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!

Mitsubishi will launch their 2013 Outlander in Russia this summer, followed by a world-wide launch later this year. The diesel version gets a start-stop feature, while we’ll likely get a 2.0L gasoline 4-cylinder. Adaptive Cruise Control, a lane departure system and a collision avoidance system are also featured – other than that, no details will be announced until the Geneva Auto Show. Oh yeah, three rows of seats.

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.

As much as the 2012 Civic takes its lumps in the public arena, the first-generation RDX is a great example of “The Honda Way” gone awry. The 2.3L turbocharged engine was hailed by Autoblog in today’s editorial as “Honda’s Best Performance Engine”, but they apparently forgot about the K20, F22C and the B-Series and H-Series VTEC motors of a previous era. The K23A1 was laggy, erratic in its power delivery and mated to an uninspiring 5-speed automatic transmission for most of its life. The 6-speed transmission was improved, but not enough that most consumers would know or care or even use the paddle shifters. A dismal 17/22 mpg rating was the official number, anything that slightly deviated from a perfect EPA test cycle (i.e. sudden lane changes and merging situations, uphill driving, cold climates, snow tires) saw a noticeable drop in fuel economy and a thirst for premium gasoline didn’t help. The RDX later offered front-drive to go along with its SH-AWD system, a lovely feature that was ultimately wasted on the small crossover clientele, and the bespoke platform Acura engineered to accommodate the RDX.

The new RDX has been criticized by the B&B as being little more than a re-badged CR-V with a V6 engine. I haven’t heard confirmation of that, but it wouldn’t be so bad. The new CR-V won’t cause tachycardiya, but it’s a fine car to drive and full of practical features that will make people’s lives easier, like a low load floor and one-touch folding rear seats – the kinds of things that matter in the crossover segment rather than lateral g numbers and 0-60 times. Power is up to 273 horsepower and 20/28 mpg (city/highway) for front-drive models and 19/27. The SH-AWD will be missed by few, and the K23A1 even fewer.

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.

Both of those cars mustered only 4736 units, while the Civic sold 4928 units – and that’s without the year-end blowout lease specials where Honda offered a $0 down, 48 month lease at 0.9 percent interest, allowing punters to walk away with a Civic LX sedan for $199 a month. Of the top 10 cars offered for sale, 9 were compacts, with the Toyota Camry being the sole mid-sized offering. Let’s see what happens when the Elantra GT and Elantra Coupe go on sale – as it is now, 20 percent of Elantra’s sold are Elantra Touring models.

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.

While Europe and Australia will get this vehicle, Americans will be shut out, as Chevrolet has officially denied that we’ll get the Cruze station wagon. The same 1.4 turbo, 1.6 and 1.8L gasoline engines and 1.7 and 2.0L diesel engines will carry over from the sedan and hatchback, as well as Chevrolet’s MyLink infotainment system. At 184 inches long, the Cruze wagon is about three inches longer than the sedan (and 7 inches longer than the hatchback that we also don’t get) while offering 17.6 cubic feet of cargo room with the seats up and 52 with the seats down. Look for the official real at the Geneva Auto Show in early March.

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.

Classified as a mid-size car (as opposed to the compact Honda Civic and Kia Forte two-doors), the familiar 148 horsepower 4-cylinder engine and 6-speed transmissions are available, along with Bluetooth and an iPod dock. Two trim levels, the GS and SE are available, but only leather and 17 inch wheels can be had on the SE. A technology package adds a 7 inch screen, a back-up camera, push-to-start and a better stereo. The SE also gets an upgraded suspension which should hopefully liven up the Elantra’s mundane driving dynamics.

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.

You already know that the ILX, like the Integra, uses a Civic platform, with the 2.4L 200-horsepower Civic Si motor and a 6-speed gearbox, a 150 horsepower 2.0L 4-cylinder with a 5-speed automatic and the Civic Hybrid’s 1.5L IMA powertrain. The hybrid will return 35/38 mpg, the 2.0L will get 24/32 mpg and the 2.4L will get 20/29 mpg. The ILX’s press photos don’t show the most dramatic angle – the extremely truncated rear deck that looks a bit like the Chevy Sonic sedan. It is, dare we say, ZDX-like when viewed from the side, although the C-Pillar is not as steeply angled. The new NSX cannot come soon enough.

