Car Throttle

News Bites for today include Dodge's hot Dart,  Audi's new diesel, teaser shots of the upcoming 2013 Dodge Viper, some good ole' fashioned intellectual property theft, an electric crossover thing, and Super Bowl advertisements from Audi and Honda.  Read on for the News Bites! Dodge's Dart subcompact was just revealed a few weeks ago, but we've already got two pieces of future speculation on where the lineup could expand.  First, Mopar will be bringing a concept Dart to the Chicago Auto Show, called the Dart GTS 210 Tribute.  It previews the two "stages" of Mopar upgrades for the new sedan.  Stage 1 will be aesthetic goodies, like the carbon fiber hood with Viper-esque scoop, and matte black side skirts, front diffuser, and other trim - along

Right off the bat with that title, I'm lying.  The Chrysler 300 is the product of a company that's more than half-owned by an Italian company.  The point of final assembly is Brampton Ontario, Canada.  The engine's from Mexico, and the transmission is from ZF in Germany.  The rear suspension is based on an old E-Class Mercedes design, and actually only 59% of the Chrysler 300 is made of "domestic" parts: and for some reason Chrysler counts Canada as being domestic.  Want an American car?  Buy a Honda Accord. Still, this is an old and tired argument.  It's easy to poke fun at diehard domestic fans who trash talk the (built in Texas) Toyota Tundra for being Japanese (despite being designed and engineered largely in America,

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,

Last month we reported on 2012's GT-R and briefly mentioned a track focused edition. Full details of the special Nissan have just been released. It may be designed to ace the race tracks but Nissan say the 'Track Pack' edition can be used on the road just like the usual GT-R. So if you want one you don't have to worry about escorting it to its territory on a tow truck. To make sure your friends and enemies know you've got the track focused car this edition comes with unique six-spoke RAYS alloys with gloss black centres and a special 'Track Pack' emblem on the centre console. Now to answer the question 'How can the GT-R possibly get better for the track?' Firstly, the spring rates have

Hyundai's Genesis Coupe took everyone by surprise when it came out in 2009.  A brand previously known for building cheap, boring transportation appliances had given us a shapely rear-wheel-drive sports coupe with great weight balance, and a choice of two engines: a tuner-friendly 2.0L Turbo base model, and a 3.8L V6, both available with 6 speed manual or automatic transmissions. In doing so, they pitched the GenCoupe directly against established musclecars like the Mustang, Camaro and Challenger - as well as against some import sports coupes like the Eclipse, Infiniti G35/G37, Nissan 350/370Z, and the BMW 1-Series.  It's a tough crowd.  And while the Genesis still shines as a driver's car, it doesn't shine as brightly in comparison any more.  Almost all it's competitors have gained

Pardon the overused meme.  It's nice to see Honda focusing on their new Civic Si for SEMA, rather than - oh, I don't know, Elements outfitted for dogs.  They brought a wide array of the new 2.4L powered Si's to SEMA this year, ranging from mild (the HFP package) to wild (the 450-horsepower Fox Marketing turbocharged one I showed you earlier.)  They also brought along a supercharged V6 Accord Coupe, just because.

The Tjin Edition Civic Si Sedan (Above, left) is interesting.  Most notable are the 19" Rotiform BLQ Concave wheels, in orange on the driver's side and purple on the passenger.  Why?  Don't know.  Rotiform is quickly becoming a standard go-to wheel choice for the stance crowd, so

Hyundai's Genesis Sedan was a complete surprise when it debuted in 2008. No one was really expecting Hyundai, of all brands, to come out with a full-size, rear-wheel drive pseudo-luxury sedan.  Even fewer people were expecting it to be as good as it was, either - it was more than a match for luxury-biased mid-sizers like the Lexus GS, Acura TL, Chrysler 300C, etc. But even with a really good product, it's basically market suicide to leave it untouched on the market for a few years as the competition gets better.  So Hyundai has made some changes and updates to their now 2nd-tier luxury sedan (since they started selling the LS460-sized Equus in the US.) The biggest changes occur under the skin.  All the Genesis sedan

Ahh, the 90's Civic hatchback: dime a dozen, get 'em while they're hot. I know you wanted to pick a flavor, but I hope you like vanilla, 'cause that's what you'll get.  Right?  Now, normally when you look under the hood of an EG-chassis Civic (92-95), you see one these: a D15. Boring.  On a good day, a single-cam D15 16v PGM-FI motor will make 110 or so horsepower.  Which is perfectly adequate for a 2,400lb commuter car, and it'll deliver 40+ MPG on the highway all day long.  But if you want to go fast in your Civic Hatch, you're going to need a bigger motor.  How about one that doesn't even fit under the hood? Wait, WHAT? No, this photo isn't photoshopped.  That's an

Some would call it unfortunately styled.  I'm not that polite.  I call it a Butterface. I'm talking about the Acura TL, man, not Ke$ha.  Butterface, for those not well-versed in rude jargon, means "nice body - but 'er face is ugly."  Crude, I know.  But it describes the current TL pretty well, when you think about it.  The TL's got a nice interior, it's got great engines and powertrain selections, it's reasonably priced, dead reliable, and it even looks good from the side and from the back!  But when you get around to the front end... well, it's horrendous.  For reference, this is a picture of the current TL's front end. Yuck!  What's up with that buck tooth?  Well, Acura called it a "power plenum"

This is another idea that sprang to mind when I was trying to come up with ways to get you, the CT reader, more involved. Everyone loves a poll, and everyone loves talking about the good old days, and how they don't build 'em like they used to.  So here's your chance to vote: with this series, we'll be comparing a current production model from a brand to one of their past.  You tell us if you think where we're at now is "progress."  I'm willing to bet the answer is no, most of the time.  Here we go, onto exercise 1. Honda critics used to refer to the Prelude as the Quaalude, because... well, it was boring and slow.  But when the bizarre-looking 4th generation