… unless you’re Chinese, in which case Japanese luxury brands are definitely designing those grilles for you.
According to Automotive News, China is poised to eclipse the United States as the number one luxury car market. To get ready for that eventuality, Japanese luxury car brands are designing their cars to cater to the tastes of affluent, young, Chinese car buyers.
Owners of BMW i3s equipped with optional range extenders — read: two-cylinder engine that generates electricity — are suing the automaker for an issue that could leave those drivers going slow in the fast lane.
According to Green Car Reports, the BMW i3 REx will drop down to 45 miles per hour under certain conditions, which some owners believe is a safety issue.
General Motors filed a trademark application for the “ZR1” name, reports AutoGuide, once again fueling rumors of the second coming of Jesus a mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette.
The last time a Corvette wore the ZR1 designation, it came packing 638 horsepower thanks to a blown 6.2-liter LS9 V8. The next ZR1, however, may just eclipse the 707-horsepower Hellcat duo for the Horsepower Wars Output Crown.
Mini, the British brand built atop the idea of British fashionability, has been incredibly style conscious ever since BMW brought it back from the depths of English oppression. Its iconic Cooper still wears a silhouette that harkens back to the original, but offers modern safety equipment and enough room for life-sized humans. You can order the Union Jack placed on virtually any body panel. And those center-mounted speedometers — as much as they put Flava Flav on notice — were a charming touch, if completely useless.
Yet, posh Britons are a fairly easy bunch to embarrass. For example, flatulence is met with mortified exclamations of “My word!” before said flatulator escapes to another room to make tea.
So, with that in mind, how the hell did the Clubman’s tow hitch make it past the censors?
You know the world is a bit upside-down when master wordsmith Jack Baruth spins a web so tight in favor of the EPA and CARB that even the Best and Brightest can’t see through it.
Jack makes a valid point today: light-duty trucks, especially those of the diesel variety, are often driven by people who don’t need the capability that those trucks provide. It’s those diesel pickups that spew tons of particulates and NOx into the atmosphere, both of which are harmful to human health. Goodbye, he says to the light-duty diesel truck, before we turn into Europe. Turbo-fed gasoline engines offer just as much torque as their diesel-powered brethren, he exclaims. There’s no need to buy an $80,000 phallus extender. What do you think of this twin-turbo V6 Raptor?
However, Mr. Baruth stopped just short of saying recreational use of light-duty diesel trucks should be outright banned, instead offering up a solution that’s analogous to gun control.
It’s official: the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 will have more gears than a typical IROC-Z owner has teeth.
General Motors revealed today the new aluminum-cased beauty, touting 10 forward gears and upshifts quicker than a dual-clutch automated-manual transmission, will make its non-truck debut in the Camaro ZL1.
Did Camaro tell Mustang to step outside for a fuel-economy contest? Maybe not.
It’s a Dodge Caliber festooned with a seven slot grille and boxy proportions. It exists for no other reason than to leverage the brand equity built up by decades of Jeep heritage. The Patriot*, according to your nominations, our writers, and your votes is — by far — TTAC’s 2016 Worst Automobile Today.
After all the votes were cast, a staggering 66.1 percent of you believed the Jeep Patriot to be the worst new vehicle money could buy. And, as many of you guessed, it’s not the only Fiat Chrysler Automobiles product in the Top 10.
After three weeks of nominations, votes from our writers, and another round of votes from you, the 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata is TTAC’s Best Automobile Today.
Is that really a surprise?
BMW went on a mad rager last year as it did everything it possibly could to claim the U.S. luxury sales crown from Mercedes and Lexus — and now katzenjammer is in full effect.
The premium German brand is looking at piled-up stocks of cars sitting on dealer lots. Predictably, those dealers aren’t happy, and BMW is trying to inject some saline to recover.
The main complaint levied against the Toyota GT86 (and Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ twins) is its supposed lack of power, even though it pumps out 200 horses. Coming in at a close second on the 2+2 hatchback coupe’s complaint list is its lack of usable space.
Toyota Australia has an answer to that second concern, and it’s in the form of a Shooting Brake that looks like a Honda CR-Z after hitting up some free weights.
Earlier this year, I was planning on showcasing on TTAC my 2008 Saturn Astra as a testbed of Millennial ingenuity. Us Millennials want the latest technology in our rides, but we don’t necessarily have the funds to buy brand-new cars. We’re a debt-laden demographic, thanks to a combination of rising education and living costs, but […]
I would’ve reminded you all week to vote for TTAC’s 2016 Ten Best and Worst Automobiles Today, but I was driving around San Antonio in Honda’s newest Ridgeline (full review on May 9th).
Instead, consider this your last call without any foreplay: this morning is your last chance to let your picks be known.
Like two brothers who really, really, really can’t get along (I can’t stress enough how much they don’t get along) no matter how hard they supposedly try, the Koreas have a hot/cold relationship, to put it mildly.
One moment, the brothers are manufacturing trinkets together in Kaesong Industrial Region, a special administrative region in the DPRK. The next, the North is threatening to bomb everyone and the South shuts off the water and electricity service (literally) to its brother’s apartment.
But what if the Koreas unified; became whole again? Mike Rutherford of AutoExpress thinks it would be a car-building paradise, with Hyundai, Kia, Samsung, and SsangYong best poised to take advantage of low-cost Northern labor and cheap, cheap land.
American luxury car shoppers are driving right past Chevrolet/Buick/GMC/Cadillac dealerships it seems, according to 247WallSt.com.
The website collected a list of best- and worst-selling vehicles based on time spent on dealer lots, and all Cadillac’s cars — save the CT6 — are in the top 15 worst sellers based on that metric.
You’ve nominated them. We’ve voted on them. Now it’s your turn to select the Ten Best and Ten Worst Automobiles Today.
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