Julia Steyn, head of General Motors’ Maven mobility brand, is reportedly leaving the company. Stayn joined GM in 2012, starting out as the automaker’s vice president of corporate development and global mergers and acquisitions, then switching to the company’s urban mobility unit and Maven three years ago.

Maven, if you’re not aware, is a GM-owned car-sharing service that underwent an expansion last year, allowing owners of newer GM cars to rent out their vehicles to eligible users. The mobility experiment will have to continue with someone else at the helm. (Read More…)

There’s no shortage of F Sport models populating the Lexus lineup, but those efforts amount to little more than an appearance package designed to foist some of the aura of the brand’s F performance division onto pedestrian models. There’s no additional power.

While the brand already has two F models in the form of the GS F and RC F, there’s groundwork afoot to identify the right crossover for F duty. Surely you’re not surprised. (Read More…)

This May sees Toyota mark the 20th anniversary of the start of Tundra production. When that happy date arrives, there’s be two full generations of full-size truck memories to look back on. Yes, the Tundra is old, with the current generation bowing for the 2007 model year. A significant refresh came in 2014, with minor tweaks occuring ever since.

While testing a loaded 2018 crew cab variant a while back, this writer couldn’t help noticing the Tundra’s advancing age, despite the addition of new creature comforts and tech. The rig I piloted also weighed nearly 900 pounds more than a comparable Ford F-150.

Well, there’s good news for that uniquely loyal crop of Toyota truck owners. A new Tundra is on the way, but it won’t entirely break from the past. You’ll certainly recognize the cab. (Read More…)

Premium. Is there a more alluring and misunderstood word in the world of vehicle branding? Occupying the rung just below “luxury,” — a category it’s often mistaken for, as language is malleable — premium concerns itself with value. Higher price, (presumed) higher quality, and, most importantly, a higher level of desirable content. All of these things give a premium product value. And there’s value in being seen in a premium vehicle, too, though maybe not as much as a true luxury vehicle.

Rolling up to the club in a Genesis G80, only to find yourself surrounded by Bentleys, Rollers, and Ferraris, would fill anyone with pangs of self-doubt. You’re not likely to impress anyone in that bathroom lineup with talk of the safety suite and ventilated leather you got for $10k less than the Germans.

As brand experts will tell you, luxury is more about the brand name (and what it brings to the table) than the functionality of the product. It’s about wants, not needs. With premium gear, buyers are looking to score themselves the trappings and quality everyone desires, only at a reduced price. There’s the value argument again.

With a solid tier of premium brands seeking your attention — a field Mazda apparently hopes to join — which premium automotive brand fails the hardest at actually being premium? (Read More…)

Well, “free” under certain circumstances. We’re referring to the cost of recharging Porsche’s upcoming electric super sedan, and we’re certainly not referring to the time it takes to reach triple-digit speeds.

As it prepares to launch a vehicle that truly deserves the overused title of “Tesla fighter,” Porsche has a perk it wants would-be owners to know about: industry-beating charging speed, at no cost to the operator. (Read More…)

First off, we could debate whether a true “stripper” vehicle even exists in this era of generous standard content; arguably, my Chevrolet Cruze L doesn’t even make the cut — though one peek at the headliner material suggests otherwise. But I digress…

Certainly, the upcoming Nissan Leaf Plus is not the starting point of the Leaf line, but the new 62 kWh variant, with its larger battery and additional grunt, does include a modest “S” trim. And it seems the cheaper version of the long-range electric hatch packs a range advantage over its pricier siblings. (Read More…)

Twenty-one years after Toyota replaced the alluring Previa with a new, more conventional people mover, the Sienna minivan finds itself falling out of favor among American buyers. SUVs and crossovers now provide virile consumers with a smorgasbord of front-and all-wheel drive, cargo-friendly alternatives, while competition from newer rivals serves to further erode the Sienna’s standing. What to do?

