While Smart USA may be going through some big changes, the company hasn’t stopped development on future products. The new Smart Forspeed concept will make its debut at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show and here is the first look at the new study. Power comes from a rear-mounted 41-hp electric-motor that allows it to run [...]
On Jan. 10, the Prius Goes Plural voting campaign asked the public to help Toyota decided what the plural nomenclature of Prius should be. Well, the votes are in and the general public has selected ‘Prii’ as the preferred plural term for Prius. “With 25 percent of the votes, Prii becomes the word not only [...]
We love drag races… why? Because they are just fun, exciting and provide winners with bragging rights that their vehicle are better than the ones that just got beaten. Sticking in the five-figure price range, the guys at MotorTrend recently decided to take the 2012 Nissan GT-R, 2011 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and the 2011 Ford [...]
Scared about BMW dropping its naturally-aspirated 6-cylinder engine for its new 2.0L 4-cylinder TwinPower turbocharged across its whole lineup? Well, don’t worry. According to a recent interview with German Automotive Week, the new 2.0L 4-cylinder will be powering most of the 1-Series and 3-Series lineup. The naturally aspirated 6-cylinder will continue to be featured in [...]
According to Mazda’s Chief Financial Officer Kiyoshi Ozaki, Mazda is looking into options for the underutilized Flat Rock plant that it jointly operates with Ford. Ozaki said that Mazda is even considering ending production at the plant – he said that final plans for the plant will be announced later this year. Ozaki, as quoted [...]
Just as things starting looking up for Toyota, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted on its website that it has opened an investigation into 43,941Toyota Highlander Hybrid models over concerns that their engines can stall or fail to restart. The preliminary investigation began after the NHTSA received 32 complaints. It said that 21 of [...]
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars confirmed today that they are developing a fully-electric powered Phantom known as the 102EX. The Rolls-Royce 102EX will make its world debut at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show and will continue on as a test bed to gather research data. While there are no plans to produce the Rolls-Royce 102EX, the model [...]
GM investors are certainly in good company, as far as financial know-how is concerned. As required by law, major investors have made public the facts of their investments in GM during the IPO and the weeks immediately thereafter. Financial and investment gurus George Soros, David Tepper, Bill Ackman, and John Griffin, have all invested in [...]
Though headlines might lead one to believe that this year is all about the hybrid car, manufacturers offerings suggest that it is more than that. Although energy efficiency is more prevalent now than ever before in the car game, manufacturers are also rolling out the most powerful cars – ever. Ford and GM both offer [...]
Despite the recent relinquishing control of Smart to Daimler, Penske automotive is looking good for the near-term. For 2010, the company earned $108.3 million on revenue of $10.7 billion, while losing about $16 million on Smart USA. Penske invested heavily in the rights to distribute the Daimler-made cars in 2008 on spec that gasoline would [...]
