The all-new Kia Cadenza luxury sporty car reveal in Korea today (where it is called the K7). New Cadenza will make its overseas world premiere at next month's Riyadh Motor Show in Saudi Arabia on 12 December, followed immediately by a look at the Dubai Motor Show on 15 December.


The Cadenza is powered by a 3.5-litre V6 engine boasting 290hp and 338 Nm of torque. The power is passed to the front wheels via a six speed automatic transmission. Presentation has been enhanced over the predecessor with an all-new and more compact suspension system and a lower kerb weight of 1575kg. The car will now propel from 0-100 km/h in 7.2 seconds before hitting a top speed of 230 km/h (143 mph). Two more gasoline engines will also be available, including an entry level unit with 165hp.


Kia's new front-wheel drive 'Type-N' platform makes its first appearance in Cadenza and will be utilized in other Kia models in the future. The lighter (and stronger) body shell, together with all-new suspension systems, helped Cadenza to achieve a weight loss of up to 130 kg, compared with the previous Opirus - even though the new model has numerous additional features.


As part of Kia's drive to increase sales in the large vehicle segment, the new Cadenza will be manufactured with a total of three gasoline engines - with different engines being available around the world to best suit local legal requirements. Power outputs will range from 165 ps to 290 ps and all models will feature front-wheel drive and Kia's all-new six-speed automatic transmission.

The Land Rover Defender 90 is powered by a 2.4 liter, four-cylinder engine, common with the 110. Torque output is higher than the outgoing engine right across the working rev range, and the 360 Nm peak is delivered at only 2000 rpm; over 315 Nm of torque is available from 1500 rpm to 2700 rpm. The Land Rover Defender 90 engine peak power output is 90 kW, with more than 90 per cent of peak power available from less than 2200 rpm to over 4350 rpm - over 60 per cent of the usable rev range. The power goes to all four wheels via a GFT MT-82 six-speed manual gearbox. The d Rover Defender 90 is also fitted with a locking center differential.




The Land Rover Defender 90 interior features includes Stereo radio with in dash CD player, Air conditioning, Rubber floor mats, Electric front windows, Power assisted steering, 4 cloth seats and Cubby box with twin cup holders. The Exterior features: Folding rear step, Rear mud flaps, Remote central locking with parametric alarm & immobilizer, heated rear window and wash wipe and Headlamp leveling.



The Defender 90 has as recommended price before statutory and delivery charges of $44,990, and will arrive in Australia in the 1st quarter 2009.

The PIECHA Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate come with a new aerodynamics package that includes a headlight mask set made of PU-RIM. The front spoiler edge, with in adding is easily mounted on the AMG styling front spoiler. Custom-fit daytime running light elements which are delivered ready to install and can be very easily exchanged for the original grille including fog lamps have been integrated into the AMG styling front apron. For all 6-cylinder models Piecha also offers the possibility to make a conversion to the original C63 AMG exhaust system.

In order to lend the ostentatious 4-pipe look the necessary kick, Piecha has now also developed and installed a power converter for the C-Class. Exclusive Piecha dp2 Phantom wheels with a press-fitted stainless steel rim well polished to high gloss turn in the wheel housings.


The Piecha Design Mercedes-Benz C-Class Estate wheel/tyre combination not only provides perfect grip conditions, but also an enhanced sporty look in the format 8.5 x 19 ET38 with 225/35 ZR19 in the front and 9.5 x 19 ET45 with 255/30 ZR19 Dunlop Sport Maxx in the rear. The lower suspension setting of the chassis is taken over by custom-built sports performance springs which are optionally available with a 20mm or 35mm lower suspension setting.

GM Holden has released the first images of the highly projected Holden Volt extended range electric car as it will appear on Australian roads. The images, which show a right-hand-drive version of Volt sporting Holden badges on its smooth front and rear, were released as part of Holden's presentation at the Melbourne International Motor Show. It is a local take on the vehicle moving that has won widespread acclaim for its ability to travel up to 64 kilometers on electricity before using petrol or producing exhaust pipe emissions.

GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director Mark Reuss said the company had been overwhelmed by public interest in Holden Volt since announcing it would launch in Australia in 2012. "We think Volt has the potential to change the game in Australian motoring," Mr. Reuss said. "Since we announced our plans to introduce Holden Volt to Australia, we have been besieged by public interest in the car and the technology that makes it work. There is no doubt that Volt's advanced propulsion systems represent some of the most exciting alternative fuel developments in motoring. At Holden, we believe Volt will play an incredibly important role in our efforts to make motoring better for the environment".


