Things Russia has that we don’t; oligarchy, grinding poverty, face control and the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander. Wait, never mind. We have all of those!
Category: New Cars
Doing things The Honda Way involves as much blind faith in one’s methods as it does a quantifiable formula for success. While the company has had many successes (the 1973 Civic right up until the most recent Civic), there have been mis-steps, like the first-generation Odyssey and the lack of a V6 in the 1994-1997 Accords. The one common denominator is that no matter what, Honda remains convinced that their way is the best and only way of doing things, and they’re not interested in hearing any other opinions.
Not content with being the best selling compact car and third best selling passenger car in the United States, the Honda Civic is not only Canada’s best selling car for 2012, but it absolutely crushed the competition – outselling the #2 Hyundai Elantra and #3 Toyota Corolla combined.
Fans of the station wagon rejoice – Chevrolet has a new product for those of you seeking an alternative to the Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen, in the form of the Chevrolet Cruze station wagon.
Subtract two doors and a back seat from the Kia Soul and add a 250 horsepower and all-wheel drive and you have the Kia Track’ster concept. The initial sketches of the Track’ster were pretty underwhelming, but this car looks much better in photographs. A one inch longer wheelbase and a Brembo brake system with 14 inch rotors up front, 13.6 inches in the back and a combination of 6 and 4 piston brake calipers (front and rear) add to the Track’ster’s spec sheet. Instead of the rear seats, there’s a compartment for spare tires and safety gear like helmets.
Hang on to your hairplugs. The 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 has the same 650 horsepower supercharged 5.8L V8 making 600 lb-ft of torque. But unlike the 200 mph coupe, the ‘vert will only top out at 155 mph. The vert does get 6-piston Brembo brakes, a carbon fiber driveshaft, an upgraded clutch, electronically adjustable Bilstein shocks and a Motley Crue Greatest Hits CD in the Shaker audio system.
The 2013 GMC Acadia gets a pretty mild update, with cosmetic changes playing the biggest role here. A new “center airbag”, which inflates via the right side of the driver’s seat (to protect passengers from an opposite-side impact) is also featured. The two changes are not quite the major redesign that was expected. We’ll have live shots later in the day.
With 39 mpg highway and 33 mpg combined, the 2013 Hyundai Elantra coupe may not get the same gas mileage as its sedan brother, but it injects a new entrant into a very slim field of compact, affordable two-door cars.
In a forthcoming review of Steve Lynch’s book “Arrogance and Accords“, you’ll see that Acura was doomed from the start by inept management and internal politics that relegated the worst of American Honda’s corrupt to a division that needed its best players. On the other hand, they had the Integra, a wildly popular sedan that sold well – at the expensive of its prestige and Acura’s brand equity. Hoping to re-capture some of that magic is the ILX.
Acura showed off their 2013 RDX, featuring a 3.5L V6 with 33 more horsepower than the outgoing model and substantially improved fuel economy.













Recent Comments
jellybean - Oh sorry that was my fault. Well FJ60′s actually.
sfdennis1 - This has got to be a joke. THIS is gonna go up against the new Escape and CX-5? And/or conquer sales from the RAV4 or CR-V? Mistubishi is on...
TonyJZX - here’s how it works in australia… you can get a 1.4 turbo for about $20k without much issue they want $4,000 for diesel… then where i am...
highdesertcat - Jeep attracts a certain kind of customer, but I wouldn’t call it a cult. A niche, maybe. I have...
geo - How else could Jeep sell so many Dodge Calibers? Marketing and perception is key, not reality.
geo - Thanks for proving my point. People think crappy old Hondas are gold, and pay a premium for them. A friend just...
RGS920 - Honda used to build engines that people wanted to buy. They no longer do that. The competition has moved...
T.W - What a shame as they’re definitely worth saving but soon they’ll be drawn into the crushers loving embrace. Don’t know what you got till...
LectroByte - More a cult than a car company… That sounds like Jeep more than Honda. Seriously, people buy so many...
rpn453 - Don’t feel threatened by Chinpokomon toy, Mr. Beck. We are very simple people with very small penis. We cannot achieve so much with such small...