Car Throttle

Even though the recent recession fatally wounded parts of the industry and fossil fuels running dry will threaten its future, the world of cars is still very much alive and kicking. There is such a variety of new products coming out this year ranging from affordable city cars you'll actually want to own, to ridiculously expensive supercars you'll lust after, old school coupes to revolutionary family cars, petrol engines to plug-in electric motors. The list is almost endless. So to help fellow car lovers and "new kids on the block" out, here's a round-up of 33 cars we can't wait to see in 2012 in order of release date. January 2012 Kia Optima It's been available around the world for a while but the Kia Optima

BMW disappoint me. Sure they build fabulous performance cars like the BMW 1-Series M Coupe, the M3, the M5, and the to-be-built 552bhp BMW M6. But that's about it really. No gull-winged, bi-spoilered, extra wide arched, super-low supercars. This irks me as BMW are now, in my opinion, either too profit-oriented, politically correct, socially conscious or environmentally friendly for their own good. In a recent interview, BMW North America's Product Manager stated that the German brand doesn't feel the need to make a supercar and that they like to build practical cars that are drivers' cars and executive cars that one can use everyday. This thought is further cemented by the statement made by Albert Biermann, BMW M’s development chief who told Autocar last year that

Porsche recently launched the "all-new" 2012 Porsche 911 and more recently the "all-new" 2012 Porsche Boxster. But it seems both of these cars look totally like the previous models they replaced, and I'm sure that if you told a 15-year-old nonchalent teen or a pretty 25-year-old girl from Essex that these are brand new models, they'd probably say you're telling porkies. The reason is that Porsche undeniably look similar to one another. You can clearly see the DNA of the first Porsche, the 356 in the current 911, Cayenne, Boxster, Cayman and the Panamera. You also saw the same basic styling in discontinued models like the 968 and the 928 too. The original Porsche 356 gave birth to all of them from its tiny, tiny

It's either bizarre or sad, depending on how you look at it.  I'm talking about Lancia, of course.  Amidst the hubbub of the Fiat/Chrysler merger (or takeover, depending on your views), we've been hearing a lot about Chrysler, Dodge, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Ferrari, and the tech sharing that will occur between them. The 2013 Dodge Dart is an Alfa Romeo Guilietta underneath.  The Dodge Journey is making it's way over to Europe with Fiat engines (including diesels), new nose, and a slightly refined interior as the Fiat Freemont.  The Fiat brand has returned to the US after an almost 30-year absence, selling the 500. Supposedly the next-generation Viper will include some Ferrari technology mixed in with it's traditional big-block badassery.  The Ram brand will be

The Godfather Part II. Toy Story 3. People love a decent sequel. Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jnr. We also rave about comebacks. That's why the first piece of performance motoring news to really excite me in 2012 is: whether or not we'll finally see Audi roll out a successor to the revered B7 RS4. A car that created a renaissance for Quattro GmbH, the resolutely all wheel drive, very front engined small exec has garnered a huge following since its 2006 début. The smart money suggests that there will indeed be a new model, but Ingolstadt will be taking a leaf from the legendary RS2's memoir and only offering an Avant (read: estate) bodystyle. A declining market for fast saloons versus more practical performance SUVs, and stylish

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

Whilst 2011 is nearly over *weep* we've decided to celebrate with a rather special, one-off Car Throttle post. It's the first "Team Talk" article we've done, and the task for the premiere edition? Each of our writers were asked to come up with their favourite car of 2011. The rules were simple; it could be any production car but it must have seen daylight from a factory this year...obviously. Without much further ado, introducing Team CT in alphabetical order. Adnan's CT 2011 Car of The Year: Porsche GT3RS 4.0 Some might call this a cop-out vote given that the Porsche is well, an already fantastic high performance marque, and the 911 is nothing short of brilliant especially with the recent 991 revision. However, whilst the GT3RS 4.0

It's not long to go until Christmas is finally here! If you haven't done your Christmas shopping yet then why not have a look at the Christmas presents that the car fans in your life will love or hate you for. I'll let you into a secret, I've been given a couple of the presents featured in the past (it's easy buying me petrol-head related pressies). BMW M-Sport Coffee Table To start things off imagine one of your friends or someone in your family recently settled into a new home. Picture the scene. They need somewhere to put the TV guide, random bits of paperwork and their drink and you notice that they once gave you a lift in a M-Powered BMW. Well I've found the perfect

The fast diesel car is something of a faux pas. It's a playground dare - every manufacturer secretly fancies seeing how one would be received, but doesn't want to risk making the leap of faith themselves, in case they get sent to see the headmaster. Or their shareholders. The attempts we've seen up until now have extended to been the utterly crackers, disgusting and fantastical Audi Q7 V12 TDi (the world's first production V12 diesel road car) to the other end of several scales (price, size, taste) with the thoroughly sensible Skoda Fabia vRS. You could add the BMW 535d to that list as well, but that was merely the top branch of the Five diesel tree, rather than a dedicated go-fast model. Since Audi began

Pictured: ZF's 8-speed Automatic for BMW's, about to be "old hat."

Luddite.  The term originated from England during the industrial revolution in the early 1800's.  Luddites went out at night, destroying wide-frame fabric looms that were taking away the jobs of skilled textile workers.  It was a man-against-machine revolution that got to the point of military intervention.  Technology was minimizing their usefulness in society, so the solution was to destroy the technology.  A noble fight, but today the term Luddite has been boiled down to mean someone not fond of technological advances. I am not a Luddite.  There's plenty of technology I'm fond of.  I like fuel injection.  I even like direct injection in some forms, particularly Toyota's D4S direct and port system.  Twin-clutch automated