Compact Car

Can nearly 30 million happy customers be wrong? As the top-selling nameplate in the world, the Toyota Corolla carries a lot of weight on its shoulders. In its introduction in the 1960s, it has grown into being a dominant force in the compact segment. But it's recently gotten long in the ...    Read more

We're going to bug you with our newest feature. Bug you. Get it? Because it's a picture of a… ahh, okay, forget it. That was lame. Seriously, though. New feature. We're going to call it…ready…"Photo of the Day!" But not every day. Not at first. For now, this semi-regular feature will jump ...    Read more

When Fiat took over Chrysler back in 2009, there were rumblings that the Italian automaker would bring the Pentastar back to Turin. Now, as Italy's economic turmoil rages on, it appears that Fiat is kicking around the idea of ditching its home of more than 100 years in Lingotto--and its ...    Read more

Newsflash: For the first time ever, Chevrolet has a fleet of small cars that are all pretty good. Capitalizing on the fact that everyone likes them for once--us included--Chevy felt apt to give the 2014 Chevrolet Spark and larger 2014 ...    Read more

Luck favors the prepared, and as it turned out, we were ready when we saw the 2014 Mini Cooper driving Southern California's Pacific Coast Highway at Point Mugu when we were evaluating vehicles for an upcoming crossover comparison. Overlooking the highway from a sand dune, our resident photographer Jason Davis snapped ...    Read more

Remember when you thought cars that could drive themselves were right up there with ones that could fly? Well, the former may happen sooner than you think, and an American automaker may be the first to do so. That was only the first major automotive news story of the week ...    Read more

Today, Honda announced that it will be investing $470 million into a new transmission facility in Celaya, near Guanajuato, Mexico. This new transmission facility will be built next to another new production facility that's slated to begin building the Honda Fit in the spring of 2014. This new transmission facility ...    Read more

Electric and hybrid vehicles are the way of the future, or a passing fad, depending on who you ask. For the Chrysler Group, electric and hybrid vehicles have always seemed to have fallen into a gray area. That is, until the 2013 Fiat 500e showed up. Fiat and Chrysler Group boss ...    Read more

Imagine that you've landed a job with Chrysler Group as a product planner or engineer. Your first task on the job is to help improve upon the Fiat 500 Abarth, which has already to help reshaped the Italian brand after it received a less-than-warm welcome back to North America only ...    Read more

Honda is recalling 43,782 2012-13 Honda Fit Sport models for an issue with the vehicle's Vehicle Stability Assist system software. The Honda Fit Sport is the automaker's entry-level hatchback five-door model. Issue Honda Fit Sport models equipped  with certain tires do not meet U.S Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards ...    Read more

It all comes down to personal preference. Do you want a beefy V-8 engine? Or are you more concerned with your carbon footprint? Do you want smartphone integration? Or do you like left being left alone while you drive? According to a recent report by J.D. Power and Associates, when ...    Read more

As the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV draws nearer to production, we're slowly getting more and more details for the little electric car. Chevrolet's first all-electric car--and the first all-electric vehicle GM has bestowed upon customers since the GM EV1 of the late 1990s--the 2014 Spark EV will have an electric ...    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

BMW, which has made common practice of creating new segments and niches to grow its sales numbers, is considering yet another one: a 1 Series sedan. For anyone following trends in the automotive market, this shouldn't strike you as anything too surprising. Mercedes-Benz has its ...    Read more

What's New Volkswagen and Apple are teaming up to bring the iBeetle to the Shanghai Auto Show. Apple's iPhone will interface with the Beetle and Beetle Convertible thanks to a specially developed app and docking station. The iBeetle will be the first vehicle from Volkswagen's lineup to have the iPhone as ...    Read more

To attract more drivers to its upcoming electric car, BMW will be offering extra services, including the use of gas-powered models. The automaker will install optional at-home charging stations for the i3 city car, which will ...    Read more

Luxury doesn't have to be big, and Mercedes-Benz is emphasizing this more than ever with its line of new cars like the 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA. It's taking that idea one step further with its GLA Concept, debuting at this month's Shanghai Motor Show. At 172.5 ...    Read more

When we saw the Subaru WRX Concept at the New York Auto Show this year, our hearts skipped a beat. We knew that in the next-generation WRX, expected to be a 2015 model, the car would go ...    Read more

In this episode of Motor Trend's Ignition, Carlos Lago, Associate Road Test Editor, travels to France for the launch of the 2014 Ford Fiesta ST. Ford has added its ST performance package to the smaller Fiesta, after first debuting it on the Focus. Available worldwide, the U.S. version will be ...    Read more

California residents will soon be able to purchase or lease the new 2013 Fiat 500e with ease as the company unveils great financing offers. Already eligible for federal and state electric vehicle tax credits, Fiat will also include its own rebates to sweeten the deal, making the starting price for ...    Read more

The Frankfurt Auto Show is still months away, but we're already anticipating the debut of the next Volkswagen Golf R hot hatch. When we drove the 2012 Volkswagen Golf R, we were immediately taken in by the R's no nonsense approach: an excellent all-wheel-drive system that provides exceptional ...    Read more

There's a lot of Kim Jong Un-dulating as to whether or not North Korea will back up its tough words and attack either neighboring South Korea or try to send a missile to the U.S. Still, General Motors isn't taking any chances, making a contingency plan to move production in ...    Read more

Chances are that if you've been in a major metropolitan area or a college campus lately, you've seen Zipcars parked on city streets. Bedecked with vinyl "Zipcar" graphics, the cars are short-term rentals that provide personal transportation for those who may not otherwise have such mobility. If you're in the Los ...    Read more

If you were in a crowded room with someone important, would you notice? Unless that person had an entourage with him or her, probably not. That's how the internet works, too. Flatirons Tuning, which usually installs hop-up parts for Subarus and other Japanese cars on customers' rides, posted ...    Read more

The term "four-door coupe" made nearly as much sense at its inception as champagne made from grapes harvested in the Midwest (champagne only comes from France), so Kia's rather liberal definition with the Kia Cub shouldn't detract too much from its overall purpose. Anyhow, the four-door coupe hatchback Kia Cub is ...    Read more