Car shows

Subaru announced it will unveil a production version of a small SUV based on its Impreza platform at the 2011 Frankfurt auto show in September. Earlier this year, Subaru previewed the new vehicle with the XV Concept at the Shanghai auto show.

Subaru released a teaser sketch with its announcement, but the XV Concept shown at Shanghai looks near production. The body design is very similar to the hatchback Impreza, and the vehicle is lifted for greater ground clearance.

The concept lacked side mirrors and had outsize wheels, but those are typical concept car design cues.

The production version will most likely have all-wheel drive, a hallmark of Subaru's current model lineup, and be powered by the same 2-liter flat four-cylinder engine used by the Impreza. It will probably also be offered with a diesel engine in the European market.

The vehicle to be shown at Frankfurt confirms a European version of the car. Subaru has not announced a U.S. version yet, although it could be a competitor to the Honda CR-V and Toyota Rav4. … Read more

After not-so-secretly releasing a prototype of its electric microcar into the urban wilds for testing, Audi let loose sketches of its Audi Urban Concept. The camouflaged vehicle was caught on video in Berlin, and drawings and descriptions confirm that the Audi Urban Car concept is an electric two-seater meant for dense urban environments.

The prototype seems to be Audi's more aggressive and daring answer to BMW's electric city car, the i3. With its open wheel design, narrow body, open nose cone, and retractable roof, it kind of looks like a 1960s Formula 1 car if you squint really … Read more

The 2011 Frankfurt auto show will see the unveiling of a new model from Mazda, a model that shows the future of all cars from the company. The CX-5, based on the Minagi concept shown earlier this year in Geneva, comes to the market with new design language, fuel-saving technology, and cabin electronics.

The CX-5 will be a small crossover vehicle slotting in below the current CX-7, and will be sold globally. The exterior shows off Mazda's new design language Kodo, which means "soul of motion" in English. Replacing Mazda's earlier Nagare design, Kodo involves an … Read more

Could you have predicted in 1965 that a $3,000 Mustang would be worth $50,000 today? Or in 1960 that a $5,000 Corvette could go for $100,000 in 50 years? There are certainly many cars from the past that are gone and forgotten, that will never attain anything like classic status. Trying to predict classic cars is harder than picking soybean futures.

Nevertheless, the editors of Car Tech decided to give it a try. Looking at cars from the last decade, we came up with 10 that seemed like they should stand the test of time. Most of the cars we picked had niche interest or a limited production run, ensuring some rarity in the future. A car like the first-generation Toyota Prius heralds the beginning of a new trend in the automotive world, while the Pontiac G8 marks the end of a brand. … Read more

STUTTGART-ZUFFENHAUSEN, Germany--If you don't think a car museum can be a stunning work of art, you need to get yourself here and check out the Porsche Museum.

Being Porsche, I expected it to be interesting and full of beautiful cars, but I wasn't prepared for the scale and scope of the building itself, a giant architectural masterpiece by Vienna's Delugan Meissl Associated Architects that also happens to be artfully full of some of the most interesting and important cars in the company's storied history.

If you were in Stuttgart before 2009 and visited the Porsche Museum, … Read more

From Paris to New York, automakers showed off their latest concept cars over the last seven months. These design and technology explorations were intended to incite buzz among auto show goers and demonstrate the future direction of their creators.

Many concepts, such as the Kia Pop, are odd-looking vehicles that will never see production. Then there are concepts such as the Jaguar C-X75 that we dream about night after night, despite the fact that Jaguar doesn't plan to build it.

The Ford Vertrek concept, and others like it, represent a future design idea for a specific model. Then there'… Read more

Normally, car shows are all about flashy concepts, high horsepower, and displays of grandeur. And while there was plenty of that to be found at and around the 2011 New York auto show this year--we're looking at your Scion FR-S concept and your Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8--the overarching theme of this year's New York show was smaller, lighter, and more efficient.

Ford, Subaru, and Chevrolet all had more efficient versions of their midsize sedans. Meanwhile, in the smaller compact and subcompact segments, automakers raced to reach the magic 40-mpg mark utilizing a variety of technologies from direct … Read more

It's not the biggest or fastest electric vehicle on the market, but when it comes to the U.S. later this year, the Mitsubishi's i will be the cheapest.

Formerly the iMiev, the 2012 Mitsubishi i (ES trim level) will have a starting price of $20,490 after the federal tax credit of $7,500. That makes the four-seater EV almost $5k less than the $32,780 Nissan Leaf. But that lower price also means less range and fewer features.

The Mitsubishi i is estimated to have an 85-mile range and a top speed of 80 mph. The … Read more

Our time at the 2011 New York auto show has come to an end, but the show still goes on when it opens to the public this weekend. So, let's take a look back at some of the cars that we found most interesting and that you should look for as you navigate the massive show floor.

Clearly sick of being called a boring, beige brand, Toyota had two of the most interesting concepts at the New York show under its Lexus and Scion sub-brands. The Lexus LF-Gh concept previews a new, more aggressive direction for a brand best … Read more