Car Throttle

It's hard these days to find a unique niche in the US auto market. There's a vehicle to suit basically any need and price range.  I mean, why else does Mercedes make the R-class and the CLS?  Does anyone really need a 500-horsepower 4WD AMG-engined Minivan?  Not really, but Mercedes saw a niche and filled it.  Sometimes this practice of niche filling works out (Subaru Outback!) and sometimes it doesn't (GMC Envoy XUV!)  Honda saw an opportunity to both fill an empty niche in the market, and make a retro reference to one of their cult classics.  Thus was born the CR-Z hybrid, an odd amalgam of Civic CRX, first-generation Insight, and a touch of Prius.  And maybe Fiero.  It's weird, but does it make

We know all about the Pony Car Wars. Mustang vs. Camaro vs. Challenger (or Charger) has been a war that has raged on since the 60's. Each one is emblematic of the company and rivalry that once was between the "Big 3". Well, for Toyota and Honda they're working on creating their own battle between the two. Enter the "Hybrid Wars". The Honda insight was a warning shot fired to Toyota was ready to become a serious player in the hybrid market. Billed as the "Hybrid For Everyone", it no doubt stole Toyota's thunder, becoming the best-selling vehicle in Japan, the first hybrid to take that title. Needless to say, Toyota was alarmed.  An affordable hybrid was Toyota's trump card. The company heavily invested in Hybrid Synergy Drive, and

The Prius price cut that Toyota recently announced is having a huge effect! That move was in response to Honda and it's "hybrid for the people" the Insight. Recently the Insight became Japan's top selling vehicle, the first ever hybrid to take that top stop.  No doubt that was a huge achievement!  Everyone speculated the Insight would leave the Prius in the dust with such low pricing. I guess that might not be the case! After the price cut, the Insight reign as number 1 may not last long, considering these numbers coming out of Toyota. I wrote an article recently stating that Toyota was expecting 40,000 preorders for the Prius when all was said and done. Well they blew past that estimate!  Japanese newspaper the Nikeii is reporting 75,000pre-orders for

For the first time in Japanese automotive history, a Hybrid vehicle has topped the sales charts. While this might sound like the end of the world to some of us anti-hybrid promoters, any car that's selling well is a bright spot in a rather bleak picture these days. The Insight sold 10,481 units last month, making it the best selling car in Japan's severely depressed market.  For reference, Japanese new car sales are predicted to dip below 5 million for the first time in nearly 30 years in 2009.  The Insight managed to grab the top spot despite the brand-new third generation Toyota Prius hitting the market about a week from now. Why?  Well primarily, people have less money to spend on cars these days, and the Insight

It's already been well established that no one is immune to this economic crisis, but the fact is same are faring better then others. VW and Hyundai are two volume automakers still managing a profit. For Honda, things have turned sour just like they have at rival Toyota. What's surprising though is the similarity to Honda's numbers and Ford's. The Fourth Quarter is when everything turned really bad; Lehman Brothers, AIG. The whole September stock market crisis and the $700 billion bailout is when things took a dramatic turn for the worse. So naturally, that is when the companies would be posting their largest losses. Ford for instance wants you to compare it's latest results from the cash burn in Q4, saying that it shows a huge improvement

News on the electric car industry is continuing on at a rapid pace. It definitely is shaping up to the be the "fuel of the future", at least in the mid-term. Automakers everywhere are accelerating plans to produce electrified vehicles, and Nissan is one of the latest to go straight to electric. Unlike Toyota and more recently Honda, which are both very wedded to the hybrid powertrain system, Nissan will be skipping out on launching a low-cost hybrid to compete. They're bypassing all of that, moving straight to electric vehicle technology. Toyota is hesitant to go to pure electric vehicles due to it's heavy investment in the Hybrid Synergy Drive system. So expect that and variations of it to be Toyota's dominant technology in the future. Nissan Senior Vice President Andy Palmer

Remember my article on the Prius price slashing going on over in Japan? Looks like that might be having some big effects on sales and orders. Honda expected to make it's big splash with the Insight and Toyota is trying to douse that fire with the Prius price cut. Thanks to AutoblogGreen for the colorful picture! I just couldn't include one of the drab, low quality photos that Toyota had with the car's press release. The report on Prius sales comes from Reuters via local Japanese newspaper Chunichi and Nikkei who broke the information on Prius orders. Orders already received are over 20,000 and Toyota expects that number to increase to 40,000 before the car's official on-sale date. Think the price cut had anything to do

In a report from Automotive News, Takeo Fukui, Honda Motor Company President has confirmed that a new hybrid powertrain is being developed for large cars that will negate the need for a clean diesel engine, which was originally planned. Fukui cites the cost of clearing tough emissions regulations in the United States and Japan as the main reason for the change in direction. The more cost-effective solution will be a modified or possibly new hybrid drive system which will instead become the future green drivetrain for big vehicles. Honda has not said when it will begin to offer a hybrid powertrain in its larger vehicles. Meanwhile, the hybrid sales face-off will take place next month when the 2010 Insight (which reached U.S. dealers last month) will

Looks like Toyota is feeling threatened by Honda's hybrid challenger Insight and is dropping the sales price on the Japanese Prius to try to match. Looks like we've got a hybrid war on our hands! Honda has tried to position the Insight as a low-cost alternative to the Prius (and indeed any other car) and the sensible choice in the difficult economic climate. It looks like it's proving to be an attractive proposition for buyers as well; Honda has reported brisk sales of the Insight in March, the first month it has gone on sale in the U.S . The base price for the Insight here in the U.S clocks in at $20,470. The rumor is Japanese pricing on the 2010 Prius will come in at 2.05 million yen ($20,750), just