News

After showing off the Supra GT4 concept in Geneva this past March, Toyota has announced key details on the final, race-ready car. First off, its 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder delivers 430 hp and 479 lb-ft of torque, a considerable jump from the standard Supra’s 335 ponies and 365 lb-ft. The race car’s engine pairs with a seven-speed automatic

TOKYO — Honda has agreed to merge three affiliated suppliers with Hitachi Automotive Systems in a blockbuster deal that aims to create a new global mega-supplier and better leverage scale and r&d resources for developing next-generation technologies. The accord, announced Wednesday, combines Honda affiliates Keihin, Showa and Nissin Kogyo with Hitachi Automotive Systems into a

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released its latest data dump on the state of America’s road safety, and for the second year in a row, the statistics are looking up. Well, the stats, which cover calendar-year 2018, are looking up generally, and more specifically for cars and their drivers. Fatalities among occupants

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group of France are in talks to combine, The Wall Street Journal and other media reported. The newspaper, citing people familiar with the matter, said a deal between FCA and the Peugeot parent could create a “$50 billion trans-Atlantic auto giant.” An all-share merger of equals, the paper reported, is

LOS ANGELES — Elon Musk will have to go to trial in December after a federal judge rebuffed his latest request to throw out a defamation lawsuit filed by a U.K. caver after Musk referred to him as a “pedo guy.” U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson in Los Angeles on Monday ruled that a jury

Male and female bodies behave differently in crashes, but female crash dummies are used only as passengers in many government and insurance frontal crash tests, according to a report by ConsumerReports.org. A 2019 study from the University of Virginia — which controlled for occupants’ age, height, collision severity and vehicle model year — found female

Mitsubishi Motors isn’t relocating its North American headquarters from beachy Southern California to suburban Nashville just to save money and cozy up to alliance partner Nissan, which made the move there more than a decade ago. The smallest of Japanese automakers in the U.S. is also reinventing its work culture — down to the coffee.

DETROIT — General Motors’ new contract with the UAW, which members ratified last week after a 40-day strike, gives the automaker what it wanted: the closure of three underutilized plants, a key piece of its restructuring plan. But the win comes with a trade-off. The sweeteners offered to secure workers’ approval, including a record $11,000

Van life was a big deal in the U.S. in the ’70s. Remember those port-hole windows, shag carpeted interior walls and ceilings, stripe jobs, and “If this van’s a rockin’…” stickers? There’s none of that extroverted nonsense in Japan, but mono-space one-box vehicles are everywhere around here, and some of them manage to exude a

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S., but its auto show has long lived in a shadow. In 2020, the creator of that shadow — the North American International Auto Show in Detroit — is getting out of the way. Detroit’s move from January to June leaves a major void in the heart of

When Volkswagen launched the Mk 1 Golf in 1974 it started a small car revolution. With its iconoclastic Giugiaro-penned origami styling, front-transverse engine, and front-wheel-drive layout, the Golf was VW‘s first successful attempt at replacing the Beetle. Though the Beetle would stick around for another 44 years, the Golf became an icon in its own

Used-vehicle leasing subscription service Fair says it is laying off 40 percent of its staff and removing CFO Tyler Painter, brother of CEO and co-founder Scott Painter. In an email to Fair staff this week, Scott Painter stated: “As one of the pioneers in automotive fintech, we now need to focus on being a profitable

Volvo has a guilty conscience. Perturbed by the impact its vehicles have had on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, the brand is committed to reinventing itself as a leader in sustainable transportation. To that end, it will unveil one new all-electric vehicle each year through 2025. With the debut of the XC40 Recharge, that

Wholesale used-vehicle prices, which have been on a wild ride for the better part of the last two years, appear to be cooling off, Cox Automotive analysts say. And overall used-vehicle sales volume is expected to dip in 2019. Wholesale prices on the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index fell 1.04 percent from August to September.

