Car Throttle

Acura just rolled out the new 2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon at this year's New York Auto Show. They are going to sell this ride in America, and I don't see anything wrong with that. What I do see as being a bump in the road is whether American's will buy it or not. One of the things that I like about cars and driving and people's attitude towards cars in Europe, is that they can do something like make a super-fast very elegant station wagons. Think of Audi's Avants and such like. Americans, on the other hand, don't like station wagons very much. They have a stigma over here. They are seen as being a rung below minivans, and minivans are a rung below SUVs,

BMW rolled out its Alpina B7 xDrive at this year's New York Auto Show. The car has been bouncing around on the nets for a while now, and although there's no getting around the fact that this is a huge car, there's also little way of ignoring that BMW and Alpina have overcome the enormousness of the car. The 2011 BMW Alpina B7 xDrive is motivated by a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8. Yes, that is the same basic plant found in a surprisingly wide number of BMWs, but in the case of the Alpina B7 xDrive, the power output has been appreciably improved to 500 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. That's an increase from the "normal" figures by 100 hp over stock in the pony department

Fresh from its roll out at this year's New York Auto Show, here we have the 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. What's so special, you might ask? And yeah, I asked that too. If anything the most interesting thing about the MKZ Hybrid is that it's taking this long for FoMoCo to roll it out. Ford has been quite plain in its admissions that it plans to offer a full line of electrified vehicles in the United States. And as such, that will apply to corporate luxury brad siblings, Lincoln. For example we have the Escape and Mariner hybrid SUVs as well as the Fusion and Milan hybrid sedans from both Ford and Lincoln. Although there is no Lincoln counterpart, Ford also has new products such as

Coming this fall to an overly-smug, overly-paid rich dork near you, it's the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid, and for a measly $67,700. Such a deal, huh? Sure, in a few ways of looking at it, having a hybrid version of this Carmela Soprano-mobile is a good thing, but did they really have to do this? The all-new Cayenne S Hybrid, which is Porsche's first production hybrid, sets the standard in its class in efficiency and performance. And compared to the previous Cayenne models, fuel consumption has dropped by up to 23 percent in the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). Official EPA numbers are not yet available. The North American Cayenne model range has four models: The Cayenne, Cayenne S, Cayenne Turbo and the Cayenne S Hybrid.

When Subaru introduced the current generation of Impreza 3 years ago, one thing was missing: an STI sedan. Sure, you could get the fire-breathing STI in nifty (and arguably better-looking) five-door hatchback form, but it was a bit strange to not be able to get an STI sedan.  Subaru has finally seen fit to remedy this, and along with the updated Impreza/WRX lineup for 2011, you can now get your fire-breathing rally homologation special in four-door format. This is the first time that US consumers will be able to choose a body style for their STI since the model first went on sale here in 2004.  The 5-door will remain in production, but now there's a four door to chose from as well.  And being a four-door

Hyundai/Kia is definitely the talk of the New York International Auto Show. Usually the automotive press declares a show "winner" and in New York, that would definitely have to be Hyundai/Kia. New introductions have included the Hyundai Sonata Turbo, Sonata Hybrid, Equus and the Kia Forte 5-door as well as the official pictures and information drop on the Kia Optima. The Optima is one handsome mid-size sedan - and expensive looking too. Kia has clearly settled on a design language with its newest products, and it is one we really like. It looks solid and technologically-oriented. One thing is clear, that while the Sonata and the Optima share platforms, the two are nothing alike. This is platform sharing done right. Our favorite view is of the rear. It looks really different and is

How cool is this: The upcoming in 2011 Hyundai Equus will do away with the traditional paper owner's manual, and they'll give you a "multimedia tablet" instead. This falls into the totally bitchin' category of ancillary car stuff, but it also points out how Korean companies can make these leapfrog moves over their competitors. No, there's no word yet on which company will get the nod to supply the owner's "manual" for the 2011 Hyundai Equus, looking at the pictures of the Hyundai Equus' presentation pretty clearly shows a Apple iPad. Oh really? There hasn't been any official announcement form Apple on this. So what gives? At today's New York Auto Show Hyundai USA president John Krafcik didn't unambiguously say that the device in question

Scion has organized a campaign for a while to let us know that the brand had big plans for the New York International Auto Show. And that they did - but sometimes big plans come in small packages, as in the case of the new tC and Scion iQ minicar. The Scion tC first come out in June 2004 as a 2005 model year vehicle, so it has been due for an update. The new look isn't a big change different, but the front end has been streamlined and made to look more sporty. Scion calls the look "refined aggression." We tend to agree - the new tC is a bit more aggressive, and an improvement over the current model. The look out back is even more of

Hyundai's new Sonata sedan has been a press darling these days. It's got everything that mid-size car buyers are looking for: great looks, a reasonable price and a long warranty, plenty of space and quality, and a remarkable power-to-efficiency ratio.  Hyundai just debuted the 2011 Sonata Turbo at the New York Auto Show, and if anything the media love for the new four-door is about to reach a fever pitch. Let's talk numbers for a minute.  The regular Sonata uses a 2.4L 16v I4 with gasoline-direct-injection to produce a healthy 198bhp and 189lb-ft of torque, which is more than any of the four-cylinder competition in it's class, all at an "are you serious?" 35 highway MPG.  That's impressive in it's own right - they're out-Honda-ing Honda

From the "not surprising but still utterly awesome" department comes the first official photos and details of Cadillac's coolest car ever, the 2011 CTS-V Sport Wagon.  It's a simple concept, but for a while we were all wondering if GM was going to have the balls to actually produce it.  Wonder no more, kids: the CTS-V Wagon is here! It takes all of the tasty mechanical hardware from the CTS-V Sedan and Coupe, and packs it into the sexy wagon bodystyle.  That means that under the hood is the same 6.2L Supercharged LSA V8, derived from the almighty Corvette ZR-1's motor.  With 556bhp and 551lb-ft of torque on tap, that should certainly be enough to haul the kids to soccer practice.  Thanks to an Eaton TVS