Following a path carved by the 2011 Mini Countryman, Mazda’s 3 was recently acclaimed as Top Safety Pick under the IIHS crash testing program. The Insurance Istitute for Highway Safety does some pretty rigorous testing (as the photos clearly state) so the Japanese can be proud of their small sedan fir the award it’s just
One car maker really can’t afford to ignore Germany’s car market and therefore special editions of cars are made for it every time. The latest such thing comes from Suzuki and focuses on their little SX4 crossover and it features some of the most discrete changes ever made to a production car.
The Japanese at Mitsubishi are confronting a bit of a PR problem lately and it is easy to see why it’s not going to go away for a while. Apparently the recent public relations disaster is related to how there’s a rumor going round about Mitsubishi’s star product is dying.
How much more suffering can you get from the same problem? I’m not sure, but the guys at Toyota definitely have proper knowledge about it. In a recent announcement of the unintended acceleration recall the Japanese are back to visiting the court room.
Some of Maserati’s fans must be working for the Japanese luxury tuner which calls itself Wald International because they’ve got a special new creation. The new car Wald International turned into a Black Bison offering is the Maserati Quattroporte.
Automotive recalls weren’t something special until the Japanese at Toyota re-wrote the stat book on the whole affair last year. In what’s a bit of a surprise, Toyota has now announced us they are recalling yet more cars for the same problem with pedal entrapment.
Nissan may have refined the EV technology to the point where the Leaf is actually a viable and usable vehicle in the real world but they still have some problems. And according to the latest announcement to come from the Japanese, Nissan’s biggest problem with the Leaf EV is making it fast enough.
I guess Toyota really needed something to gloss over the soon to happen recall situation on the Toyota Highlander Hybrid. I guess that after people saw through the whole new plant in Japan plot, Toyota came up with this, they ended the wild goose chase of a Toyota Prius’ plural.
Ford isn’t exactly a stranger to Mazda, heck, for a while they even owned about a third of the entire Japanese car maker. That said though, at the moment, Ford barely owns some 3.5 percent of Mazda and thus the people from the Land of the Rising sun seem to want to move away.
This is the sort of news that gets mixed responses, mostly because it’s difficult to understand why would somebody do what Toyota just did. The Japanese have decided to open a new plant in their homeland, something that hasn’t happened in nearly 20 years of Toyota activity.
At a time when most Japanese manufacturers are winding down their motorsports programs, Nissan decided to spruce up their own and make a return to endurance racing, particularly at Le Mans. While nothing focusing on the famous French 24 hour race has been said, Nissan is telling us they are going to enter the LMP2
I hate Toyota’s attitude with the unintended acceleration recall and no matter what comes about, that’s not going to change very soon. Something was in the running, the NHTSA’s 10 month long safety probe could have had the answer to why the unintended acceleration happened and may have cleared the Japanese.
Last year, sometime in the middle of it, Mazda came out with a range of special edition models called the Takuya lineup. The Japanese have now decided to beat themselves to the punch and release a 2011 Takuya lineup earlier on in the year. Perhaps they’re making up for something.
Just a month ago I found myself in a Honda dealership and was surrounded by mostly boring vehicles. That experience may however change soon as Honda has just announced that they’ve started development on a new flagship supercar, a new NSX.
We all have to admit, the Mazda MX-5 (Miata to you Yank folks and Roadster to you Japs) has gotten to the point where it’s so brilliant it’s almost boring. That may be so, but being boring to talk about doesn’t mean the small Japanese roadster is boring to drive. And that is why it’s
At this point, the beginning of February has barely gotten us used to the idea of 2011. That hasn’t put Toyota off. The Japanese giant is already up to making some predictions in terms of sales of their legendary hybrid Prius.
We all know about the Lexus LFA, most of us have their own opinion about how it but when it comes to living in Los Angeles, there’s quite a problem. Even though there’s only 500 units of the Lexus LFA going to be made, if you live in Los Angeles you’re going to have a
Admittedly, a bit late when compared to “the old continent” the Americans have started properly testing the cars sold in their market in terms of testing. What better authority could there be for doing so than the well know NHTSA or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Financial reports from the automotive industry come with mixed responses but this here bit of news in relation to a situation from Honda. As it turns out, the Japanese have just lost $180 million on a certain part of their business.
Over the past year we’ve seen and heard a lot about how Toyota has spent millions and millions of dollars with their massive recall. We’ve also heard how the Japanese have even payed fines and penalties worth several more millions and now we find the whole thing hasn’t really affected them.
