Between 1992 and 1998, Honda produced the Civic/CR-X del Sol as a replacement to the CR-X. It is one of the automakers more intriguing production models and has quite a loyal following.
Nearly all of Nissan’s most successful designs of the last two decades can be traced back to one man. Everything from the GT-R to the Juke has had Shiro Nakamura’s influence on it. Since retiring in 2017, though, he hasn’t been quietly doing crossword puzzles by the pool.
Despite parent company Honda's green and friendly brand image, luxury marque Acura hasn't made a grand statement about electrifying their lineup. Even as brands like Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, and Infiniti pledge to entirely electrify their lineups in the coming decade, Acura has held back. The reason, according to Acura head honcho Jon Ikeda, is that it's focusing on reestablishing itself as a performance brand.
In a wide-ranging interview with Automotive News, Ikeda says Acura came out of the gate strong in 1986 and did well for the first 20 years, but when the bottom fell out of the market in 2008 the brand experienced "growing pains." That spawned a period of self-reflection and, as Ikeda puts it, "What are we about?" The decision was made to go back to Acura's roots as the performance division of Honda. "That's what Acura is. That's what I fell in love with," Ikeda says.
Though it hasn't been fully revealed yet, we have reason to believe the 2022 Infiniti QX60 will be a big improvement over the outgoing model. The concept has more confident and elegant styling, and the company has announced that the unloved CVT will go away in favor of a more conventional nine-speed automatic. We're expecting that transmission to be more pleasant in daily driving, but it also has had the bonus of letting Infiniti get more towing capacity out of the crossover.
The new maximum trailer weight for the QX60 is 6,000 pounds, an improvement of 1,000 pounds over the old model. That makes the QX60 one of the best options for the trailer set in its class, outperforming the Acura MDX, Buick Enclave, Cadillac XT6, Lexus RX and Volvo XC90. The only three-row luxury crossover in the price and performance segment to beat it is the Lincoln Aviator, which offers 6,700 pounds.
Back when Subaru sold several variations of the Leone in the United States and called every one "the Subaru," a four-wheel-drive version with a small truck bed appeared here. Dubbed the BRAT (for Bi-Drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter), the first ones showed up here for the 1978 model year; sales continued through 1987. Here's a well-worn '84 BRAT wearing camouflage in a Denver car graveyard.
In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. It's all V8s all the time this week, starting with the Land Rover Defender V8 unveiling, Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance debut and pricing announcement on the Jeep Wrangler 392. Next, they move on to what they've been driving. Spoiler alert: That means more V8 talk. Zac has been driving the Cadillac Escalade with the 6.2-liter V8 and BMW M550i with its 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8. Greg and Zac take a pause from the V8 theme by discussing their shared time in our long-term Acura TLX. From this, they segue into a "Spend My Money" feature about garage lifts to finish the show.
Dashcam footage has captured the dramatic moment an airplane crashed into the side of a white Lexus after missing the runway. The incident occurred on a freeway overpass in California. Thankfully no one was injured.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Looking at the 2021 Lexus ES sedan, one couldn't be faulted for thinking it unchanged from the previous model year. There is a significant new element, however, with Lexus offering an all-wheel-drive ES for the first time. The ES 250 AWD is a bone tossed to customers living in the Snow Belt, many of whom find the confidence of all-wheel drive an easier investment than a set of snow tires for their front-drive vehicle. With our first drive of the new AWD model, we'd have the opportunity to take it on a long trip to Northern Michigan and, as luck would have it, a terrific storm was headed our way complete with snow and bone-chilling temperatures. Aside from pushing lateral grip and balance to its limits on a race track — and, really, who tracks their ES? — it seemed the perfect opportunity to test the ES lineup's newest improvement.
The new feature comes with a caveat, though, which could be a deal-breaker for fans of the ES 350's 3.5-liter V6: All-wheel drive can only be had in the also-new-for-2021 ES 250 designation, which indicates the sedan's naturally aspirated, 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. Unlike the I-4 in the ES 300h — ‘h' standing for ‘hybrid' — the 250's mill doesn't come linked to any electric motors. The engine and drivetrain go hand in hand. You can only get all-wheel drive with the I-4, and you can only get the non-hybrid four with all-wheel drive.
TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday it has developed a packaged fuel cell system module, as it hopes to expand its usage and accessibility of the zero-emission technology amid the industry's shift towards electric vehicles (EVs).
The world's biggest automaker, which launched a revamped Mirai in December, has not been successful in winning drivers over to fuel cell vehicles (FCV).
TOKYO — Nissan Motor Co said on Friday it has reached a breakthrough in achieving a 50% thermal efficiency with its in-development e-POWER hybrid technology, which could lead to a further reduction of car CO2 emissions.
This new thermal efficiency level would improve fuel consumption by 25% over the 40% thermal efficiency level in the upcoming e-POWER engine, the company said.
Nissan created a schtick that stuck to the Maxima back in 1989. The car was marketed and sold in North America as the 4DSC, which is an abbreviation for "four-door sports car." There was a 4DSC sticker on the window and everything. Whether it lived up to the name is up for considerable debate. For some historical perspective, MotorWeek's review of the car when it was new saw it hit 60 mph in 8.2 seconds. The car's propensity for significant body roll was brought up more than once. Neither of those sound like laudable sports car qualities, but regardless, the 4DSC branding inevitably comes up in any Maxima discussion.
One reason for that is Nissan's continued use of the four-door sports car slogan. It hasn't been around as long as BMW's "Ultimate Driving Machine," but it's definitely one of the older ones at this point, with more than 30 years spanning its first and most recent usage. That said, the Maxima name itself is even older.
Joby Aviation, the 12-year-old electric air taxi startup partnered with Toyota and Uber, will go public in a $6.6 billion reverse merger with blank check company Reinvent Technology Partners, the firms said on Wednesday.
California-based Joby aims to begin a commercial passenger service in 2024, using its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Potential air taxi competitors include well-funded German startups Volocopter and Lilium.
TOKYO — Suzuki's 91-year-old chairman, Osamu Suzuki, announced he will retire in June, stepping aside for a new leader to navigate the shift to electric cars and fight off competition from tech firms such as Tesla and Apple.
The chairman, after heading for more than four decades the company that his wife's grandfather founded, is leaving his son Toshihiro Suzuki, already president and CEO, to hold the reins of the company.
Mitsubishi unveiled the 2022 Outlander earlier this month, but the company hasn't forgotten about the ‘old' Outlander PHEV.