Mazda’s participation at the 2009 LA Auto Show will now include the Mazda2. With automakers now making a concerted effort to bring in hatchback models to the US market, the Mazda2’s attendance in LA should go a long way in introducing the car to the US.
Right now, the Mazda2 is being sold in a lot of markets all over the world, thanks to a relatively affordable and efficient package, which comes with a number of engine variants including a 1.3 and 1.5-liter gas engine and a 1.2 and 1’6-liter diesel variant.
The car’s entry into the North American market has been widely anticipated after the car scored the distinction of being voted World Car of the Year in 2008.
There’s no word yet as to how much the car will be sold in the US and technical specs have also yet to be released. Nevertheless, the Japanese brand is excited about bringing the car to one of the world’s major auto markets. The car is expected to go on sale at the latter part of 2010, where it will be rebranded as a 2011 model.
What can be smaller than the BMW 1-Series? Well apparently the 0-Series. BMW’s future baby will be a front-wheel-drive supermini, placed between Mini and 1-Series. The BMW 0-Series will debut in 2012 in both three and five-door versions as a competitor for the future Audi A1.
It will be built on the next-generation MINI platform, becoming the first-ever front-wheel-drive BMW. But besides dropping the rwd system, the 0-Series will crealy be a BMW: twin kidney grilles, front apron inspired by the 1-Series, a sweeping tailgate and subtle spoilers.
It will be offered with a wide choice of petrol and diesel engine, including a new version of the 161bhp 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbodiesel, which debuted as a range extender on the Vision EfficientDynamics Concept.
A few days after Renault announced that two of its new concept cars, the Zoe ZE and the Twizy ZE Concept would be scheduled for launch in a few years, the French-based automaker has also announced that it would once dust-off the Gordini brand and add it to the Renault Sport range.
The announcement of the expected debut of the Twingo Gordini RS will be held at the L’Atelier Renault on the Champs Elysées on November 25.
The Gordini brand rose in popularity in the 60’s where over 200,000 units were sold at that time. The brand’s popularity crossed mainstream thresholds after the car appeared in a number of French films during the decade.
After riding off into the sunset shortly thereafter, Gordini is motoring back to give a new generation of car buyers the chance to sit behind the wheel of one of Renault’s most popular cars. To retain the classic look of the compact car, Renault has made it clear that it would uphold the Gordini tradition. What this means is that the cars styling – including the off-center double stripes that was a trademark of Gordini back then – will likely stay the course. Renault has still to shed light as to what drivetrain the new Gordini models will have and the announcement will more than likely happen on the 25th of November, the day the Twingo Gordini RS is unveiled in France.
Putting a Range Rover engine on a Renault Twingo isn’t exactly an everyday occurrence, yet custom tuners Lazareth decided to have some fun and do just that.
While you’ll never mistake the French compact car for a luxury SUV, it does make for some awesome thrills to have the miniscule front-mounted engine the Twingo used to come in for a more powerful variety. As a result, the Twingo has been updated with a 3.5-liter V8 180 horsepower mid-mounted engine that conveys its power to the Twingo’s rear wheels through a five-speed manual transmission.
It took a lot of work, especially since a Twingo doesn’t exactly fall in the same line as that of a Range Rover. To fit the luxury SUVs engine on the hatchback, Lazareth modified the Twingo’s chassis by adding a rear tubular subframe, brand new suspensions, modified brakes, to name a few.
The result, as you can expect, is a hatchback that packs more power than Twingo could have ever had with a standard configuration. If the upgraded engine wasn’t enough, Lazareth also gave the Twingo’s interior a plush racing upgrade with MOMO bucket seats, a sports steering wheel, and new digital gauges.
With a new engine and an overall upgraded look, the Lazareth-tuned Twingo, which they’ve come to call as the Twingo Trophy V8, sells for around €70,000, or in the language of US dollars, around $105,000.
After what seemed like ages, Japanese car maker Mitsuoka is finally releasing its next-generation Viewt. Now, if you’re wondering who or what Mitsuoka is, they’re a local car brand from Japan that caters only to the Japanese market. What’s unique about Mitsuoka is the fact that they build modern cars that resemble those old-time British automobiles from the 50s and the 60s.
As you can plainly see with the new Viewt, Mitsuoka is continuing on that legacy. Underneath the vintage-looking exterior is actually a production-made Nissan Micra so you can be sure that while the look is vintage, the performance is not. Mitsuoka did alter a few of the design elements of the car like the integration of the front bumpers to the front end panels.
It’s been a while since we last saw Mitsuoka grace our presence with a car so the release of the new Viewt came at just the right time.