Acura showed off their 2013 RDX, featuring a 3.5L V6 with 33 more horsepower than the outgoing model and substantially improved fuel economy.

At 273 horsepower and MPG ratings of 20/28 mpg for the front-driver and 19/27 mpg AWD version, quantitative performance is up for Acura’s small crossover. Pandora Radio, an ELS sound system, a power liftgate and a longer wheelbase/wider track are the big news for 2013. We’ll have more information tomorrow when our team starts live coverage of the Chicago Auto Show.

Fisker Automotive has laid off a total of 66 people, including 20 at a former GM plant in Delaware, and another 40 contractors in California. The layoffs come as Fisker attempts to re-negotiate loans from the Department of Energy that were contingent on Fisker meeting sales targets for its Karma sedan, which Fisker failed to do.

While the DOE loaned Fisker $509 million, Fisker has only $193 million so far. The money was earmarked to help engineer a new vehicle, dubbed the Nina. Fisker had hoped to employ 2,000 people at the Delaware plant. The Karma has been hampered by a series of delays and false starts, leading to speculation that the project was little more than vaporware. Fisker is also pursuing private equity financing in lieu of government loans.

We just got our first look at the 2013 Nissan 370Z, set to be unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show on Wednesday. The changes are brief but good god, what did they do to those wheels?

Nissan lists the 2013 changes as

• Refreshed front fascia with vertical LED daytime running lights
• Revised 19-inch aluminum-alloy wheels (Sport Package equipped models)
• New 18-inch wheels for 370Z Coupe
• Red-finished brake calipers (Sport Package equipped models)
• Dark-finish fuel gauge trim
• Euro-tuned shock absorbers (Sport Package equipped models)
• And two new exterior colours – Magma Red and Midnight Blue 

Just like the Lacrosse, the Buick Regal will no longer be available with a base 2.4L 4-cylinder engine. Instead, the same 2.4L with Buick’s eAssist mild hybrid will become the standard powerplant.

The Regal eAssist will get as much as 36 highway MPG, though pricing and city fuel economy wasn’t announced. The base 2.0L turbocharged engine will still be around, as well as the Regal GS, which gets an automatic gearbox option for 2013. Some outlets have suggested that the turbocharged engine may be offered as a no-cost option, similar to how the Lacrosse offers a V6 as a no-cost alternative to the eAssist. Current pricing shows a nearly $3,000 gap between a base 2.4L and a base model turbo, so that idea seems like a flight of fancy, unless the lineup is re-arranged.

My wife has requested that I get a jeep type vehicle that we can use to do some light off road driving, i.e. she wants to drive on the beach.  I see this as an opportunity to buy a fun 4×4.  I would like to take it off road a bit and try to get it stuck.  My requirements are that it be a 4×4, cost $15000 or less and can support a winch.  It does not need to be a daily driver, and manual is OK, but automatic is slightly preferred.  Finally, I am not looking to buy myself a job as a mechanic.

The small crossover segment is heating up, with the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and Mazda CX-5 squaring off as this year’s new entrants in an already crowded field. Starting at $20,695, the CX-5 will get class leading fuel economy numbers of 26/35 mpg thanks to the SKYACTIV 2.0L 4-cylinder engine – and a 6-speed manual gearbox.

A 6-speed automatic and AWD will set you back another $1,400 and $1,250 respectively. The Touring model costs  $23,895 and $25,145 for FWD and AWD respectively while the Grand Touring runs $27,045 and $28,295 for the GT AWD. A Technology package, featuring items like in-dash TomTom navigation, pivoting HID headlights and rain-sensing wipers adds another $1,185 ($1,325 for the GT model, which also adds keyless entry) while a Bose stereo/moonroof package is $1,130. A destination charge of $795 is not included in the price.

