2009 Honda Fit, Manual Fit

With improved ride and handling plus a more spacious and more stylish interior, the new 2009 Honda Fit addresses all the criticisms leveled at the current car. With an aggressive new face, it’s perfect for the hustle and bustle of metro-centric lifestyles. Enjoy zooming around town with its new 1.5-liter, 4-cylinder, i-VTEC® engine and available Honda Satellite-Linked Navigation System.™ Pick up friends in the Fit Sport, set your iPod† to shuffle, and groove through your playlists with its USB port‡ for radio-controlled connectivity.

Judging by the sales numbers of that previous Fit — over 2,000,000 globally in six years — it wasn’t lacking too much. The car gets Honda’s voice-recognizing satellite-linked navi; 3-mode, single-motion dive-down Magic Seats in back (parents, it’s not what you think); a revised suspension and more rigidity. Read more

Norwegian Electric Cars, TH!NK Ox!

TH!NK Ox electric cars, is another latest concept development and the first designated 5-seater fully electric vehicle with 100% emission free, includes a unique EV platform suitable for a variety of different body styles. This kind of electric car produced by Norwegian car company THINK! with their vision to provide carefree, carbon-free mobility for a better way of moving. Read more

New VW Passat Future 2012

Volkswagen will facelift the Passat one more time in 2009 before the all-new Passat v7.0 arrives in 2012. The new B7 Passat will more than likely retain its existing transverse architecture on a new flexible platform codenamed MQB, instead of moving to an Audi-sourced longitudal platform. This platform will also underpin the successor to the Passat CC as well as a new mid-size sedan and SUV that will be sold here in North America.
The 2012 will retain its transversely mounted engine, although it will ride on an all-new platform. Dubbed MQB, the architecture will prevent VW from putting obscure engines — such as the ill-fated W8 — in the Passat and should ensure that VW doesn’t move the Passat too far up-scale.

VW’s new MQB architecture is a transverse architecture that’s designed specially to underpin all the group’s larger mainstream Volkswagens: the Passat saloon and estate, the Passat CC successor, and a new mid-size sedan and SUV for North America. Above this MQB platform, there will be just three VWs. Read more

2008 Ford Mustang Bullit

Decades after hitting the big screen and redefining the on-screen car chase, the Ford Mustang Bullitt returns to the streets in 2008, blending the best Mustang ever with the latest Ford Racing technology. The chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen flick, “Bullitt,” was, is, and remains the most iconic ever filmed. There’ve been some valiant challengers: the late John Frankenheimer’s heart-pounding work through the streets of Paris in “Ronin”; making Minis fly in “The Italian Job” (the original and the remake); some intense, authentic action in the recent Bourne movies. But when the lists are made and the bets are laid down, “Bullitt” comes out on top. Every time.

This modern classic delivers a balance of power and performance, thanks to special chassis and suspension tweaks as well as the 315 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque that Bullitt delivers through its 4.6-liter V-8 engine. Read more

Toyota Hi-CT Green-Friendly Mini-Tank Concept

Toyota copies the look of one of those slab-like flat-nose trucks with their Hi-CT concept and made its debut during the auto event with a decidedly tank-like profile. They recently added three new concept cars to its growing line of futuristic vehicles, the Hi-CT, the Future Toyota Mini Van, and the Crown Hybrid Concept car.
Despite the car’s bulky looks, this is in fact a green hybrid vehicle that can charge from an external power source via an AC100V accessory socket. Who cares about aerodynamics when urban enjoyment is the only criteria? With the nearly-absent overhangs, this vehicle would likely be very easy to pilot around the congested city streets of an urban metropolis.

The car features a removable trunk and bicycle/surfboard deck for those granola-chomping weekends us city dwellers are always hearing about. As going green becomes ever more stylish it seems like just a matter of time before we stop relying on prehistoric fossil fuel to power our horseless carriages. Read more

Wooden Supercar from Japan?

A Japanese furniture maker Sada Kenbei Co Ltd. in Maniwa city has produced a wooden supercar “Maniwa” made entirely made out of wood (except for the engine of course). Car makers, rather than the usual furniture and fixtures of the furniture factory to cope with the trials and tribulations of a woodcrafter is being stacked wooden cars. The vehicle built by craftsmen is 1.3 meters wide x 2.5 meters in length x 1.1 meters high. The car can go up to 80km/h and costs around US$32,000.

See the wooden supercar action Read more

Cheap New Hybrid Model from Honda

American Depositary Shares of Honda Motor Co. slipped slightly on Wednesday as analysts weighed in on the Japanese automaker’s plans outlined at a meeting in Tokyo, including its decision to launch a new hybrid next year. They will sell a new, improved and affordable gas-electric hybrid in the U.S., Japan and Europe starting in early 2009, underlining the Japanese automaker’s commitment to “green” technology, the company president said Wednesday.
This Japan’s second-largest automaker Honda Motor Co. -which beat Toyota to the market with the first gas-electric car, the Honda Insight, in 1999 - will spend a total of 158 billion yen ($1.5 billion) building a car engine plant and a new assembly line as it seeks to strengthen its domestic production. Read more

2009 Nissan GT-R

The 2009 Nissan Skyline GT-R is a legend before it even enters production. The name GT-R (for grand turismo racer) has been legendary in Japan since 1969 when Datsun applied the Skyline GT-R moniker to a four-door sedan. That car went on to win 36 races in four years, then disappeared. The name was reborn in 1989 as an all-wheel-drive production sports coupe with supercar performance. The last Skyline GT-R was offered in 2003.

The 2009 GT-R represents a multi-purpose supercar with unique high-performance technologies that accommodate drivers of all skills. The GT-R has a top speed of 193 mph, going 0-60 in 3.5 seconds. Read more

2008 Maserati GranTurismo

The 2008 Maserati GranTurismo gets it right, dumping the lumpy form of the outgoing Maserati GT for an aggressive new shape stretched over a longer chassis. The 2008 Maserati GranTurismo looks and sounds so good that its driving credentials seem almost superfluous. Rest assured, though, that the GranTurismo has the moves to back up its curves. It’s what an exotic should look like, and it took the master sculptors at Pininfarina to accomplish. But doesn’t that tail borrow too liberally from rival Aston Martin? Read more