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Porsche debuts new single seat hybrid sports car

Porsche unveiled its 918 RSR, single-seat hybrid coupe based on the 918 Spyder that debuted last year, at the Detroit Auto Show. Its will be produced in limited numbers next year. The 918 RSR has butterfly doors, a carbon-fiber body and a roof-mounted air intake that spins as the car moves. The racing stripes and the number 22 honor the Porsche 917 that won the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans. The engine of the new Porsch gets 767 total horsepower using flywheel technology at the wheels and a six-speed racing transmission with paddle-shifters at the steering wheel. It’s based

Ford Explorer 2011 car review

The Ford Explorer dominated the SUV market in the 1990s, but lost most of its ground by the middle of this decade. The redesigned, carlike 2011 model may make it popular again. The new three-row Explorer is larger, but lighter. It shares underpinnings with the Ford Taurus and Flex and trades its rear-drive layout for front-drive, while its trucklike body-on-frame construction gives way to a unit-body platform. Four-wheel drive continues to be available. The old Explorer’s trucky dynamics are gone. So is the V-8, replaced by a 3.5-liter V-6 that generates 290 horsepower and 255 pound-feet of torque. It works

Chevy Volt, Ford Explorer take Detroit Auto Show top honors

The Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car and Ford Explorer claimed top honors as the North American car and truck of the years honors at the Detroit Auto Show. The Volt, the General Motors’ centerpiece contribution to the advancing green car industry, has already earned the 2011 Green Car of the Year and Motor Trend Magazine’s Car of the Year. It edged the Nissan Leaf and the Hyundai Sonata for the Car of the Year award, voted on by a panel of 49 automotive journalists. Ford Motor Co’s latest incarnation of its Explorer sport utility vehicle was named 2011 Truck of

Ford counters Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt with Focus Electric

Ford Motor Company has unveiled the Focus Electric — the automaker’s first all-electric passenger car. The zero-CO2-emissions, gasoline-free version of Ford’s popular small car is the flagship of the company’s growing fleet of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles coming to North America and Europe by 2013. The Focus Electric will launch in late 2011 and offer a mile-per-gallon equivalent better than Chevrolet Volt and competitive with other battery electric vehicles, according to Ford. A full recharge is expected to take three to four hours at home with the 240-volt charge station — half the charge time of the Nissan

Toyota Sienna 2011 car review

The minivan is now sexy, hip and cool — at least that’s manufacturers want you to believe. It started with a new advertising campaign for the 2011 Toyota Sienna. Instead of screaming kids and exploding yogurt cartoons the new minivan is all about rapping parents and their posse of cool kids in their “swagger wagon.” So does the new Sienna live up to the cool, rock style its “swagger wagon” reputation? No. It’s still a front-wheel drive minivan with seating for an entire Cub Scout troop. But Toyota, like the rest of the automotive industry, has made the minivan more

GM will debut compact Buick Verano at Detroit Auto Show

General Motors will introduce its new compact Buick, the Verano, in mid-January at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show and debut the car for sale in the United States toward the end of this year. The Verano will be offered with a 177-horsepower 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. The car is expected to get 31 miles per gallon in highway driving, according to GM. “It is a smart choice that delivers unexpected luxury in a compact sedan — and it will compete head-to-head with competitors from Audi and Lexus.” John Schwegman, vice president of Buick marketing, said in

OnStar safety program soon ready for non-GM vehicles

The OnStar in-vehicle safety system has been available on select General Motors brands since 1996. But the technology, now in its ninth generation, will soon be available to a wider range of vehicles, GM or not. Within a few months, consumer electronics retailers will begin selling a standalone version of OnStar. It’s replacement rear-view mirror that can be installed in most “top-selling” vehicles from major manufacturers. Best Buy will be OnStar’s the first U.S. retail partner. The retail version on OnStar will offer the core features including the noted “blue button,” turn-by-turn navigation services, stolen vehicle location assistance, automatic crash

Volkswagen Jetta 2011 Car Review

The Jetta is Volkswagen’s top-seller, so the 2011 version has been substantially redesigned in the face of increasingly stiffer competition. The new front-drive Jettta sedan is sleeker, longer, roomier, quieter and more refined. Older Jettas have attracted customers across a wide range of age groups, being equally appealing to men and women. Volkswagen has found buyers believe the Jetta costs more than it does. That’s one reason it has lowered the price of the base 2011 model. The new Jetta was a blast to drive on winding Highway 1 along the winding Pacific coast during a San Francisco-based media preview

