Mercury, we hardly knew ye – as anything more than a place where re-badged Ford products could linger in obscurity, serving their purpose as rental cars and female-marketed A-to-B transportation. After 71 years, this model is no longer sustainable, and Automotive News reports that today, Mercury will be sent to the great garage in the...
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The Volkswagen Polo is best known for its hatchback bodystyle, but certain markets, like Russia, prefer a traditional sedan bodystyle. VW threw a bone to 4-door lovers in Moscow, when it unveiled its new Polo sedan, but the big news for us is that the Polo sedan is a lock to come to North America, as VW...
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Is the Nissan Leaf set to overtake the Toyota Prius as the green-status-symbol of choice? According to market research sponsored by Nissan, a fair number of consumers who have put down deposits on the new Nissan Leaf electric car are current owners of the Toyota Prius hybrid, and are looking to take their outward love...
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According to a well-connected forum member at VWVortex, Volkswagen‘s all-new Jetta model will finally be an affordable vehicle on U.S. soil, starting at just $14,950. By comparison, the least expensive current Jetta now starts at $17,735. This new Jetta model has been designed with the U.S. market in mind and based on VW’s plan to...
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Communauto, a car sharing service in the Canadian province of Quebec, announced today that they are planning to add 50 Nissan Leaf electric cars to their fleet as soon as the vehicle becomes available in Canada in late 2011. Communauto is partnering with both municipal and provincial governments, utility companies and Nissan Canada, Communauto is able to...
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Volkswagen‘s compact Touran Minivan (not to be confused with the Routan sold here in North America) has just been launched in its newest incarnation, and the range is being led by a 1.6L BlueMotion diesel that makes 105 horsepower returns a very impressive 51.3 miles per gallon. Also interesting is the tiny 1.2L 4-cylinder gas...
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After introducing a new crossover at the top-end of its lineup, MINI now appears to be readying a new entry-level model – reportedly referred to as the MINI Minor by BMW officials. Designed as a true city car, the new minier MINI would be built to compete against the Smart Fortwo and Toyota iQ models...
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The Vauxhall/Opel Ampera, sister car to the Chevrolet Volt, is set to launch in Europe in 2012, but GM is already preparing a more powerful version in time for the car’s launch, according to AutoExpress. Nothing concrete has been announced, but sources indicate that a larger gasoline engine and a bigger battery will help make...
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Not long after Gordon Murray’s McLaren F1 was feted at the company’s headquarters, new details have emerged about Murray’s all-new T27 city car, being developed by the South African-born engineer independently of McLaren. Essentially an electric version of the T25 city car, the T27 uses a lithium-ion battery and a small electric motor to hit...
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On the second song of their seminal album “London Calling”, The Clash famously sang “My baby drove up in a brand new Cadillac.” For Amanda McBride and Joseph Brooks, a more appropriate lyric might be “my baby was born in a brand new Cobalt.” The Minnesota couple were on their way to the hospital in...
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Mercury‘s glory days are long over, with the brand lacking anything exciting or unique since the muscle car era. With the Grand Marquis scheduled to die alongside its customer base, and every other Mercury product available right next door at the Ford showroom, the storied brand is set to be euthanized by its parent company, Ford...
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Regular readers will recall a fondness for hip-hop music at the Autoguide offices. We’ve previously covered the Houston “swangas” phenomenon, Seattle’s Volvo driving rapper and Atlanta’s dubbed-out Camaros. Now, Kia is showing the East Coast some love, with their new commercial featuring their familiar Hamsters, the Kia Soul, and Black Sheep’s seminal anthem The Choice...
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A stunt driving demo went all wrong for Audi, as professional drivers ended up rolling one of their new A1 subcompact hatches during a demonstration in Brussels. Drivers piloted the A1 up and down a specially-constructed half pipe in the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, as a means of promoting the new model. Rather than wowing...
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Spy photographers have caught the new Honda Civic undergoing testing in Italy. Having already been ordered back to the drawing board by Honda’s CEO, the new Civic is set to arrive in early 2012, at which point the current car will already be long in the tooth. Unfortunately, the engineering mules didn’t give away much...
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Nearly a day after it was first spied testing, the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta has finally been spotted completely undisguised, and if the car looks a little Toyota-esque, then that must be a good thing. Rather than occupying a quasi-premium spot in the U.S. market, VW is going for volume, so the Corolla resemblance is not...
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After acquiring the former NUMMI plant jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota, Tesla Motors was immediately targeted by the UAW for a guilt-trip campaign by the United Auto Workers to re-hire the 4,700 workers set to lose their jobs as the plant closed. In an interview on a California radio show, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was...
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A British journalist recently decided to challenge BMW‘s claim that its new 320d EfficientDynamics sedan could drive for 1000 miles on a single tank of diesel, and managed to achieve the feat, driving exactly 1,013 miles. Tom Ford, the driver of the BMW, kept the windows up and the air-conditioning off, but avoided hypermiling tricks...
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British racing outfit Cosworth (calling them a tuner would be insulting) has a history of building some absolutely mental performance hatches, most famously the Ford Escort RS Cosworth, which had to be built on a seperate, rear-drive platform to accommodate the lofty goals set out for it. Now Cosworth has turned their attention to the already potent...
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Much like soccer, the Volkswagen Golf is immensely popular all over the world, with the exception of Canada and the United States. The two holdout countries prefer the Jetta by a significant margin, and Volkswagen is well aware of this – even going as far as to engineer an entirely new Jetta designed specifically with...
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There have been some big blunders in the history of automotive naming. The Chevrolet Nova flopped in Spanish speaking countries because its name literally means “it doesn’t go”. The Ford Pinto’s name in Brazilian Portuguese has similarly negative connotations, literally meaning “a man with small genitals.” The latest casualty in the history of cars being...
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A favorite past time of computer literate car fans is to log on to automotive-related internet forums and criticize the decisions of auto industry types with decades of experience in the field. Everything from marketing campaigns to product choices are questioned, and while this right may be a cornerstone of our free society, often the...
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The story of Datusn (and later Nissan) in the United States is probably the most fascinating of all the Japanese auto makers . While early Toyota’s and Honda’s were ridiculed for their diminutive size and propensity to rust, Datsun was the first Japanese manufacturer to establish a reputation as a respected car maker. The 240Z...
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Volkswagen confirmed today that an Audi S1 and a Jetta R are in the pipeline, but quashed rumors of an upcoming Polo R model. In an interview with drive.com.au, Dr. Ernst Linder, responsible for developing the Polo GTI, said that an Audi S1 would be offered with the familiar 1.4L twincharge unit and 7-speed DSG...
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Buick‘s version of the Chevrolet Cruze, known in China as the Excelle, has been caught undisguised again, this time in sporty GT trim. The Excelle uses the same platform as the Chevrolet Cruze and Opel Astra, and even uses the same 1.4L, 138 horsepower turbo four-cylinder, but the Excelle also gets a bigger, 1.6L version...
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