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We generated a little controversy last year at CNET Car Tech by rating the Lexus LS 460L a perfect 10. Subsequently, the LS 460L also won our Tech Car of the Year award. Lexus shows off a cutaway model of what's likely to be this year's perfect 10 at the 2007 Geneva Auto Show, the Lexus LS 600h. This car takes the LS 460 and simply adds a hybrid system, increasing drivetrain power and efficiency. Lexus is using the Geneva show to push its hybrids in the European market, showing off and advertising its RX 400h and GS … Read more

Car designer Bertone has been around for a long, long time. To celebrate its 95th anniversary, the company did what it does best: it designed a car. Shown at the 2007 Geneva auto show, the Bertone roadster takes a retro design and adds modern components. The doors swing up on hinges integrated into the rear wheel fenders. Transparent inserts in the doors show off the use of modern plastics in body components.

The Bertone roadster shape hearkens back to the 1947 Fiat 500, an example of which is also on display in the Bertone booth. The Bertone roadster is built … Read more

Most people intimately familiar with Intel never heard of Brabus, and, likewise, people that know a lot about Brabus often don't know much about Intel chip architecture. But both logos appear on design house EDAG's new LUV concept, shown at the 2007 Geneva auto show. LUV stands for luxury utility vehicle, although the concept is built on a Honda Ridgeline. A wood hood and other wood exterior accents are designed to appeal to the yachting type, a niche potentially underserved by the automotive market. Or possibly the designers at EDAG took a cue from the new Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, … Read more

We're not really sure what the leopard print has to do with an electric car, except maybe to suggest that the Greeny is not only eco-conscious, but stylish as well. The Greeny, seen here at the 2007 Geneva auto show, is a 2+2 seater and uses a pack of lead-acid batteries mounted under the front seats to give it a range of 50 to 80 kilometers (30 to 50 miles). Although that may seem a short distance, it's plenty for most urban environments where typical driving distances are under 20 miles. The batteries fully recharge in six … Read more

To celebrate the launch of its all-new Auris at the 2007 Geneva auto show, Toyota built a show version with a chrome body. The chrome Auris certainly stands out on the show floor, but Toyota makes no attempt to suggest any metaphor between the show car and the launch in its marketing materials. The new Auris is a C-segment hatchback for Europe, coming in three- and five-door versions. Toyota emphasizes that it's the tallest car in its class. It's available with either a 1.4-liter or 1.6-liter four-cylinder gas engine, or a range of three diesel engines. … Read more

GM's booth at the 2007 Geneva auto show features a particularly featureless slot car setup. The orange and white cars racing around the track show no marque or model distinction, instead designed to represent an "everycar," just as the featureless buildings around the track represent an "everycity." This display is not intended to demonstrate GM's lack of style, but rather its vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology. As the cars race around the track, another car pulls out of a parking garage, causing an obstruction. Both approaching cars receive a warning through their V2V hardware, and … Read more

Sure, it's just a concept. Nothing to get excited about. Concepts hardly ever make it intact to production, anyway. But it's the new M3, and we're just going to go ahead and get our hopes up anyway. BMW unveiled the new M3 at the 2007 Geneva auto show, and this picture hardly does it justice. It's a sleek, beautiful-looking car and we want it now. In the press materials, BMW nonchalantly says that it will use a high-performance V-8, typical of what you would expect in an M3. We actually expect quite a bit.

The car … Read more

Working with technology used in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, Subaru is trying to give its cars sight. A display at Subaru's 2007 Geneva auto show booth shows how two cameras can produce stereo-optic vision, which can be processed to show how far objects are away from the car. In the demonstration, the single image processed from the two cameras identifies people and other cars and uses a color coding system to show how far they away they are. If this system were deployed in a car, the car could let the driver know if he or she is … Read more

The Europeans can mess around with urea to clean up diesel emissions, but Honda prefers to keep things simple. The company showed off its clean diesel technology at the 2007 Geneva auto show. This technology gives diesel engines the same emission levels as gasoline engines. To get technical for a minute, the system strips oxides from nitrogen oxide emissions with ammonia. The ammonia is generated inside a catalytic converter through a chemical process, then reabsorbed into the system. OK, enough detail. Honda claims the engines will meet federal emissions standards in the U.S., although the company isn't saying … Read more