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.

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As expensive as a Cadillac coupe

In How Fake Luxury Conquered The World, Jack Baruth started a productive conversation on just which cars or group of cars disrupted Alfred Sloan’s “a car for every purse and purpose” hierarchy of brands that was such an important factor in GM’s success in the 20th century. Jack believes that letting each division sell fully equipped full size cars like the Caprice, Regency and Park Avenue trim lines cheapened the Cadillac brand and blurred the lines between all GM brands. In the comment thread to Fake Luxury, some of the Best & Brightest suggested the 1965 Ford LTD’s seminal role in breaking down the lines between middle class and luxury cars. Yet others suggested the blurring of lines began in the 1950s with cars like the Buick Special, a less expensive Buick.

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We don’t always cover motorsports here at TTAC, but when we do, we make sure it’s grassroots. Following the Spec Miata, Spec E30 and Spec Focus race series, NASA and Nissan have partnered to create a Spec Z series for the 2003 to 2008 350Z coupes that were so popular earlier in the decade.

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Even though I write a lot about old cars, I still think they were actually pretty terrible. If you’re over 35, you probably remember how broken-down cars with the hood up were once an every-half-mile sight on the shoulders of American highways during heat waves… and then there’s the crummy— yet expensive— sound you once got from car audio systems. Let’s take a tour of Radio Shack’s car-audio accessories for the 1966-1986 period, shall we? (Read More…)

GM noted that Fox has issues with the Volt. They give Eric Bolling a Chevy Volt for a week. And this is what GM receives in return. Ingrates.

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.

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A few days ago, 24/7 Wall Street published yet another list of the best selling cars of all times, kicking the perennial Ford F-Series to second place. We usually stay away from these lists, they just produce flame wars, especially when the methodology remains as dubious as in “we looked at best-selling car data from a number of sources.”

However, powered by the Huffington Post et al, the list went viral. And there you have it: “Toyota Corolla becomes world’s most popular car with one sold every 40 seconds.”

Toyota took that to heart today and added a second shift to its Blue Springs, Mississippi plant. It makes the Corolla in America. And yes, in the press release, Toyota confirms that the Corolla is “the world’s best-selling car of all time.”

The Blue Springs plant has an annual capacity to produce 150,000 Corollas. According to our monthly sales snapshot, the Corolla disappointed in January, whereas the new Camry is selling well. In 2011, Corolla U.S. sales had been down 9.7 percent. (With the Ford F series solidly in number 1.) So why a second shift? (Read More…)

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.

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So what was the best Super Bowl ad yesterday? Edmunds has the answer: It’s the commercial for the Fiat 500.

The alluring advert must have touched the inner submissive in America’s men. They are shown an ad where a dork is slapped around by an (allegedly) Italian beauty with an Abarth tattoo (on her neck,) and they obligingly click it to the top of the charts, without even thinking of hissing: “On your knees, Ffffffffiat.”

Wimps.

Of course, it could also have been American females who had their inner dominatrix tickled. (Read More…)

Sajeev writes:

Writing this Piston Slap during “the Big Game” is especially sweet for me, thanks to all of you.  Last week’s plea for more content generated about 75 emails for your reading pleasure, which at the rate of 2 a week, means you will continue to enrich the lives of everyone who reads Piston Slap.  Which makes me more proud than I can possibly convey in a short period of time. So let’s do this thing!

Mark writes:

I drive a 06 Civic sedan with about 138K on the clock.  I only drive about 18 miles a day, and the car is in decent shape.

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