naias

It occurred to me the other day that I have not given Lincoln much lip service within the Car Tech blog lately. And then I realized that Lincoln also made a notable appearance at the 2010 North American International Auto Show that took place last month in Detroit. And with my current theme being about intriguing concept vehicles making appearances at this year's NAIAS, so here we go with Lincoln's introduction of its luxury crossover MKT model.

While this vehicle line started life as purely a concept, Lincoln has adjusted and embellished enough to make the MKT ready … Read more

Ferrari has a history for making limited edition vehicles and the history continues with the new 599XX. And this 599XX is EXTREMELY limited - reportedly only 20 or so will be available for purchase. It appears to be designed specifically for racing purposes with its F1-oriented design. And while the 599 has debuted in previous venues, here it is for your viewing pleasure straight outta the North American International Auto Show held just a month ago in Detroit. With its limited release, I'm going to make this blog limited as well and let the video here examine and explain … Read more

Needless to say (yet I'm doing it anyway), there were many interesting vehicles being paraded at the (somewhat) recently held North American International Auto Show in Detroit. But perhaps the most curious unveiling came courtesy of the Cooper brand, as the company trotted out its Mini Beachcomber concept in a very strange fashion--with dancers and a driver dressed as a shark (I'm not making this up). All pageantry aside, the Beachcomber still is quite intriguing on its own, and today's video gets the lowdown on this interesting little car.

As seen here, the Mini Beachcomber concept seems … Read more

In continuation of my current video blog-post series concerning concept vehicles making their debuts a month ago at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, today I present a short but sweet video about Volkswagen's most recent foray into the e-car genre. And here it is, making its debut at the 2010 NAIAS is the VW New Compact Coupe concept as on display at the Cobo Arena in Detroit this last January.

The new Volkswagen NCC is reportedly a production-ready hybrid car that utilizes both traditional fuel energy as well as emerging electronic technology to propel this vehicle. … Read more

Today we whittle down my focus on the recently passed Detroit auto show earlier this month. We started this examination with an overview video featuring the many highlights of this auto industry's annual event, and then focused the view onto the BMW product that was unveiled there. Today we're gonna take a close look at a very specific BMW concept vehicle that was "the talk of the town" at this year's party: the BMW ActiveE.

The ActiveE is a landmark in BMW history as its very first electric automobile, and though it is still simply … Read more

There was a lot of automotive eye candy and information to take in at the recent 2010 North American International Auto Show at Cobo Arena in Detroit, and yesterday's highlight reel clip from Inside Line barely scratched the surface on covering all the exciting new automobiles potentially on the make both domestic and international. Today, I bring you another quality video from Inside Line, but this time we focus on BMW's stand from this year's Detroit auto show and a few of the more interesting cars that the German luxury vehicle manufacturer brought stateside for this big … Read more

Normally I don't do things this way in this blog, but I figured what the heck--let's change horses midstream and take a look at some of the vehicles presented at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. With that in mind, I present you with today's Web video blog post--a short but sweet look at some of the noteworthy cars presented for knowledge and viewing pleasure at this year's event in Detroit.

What we have here today is another brief but informative video produced by the good folks at Inside Line that gives viewers a snapshot … Read more

Rather than big surprises, expect a stream of technology improvements coming from Ford Motor's labs which, when added together, will deliver 5 to 10 percent gains in fuel efficiency in the next few years.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday, Ford introduced the latest Ford Focus, which is due in early 2011 and sports a 10 to 20 percent better fuel economy than the current model. The company also has plans to expand its line of hybrids, introduce an all-electric Ford Focus in 2011, and offer plug-in hybrids in 2012.

Making refinements to gasoline, … Read more

DETROIT--Volkswagen on Monday rolled out a hybrid concept car called the New Compact Coupe, a machine the company said will get 45 miles per gallon by combining a four-cylinder gasoline engine from the company's TSI with a 1.1 kWh lithium-ion battery.

When the car's gasoline engine isn't needed, it shuts off and is disengaged from the transmission to cut down on drag, including at highway speeds. The braking system can recover energy by storing it in the battery, the company said at the concept car's unveiling at the North American International Auto Show here.

The … Read more