In 1974, Volkswagen introduced its follow-up to the original people’s car, the classic Mk 1 Golf. Forty-five years and seven major redesigns later, the eighth-generation 2020 Volkswagen Golf has arrived to continue the nameplate’s legacy and presumably get it to its fifth decade. So far, it hasn’t been confirmed if the standard Golf 8 will

DETROIT — The UAW will focus negotiations on Ford Motor Co. after hourly members at General Motors ratified a four-year labor pact that includes significant wage gains and bonuses, ending a 40-day national strike that has idled plants in three countries.  “As America’s No. 1 producer of vehicles and largest employer of UAW-represented autoworkers, we look forward

Ford‘s upcoming Mustang-inspired all-electric SUV has been teased once again ahead of its official debut on November 17 at the 2019 Los Angeles auto show. A teaser showing the EV’s sleek profile hints at a swoopy look and taillights taken straight from the Mustang. Like most electric SUVs, Ford’s Mustang-inspired model has a roofline that

When it comes to international auto shows in foreign countries, Japan’s often feels like the most “foreign.” The Tokyo Motor Show never fails to astound us with its fun and funky off-beat concepts and production cars. The Japanese often conceive of vehicular needs and use cases that just don’t seem to occur to folks in

FRANKFURT — There appears to be a budding friendship between the CEOs of Volkswagen Group and Tesla, the electric-car company suddenly back on the ascent. At an event where VW was presenting the new Golf hatchback Thursday, CEO Herbert Diess quibbled with reporters who suggested Tesla is in trouble because it’s too small. “Tesla is

Racing icon and automotive retail leader Roger Penske has received the nation’s top civilian honor — the Presidential Medal of Freedom — from President Donald Trump. Trump awarded the medal to Penske, Team Penske owner and CEO of Penske Automotive Group, the nation’s second-largest auto retailer, during a ceremony Thursday in the Oval Office at

It has been a long time coming, but Nissan executives assure us that new Frontier midsize pickup is coming and we will see it soon. “It is a priority for us,” said Ivan Espinosa, corporate vice president of Global and Japan product planning. We will see the renewed pickup next year. Nissan officials have not decided

O, ye of little faith, take heart: We will see a new Nissan Z sports car next year. “We are not forgetting about Z,” Ivan Espinosa, corporate vice president of global and Japan product planning, tells MotorTrend in an interview at the Tokyo Motor Show. “It is one of our emblematic cars.” You can forgive

SEOUL – Hyundai Motor Co. pledged to boost annual sales of EVs to over half a million units by 2025 as part of a bid to focus on new technologies and catch up with rivals, but some analysts saw the target as conservative and warned of the costs. The announcement by Hyundai, the world’s fifth-largest car

Tesla Inc. posted a surprise quarterly profit on Wednesday, making good on CEO  Elon Musk’s promise, and said it was “highly confident” in exceeding 360,000 deliveries this year. The electric automaker said net income for the third quarter fell 54 percent to $143 million, but shares in the company nonetheless surged 17 percent in after-hours trading because Wall

Continuing its participation in the increasingly popular Formula E series, Nissan used the eve of the Tokyo Motor Show to show the redesigned race car that will compete in the next season. Nissan’s Formula E car has a new Japan-inspired look for season six of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship series. The red, black,

PARIS — PSA Group reported a rise in third-quarter revenue on strong demand for its pricier utility vehicles, but the automaker said overall vehicle sales fell, and it lowered outlook for major auto markets. Revenue for the July to September period rose 1 percent to 15.6 billion euros ($17.3 billion), PSA said in a statement on

The 2020 Hyundai Sonata is a design stand-out. We’ve covered that. But to take away sales from segment monarchs like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, the Sonata will have to do more than stand out; it has to excel. Numbers only tell part of the story—we’ll have to wait for a full comparison test

The Bloodhound Land Speed record project has been around under various names for more than 10 years now. It was announced in 2008, and the intention then is the same as it is today: go 1,000 mph on land, in a car. Over the last decade the Bloodhound team has been working toward that singular

MILAN — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will build a new battery assembly complex in its Mirafiori plant in Turin, with an initial investment of 50 million euros ($56 million), the automaker said Tuesday. Batteries produced in the new complex will be used by the new generation of full electric models that the company is planning to

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.’s Jim Hackett and Wall Street analysts started this year frustrated with one another. Sure, the automaker had been underperforming, but the CEO appealed for time to show he was fixing things. He assured them the redesigned Explorer rolling out months later would be a proof point. But rather than help