ma section - featured

The convertibles of today are generally known as little two-seat roadsters like the MX-5 and S2000. But it wasn’t long ago that a different kind of beast cruised the ocean promenades - the four door luxury convertible. According to Motor Trend, Mercedes-Benz is set to revive the tradition...

Saab is celebrating 60 years of manufacturing cars with a series of events and festivities planned for the Swedish town of Trollhättan this weekend. Officials have been getting around town in pre-release versions of the upcoming facelifted 9-3, and there were plenty of fans on call to snap these...

Mercedes-Benz is currently developing a new version of the C-Class Sportcoupe, a car that’s rumored to make its world debut at September’s Frankfurt Auto Show. Several prototypes were spotted undergoing cold weather testing in Sweden recently, which revealed that the new model will...

Hyundai has announced that it will release a hybrid version of its midsized Avante sedan in 2009, a car that will combine an electric motor with an internal combustion engine that runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). This will be the first high-volume Korean hybrid car and according to Hyundai...

Back in 1997, the Chrysler Group and Rover (then a subsidiary of BMW) formed a partnership to develop a compact four-cylinder engine for a range of new small cars. The Tritec joint venture was born, which soon saw the development of an engine factory at a site in Brazil. After BMW sold-off its...

Back in 2004, MG-Rover released a coupe concept based on the Rover 75 sedan but the prototype quickly disappeared when MG-Rover was split up and sold off. Fast forward to today, and UK’s Car Magazine is reporting that China’s Nanjing Auto, the new owners to the rights of MG, is...

General Motors has awarded two contracts for the development of lithium-ion batteries for its E-Flex electric drive system, a sign that development for the advanced vehicle is well underway. The new drivetrain will feature in a production version of the Chevrolet Volt concept car due to hit the...

Late last year, Renault-Nissan was keen to tie-up with one of America’s Big Three and was in talks with General Motors until communications between the two came to a crashing halt when neither side could agree on the value of such an alliance. Renault-Nissan is reported to be on the merger...

Mercedes-Benz is reported to be developing a new version of its S-class limo equipped with an ultra-efficient Bluetec diesel engine. With a motor displacing just 2.2L, the new diesel driven S-class should return a fuel economy rating of just 6.6L per 100km, or roughly 35mpg. We should get our first...

We may soon be able to add a new vehicle to the growing list of sports cars equipped with electric motors. This time ‘round we have the American designed Palumbo M80 hybrid car, a two seat, mid-engine sports car utilizing a lightweight spaceframe chassis made of aluminum alloys and advanced...

Despite concerns over the survivability of development plans for a new range of rear-drive models from General Motors, the midsized Alpha project is reported to be well underway with the first model due by the end of the decade. Alpha is the name of GM’s midsized RWD platform, a global...

Ford has been slow to act on the environmental front and with the styling advancement of its sedan range, a mistake senior management, including former CEO Bill Ford, regrets. You only have to look at the boring designs that have gone into its passenger cars to understand how stale Ford’s...

BMW has launched a new M sport package for its X5, the first time the performance kit has been offered on the SUV model. The kit includes both visual upgrades to the interior and body, as well as performance tuning of its chassis. The exterior features new color-coded bumpers with integrated fog...

US based auto-parts supplier BorgWarner has teamed up with Porsche once again to develop a new AWD clutch and control system, which will be adopted across several Porsche sports cars. You may remember that BorgWarner also supplies the Variable Turbine Geometry (VTG) blowers for the potent 911...

Production of the W203 series Mercedes-Benz C-class wagon, referred to as the T-Modell, has finally come to an end after a six year run. Mercedes has built more than 360,000 C-class wagons since 2001, with the last vehicle being a right-hand-drive model to be delivered to a customer in the UK. In...

Germany's Binz has taken its latest stretched Mercedes-Benz E-Class limousine to the Millbrook Proving Grounds for an annual test day with some of the U.K.’s motoring journalists. However, on days like this, you’re more likely to see the journos pimping it up in the back seat rather...

The 30th of May marks the 40th anniversary of the sale of the first Mazda powered by a rotary engine. The Cosmo Sport, which debuted in the Japanese market in 1967, was the world’s first dual-rotar, rotary powered vehicle and one of the first mass produced cars of its type. The motor put out...

Nissan may add a new model to lineup, a convertible version of its recently launched Altima coupe, pending on whether or not the project is given the green light. When the Altima’s development team originally looked at expanding the model range, they first turned to the idea of a wagon-based...

Here’s a very detailed video showcasing the steps that go into designing the BMW-Sauber F1 car, complete with interviews with team principal Mario Theissen and technical director Willy Rampf.

Despite the US easily rating as the number one market for Lexus vehicles, and most other luxury makes for that matter, Toyota’s premium label is expecting to sell more of its LS600h and the long-wheelbase flagship saloons in Japan than it does in the States, with Europe close behind in second...