Car Throttle

Once the Megane range gets a mid-life face lift in April, we will be saying bye-bye to the 250 and a big hello to the new 265. It's Renault's latest record breaking hot hatch to hit our roads with a lap time of 8 minutes and 8 seconds around the Nurburgring which makes it the fastest front-wheel drive car ever to go round the famous German track. Thanks to the new 'Renaultsport Dynamic Management' system, the new 265's 2.0L Turbo will produce 261bhp and 265lb ft of torque meaning a 0-60mph time of around six seconds and a top speed of 160mph. All that is available once you've pushed the 'Sport' button, with the car acting calm and civilised, "ish", in normal mode. Renault have

According to Chevrolet, the following concept car was crafted using the minds of a plethora of young whiz kids from the US of A. Our question is who, what and how drunk were these selected yank youths? The concept that was designed by the future, for the future, is called the Code 130R which unfortunately houses many fails. The biggest failure is, well, just look at that thing! The newly appointed designers must have just sat in the studio bored either BBM-ing, iMessaging or playing Angry Birds for a while until one of them came up with an interesting remix, "Take Bumblebee, make him the same size as a 1M coupe, paint him red and give him gold rims." In principal, it sounds genius; a

The US car market is waking up from it's slumber.  Finally.  Cars are making a resurgence as people realize they don't need that giant SUV/pickup truck in today's economic conditions.  This means that makers are pouring more money into developing cars in an increasingly competitive market, and that's great news.  The two biggest domestic manufacturers are releasing brand-spanking-new versions of their bread-and-butter midsize sedans: the Chevrolet Malibu and now, the Ford Fusion.  Judging by pictures, specs, and a variety of other things: Ford has knocked the ball so far out of park that GM didn't see which way it went.  What?  Why?  Follow along and find out - and also why you should care. The 2013 Fusion is new from the sidewalls to the

Smart have came up with a little pick-up which claims to be the perfect car for young 'uns. The designers at Smart reckon this is because it's small on the outside, large on the inside, very safe and very comfortable. But what exactly is it and why will we love it? Firstly, it's a future proof fully electric city car which means that we need not worry about the rising petrol costs killing our wallets. The electric motor produces 74bhp, around the same as the higher powered 1.0L petrol engine in the VW Up!, and 96lb ft or torque leading to a top speed of 75mph. What if I run out of road and can't be bothered to walk? Fear not my friend because you

Every car lover's calender starts with a new batch of machines on show in Motor City. I'm talking, of course, about the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. The city is famous for being the beating heart of the American motor industry and at the start of every year all the world's manufacturers congregate and show off their new products to see what our stateside friends think of their latest offerings. Here's a half-time round-up of the motors on show for 2012 from each stand from the day so far. Bentley Two new Continentals broke free from the covers at the Bentley stand; the V8 coupe and V8 GTC Cabriolet. Little differences to tell these from the bigger W12 on the outside include a gloss black

One of the most anticipated debuts at Detroit is the Cadillac ATS.  We've been hearing rumors and catching slow leaks of information about GM's first credible 3-series challenger for ages now, and today GM released pictures of the whole thing.  On paper, it's a match for Bavaria's best - but that's not the first time we've heard that.  Does the ATS have what it takes? The ATS is part of GM's plan to flesh out the Cadillac brand as a more direct competitor.  The XTS fits above the CTS as a relaxed luxury car, and the ATS below it as a sportier small sedan.  All three of them are remarkably similar-looking, with the ATS resembling the XTS more than the mid-sized brother.  Headlights that pull

The Detroit Auto Show actually starts Monday.  But in this business, all the news arrives before its due date.  That's the case with the Dodge Dart, which they've been teasing for a little while now.  We've had some preview posts on the Dart before, which you can find here and a snarky editorial on the Dart's EPA-pleasing 9-speed gearbox here. The full press release on the Dart will likely drop Monday (or before), but they've released a batch of images showing the R/T (Red) and Limited (White.)  Finally seeing the whole car for the first time, I'm pleasantly surprised.  Mainly because they've ditched the goofy pseudo-SUV look of the Caliber, which never really worked, but it's a decent looking little car on it's

Before a certain Mr. LFA was born, a typical Lexus owner would have been pushing 50 years old. A fact probably unsurprising given that all Lexus built a short while back were three saloons; small, medium, large and a convertible to top it off. All were quiet, comfortable, peaceful and they weren't in your face. To then improve their product range, the folks in Toyota City decided to add the same hybrid technology as Toyota's Prius into their cars to make one of the first 4x4 hybrids on the market. However just talking about the not-so-distant past of Lexus induces yawning from your good author. The future, on the other hand, looks very exciting indeed. 2009 saw the first IS-F, a 5.0L V8

One of the best niche body styles out there has to be the four-door coupe. First invented by Mercedes back in 2004, the idea was to make a car that looks as elegant as the CL but gives it the practicality and comfort of the E-Class and the resulting car was dubbed the CLS. There have been others since from Team Germany such as the Audi A7 and the up and coming BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe. They're great if you have executive car money but what if you're bored of your humble Passat? The people's car manufacturer had this problem in mind when they created the Passat CC back in 2008 and now there's a new one. This time they've ditched the 'P' word for us

Not many rugged off-roaders have style these days. There's only one that springs to mind which is the Mercedes G55 AMG, but that costs supercar money to buy and run. However there's now another proper off-roader from Mitsubishi that aims to look good and cross all manner of terrains; the Shogun Black. It's the second of Mitsubishi's products to come with the limited edition 'Black' styling tweaks, the first being the baby ASX crossover. Don't forget to subscribe to Car Throttle YouTube's channel as our winter sports day review of the ASX Black will be hitting your screens soon! The Shogun Black is pretty much the top of the range, long wheel-based, 7-seat SG4 but it comes with black 20" alloys, rear spoiler, wing mirrors,