Car Throttle

Tiny economy cars are, by nature, not all that exciting. The challenge is creating one that's both good at being a cheap economy car, as well as being a car people actually want to own.  Whether it's related to how expensive gas has gotten lately, or the fact that it's just an attractive car, it would seem Ford already has a home run with the Fiesta even though it hasn't hit dealers yet based on the press hype around the car. The new Fiesta has been on sale in Europe for about a year now, and has been flying off lots like it had wings and was free.  Ford is using the Los Angeles motor show to debut their sub-Focus entrant for the US market, and it's

The Infiniti M was officially introduced yesterday at a special event in Beverly Hills - in the metal, with all the information out (except pricing) in its entirety.  We've known the look of Infiniti's 5-Series competitor for quite some time, after it was introduced virtually at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. A bit later, some live pictures of the car were snapped. Now, the specifications are out, as well as the whole gamut of press photos - no virtual trickery here. The most startling revelation here though is not to be found in the photos - its in the specifications list! The biggest indicator about the dramatic change ought to be in the car's name. M45 is no more - M56 is the new designation -

GM has always had it's ups and downs, but to be honest, small economy cars have never been it's forte. Kia jokes aside, almost all of GM's compact cars have been pretty dismal in some way.  Even going back to the sixties, the Corvair was an admittedly sweet car, but became a drastic PR disaster thanks to "Unsafe at Any Speed," which centered around the fact that the Corvair was a rear-engined car with swing axles, which usually means instant death. Then there was the Vega, which was a turd that couldn't keep it's head (gasket) screwed on for long, never met a fluid it didn't like to leak, and had terminal rust problems.  Which was followed by the Chevette, which you could get with a 4-speed

Subaru enthusiasts in the US market have been getting the short end of the stick for the better part of 2 decades. The WRX debuted in Japan in 1992, and as the Impreza GT in Europe in the same year.  Despite the generally undeniable American propensity towards things that go fast, it would be another 9 years (2001) before we even got a taste of WRX on these shores.  And while we've continued to get WRX's (look at that, Subaru, Americans DO want cars that can go fast and do corners!) and hot-rod STi's, we've sorta been left out on the whole special-edition thing. I mean Europe's gotten the RB5, 22b STi, Prodrive P1, RB320, S203... you get the picture.  But as for the US market, the

If there's one certain thing about the personal coupe market, it's that sex sells. Otherwise, do you really think BMW would be able to move a single Z4 off their lots?  It certainly doesn't have anything to do with practical considerations; if you were being practical, you'd get a car without enough doors and seats for you and your family. So coupes rely mainly on sex appeal and good looks to pierce the market.  And if sheer sex appeal is anything to go by, Cadillac's got a home-run on it's hands with the CTS Coupe.  It's the third (and probably the final) derivative of the CTS theme, after the sedan and the unusually-attractive station wagon. Although the CTS Coupe obviously shares some DNA with the Sedan, what it