Chassis

When it's unveiled this weekend at the Stagecoach Festival--country music's Coachella--the refreshed 2014 Toyota 4Runner will be noteworthy for two reasons: It will be the first time a major automaker has introduced a vehicle at an arts festival, and the 4Runner carries on as one of the last of the ...    Read more

When it came time to review the Chevrolet Cruze, one of our biggest gripes came by way of its overly conservative styling. If you could get past it, you'd find the Cruze to be a perfectly nice compact sedan, driving ...    Read more

Light-duty vehicles and planes are about to share something in common: data recorders. Airplanes already have a data recorder--colloquially known as a "black box"--that records real-time flight data which is relied upon in the event of an accident. Now, all new light-duty cars and trucks may required to carry a ...    Read more

Where else in the world can you go buy a pallet of maple syrup, a camping tent that sleeps five, a nine-piece outdoor patio set and a hot dog, drink and a free refill for $137 but Costco? The warehouse club chain is known for the superfluous quantity of goods ...    Read more

What you're looking at isn't Photoshopped; it's an actual vehicle shaped like a 2004 Mini Cooper driving atop the water. "It's a miracle! Hallelujah!" you say. No, it's actually just a safety boat for the Head of Charles Regatta going on this weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Taking a mould of a 2004 Mini ...    Read more

More and more, there are active technologies making their way into cars to make sure drivers can avoid collisions. Technologies like forward collision warning, active braking that senses when a collision is imminent, lane departure warning, adaptive headlights, and blindspot detection all make driving safer. But oftentimes, it's been hard deciphering ...    Read more

When the Mazda2 was introduced to the U.S. for 2011, it marked a departure for the brand as the first subcompact Mazda had sold here since the 1990s. The Mazda2 marked another big departure for the automaker: Building a vehicle that was smaller and lighter than the one that preceded ...    Read more

The 2014 Chevrolet Corvette is just months away from a likely debut at January's 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and General Motors is having a dickens of a time keeping it under wraps until then. Omega Tooling, a Tier One supplier for the molded plastic bumper covers ...    Read more

There are so many new safety technologies available that it's hard to figure out which, if any of them, actually keep you safe. The Highway Loss Data Institute, a division of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, ...    Read more

Although it will be hitting dealerships in a matter of mere months, the 2013 Honda Accord has been a mystery shrouded in an enigma for much of its testing process. We've seen what the outside of the ...    Read more

One would think 2008's economic meltdown followed by subsequent gas spikes would have sent car shoppers straight to dealerships to trade in their big trucks and SUVs for the smaller rides European drivers choose. And to some degree, that assumption would be correct. But not in 2012. In 2008, Americans saw gas ...    Read more

General Motors just announced that it's moving around nine of its biggest-name, most talented designers. As of August 1, several of them will have to be on the other side of the world from where they are to work, for brands which they may know nothing about right now. We'll ...    Read more

If you live outside California, some of the state's laws may seem dumbfounding. Take the "compliance car" laws recently enacted. According to the law, by 2025, all automakers selling at least 20,000 cars per year in the Golden State ...    Read more

BMW has produced more than 3 million engines at its Hams Hall, England, manufacturing plant. But none of those engines may be as important as its next one. The German automaker recently confirmed a new turbocharged three-cylinder engine for use in its upcoming BMW i8 extended-range electric sports car. Expected to ...    Read more

Car enthusiast magazines across the pond recently posted spyshots of what appears to be the 2013 Volkswagen Golf GTI. Details of the sporty hatchback are extremely scant: struts framing the passenger window can be seen, but info like design changes, fuel economy, and pricing have not been released. Car enthusiast info, ...    Read more

Crossovers! Crossovers! Crossovers! They’re like sport utility vehicles, but based on cars, not trucks, and everyone wants one. Including Lexus, maybe. Lexus has contemplated building a three-row, car-based successor for the popular GX, the based-on-the-4Runner-based-on-the-Tacoma-truck SUV. In fact, Lexus had even trademarked the name “JX” for the possibility of said CUV. ...    Read more

Whether or not Tesla ever comes out with its Model S sedan seems to be a non-question to the electric startup. Whether or not it gets its expected 160-, 230-, or 300-mile expected per-charge range is much more pertinent to Tesla, despite other doubts. Tesla anticipates its top-spec 85-kilowatt-hour battery in ...    Read more

Electric car upstart Tesla Motors is at a crossroads as it readies to deliver its first Model S midsize luxury sedans. The automaker had planned to start delivering the $50,000 to $90,000 cars to customers by July but has since announced plans to jettison the schedule by a month and ...    Read more

The wheelchair-vehicle automotive segment is not one that often gets press, but an interesting and unsurprising trend is emerging now that thousands of mostly young, injured veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are in need of transportation. "They just don't want minivans," said Doug Eaton, president and chief executive ...    Read more

Late last year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into model year 2004 Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey minivans, and 2003 Chevrolet Express full-size vans. Over 80,000 vehicles could be potentially by the investigation. Now the federal agency is upgradings its investigation of the Ford Freestar and ...    Read more

Coda Automotive, which is currently in its infant stages as an automaker, told the Detroit News yesterday that it's working on an "entry-level" electric vehicle for the United States. It will build this EV in partnership with Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors. Coda boss Phil Murtaugh said the California-based start-up ...    Read more

In yet another sign of the coming CAFE-inspired carpocalypse, Ferrari is moving beyond the experimental phase on its new HY-KERS, a hybrid electric two-motor power plant with kinetic energy recovery system for its next megasupercar, the F12berlinetta. The F12berlinetta with HY-KERS—which as the name implies, comes with a traditional Ferrari V-12—promises ...    Read more

If today's cars are getting fatter, as the statistics show, then one way to lessen the impact on efficiency and handling—and the curmudgeonly attitudes of enthusiasts—is to lighten the materials themselves by lowering the weight of the traditionally steel and aluminum panels that cars are made from. Carmakers know and want ...    Read more

In January, Lexus had a hot, California-designed concept scheduled to debut at the Detroit Auto Show. But a carefully planned teaser campaign to release images of the concept leading up to its debut was spoiled when an American magazine broke the embargo, spilling pictures onto the internet. Fortunately, Lexus had ...    Read more

When BMW switched from an inline six-cylinder engine to a turbocharged four-cylinder for the 2012 BMW 328i sedan, there seemed to be a positive tradeoff in that the new, smaller engine would be able to deliver just as much power as the outgoing model, yet offer an astounding 36 mpg ...    Read more