The Honda Civic is moving up its planned refresh of the 2013 Civic to fall of 2012, after just over a year on the market. The confirmation came at a Honda dealer meeting, and the refresh will apparently go beyond just cosmetic changes inside and out.

Despite being panned by critics, sales of the Civic remain solid. The Civic was America’s third best selling car in January 2012 even with parts and inventory shortages related to natural disasters in Thailand and Japan, and the best selling compact car. While Honda sold “only” 221,000 Civics in 2011, the Chevrolet Cruze only managed to sell 231,700 cars, and the Corolla/Matrix, lumped together, moved 240,000. Critical favorites, like the Ford Focus, managed 175,000 (and 45 percent of Foci were sold to fleets anyways).

I’ve managed to book both an Si Sedan and an EX sedan for a week each in April. I’ll have a 2000 Civic and my grandma on hand to help evaluate just how good (or bad) the 2012 Civic is. But for Honda to restyle their crown jewel after roughly a year on the market suggests that something is amiss at the Big H, even if consumers don’t seem to care.

Our coverage of the 2012 Chicago Auto Show will kick off Wednesday, but preparations begin tomorrow, as our team, headed up by hizzoner Jack Baruth, makes its way to the Windy City. We’ve got a brief rundown of what you can expect to see from the TTAC team of writers and photographers on site at McCormick Place.

Acura: With Acura having debuted “concepts” (read: barely disguised versions of the production car) of the RDX crossover and ILX sedan at Detroit, the two cars will bow officially at Chicago. The RDX gets a V6 to replace the thirsty but punchy turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, which should deliver more power and much better fuel economy. The ILX (which may be re-named the IL, following Acura naming conventions) will also get its debut, and will be crucial to Acura’s plans for picking itself up off the floor and getting the attention of new customers.

Chrysler/Dodge/Ram/Fiat: The Marchionne-ruled conglomerate will show off a few products with minor revisions. Mopar versions of the Jeep Compass, Dodge Dart and Fiat 500 will debut alongside a Ram Laramie Limited Edition pickup. Chrysler will also introduce the Mopar ’12 300, a tuned 300S with some cosmetic changes and slightly quicker acceleration times.

Ford: The droptop version of the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 will debut. No word on whether this car will get the coupe version’s insane 200 MPH top speed rating. The 650 horsepower should be enough to blow the hair transplant right out of most owner’s scalps.

GMC: The 2013 GMC Acadia will show off its all-new design, as the first of GM’s Lambda crossovers to get any changes since their 2006 debut. New sheetmetal, powertrains and interior changes are expected. The Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave will follow later this year.

Hyundai: The Korean automaker continues its imperial deathmarch towards industry dominance with the debut of two variants of the Elantra. A two-door coupe, looking very similar to the sedan, will debut, as well as a 5-door hatchback based on the European i30. This is the car featured in the infamous video featuring VW boss Martin Winterkorn freaking out over the vehicle’s build quality – it’s promising, to say the least.

Kia: Kia will show off the Trackstar concept, supposedly a performance oriented version of the Soul. Early sketches look goofy.

Nissan: A refreshed 2013 model 370Z will bow alongside the NV200 passenger van. Unlike the commercial versions of the NV already on sale, the NV200 will be the next New York City taxi, and can seat up to 12 passengers.

Toyota: Because civillians, as well as UN peacekeepers and medicins sans frontiers workers buy the Land Cruiser, Toyota will show off the refreshed 2013 version in Chicago, with sales starting immediately.

Volkswagen: A TDI powered 2013 Beetle will debut, featuring the familiar 2.0L TDI engine making 140 horsepower, with a choice of 6-speed manual or DSG transmissions.

How do you say “grace, pace and space” in Mandarin? Jaguar Land Rover is apparently partnering with Chinese automaker Chery to build cars in China. While an announcement wont come until April’s Beijing Auto Show, the two companies have applied for permission from China’s regulators.

