Car News Articles

The launch of the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid could be delayed by at least a year, GM has hinted.  It showed the latest version of the radical E-flex plug-in hybrid technology that will underpin the Volt in the Cadillac Provoq (main image), a concept car that also hinted strongly at how Caddy’s new small SUV will look.

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The new Nissan GT-R has finally landed in the UK - and CAR has pitted it against its deadliest rivals. Can the Skyline successor live up to the hype? Can it really beat a Porsche 911 Turbo, as the spinmeisters would have us believe? To find out, we took a GT-R and 911 to Rockingham and surrounding roads for a showdown.

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Shorn of nearly all its disguise, this is our best glimpse yet of Chevrolet’s Camaro. We’ve snapped this front-engined, rear-wheel drive coupe cold weather testing with only light disguise around the grille and lights.

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In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’d like to write an ode to my car, a 2006 Nissan Murano. Hey, we all need love! So, how do I love thee, Murano? Let me count the ways:

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Now for the rest of the coverage from last Friday’s Omega Circuit Free Run in Tsukuba. As I said in the previous post, the AE86 drivers were out in force for this event. Check out the Levin from Custom Garage SPEED pictured above.

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When the President of Toyota’s NA Ops tells his dealers that the good times “are temporarily on hiatus,” you know the U.S. new car market is in BIG trouble. The AP [via the International Herald Tribune] paints a bleak picture: “Jim Lentz told the American International Automobile Dealers Association annual meeting that even strong Toyota dealers are reporting customer traffic down as much as 60 percent this year.” Like his opposite numbers in Detroit, Lentz also believes– or at least says he believes– that the U.S. new car market will recover towards the fourth financial quarter, finishing the year at some 16m units. He also predicted that Toyota sales will rise regardless, continuing to buck the declining market. (Toyota sales rose three percent last year, despite a 2.5 percent decline in U.S. new car sales.) Thinking longer term, as Toyota tends to do, Lentz predicted good times ahead. “It is possible for the auto industry to hit 18 million sales annually sometime later in the next decade.” 

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There’s a great Simpsons episode where Homer learns that as a child he got a crayon shoved so far up his noise that it went into his brain and made him stupid. The crayon is removed and voila — he’s a genius. Only that’s not working out, so he decides to get the crayon pounded back into his noggin. Only how deep? Moe the bartender uses a mallet to pound the crayon in a little bit and then talk to Homer to gauge how dumb he’s getting. Long story short, Homer is back to being a moron when he exclaims, “Extended warranty? I’ll take it!” MSNBC.com is reporting that a pack of scam artists (e.g. Vehicle Services in St. Peters, Mo.) are mining the country for folks with Homerian IQs. Auto warranty firms are scamming ignorant consumers with high pressure warnings that their warranty is about to run out. Final notice. This is your last chance. They’re also calling people on cell phones and at 4:00 am. Those feeble-minded enough to purchase $3,110 extended warranties find that they cannot cancel them or get a refund (we’re shocked). What if your car should actually break? These extended warranties don’t do much in that situation, either. D’oh!

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The AP reports that the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against China regarding its commercial practices in the area of imported auto parts. According to the WTO, Chinese tariffs “accord imported auto parts less favourable treatment than like domestic auto parts.” The tariffs make foreign parts more expensive, thus providing an incentive to manufacture parts locally (in China). The complaint was brought jointly by the U.S., Canada and the European Union, all of which have large manufacturing bases in the car industry, whose car industries have bled (sent?) thousands of jobs offshore over the last few years. The WTO is now calling on China to “to bring these inconsistent measures as listed above into conformity with its obligations.” Don’t hold your breath; China isn’t exactly known for playing fair, and the WTO is as slow and toothless as a Giant Musk Turtle. “WTO cases tend to take years before retaliatory sanctions can be authorized, after the ruling is released,” states the AP. By then, the Chinese parts markers will have copied all the parts anyway.

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