Not only do they package up stories in handy digest form, they also do brand research. Reader’s Digest has asked Canadians what automaker they trust the most, and they voted Toyota as one of their 2011 “Most Trusted Brands.” This is the third consecutive year Toyota has scooped the “Most Trusted Passenger Car Brand,” as...
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While the Nissan Sunny has already been previewed at AutoGuide, we just got out first look at the hatchback version of Nissan’s subcompact (known as the Tiida) thanks to a Chinese photographer who spied the car out in the open. The new hatchback looks like a Lexus CT200h mixed with Nissan’s familiar corporate styling cues,...
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Honda‘s manufacturing plants will remain closed, while the heart of their company, the research & development facility in Tochigi, Japan, will undergo months of repairs after being severely damaged by the earthquake that devastated Japan earlier in March. Honda originally planned to keep their plants closed until March 27th but has decided to extend the closures until...
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Toyota has warned that production of vehicles in the US and Canada could be affected because supplies of some parts from Japan are running low.
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Mitsubishi‘s diminutive i electric vehicle is undergoing some fairly substantial changes when it makes its debut on our shores, the most significant being a slight increase in length and a 5 inch bump in width, with the extra size added to help the car feel better during high speed highway driving. While Japanese drivers experience...
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The MX-5 GT is the lightest and most powerful version of the sports car Mazda has ever built. Making 275-hp from a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder, it weighs an astonishingly low 1,874 lbs. Sadly, it isn’t street legal, but a full roll-cage-included race car, designed to compete in the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship this year. The...
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General Motors has halted production at their Tonawanda, New York engine plant, due to a parts shortage that has affected another factory in Louisiana. The New York plant builds engines for the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, which are assembled at the Shreveport, Louisiana plant. While GM has acknowledged that the closure is due to...
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Lawyers for a group of plaintiffs in the Toyota unintended acceleration case are challenging a NASA report that found the automaker was not at fault for the alleged issues that led to a massive recall of Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The plaintiffs lawyers filed papers in a California court last week stating they intend to disprove the...
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The March 11 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan has had a devastating effect on its people. Not only have many people lost their homes and loved ones, many companies are out of work as they struggle to get their businesses up and running. Japan’s major car companies have also been badly hit due to...
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OK, so this car doesn’t actually belong to Chuck Norris, but you’ll forgive us for saying so once you read the for sale ad placed by the owner. The man of mystery behind this powerhouse of Symmetrical all-wheel drive has scribed a piece of prose that, we’d guess, is only superseded in awesomeness by the...
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Every year over in Houston, Texas, Toyota Supras from all over the nation gather at the Lonestar Motorsports Park for a weekend of motorsports festivities. It begins with a Dyno Day then a weekend of test-n-tune and drag racing. Over the years, every big player in the Supra industry has shown up with Florida heavyweights...
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With a debut of the next-generation GS rumored for the New York Auto Show, Lexus has now confirmed as much, with the planned debut of the LF-Gh Concept in the Big Apple. The naming suggests the new luxury sedan will in fact be a hybrid, keeping true to the Lexus philosophy. And while Toyota uses...
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Despite being an ultra-niche vehicle, interest in the Nissan GT-R always remains strong, and car enthusiasts have been fretting about whether Japan’s natural disasters have impacted production of the revised GT-R. According to an interview with David Reuter, Nissan Americas vice president of communications, supplies of the GT-R are safe, with roughly 70 percent of...
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The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety awarded the Mazda 3 with its Top Pick honor in the small car category. The Mazda3 met the criteria by scoring a “Good” rating in all crash test categories (front, side, rear and rollover) and has electronic stability control. The Mazda3 is the first car from the automaker to...
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From the “Entirely Too Predictable” files, the ongoing crisis in Japan has spooked dealers wary of car shortages to raise their prices. Instead of the time-honored car buying traditions of haggling and deep discounts, buyers are paying sticker price on cars that may suffer from delayed shipments from Japan, such as the Toyota Prius, Yaris,...
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Reports of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo’s death have been greatly exaggerated. After the unsurprisingly angry backlash the company received from its fanbase, Mitsubishi has apparently reversed its decision to kill its flagship rally fighter. Mitsubishi now must find a way to balance the ferocious performance and cult-status image of the Evolution with the new eco-friendly...
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Mazda will resume production of vehicles on March 22nd, an encouraging sign for the Japanese auto industry as it battles a catastrophic series of events that has seen most automakers in the country suspend production. With Mazda based in Hiroshima, hundreds of miles away from the earthquake, tsunami and on-going nuclear incidents, the company has...
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This weekend Nissan will officially return to international sports car racing, fielding an LMP2 entry in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Marking the first time Nissan has competed at this level in over a decade, Nissan’s NISMO motorsports division has partnered with the Signature Group to field an LMP2 level prototype machine. Powered by a...
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Issuing its second recall in as many days, Honda has announced it is taking steps to replace a potentially faulty front wiper linkage rod on the 2011 Odyssey. The recall affects 33,341 vehicles where the wiper linkage could be bent if the wiper motor is turned on, but the wipers themselves are frozen to the...
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Honda will build a more powerful version of the CR-Z sport hybrid and it will continue to be a hybrid, according to R&D boss Tomohiko Kawanabe. Previous reports had suggested a CR-Z ‘Type R’ might toss the company’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid system in favor of a turbocharger, but that will not be the...
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Highcroft Racing has dominated the LMP2 class of the American Le Mans Series for the past 4 years, but the program didn’t seem to be doing much to promote the Acura brand. In light of that, the car will now be branded as a Honda Performance Development car, a move that signals both a positive...
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Who would have thought that punk icon Henry Rollins would ever end up doing voice-overs for a luxury car? Certainly not us, but while the punk days are over, Rollins is a tremendous speaker, and we’re looking forward to his work for Infiniti as the brand prepares to launch its new M Hybrid. With 360 horsepower and...
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Given the current state of gasoline, the Toyota Prius has been hotter than Justin Bieber tickets. Unfortunately, there’s a nationwide shortage of the popular hybrid across the American market: Cars.com lists just 9,014 available. Chalk it up to the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, but the Prius has been selling fast for months now...
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Mugen’s European division will launch a version of the Honda CR-Z sport hybrid at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with significantly more ‘sport’. According to Mugen Euro, the car will use the same 1.5-liter i-VTEC engine and Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) hybrid system, offering more horsepower and torque. Also included in the package will be...
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