General Motors estimates that compared to similar sized petrol-powered vehicles, Volt will save motorists up to 1892 liters of fuel a year. This is based on US research that identifies 75 per cent of commuters travel an average daily distance of less than 40 miles (64 kilometers). When Volt's battery energy is depleted, a small petrol engine generates enough electricity to power the vehicle for hundreds of additional kilometers. GM also calculates that charging the vehicle at night through a standard power outlet will use less electricity annually than an average household refrigerator.

Chevrolet Volt is planned for manufacture at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly and is scheduled for launch in the US in late 2010. The right-hand-drive version will launch later.

Volt is an Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (E-REV). In a significant advance from conventional hybrids, it uses electricity to move its wheels at all times and speeds. For trips of up to 64 kilometers, Volt is powered solely by the electricity stored in its battery without using petrol or producing exhaust pipe emissions. When the battery's energy is depleted, a small petrol-powered engine generates electric power for the vehicle to travel hundreds of additional kilometers. Advanced technology enables the vehicle's battery to be charged in less than three hours on a standard 240v power outlet. Charge times are reduced if the battery has not been fully depleted. GM estimates that compared to petrol-powered vehicles that average 7.8 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, Volt will save motorists up to 1892 liters of fuel a year.


The design of the Volt production car has evolved from an original concept that was unveiled at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. General Motors created an energy efficient design for the production vehicle, resulting in one of the most aerodynamic cars in the company's history. Many of the design cues from the concept car have been carried over in the production Volt, including the closed front grille, athletic stance and rear design graphics. Inside, Volt will offer the space, comfort, convenience and safety features that customers expect in a four-passenger sedan.

GM will establish the first lithium-ion battery pack manufacturing facility operated by a major automaker in the United States to produce the Volt's battery pack system. It consists of lithium-ion cells that are grouped into modules, along with other key battery components. The plant will be located in Michigan, subject to negotiations with state and local government authorities. Facility preparation will begin in early 2009, with production tooling to be installed mid-year and output starting in 2010.

Porsche has unveiled the new Porsche 911 GT3 R. The 911 GT3 R will be raced in series based on the international FIA GT3 system, thus succeeding the 911 GT3 Cup S. The 911 GT3 R is powered by a four-liter six-cylinder boxer engine delivering maximum output of 480 bhp (353 kW) transmitted to the rear axle by a in order six-speed dog gearbox. The GT3 R offers 30 bhp more than the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup model. Both cars are based on the extra-wide body of the 911 GT3 RS street-legal sports car.


The Porsche 911 GT3 R weighs 1,200 kg, comes with an anti-lock brake system (ABS), grip control and an e-gas with "throttleblip" function make it much easier to get used to this new GT3 racing car than its precursor, meaning that the new model is also more suitable for the ambitious amateur racing driver.

The Porsche 911 GT3 R is making its world debut on 14 January 2010 at the Birmingham Motor Show and the price is 279,000 Euros.

The rivalry version of Dacia Duster by Renault Sport technology which will be determined by Alain Prost in the Trophee Andros ice-racing series will have a glass-fiber body conceal a tubular framework which houses a three-litre, 24-valve V6 engine from the Renault-Nissan Alliance range.


The Dacia Duster rivalry power plant has been tuned in order to optimize its performance possible at the high altitude at which the races will be held. The Dacia Duster Competition car delivers peak power of 350hp at 7,500rpm, and maximum torque of 360Nm at 5,500rpm. The Dacia Duster Rivalry also comes with a six-speed sequential gearbox.


The Dacia Duster Rivalry car is equipped with limited slip differentials which are crucial for the extreme conditions which are also seen on other Renault Sport Technologies-developed competition and road cars. The competition version of Dacia Duster also incorporates a four-wheel steering system for complete cornering line control. This mechanical system links the front and rear wheels, and can be rapidly adjusted to match the characteristics of each circuit.

The new Fiat Doblo is all concerning space and with Chrysler concerned, it is assumed that the car will make it to the shores of the U.S. If this were true, then the Dolbo will be in direct struggle with the Ford Transit Connect. The battle will be great and interesting to see how Fiat will fair stateside.

First of all the Doblo will be launched in North Korea as the Ppeokkugi and is said to be a vehicle moving that you share with your friends and family who travel a lot. According to Auto blog, the Fiat Doblo is the perfect vehicle for leisure or work.

The car makes the most out of the interior space that it has, which can accommodate up to seven passengers. They will all be happy in the knowledge that they will be in a top-class safety environment, something that is very important for families.

The previous version of the Fiat Dablo sold more than one million units, and the revamped model hopes to do even better. The new models will come with revised engines and improved specifications and features.

Robert Kubica led his class on the opening day, but on Saturday crashed out of the Sicilian Taormina-Messina rally.

The 2009 BMW-Sauber driver, who in 2010 will control to Renault, led the R3C class on Friday in his DP Motor sports Renault Clio R3, but crashed into a wall and retires on Saturday.

