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

What can you get these days for $30 grand and change?  Well, if you're a sensible sort of fellow, the kind that wears slacks and a white polo daily, you could get a really darn nice Honda Accord.  To be specific, $29,755 (plus destination fee and accessories, etc) will get you a 2012 Accord EX-L with Navigation.  It's got a 2.4L engine that makes some horsepower, leather seats, an electronic map to tell you where to go, and it will without a doubt run flawlessly with 0 issues for 10-15 years.  10-15 years of perfectly predictable, sedate, drama and fun-free motoring. Seriously!  These cars last forever.  An acquaintance of mine works as a service adviser at a Honda dealer, and they recently got a 2006 Accord

Introducing the most economical Continental Bentley have ever made. It's not a hybrid nor is it electric but it has a 4.0L twin-turbo V8 petrol. Okay so that doesn't sound very efficient does it? The new V8 Continental GT and GTC will go on sale in 2012 after launch at the Detroit Motor Show in January along side the mighty 6.0L twin-turbo W12 variants we know and love but the V8s have several tricks up their sleeve to help save you some money on fueling them. For instance the amount of cylinders the engine uses varies depending on how and where you are driving it. If you are popping out to town or you're crawling through traffic it will use only 4 of the cylinders but if

I'm back in North Carolina now, where you can swing a dead cat without hitting a Bentley.  On one hand, it sucks.  I like seeing exotics constantly.  On the other, it's nice that exotics remain exotic. I walked around LA the whole time with my camera around my neck for you guys - so I'll continue now with day two and three of car spotting in LA.  Hope you enjoy it! Classic cars, especially older Japanese cars, seem to have a much longer shelf life in California's relatively mild, dry climate.  This 240Z would have a lot more rust bubbles over here in North Carolina.  I could do without the period window louvers, but YMMV. You could do worse for your commute than driving an

If you're lucky or dare I say "unlucky" enough to be around Canary Wharf at 7 in the morning, you'll catch a glimpse of one of The City of London's greatest phenomena. Rush hour. This parade of sorts has in its ranks financial analysts, traders and executives who played varying roles in highly-publicised events you may remember such as "The Financial Crisis 2008", "The Financial Crisis 2009", "The Financial Crisis 2010" and "The Continued Financial Crisis 2011". It's safe to say that these commuting individuals form the bulk of Occupy Wallstreet's Hit List. The bad kind of hit list. OK, so I might be being a bit melodramatic. You may mistake your Economics degree'd author here to be part of that very same crew and in

I always make it out to Raleigh's Cars & Coffee event the first Saturday of every month. It's always worth it, even though I abhor waking up early, because there's always awesome stuff to see.  A lot of the same cars show up, so I won't show pictures of stuff you've already seen - for those you can check previous Cars & Coffee coverage here, here, and here. For starters, here is one of 337 Porsche 959's ever built, which was Porsche's rolling technical showcase that blew everything else out of the water in the 1980's, and set the standard for supercar performance.  None were ever imported to the US; it's likely this one has been fitted with the Canepa Design engine

At CarThrottle, we love design studies that show off a new and fresh approach for a brand and its styling language. This new one comes from Italy via CarBodyDesign and is sponsored by the Fiat Group. The vision is for a Maserati of the future - 2020, which is actually isn't all that far off. We doubt cars are going to look radically different by then. The car is dubbed the GT Garbin and is the work of three designers, Jaime Cervantes (Mexico), Andrea Coccia (Italy) and Chetan Rajput (India). They designed the car as part of their project thesis for their Master in Transportation and Automobile Design at the Politecnico di Milano. The Garbin's main inspiration comes from the Maserati Ghilibi, however designers wanted to avoid

Maserati has recently let loose on the most high-performance Gran Turismo model yet, the MC Stradale. It made its first appearance at the Paris Auto Show. It is unique for the fact that in recent years Maserati has put more focus on emphasis on the word "luxury" in performance luxury. MC in the Stradale name stands for Maserati Corsa (Maserati Racing in English). The MC Stradale aims to provide a bridge between the road and track-focused models like the MC Trofeo and the GT4 race car. Maserati says the car features "razor-sharp handling" that it will break "the 300km/h barrier." The engine gets a bump in horsepower from 430 to 450 and Maserati says downforce has been improved without an increase in drag. You can check out the car proving

There's a long list of nice things to say about Maserati's GranTurismo coupe. It's prettier than a pile of Keira Knightley's, it sounds like God playing a trumpet, the interior smells like money and winning, and beneath all the Maserati glamour it's got a lot of bits and pieces from big brother Ferrari.  It makes a 911 look like the book-club square of the schoolyard, it makes the Aston Martin DB9 seem overpriced, and... well, you get it.  So how do you improve on that? Maserati thinks more power and more of a dynamic edge is a good start.  Perhaps we should not dwell on the fact that the GranTurismo was designed as a luxurious grand tourer (hey, it says so on the decklid!) and just appreciate

Mansory is a tuning company known for its outrageous creations for the uber-wealthy with no taste. Recently, it introduced the Rolls-Royce Phantom White Ghost, which is perhaps its most tame creation yet. Incidentally, it also the best looking of all. The latest vehicle to experience Mansory's touch is the Maserati Gran Turismo, and you can decide the results for yourself below. Mansory's ostentatious "look at me" traits still apply to the Gran Turismo, this time in orange. Now this writer likes the color orange, but it has to be done right. We think cars like the Maserati Gran Turismo are pretty much best left alone too - they show upper crust status enough as they are. As far as exterior changes, the Mansory GT and GTS get