Category Archives: new vehicle

Polaris MRZR Turbo Diesel Debuts for US Expeditionary Forces

MRZRs are ultralight, off-road military vehicles for expeditionary forces in the U.S. and more than 20 allied countrie Continue reading

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First Look – Next Volvo S40 Small Car

It appears that Volvo’s new T5 Twin Engine powertrain – which has a new 3-cylinder gasoline engine and a new 7-speed dual-clutch transmission coupled to an electric motor – indicates Volvo is abandoning its existing Twin Engine all-wheel drive designs for a more efficient front-wheel drive system on its smaller cars. Continue reading

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Beijing Report – Acura CDX Compact SUV Unveiled

The Acura version will be stateside at some point AutoInformed opines, even though Honda claims this is a crossover mostly for the Chinese market. Continue reading

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Lexus IS Snout Grows Larger in Beijing World Debut

Lexus admits its recent front-end treatments are controversial and polarizing – critics call them snouts, and older Lexus customers are shopping elsewhere – but because the original styling of the current IS has proved popular. Continue reading

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Lexus IS Debuts at 2016 Beijing International Auto Exhibition

Translation – the Lexus snout is about to get even bigger. Continue reading

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Fresh Colors for 2017 Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang

Ford Performance is adding more standard features to the new Shelby GT350 Mustang that goes on sale this June. Continue reading

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2017 Honda Civic Hatchback Defies Detroit 3 Dogma

The 10th generation Civic is as formidable a compact car that exists in showrooms now, albeit Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sentra are contenders. Continue reading

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Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Debuts in US After 3 Year Lag

The Outlander PHEV move follows the introduction of the Outlander last year in the U.S. after it was on sale for almost three years elsewhere. Even though SUV sales account for 40% of the U.S. market, poor Mitsubishi U.S. sales and the Great Recession that started in 2008 roughing up all automakers precluded plugging it in here. Continue reading

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Mazda MX-5 RF Debuts at New York Auto Show

With strong contrast between light and shadow and a high-density finish, Machine Grey allegedly gives the impression that the vehicle’s body has been sculpted from a solid steel ingot. Continue reading

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Buick Encore ‘Encore’ is Actually a Mild Redo

Introduced in 2013, the Encore surprisingly was a winner by offering premium features typically associated with larger luxury cars and trucks – a well-known strategy at German carmakers. Encore rose to the head of the fast-growing small SUV market – an ongoing global trend – topping it in 2014 and 2015. Continue reading

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Bentley Bentayga SUV Deliveries Start

Guests at the event in Crewe were given access to Bentley’s factory to see the Bentayga’s assembly process. Continue reading

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Alfa Romeo Giulia Line Debuts at the New York Auto Show

The Germans – notably Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz – dominate the market. To a smaller degree Japanese brands – Acura, Infiniti and Lexus – also are active. Alfa and Jeep are the key elements in FCA’s planned global expansion. The Jeep line appears to be a relatively easy global play; Alfa is a much more difficult proposition. Continue reading

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Driving the 2016 Nissan Sentra – Substantial Upgrades in Equipment, Electronics & Safety Systems  

In the golden days for automakers the so-called mid-cycle freshening of a platform such as the Nissan Sentra was fast and dirty – headlights, taillights, new colors and the like – cheap and cheerful between major revisions every eight years or so. Continue reading

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Chicago Finishes its 108th Auto Show

It was a good start in 2016 for what is billed as the “consumer auto show,” with some justification because Monroney sticker prices are on each vehicle, as opposed to automaker self-celebrations at other international shows. Continue reading

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Mazda Begins Production of CX-9 in Hiroshima

This three-row seat CX-9 is long overdue for a major overhaul in an ultra-competitive field, but Mazda’s fragile financial position (net income -25% in Q1 of Japanese FY 2016) saw it mildly freshening the Ford Edge-based platform since its 2007 introduction. That’s a long time in car life years. Such vehicles turn into, well, dogs. Continue reading

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