Jaguar Land Rover sales are up in China by 92 and 63 percent respectively, and the country is on pace to become one of the top 3 markets for both brands. Locally built cars would avoid hefty import duties and allow for extra supply. Some smaller displacement engines for Jaguar (such as the 2.2L diesel) will be necessary to help boost sales, and don’t be surprised if we see a crossover at some point in the future.

Fiat will delay the launch of a B-segment Jeep, designed to slot below the Compass and Patriot. Instead, the Fiat version of the car will take precedence and launch in 2013.

The rest of the world will have to wait until Q2 of 2014 for the new baby Jeep. The new Fiat will replace the Sedici, derived from the Suzuki SX4, which sold only 14,800 units in 2011. The baby Jeep will apparently be “Trail Rated” despite its effete underpinnings, and will share its platform with the Fiat 500L as well as the new Sedici replacement. Fiat is re-tooling their Mirafiori plant to build the vehicles, as the Sedici is currently built in Suzuki’s Hungarian factory.

One month is far too premature to make any predictions about 2012′s sales race, but we still got our hands on the data, thanks to independent analyst Timothy Cain. As usual, the Ford F-Series and Toyota Camry were the top dogs.

The top 5 best-selling cars were the Camry, followed by the Nissan Altima and the critically panned Honda Civic. The Toyota Corolla and Chevrolet Impala rounded out the Top 5, though I’d bet my life on the vast majority of Impala sales being fleet-based (Cain claims that it’s impossible to get the data, but GM mysteriously stopped publishing it some time ago, once reports on the fleet/retail breakdowns were being published by analysts such as himself). Just missing the cut is the Chevrolet Cruze.

On the truck side (or shall we say, truck/utility) the F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado and Honda CR-V are atop the podium, followed by the Dodge Ram and the Ford Escape. The re-designed CR-V is evidently off to a strong start, and it will be interesting to see how buyers take to the 2013 Escape when it launches later this year.

Check out the full breakdown here

Some of the B&B doubted the veracity of early renderings, but it turns out they were accurate. This is the Fiat 500L, the car that’s supposed to boost Fiat sales here in the USA and carry on the legacy of the very unique looking Multipla. Despite carrying the “500″ moniker, the 500L, like the Multipla, is a B segment car.

The 500L uses the Fiat Punto’s platform and delivers what Fiat calls the “…feel of a small SUV on the road”. Conventional logic suggests that any sporting pretensions should be put to bed with that statement. Further buttressing the “function follows form” ethos is another quip stating  that the 500L is “…is a ‘first car’ for those who won’t settle for anything less than Italian style.”

So, does that mean that the 500L is a starter car for yuppies too proud to buy a Chevrolet Sonic? Fiat gave only vague plans for engines, but a TwinAir powerplant (not for American consumption) and a 1.4L Multiair engine were mentioned – hopefully it’s not the asthmatic naturally aspirated version. It’s still astounding to think that Europe will get a 7-seat version of this car, when it’s only a couple feet longer than a regular 500.

I may be the only auto journalist who hates the Cadillac CTS-V Wagon. Funny, because I like station wagons. And I like the CTS-V. A lot.

At the CTS Coupe launch in June of 2010, a Cadillac exec told me that only 5 were needed to be built to break even, making it effectively a wonderful bribe for journalists. Say nice things about GM products (and hell, maybe even bash the competition) and you can have one of these for a week. Or a year.

I’ve only seen one privately owned CTS-V Wagon ever. By comparison, I’ve seen three separate Mercedes R63 AMG wagons, a vehicle that could only be ordered, not purchased off the lot. It wasn’t long before even menswear fashion bloggers were driving this thing for a week, delivered to their door with a tank of gas and insurance provided. The world kept on buying Camrys. CTS sales were marginal.

Taking a page out of Cadillac’s PR playbook is Mercedes-Benz. A friend of mine uploaded the above Facebook photo – a brown E63 station wagon. The E63 wagon is a special order car. You cannot just walk in and buy one off the lot. The one pictured above is obviously a press car, so somebody at Mercedes PR knew exactly what they were doing – AMG customers, as a rule order their wares only in silver, black or white. So why brown? Simple, car geeks love brown. Liking brown cars gives you a weird, hipster-like status. Precisely because brown cars are considered repulsive to society at large, those who pledge allegiance to brown cars must be true enthusiasts to love such an obscure hue.

