The 2021 Honda Accord is our top-recommended midsize sedan, and of its handful of variants, the Accord Hybrid you see here would be our pick of the litter. Its superior fuel economy and agreeable drivability without significant compromise comes at a perfectly reasonable price premium. As we're reviewing the interior here, there's also nothing here to dissuade you from hybrid ownership. Unlike the previous-generation Accord Hybrid, this new version's trunk is uncompromised by the battery pack and identical to the one you'd get with a 1.5T or 2.0T Accord. The instrument panel gets some unique readouts in the Accord's large color screen that occupies the spot normally reserved for a tach, while the center console houses Honda's unloved push-and-pull electronic shifter shared with the 2.0T. Otherwise, everything you see in this review of the interior is common throughout the Accord line, or in some cases, the top-of-the-line Touring trim.

Now, join us for a deep dive into the interior's materials, storage, technology, space and infant car seat fitment. We'll touch on cargo space, but our Accord Luggage Test post already covered it thoroughly. It all adds up to a family sedan that lives up to that descriptor by being pretty darn useful for family use. 

Lexus has plans to take its F performance label to even greater heights, according to officials. That's one of the key reasons the IS 500 F Sport Performance wasn't a full-blown IS F, Lexus executives said.

Speaking before a gathering of Lexus enthusiasts at the IS 500 Launch Edition's, uh, launch at Sebring Raceway, group vice president and general manager of the Lexus division Andrew Gilleland reaffirmed that the IS 500 F Sport Performance is the first in a line of high-performance but sub-F cars (at 5:11 in the video below). "There will definitely be more vehicles. There's a lot more coming where this came from," Gilleland said, eliciting cheers from the gathered crowd of enthusiasts.

There's a reason we have a "Rumormill" logo: A guy-who-knows-a-guy wrote a post at the 400Z Club forum pertaining to Nissan's upcoming rework of the Z, and if it's correct, the forum's going to have to figure out a new name for itself. The car, in this telling, won't be called the Nissan 400Z, a moniker we all admittedly just assumed. It'll simply be the Nissan Z.

More precisely, it will remain the Fairlady Z in Japan, and will be called the Nissan Z in other markets.

Toyota owns 20% of Subaru, and the two Japanese carmakers are working on several joint projects. One will be unveiled online in April 2021, and the partners released a preview image that asks more questions than it answers.

Posted on a dedicated page of Subaru's Japanese website, the photo shows the caption, "Let's make ever-better cars together!" accompanied by an image of each company's logo. We're presumably looking at the front end of a car. Scrolling down reveals that it will be presented by the head of Toyota's go-fast Gazoo Racing division.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The 2021 Toyota Sienna isn't what you'd think of as fun or sporty. It's a minivan. Also, it's a hybrid. Sure, hybrid isn't as correlated with slow as it used to be, but Toyota plus hybrid together conjures images of Priuses driving several miles per hour below the speed limit. Yet Toyota begs to differ with the XSE trim level of the new Sienna minivan. Like the outgoing generation's Sienna SE, this unique new trim stands apart from the rest of the lineup with its own styling cues — sporty-looking ones, of course — as well as exclusive suspension and steering enhancements.

The XSE sits in the middle of the Sienna trim lineup, with a starting price of $43,175, including $1,175 in destination charges. Its appearance differs from the other grades — both above and below. Up front, it sports a gloss black mesh grille that looks more aggressive than the horizontal slats on other Siennas. That's flanked by a pair of additional air intakes that give the front bumper its own shape. The front-wheel-drive version boasts dark, 20-inch wheels, while the XSE AWD gets bright 18-inch wheels shared with the Platinum AWD. The XSE also gets black mirror covers, black rocker panels, black rear bumper mesh (atop a body-color lower accent) and a black antenna.

Online presales of the Acura TLX Type S started on March 17 in Canada and ended later that same day. After just eight hours, all 119 units were gone.

Subaru's second-generation BRZ made its global debut in late 2020, and it's scheduled to arrive in showrooms in 2021, but Toyota's version of the car remains shrouded in secrecy. Although it's still on its way to production, a recent report claims its unveiling has been delayed by several months in a bid to differentiate it from the BRZ.

Rest assured, enthusiasts: What's seemingly certain is that the 86 will return for a second generation. It will again be closely related to the BRZ, but Japanese magazine Best Car learned from anonymous sources that Toyota President Akio Toyoda ordered the delay to give the development team time to dial in more differences between the coupes. Visually, redesigned front and rear ends will bring the 86 in line with the rest of the Toyota range, though its body and proportions will be identical to the BRZ's. The coupe will tip the scale at under 2,900 pounds.

Subaru's popular Outback will inaugurate a line of off-road-focused models bundled under the Wilderness label. The firm released a preview image to give us an early look at what it calls its most capable station wagon to date.

Starting with the Outback makes sense. It's a wagon (one of the few left in America), but its outdoorsy flair is unmistakable. Wilderness models will build on it with a trim-specific look characterized by a redesigned grille, shorter bumpers that increase the approach and departure angles, bigger fender flares, and six-spoke wheels wrapped by meaty tires. Skid plates will protect the underbody. It looks like the suspension system is lifted, too.

LONDON — Nissan will stay in Formula E until at least the end of 2026, the all-electric championship's only Japanese manufacturer announced on Wednesday.

Formula E is due to introduce its next generation of more powerful and faster cars for its ninth season starting in 2022-23.

Good morning and welcome to our daily digest of automotive news from around the globe, starting with…

Nissan is still some time away from launching a successor to the R35 GT-R and, if a new report from Japan is to believed, it may update the outgoing model with a mild-hybrid variant.

Honda will extend production shutdowns at a number of factories in North America into the week of March 29 because of supply chain issues.

Lexus released another teaser for its upcoming unnamed concept car and also gave us an official release date. A digital world premiere is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 30, at 7 p.m. EDT.

No new information was revealed, but the new teaser photo and video (found on Lexus' site here) give us a better idea of what's coming. The shadowing makes it difficult to pin down, but this concept's silhouette already has us intrigued. It has the body shape of a sportback, but the ride height of a crossover. 

Looking at the luxury crossover market, you can probably guess that there's a clear demand for fastback variants. All the German automakers offer multiple coupe-like crossovers. The rest of the industry hasn't been so sure, including Infiniti, which didn't originally plan to offer a rakish version of its QX50. Yet here is the 2022 Infiniti QX55, and it's the direct result of customer demand. The people wanted it, so Infiniti brought it.  

The company didn't just stop with the low, curvy roofline, though. The front fascia features a wavy, almost sculptural grille, a deeper chin spoiler and crisp black accents around the outboard grilles. The rear gets wider taillights with pronounced LED segments and a diffuser between the tailpipes. The license plate has been moved to the bumper, too, so that you get a big Infiniti badge and proud brand lettering across the hatch. On top of that, every QX55 gets big 20-inch wheels. These detail changes, plus the new roof make this not only a much more attractive-looking iteration of the QX50 but also arguably the best-looking crossover "coupe" in the segment. Infiniti's flowing design language naturally complements the QX55's shape, and it looks almost like it was designed to be this way in the first place, whereas competitor's SUV coupes tend to look like afterthoughts.