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

Make a tiny two-door city car, and name it the iQ.  That is pretty clearly a shot at the Smart car, right off the bat - it would be like Chevy releasing a special edition Camaro called the "it's faster than Shelby."  So how smart is Toyota's Smart?  What's its iQ, to stretch the pun?

Are you looking at my butt?

The iQ has the odd distinction of being the smallest four-seater in America.  And small it is: it's 119.9" long overall, which is one-tenth of an inch shorter than the wheelbase of the Chrysler 300 I just recently reviewed.  It's 13" longer than a Smart ForTwo, but it does have back seats- and only 5" additional wheelbase.  It's 20" shorter than a

Welcome back to News Bites, Car Throttle's one-stop-shop for the this-and-that of all that's auto news.  What's on the plate for today?  Track times, the President's old whip, Volvos, wrecking Datsuns, and some other fun stuff. Car and Driver is one of the few automotive print publications people still like, because they still produce some unique content.  Best example: the annual Lightning Lap challenge.  They take road-going cars, divided up into classes by price, for hot laps around Virginia International Raceway - street tires, pump gas, license plates and full interiors, to see what's fastest.  This year they didn't run any LL5 cars ($250,000+) or LLU (non-street-legal, like the Ariel Atom and KTM X-Box), but they did add a new class: LLT, for trucks.  There's a

There's a long precedent of rappers referencing cars in their songs.  It's part of the baller lifestyle: huge house, lots of skeezy women, and a gold-plated Range Rover with 38" gold-plated wheels.  Since rap these days is all about conspicuous consumption, it's part and parcel. But as much as we like seeing Jay-Z and Kanye cut the doors off a Maybach, weld sheet metal fenders on it, and drift it around an industrial parking lot, there's something amusing about local rappers laying down a track about... their Volvo.  Awww, hell yeah son!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKOVF1qwPzI

The above video is by Seattle-area rapper Grynch, and I actually kinda like the song.  I mean, not just because I'm partial to ancient Volvo station wagons - it's a

If you're an avid Car Throttle fan, you'll know that we have a strong tendency to not do things "by the book". Take a simple car video review. Our "in-depth" research on YouTube has found far too many boring car reviewers (read: 50-year-old, bald blokes) who love to spout performance figures, chassis materials and snigger subtle digs at manufacturers who produce car fodder. Whilst there's a room in the reviews market for lateral G-ratings on a skid pan and all the knowledge that the older generation may bring to the table, us young Throttlers are developing videos which give a more rounded view of new vehicles, combined with some attempted banter and searching storylines. And where possible, we like to give individuals other than myself, the opportunity

Toyota FT-86 Concept, Toyota GT-86, Toyota 86, Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ - wow has this car had a lot of names or what? There has been wall-to-wall coverage of Toyota's much-anticpated enthusiasts entry. We're sure it is a welcomed change for Toyota, who has mostly endured negative coverage pertaining to recalls, quality issues and well...boring products. In the United States, the car is badged as the Scion FR-S, and it was just revealed in Los Angeles with few changes and a cheapened interior versus its Toyota counterparts. We thought the era of rebadging was over, but apparently Toyota didn't get the memo - there are very few changes between the Toyota, Scion and Subaru models. Now, two new videos have been released from Toyota and

Hot on the heels of yesterday's reveal of the Toyota GT-86,  Subaru has dropped it's first images of the BRZ.  If we've seen the Toyobaru, now we're seeing the Subieyota.  (Toyobarubieyota?)  If you were expecting something radically different from the GT-86, well - err, no. The Subaru BRZ is almost indistinguishable from the GT-86, except for the Stars of Pleiades badge on both ends, and a slightly different front clip.  The pattern inside the taillights is slightly different, and there's no "86" Boxer badge on the front fenders, but that's about it.

Even the same wheels.

Mechanically, it's identical to the GT-86.  That means a front-mid engine/rear drive chassis, a 2.0L "D4S" boxer engine with 197bhp/151lb-ft, and six speed manual or automatic transmission.  Subaru

It's a day I never thought would come.  After numerous teaser concept cars, the production version of the Toyota FT-86 is here.  First of all, it's going to be called the GT-86 in Europe, and just "86" in Japan.  The US version is still likely to be marketed as a Scion (probably called the FR-S), and there will be a Subaru version (for now being called the BR-Z, although we'll find out soon enough.)  Regardless of what it's called or where it's sold, the Toyobaru/Subieyota is finally coming into focus as a production car, and we have some of the greasy details and real pictures to share with you. A lot of these details are probably things you've already heard, but here are the basics. 

Here's Part II of the SEMA Preview coverage.  Alternative title: Turbos, widebodies, big brakes and roll bars, oh my!  In the previous post I covered GM, Mopar, Mazda, and Hyundai.  Now we're moving on to Toyota.

Toyota, Lexus, and Scion have always had a strong presence at SEMA. This year will be no different, with all three divisions bringing concept cars in a futile attempt to convince us the brand is still interesting. Toyota's "big announcement" was the introduction of the F-Sport package for the new-generation Lexus GS350 sedan, which makes the car better looking (negotiable) but not any faster. The exterior gets 19" alloy wheels with 235/40/19 tires (RWD F-sports get 265/35/19 rears, AWD's are square), a more aggressive front

Everyone who loves summer will be miserable just now, me being one of them, because summer is pretty much over and today, up here in Scotland, it is very cold and wet. The weather forecasters are saying that this year winter will probably be as harsh as the last two years which is fantastic news(!) Instead of moaning about it though we should think about the precautions we should take when it comes to driving in the forthcoming harsh conditions. There are the usual ones like make sure you have blankets and flasks full of hot drinks in the car with you as well as taking some extra snacks just in case you get stranded and that you should allow extra time for your journeys