Our first review of the $111,665 Teutonic Turd (really, that’s what it looks like) comes from the world’s foremost expert on high performance  wagons. A cursory glance at the article suggests that the E63 wagon is awesome. I may be the only auto journalist to have never driven an AMG car at 10/10ths on an autocross course, but I do know that nightclub floozies from the Commonwealth of Independent States absolutely adore them.

While we at TTAC mock the idea of flying “social media influencers” on charter jets across the country, there’s actually a much cheaper way of bribing social maladroits to say nice things about your company – give them a press car that’s tailored to their geeky, self-satisfied sense of sophistication. Having manufacturers send ringers into the press fleet is nothing new, but tailoring press cars just to suit the tastes of a very small cadre of automotive autistics is something that hasn’t been seen before.

The broader issue here has nothing to do with ethics, or Motor Trend’s relevance, but the evolution of PR tactics in an age where someone with 1,000 Twitter followers (half of them bots for X-rated wbesites) can be considered someone of influence. Pandering to the automotive press used to mean sending call-girls up to their rooms on press trips. Now it means ordering a very narrow interest presser in the hopes that it pays dividends in future.

Is $111,665 really such a big sum to ensure some good press? Compared to the millions of dollars spent on advertising, marketing, PR and/or damage control when one of your execs is caught committing dipping into company funds for personal uses, or bribing 22 foreign governments it’s not such a big figure. Or maybe a drive in the E63 means that your products will get good press, your competitors will get slagged and all of that will help you capture some imaginary, arbitrary bragging rights?

I saw Dave Chapelle in 2007, right after his “breakdown”, and during the performance, he explained why he turned down Comedy Central’s $50,000,000 offer. Dave said that the execs wrote the check and then metaphorically “laid their dick across the table, over the money. To get the money, I’d have to grab their dick, lift it up, and take it.” We all know Dave didn’t take the money. But someone took the keys to the E63.

Volkswagen unveiled their most important new platform, dubbed MQB (a German acronym for “Modular Transverse Matrix”). The MQB will underpin everything from the Up! to the next (European) Passat, and all points in between.

While the wheelbase can be adjusted to fit different sized vehicles, all motors, whether gas, diesel or hybrid, will use the same mounting points and transmissions. Photos appear to show a raised rear bench seat for better leg room, and stronger steel and more aluminum chassis components will help vehicles like the next Golf shed lots of weight.

The first MQB car will be the new Audi A3, which will debut this summer and be sold only as a sedan in the United States. The new MK7 Golf should follow after that, getting a reveal at September’s Paris Auto Show.

Now, this isn’t something I picked out of my nose. This is Suzuki’s new A-segment concept, a car that weighs a mere 1600 lbs.

Already unveiled as the Suzuki Regina at the 2011 Tokyo Auto Show, the car will now be dubbed the G70 when it gets its second showing at Geneva. The G70 is about the size of a Fiat 500 and uses an 800cc gasoline engine, a CVT gearbox, regenerative braking and a start-stop feature to achieve 75 mpg. You’ve got to hand it to Suzuki…it’s certainly different.

Even though it’s been revived more times than Pete Doherty, the Volkswagen Bluesport roadster is apparently back on track at the insistence of Uli Hackenberg, VW’s chief engineer.

Hackenberg feels that the upcoming Toyobaru twins and the Mazda MX-5 will fuel demand for more sports cars on the lower end of the market. While dealers felt that the market was too small to justify the Bluesport, Hackenberg feels that the demand has been artifically supressed due to a lack of options.

If Volkswagen does go ahead with the project, expect Audi or another subsidiary (SEAT? Skoda?) to market their own sports car using the platform. The big question is whether Porsche will go back on its word and create its own version, or cede the lower tier to its downmarket cousins.