of the Toyota Prius V’s delay have been greatly exaggerated. According to the company, the Prius V is on track for a U.S. fall debut, after all. The Prius V had been previously reported to be delayed across all markets, due to the Japanese earthquake. But a brief note from Toyota USA’s Torrance, California...
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There was a time when the Mercedes-Benz G-Class was the backbone of Western protection against the creeping threat of the Reds, and had nothing to do with chain-wearing Eurosnobs or those who brag onstage about their bullet wounds. Then again, nobody in West Germany tried to shove a twin-turbocharged V12 into one in order to...
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A trade group representing Detroit’s three automakers as well as Toyota is currently urging the Obama administration to say no to a proposal that could mandate a 62-mpg CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) industry standard by 2025. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, in a letter addressed to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Environmental Protection Agency administrator...
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