Porsche Boxster Spyder 2011 car review

Porsche is among few automakers that can successfully charge more for a model with fewer features than a less-expensive model with more features. One of the classic Porsches is the 1950s Speedster, which was a bare-bones soft-top. It was fairly inexpensive (for a Porsche) to attract more American buyers. And its lighter weight helped it win races. The 1950s Porsche 550 Spyder was even more bare-bones, but was a successful competition car not really designed for comfortable road driving. Actor James Dean raced a Speedster and later got killed on a rural California road while driving his new 550 Spyder

Honda, Ford surpass Toyota as most reliable cars in 2010

Massive recalls severely hurt Toyota sales in the past 18 months and thus relinquished the country’s former most reliable automaker to third place behind Honda and Ford, according to Consumer Reports. Honda rank in first place with 25 percent of car owners participating in the magazine’s survey naming the manufacturer with the best quality. Ford finished second with 23 percent, while Toyota finished third at 19 percent, 11 percent less than last year. Toyota‘s reputation plummeted in 2009 and 2010 and it paid nearly $50 million in fines last year to federal safety regulators for failing to promptly inform regulators

Mercedes-Benz E-Class Cabriolet 2011 car review

Mercedes-Benz four-seat convertibles always impress, although most have bland styling. The 2011 Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet four-seat convertible radiates that old Mercedes luster with rakish styling. The new E-class two-door Cabriolet comes as the $56,850 E350 or $64,800 E550. They have a fabric soft top, when the trend has been to retractable hardtop convertibles. But that’s OK because this new Mercedes has a thick soft top that provides good protection and a quiet interior. Mercedes offers two retractable hardtop models, but they’re the SL and SLK two-seat sports cars. The E350 Cabriolet convertible is slower and softer than the E550 Cabriolet.

Kia Sportage 2011 car review

It never hurts to produce a vehicle with styling inspired by a striking auto show concept vehicle. That’s the case with the 2011 Kia Sportage crossover. It has styling inspired by Kia’s sleek Kue concept vehicle displayed at the 2007 Detroit auto show. The Sportage has Kia’s longest-running nameplate. With the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, it was among the first crossovers sold in the United States. The 2011 Sportage — introduced at a San Francisco media preview — rips a page from the old Detroit strategy of making new cars longer, lower and wider than predecessors. It’s a bold

Ford Mustang 2011 car review

Next to the Model T, which seems too old for history books, the Mustang is the best known Ford. It was snapped up by all age groups right after its mid-1964 introduction. There’s something to be said for automotive continuity. For example, while Chevrolet dropped its Camaro for eight years after 2002, the Mustang has been continued since its debut. A media preview of the new Mustang in the Los Angeles area involved everything from mountain driving to drag races with the rival Camaro. It showed the 2011 Mustang the best Mustang yet. It reaches showrooms in mid-spring. The 2011

Kia Sorento 2011 car review

The carlike Kia Sorento is so dramatically changed one might wonder why it retains the name of the old truck-like Sorento, which arrived for 2003 and became dated. A test drive during the media preview of the new Sorento to Kia’s sprawling new, $1 billion assembly plant in a rural area an hour from Atlanta, Georgia, showed this crossover vehicle to be poised, quiet and comfortable. Kia‘s newest Sorento is the sporty “SX.” It has a revised front end, more luxury and sharper handling. The Sorento comes as an entry model and as the LX, EX and SX. It has

Ford F-Series top 2010 seller, extends reign to 34 years

The Ford F-Series pick-up, the country’s best-selling vehicle every year for more than three decades, continued its commanding position in 2010 with an increase of more than 27 percent in sales from 2009. The Ford F-Series trucks, one of two Ford products on the top-10 list for 2010, had sales of 528,349, more than 150,000 more than the second-best seller, the Chevrolet Silverado. It was the country’s top-seller for the 34th straight year. Honda had three cars among the top-10 sellers for 2010, the Accord, Civic and CR-V. Toyota (Camry and Corolla) and Ford (F-Series and Fusion) had two vehicles

Buick Regal 2011 car review

Now in its fifth generation, but first year in the United States since 2004, the Buick Regal is back in 2011 to meet the stiff competition in the midsize sedan category. Based on the Opel Insignia, the Regal re-emerged in China in 2008 as a 2009 model and is available in the U.S. in only a CXL trim level. It’s the latest offering of the midsize car introduced by General Motors for the 1973 model year. The 2011 edition is a departure and catapults the Buick into the modern age. Standard equipment includes: 18-inch alloy wheels, foglamps, heated sideview mirrors,