by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 6, 2012
It’s definitely not the sort of car you’d want to take you back into downtown Geneva after the auto show winds up for the day but for a run through the Swiss countryside there’d likely be few things that could beat the Lamborghini Aventador J making its debut at the...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 6, 2012
It’s been a tough year for the Chevrolet Volt, General Motors’ once-celebrated plug-in hybrid. But perhaps it’s about to see its fortunes turn as a jury of Continental motoring journalists declare Volt and its Opel Ampera sibling the European Car of the year. That...
by Bryan Laviolette | Mar 6, 2012
The Volkswagen Group plans to continue its assault on the title of world’s largest automaker with a new concept, a droptop version of its iconic sports compact and an announcement of a major new initiative for a “major ecological restructuring,” the...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 6, 2012
We’re still a good two years away from finally seeing an all-new Smart car – with the Daimler microcar division planning to partner with the Renault/Daimler Alliance for its replacement. But the fruit of another partnership is making its debut at the Geneva Motor...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 6, 2012
It’s a good week for those who’d like to see American motorists shift from imported oil to the plentiful domestic supply of natural gas. Chrysler plans to announce today that it will offer an NGV option for its big Ram pickup – following the lead of General Motors...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 6, 2012
Luxury makers normally dribble out new products from an eyedropper, but Bentley’s got a big year going, as it demonstrated today with the launch of two new offerings at the Geneva Motor Show – notably including the maker’s first-ever sport-utility vehicle....
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 5, 2012
With gas nudging $4 a gallon — and some pundits predicting it will nip the $5 mark by summer — it’s not a bad time to be adding some new high-mileage models to your fleet. Actually, most manufacturers are doing that these days, but Ford wants to go a step...
by Jim McCraw | Mar 5, 2012
Mercedes-Benz proudly claims to building the industry’s very first all-wheel-drive vehicle almost 100 years ago, a giant touring car used for hunting parties in Africa. It started building four-wheel-drive systems for modern passenger cars in 1985, and has used the...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 5, 2012
It may be small, but one thing the Fiat 500 has is a lot of attitude – all the more so since the Italian maker introduced the sporty new Abarth edition. So perhaps it’s no surprise that what the marque’s global brand boss calls the “bad boy of the Fiat line-up”...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 5, 2012
You can’t sell a young man an old man’s car, goes the old automotive marketing adage. And, the conventional wisdom goes, it’s tough to sell a guy a “secretary’s car.” Now, we’ve got nothing against secretaries, but the term usually applies to products that are more...
by Joseph Szczesny | Mar 5, 2012
Despite GM’s decision to shut down Volt production for five weeks, starting later this month, capping a raft of adverse publicity, sales of electric vehicles are actually running well ahead of last year’s pace. Sales of both the Volt and the Nissan Leaf...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Mar 5, 2012
There’s “no silver bullet” for bringing down fuel prices that have now topped $4 a gallon in some parts of the country, warned Pres. Barack Obama during his weekly radio address – though he insisted that the new, higher-mileage models being built by a resurgent U.S....