Nothing, at least for now. Much like the brand’s ancient Tundra pickup, Toyota’s Sienna, last redesigned for the 2011 model year, will soldier on relatively unchanged for another couple of years. Toyota isn’t worried. (Read More…)

Late last year, we delivered some upbeat news — U.S. motorist deaths fell 1.8 percent in 2017, after two years of steep increases. This decline in fatalities came in a year where the number of miles travelled by American drivers actually increased 1.2 percent. It’s progress, albeit meager, but it’s still nowhere near the ideal of zero fatalities.

But what about people killed in vehicle collisions who weren’t riding in a car? Thousands of pedestrians and cyclists die each year at the hands of motorists, and some 5,977 met their end this way in 2017. What can we learn from the available data? (Read More…)

Two days after blockading roads leading to General Motors’ Canadian headquarters, autoworkers union Unifor rolled out an invisible wall to be placed between Canadians and GM vehicles built south of the Rio Grande.

The union’s call to boycott Mexican-made GM products doesn’t come as a surprise; Unifor president Jerry Dias threatened it in the past as a way of prodding corporate bosses in Detroit to keep the century-old Oshawa, Ontario assembly plant open. With the union now escalating its protest action, the boycott call is out. GM Canada isn’t happy about it, claiming it will only end up hurting Canadian workers. (Read More…)

Mitsubishi Motors burned up the newswires today in its haste to celebrate the opening of a new dealership in Cartersville, Georgia — which isn’t something you see every day. While hard to imagine for an OEM like Ford or GM, the press release fits with Mitsubishi’s short-term goal: a dealer network expansion in the U.S. and Canada, and greater dealer visibility.

We rag on Mitsubishi a lot; in many cases rightly so (why do your driver’s seats wobble?), but the brand that courted death earlier this decade just wrapped up its best sales year since 2006. When you’re small, you celebrate the little things. (Read More…)

Claiming he wants a fresh start for the scandal-rocked Renault-Nissan Alliance, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa announced on Friday his intention to move aside in the coming months, giving someone else a chance to run the company.

Alliance partner Renault divested itself of former CEO Carlos Ghosn this week, two months after the executive’s Tokyo arrest. With this in mind, Saikawa, who denounced the alliance boss at length following news of his arrest, suggested a change in leadership would be a good thing for Nissan, too. However, there’s work to be done first. (Read More…)

General Motors’ Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly complex has reason not to worry about the automaker’s current round of cost-cutting and plant mothballing. There’s not a car in sight.

On Thursday, the General forked over another $22 million to facilitate production of a thriftier version of its revered 6.2-liter V8 truck engine, which brings total investment in Spring Hill to over $2 billion this decade alone.  (Read More…)

Mazda’s next-generation 3 sedan and hatch heads to dealers in March, where buyers can kiss the idea of a “base” engine goodbye — at least until the innovative Skyactiv-X motor shows up. Until then, the 2019 3 fields just one power source: the 2.5-liter Skyactiv-G four-cylinder, which makes 186 horsepower and 186 lb-ft of torque.

While the new 3 doesn’t afford buyers any choice in the engine department, its drive wheels are another matter. (Read More…)

The passing of the Toyota Yaris hatchback into history doesn’t just spell the end of a forgettable subcompact car, it also leaves the red-blooded Dodge brand sitting in a class of one. What might that special group be, you ask? Some of you already know.

With the Yaris hatch’s discontinuation, the still strong-selling Dodge Journey becomes the only passenger vehicle offered with a four-speed automatic in the United States. (Read More…)

In a less-than-shocking turn of events, Toyota has confirmed to CarsDirect that its Yaris Liftback, a slow-selling model that managed to score itself a facelift a few years back, is dead in the United States.

Official confirmation of the model’s discontinuation came from Toyota spokesperson Nancy Hubbell. Starting at $16,565 after destination, the diminutive hatch’s sales paled in comparison to that of its Mazda-based namesake, the Yaris sedan. To all observers, the Yaris hatch was a dead car … driving.  (Read More…)