Five-doors, hatchbacks, wagons, estates, "touring" cars - call them what you may, the market for wagons in the United States is pretty small. That stands in marked contrast to their success around the world. As such, most mainstream vehicles do not have a wagon variant. Surprisingly, they are more plentiful in the luxury segment; for entry-level cars Audi offers the A4 Avant, Cadillac has fielded the CTS Sport Wagon, and BMW sells the 3-Series Sports Wagon. For mid-size cars Audi has ditched the Avant, but Mercedes-Benz continues to produce the E-Class Wagon. All are slow sellers, however. With the sixth-generation BMW 3-Series launching last week, many were wondering if sales of the wagon would continue in the U.S. Autoblog reports that BMW will bring

The Chevrolet Sonic subcompact is launching, and General Motors is readying a large advertising campaign to promote it. GM intends to gear the car to Generation Y (Millenials) who are looking for something affordable but still is cool. S To us, the Sonic definitely seems to be the coolest vehicle in its segment, offering a blend of attractive design and impressive features versus the competition. What it really needs is a sport model, but we digress. Given that it is a new nameplate, awareness needs to be built up. A lot of the Sonic's target market gets information from social media and blogs like us, so why not do something cool to get attention? One of the first ads for Sonic does just that, pushing the

Volkswagen has been touting the Beetle in the United States, but it has yet to make a push in the United Kingdom. That is because the Beetle isn't slated to go on sale in the UK until next Spring. Today the company gets one step closer to that launch with a pricing announcement and opening of the order book. Orders, for a vehicle people have yet to drive? Yes, it does happen, surprisingly. The car's base price starts at £16,490, which in USD at current exchange rates comes out to around $26,000! Startling. The new Beetle will launch with two-engines at first. The base model gets a 1.2-liter TSI making 105 horsepower, mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. It includes standard keyless entry, air conditioning

Every year, Neiman Marcus offers a special new limited-edition automobile for its Christmas Book. Last year it was the Chevrolet Camaro Convertible, and the year before that it was the Jaguar XJ Sedan. Neiman Marcus vehicles are mostly differentiated by their paint color, a few accessories and a high price tag. This year is no different. The high-end retailer has just announced that the featured car for Christmas 2011 is the Ferrari FF. The Neiman Marcus Ferrari FF gets an exterior color dubbed "Grigio Caldo." That really makes us want to fork out the extra dough for this "special edition." Yes, there is sarcasm in there. The other changes include a special set of luggage (hey you have the trunk space right?), semi-aniline

217 mph, in a BMW 7-Series? 0-62 mph in 3.5 seconds? Forget about the M5, this is the M7 BMW never has produced. These numbers have been made possible by the aftermarket, in what truly amounts to a four-door super car. The work has been done by German company TuningWerk. There are two packages available, impressive and insane. The first is what the company calls "small scale power augmentation." That package brings power up to 530 horsepower and torque to 545 pound feet, on its way to a top speed of 192 mph. Acceleration is down by .7 from the fastest model, to 4.2 seconds. For stopping power, an upgraded HighPerformance steel braking system is fitted. The full monte takes power up to 720 horsepower

Last September, Bentley released the new Continental GT. The original car was launched in 2003, and it followed a typical eight-to-ten year life span for Bentley's products. The new model freshens the car and updates it with the latest technology. The original Continental is still stunning, and the new model car builds on that. One of the biggest changes in the works for the new Continental is the availability of a 4.0-liter turbocharged V-8. That engine is slated to be announced at the North American International Auto Show in January. It will serve as the new entry-level model for Bentley, which has traditionally only sold cars with 12-cylinders. A little over a year after releasing the coupe model, Bentley has opened the floodgates on the

The minicar segment is growing in the United States with the Fiat 500, MINI and Chevrolet Spark entering the marketplace. It is still a small segment though, and one luxury automakers haven't dared to go into yet. Despite leaving us out of the plan for the A1, the car features heavily in Audi's global plans. It has been selling very well overseas, and new spy shots show that Audi is working on an RS1 model. RS1? There isn't even an S1 yet; Audi could be skipping that designation. The RS3 is currently the smallest RS vehicle, and it is powered by the 350-horsepower 2.5-liter five-cylinder that is also used in the TT-RS. We get the TT-RS, but not the hotter version of the A3. That's down

We've thought all along that what the Honda CR-Z needs is an injection of excitement. The aftermarket, like usual, is happy to oblige. Mugen is a Honda tuner that has close official ties with the manufacturer though. From the very beginning it seemed intent on offering a solution for enthusiasts that turned the car into an exciting drive. Very soon after the CR-Z production debut there was word of a sportier Mugen-tuned model coming. That effort came to fruition at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed in July. There was two models, in fact - a Mugen CR-Z Concept and a CR-Z RR. The RR is racing-focused and more extreme than the aforementioned Mugen CR-Z Concept. There wasn't any word about production of either

It's been a long road to the McLaren MP4-12C. We attended an event last year for the opening of McLaren San Francisco and got to experience the MP4-12C (or 12C as they call it) first hand. For some customers, the wait has been years. It is about to get just a bit longer. AutoWeek is out with a report about slowed production at McLaren's plant in England. The delays are due to some minor quality issues that have impacted some of the first deliveries - a total of 59. While there was some rumors about the issues being safety or performance related, McLaren says that is not the case. Tony Joseph, head of McLaren North America says: "There are no safety concerns for

Drifting. In the snow. In a bright red Ferrari California. Sound like fun? Oh yes. Ferrari agrees, and the prancing horse served up this video of the California doing just that. While the retractable hardtop California probably conjures up images of driving in the California sun, Ferrari thinks otherwise. The company organized an event in the freezing climate of St Moritz, Switzerland to demonstrate the fun to be had. It is a trend for Ferrari: the FF (four-seat four-wheel drive) was pictured in the snow for a lot of its press photography, a bit out of place for a Ferrari we might say. We've driven rear-wheel drive sports cars with far less power in the snow (such as the Nissan 370Z) and they were quite