It would seem that the marketing team at Volkswagen watched Back to the Future one too many times before coming up with the idea for their latest commercial for the Volkswagen Polo. Just like in the Michael J. Fox series of films, a group of rough and tough leather wearing hot shots come into a diner ready to start some trouble with a Marty McFly type character. The in diner antics lead to a drag race where our protagonist’s Polo is set to take on a lead sled from the fifties. Only when the flag girl waves the start of the straight line competition, the Volkswagen driver merely inches forward to claim a greater prize.
Citroen sure knows how to take advantage of the latest in video technology. In a bid to promote their latest hatchback the DS3, the French manufacturer has resorted to a video-game style feature that allows you to take control of a DS3 from a piece of printed out interactive pages that you have in your hands.
All you need to do is go to Citroen’s website, print out the pages, and hold them in front of your webcam. What follows is a unique interactive program that allows you to muss over the DS3 and place it in different situations, including one where you can take it out for a nice drive with the piece of paper you’re holding as your very own steering wheel.
It’s a fun way to get acquainted with Citroen’s latest hatchback. The quick tutorial at the company’s website is easy enough to get you up to speed with what you need to do to give this a shot.
The Japanese automaker Mazda has commenced production on their compact hatchback the Mazda2 at their AutoAlliance factory in Thailand. Although the diminutive city car may not seem so impressive, you have to remember that it did win a few car of the year awards in its previous form and that the new car comes with an all new enticing feature, an even wider grin. The new Mazda2’s smiley face is not only more inviting than the generation that came before but it also gives the 2010 model year small city car a fun face that adds to the Japanese automaker’s Zoom-Zoom spirit of car building.
Just like the new MX-5, the Mazda2 has undergone a design refreshening and features a new front bumper that incorporates a set of larger larger vertical air intakes as well as the new happy face five point lower grill that is going into all of Mazda’s fun to drive vehicles. A new Mazda2 also gives hope that a new open air roadster inspired version could be in the works, especially after consumers have adjusted to the new car’s playful front end. As for now, these images are pretty much all we have to go on, but we promise to get back to you with more details as they become available.
While the current economic crisis has resulted in a few interesting partnership with a number of unlikely automobile manufacturers and other manufacturers weary of risky high priced ventures, the man from Prodrive feels that his super car company can sell premium compact city car for the not so unheard of asking price of $32,000; after all it is an Aston Martin. As part of the English coach builder’s plans to unroll a few new vehicles in order to recuperate some profits the powers at be behind Toyota and Aston Martin have joined forces to create a fashionable compact city car for the crowded narrow streets of densely populated European urban environments. What they ended up with is the upscale Aston Martin Cygnet based on the economical Toyota i.Q.
The venture actually sounds like another English sport/luxury hybrid when Mini commissioned the design team at Rolls Royce to produce a series of extremely extravagant small cars. The car’s foundation will be built at Toyota’s factory in Japan and then shipped to the Aston Martin factory in Gaydon where the team of hand built super car interiors will have a go at restyling the lowly Toyota’s interior bringing it up to super car status. Obviously the Cygnet should also wear some unique body work like an Aston Martin style twin vented hood, some flared arches and plenty of winged emblems.
This is a very bold move for the English automaker, attempting to sell a car smaller than a Smart for a little over $30,000. The German luxury automaker Audi has recently admitted to having a hard time justifying a premium hatchback for the U.S. market, dooming whatever chances we might have had for an RS3 stateside. The Vantage should be happy because it can now pass on the title of being the baby Aston; if they can keep production limited and watch the demand skyrocket, they should have no problem selling out of their Cygnet inventory. After all, who would pass up on the chance to buy a brand new Aston Martin for the price of a Nissan Maxima.
Over on the other side of the pond, the UK is getting set to unveil their all-new bad guy-chasing police cruiser, but unlike the new 2011 Chevrolet Caprice, which will be used in the US, the chaps from the UK have decided to crack down on their own criminals with the new Mitsubishi all-electric i-MiEV.
It seems odd to us that the UK police’s vehicle-of-choice in apprehending the baddies is an electric car is neither fast nor intimidating. But as it turns out, the compact electric car was displayed in full police regalia at the National Police Show last month. Since then, the i-MiEV, which runs on an electric motor and has a top speed of 130 km/h, has become somewhat of a hot item among police units in the country, a lot of them even resorting to asking Mitsubishi for some trial cars.
From our end, we have no idea how the i-MiEV can hold its own in against, say, a runaway Aston Martin, but then again, the UK Police Force must have something up their sleeves as far as tinkering with the i-MiEV is concerned.
We just can’t picture the electric car to exude the kind of menacing badass-ness police cruisers are known to have.
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