With new cars getting heavier as the years go on, Mazda is bucking this trend for their next MX-5, aiming to cut the car’s weight from its current 2500 lbs to 2200 lbs, just slightly heavier than the original 1990 Miata’s weight. Mazda executives felt that the current car is straying too far from the...
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Back in May, we caught wind of Rogue Status’ Drift xB that they built. Initially we were a little skeptical that it would be more of a show car and street performer, rather than a competition-ready drift machine. Would it ever go sideways on a track? No one knew or could tell, so needless to...
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Potential buyers of Honda and Acura vehicles will now have no reason to buy a lemon after the company agreed to give all recall data to Carfax. “Recall completion is critically important to us,” said Jim Roach, senior vice president of Parts & Service for American Honda. “By working with Carfax, American Honda provides another...
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Subaru has announced pricing for their 2011 Impreza WRX and STI models with the WRX starting at $25, 495 for both the 4-door and 5-door models, while the STI 4-door starts at $33,995, $1,000 less than last year’s 5-door model. The STI 5-door, now available only in “Limited” trim, will run you $35,995. Big changes...
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Anticipating a drop in demand, Toyota will begin cutting domestic output starting in October. The sluggish demand is being blamed on the end of a subsidy given out by the Japanese government for purchasing an environmentally friendly vehicle. While Toyota currently makes about 14,000 vehicles per day, output will fall to under 12,000 vehicles, but...
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Nissan is beginning to ramp up promotion of the Leaf electric vehicle after pre-orders have slowed significantly. The Leaf enjoyed a burst of interest from “early adopter” types. While Nissan estimates that it has 16,300 pre-orders, but observers are unsure whether they will be able to reach the 25,000 pre-order goal by year’s end. For now, the...
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Volkswagen is looking to expand its 19.9% stake in Japanese automaker Suzuki by an additional 10 percent reports Automobile Magazine. The reasons for the larger share aren’t entirely clear, with possible reasons being increasingly shared products between the two automakers. We’ve already heard that Volkswagen intends to rebadge Suzuki models as VWs in some emerging...
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Nissan appears poised to return to the affordable sports car segment. After long-standing rumors that the Japanese automaker would build a successor to the 240SX the folks at AutoCar are reporting on a possible come-back for the European 200SX (known as the 240SX in North America). The largest issue facing Nissan, however, is finding a...
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Strangely, Toyota still hasn’t followed the lead set by Ford and GM in offering a factory installed trailer brake controller.
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Honda‘s Marysville, Ohio manufacturing plant started in a revolution in 1982 when it became the first Japanese auto plant on American soil. The Honda Accords that rolled off the line started an automotive revolution, and the company hasn’t looked back since. After nearly three decades, Marysville has reached a major milestone after building car #...
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Recently we reported that Porsche was none-too-pleased with Nissan‘s new and aggressive marketing campaign in the UK, eventually challenging the legality of the ads because they used Porsche’s logo without authorization. That’s not what’s really bugging Porsche though, as Nissan put up billboards with slogans like “The Winner Hans Down,” and another with a simulated...
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All aboard the speculation train! The rumors surrounding Mazda’s new RX-7 don’t stop coming, and with the demise of the RX-8, its a safe bet that Mazda will follow up their quirky four-door sports car with something more conventional. Mazda is allegedly targeting the VW Scirocco as a rival for the new car, to be...
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[vs-jwplayer movieid=”_ACK09MLgaY” width=”640″ height=”385″ autoplay=”0″] After spending a lot of time focusing on its mainstream models like the Legacy and Forrester, Subaru is ready to put the spotlight back on its high performance models. For 2011, Subaru has released an updated WRX STI model and while it doesn’t look all that new, there are a...
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There are a few names in the aftermarket industry known for building impressive show vehicles and one of the best-known is Fox Marketing. With a long-standing partnership with Lexus that has seen Fox Marketing develop two IS models for the SEMA Show over the past two years, we took company founder Brian Fox seriously when...
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Let’s be honest, this might not qualify for news were it not for the gallery of photos Lexus released to help announce changes to the 2011 IS250/350 F-Sport package. Along with a long list of upgrades for the 2011 lineup, that includes the introduction of the IS350 AWD model, Lexus has released an updated F-Sport...
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Lexus has released a very long list of updates and price changes to its lineup of vehicles for 2011, with a few important changes tucked away in the lengthy press releases. The biggest news is the introduction of a new IS350 AWD model. Previously Lexus only offered an all-wheel drive 250 version of the IS,...
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Yesterday it was announced that the RL would be cut from the Acura lineup. But today, Honda officials in the U.S. are saying “not so fast.” A report in Japan’s Nikkei business paper cited sources inside the automaker who said the Legend (as its known in Japan) would be cut from the lineup globally. The...
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Honda CEO Takanobu Ito has given a look at the direction Honda will be taking in the coming years, putting strong emphasis on small cars and hybrids. At his annual mid-year speech, Ito gave a rough outline of the Japanese automaker’s future direction, while dropping a few important notes about new products. Two important new...
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Peter North is best known for…well, we’ll let you figure that out on your own. Suffice to say, this guy is well known for a reason, and his career in adult films has given him sufficient fame and fortune to enjoy life, and build a pretty well done Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo. North’s 300ZX was...
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Nissan fans who were expecting a revival of the hallowed 240SX, prepare to be…disappointed. After years of on and off rumors about the return of Nissan’s small rear drive sportster, it appears that the company will begin focusing its efforts in an electric sports car based off the Nissan Leaf. Under consideration is a production...
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Toyota has officially spoken out against allegations that it planted a story in the Wall Street Journal that absolved the company of an responsibility in their unintended acceleration scandal. The mess began after The Wall Street Journal published a story citing “people familiar with” the investigation who claimed that the evidence pointed to driver error...
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Subaru is adding in-car wi-fi to the 2011 Outback, similar to Ford’s 3G Internet system with their SYNC telematics technology. A $499 dealer installed option, the Wi-Fi will work within 150 feet of the car, and can be used while the vehicle is in motion. Subaru will pick up the first three months, but the...
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Despite the bad language coming from the Honda Civic’s owner in this video, all parties are guilty of being criminally stupid. There’s a reason that race cars use special trailers (enclosed or open) with specific ramps. Pushing a Civic onto a U Haul, with a flimsy ramp setup is a distinctly redneck way of trying to...
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Along with building high revving engines, Honda is also well known for building cars that are fun to drive, which is part of the reason why journalists universally panned the Insight hybrid. The suspension on the Insight was more up to Toyota standards than Honda ones and so Honda has decided to rectify the situation...
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