Before crashing, the 24-year-old Pole was quote by wrc.com as saying: "Yesterday I did not attack, I was trying to learn about driving the car -- today is a longer challenge.

"The only unknowns are the pace notes, I hope to get used to driving in this way. I must learn to listen."

With the same car, Kubica is expected to tackle the French championship Rallye de Var later this month.

Meanwhile, France's Auto Hebdo reports that 2009 Renault driver Romain Grosjean on Sunday completed a 20km half-marathon in Paris' Boulogne-Billancourt suburb.

With additional features from the sport model like its fencing with the integrated star, the new SE management special edition is set apart from its standard stable mate. It also has 16 Pristix alloys; a unique boot lid and chrome trim exhausts. On the inside the Executive SE comes with COMAND fitted as standard.

The multimedia system includes hard disk drive navigation, Linguatronic voice control, a 6 GB music register and a PCMCIA slot. You can control all of these functions using the upgraded multi-function steering wheel. The extra cost of this special edition is £574.47 (excluding VAT) whereas if you took each modification individually it would add up to £2,200. The total price you will is £23,190.64 or £24,390.11 for the Estate. Both are powered by the C 180 KOMPRESSOR Blue EFFICIENCY 156hp engine which delivers 44.8mpg on a combined cycle and emits just 154g/km of C02.

BMW has turn up with something as eccentric as it is inventive a shape-shifting car covered with basics.


Instead of steel, aluminum or even carbon fiber, the GINA Light creative Model has a body of seamless fabric expanded over a movable metal frame that allows the driver to change its shape at will. The car - which actually runs and drives - is a styling design headed straight for the BMW Museum in Munich and so it will never see production, but building a practical car wasn't the point.


Chris Bangle, head of design for BMW, says GINA allowed his team to "challenge existing principles and conventional processes."


"It is in the nature of such visions that they do not necessarily claim to be suitable for series production," company officials said in introduction the car Tuesday. "Rather, they are intended to steer creativity and research into new directions."

The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has banned the Toyota iQ from the practical driving test.

Given its little size, clever packaging and various safety features, you would have thought the Toyota iQ city car well suited to learner drivers. However, following complaints about visibility from driving test examiners, it has been banned from being used by candidates taking the practical driving test.

Safe but not suitable

As with all modern cars, the Toyota iQ has full type approval for use on the road, and is deemed safe by Euro NCAP, which awarded it the full five-star crash safety rating.

However, the Driving Standards Agency has its own requirements, as a spokesperson explained: Most hatchbacks, saloons and estate cars are suitable for the driving test, but some models with good forward vision have large blind spots to the rear, giving examiners problems with observation.

Vehicles for test must allow examiners all round vision to see approaching vehicles. This is particularly important when the car is at an angle to other vehicles during reversing maneuvers and when emerging at a junction with the vehicle at an angle to the major road. The Toyota iQ has been risk-assessed and, for these reasons, is unsuitable for the practical driving test.

Different the mainstream market where hybrid technology is used to maximize fuel efficiency, luxury automover have employed hybrid systems as a way to maintain or improve performance while making concessions to efficiency.

The 2010 BMW Active Hybrid X6, which our testers got to drive this past weekend, is a prime example.

Based on the regular X6 "Sports Activity Coupe," which itself is a car of contradictions, the 2010 ActiveHybrid X6 is the first hybrid from the maker of ultimate driving machines and is due for retail sale next month. Oh, and it costs ninety grand.

Rated at a combined output of 478 horsepower and 575 pound-feet of torque, the big SUV uses a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8 engine and a nickel-metal hydride hybrid battery pack to claim the title of the world's most powerful gasoline-electric hybrid passenger vehicle. That's no mean feat, with contenders like Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Cadillac in the space. The two electric synchronous motors contribute 91 horsepower/192 pound-feet and 86 horsepower/206 pound-feet, respectively.

This hybrid system is the same Two-Mode Hybrid architecture found in the full-size 2010 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid pickup trucks, as well as various full-size sport utilities including the luxurious Cadillac Escalade Platinum Hybrid.

But BMW has completely rethought the concept of "hybrid," using the software that manages all the electric components to mimic the driving behavior of a seven-speed automatic transmission.


Our testers drove the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6 this past weekend at the international press launch, and aside from a few badges and the instrumentation, you'd never know it was a hybrid.

One thing that you will definitely notice is the gas mileage: EPA ratings for the 2010 ActiveHybrid X6 are 17 mpg in the city and 19 mpg on the highway, against the standard X6 xDrive 50i that uses the same twin-turbo V8, which delivers only 13 mpg in the city and 18 mpg on the highway.

The ActiveHybrid even has a better combined rating than the six-cylinder X6 xDrive 35i. And over a 100-mile-plus test drive, our testers saw average mileage of 20.4 mpg. Not bad for a large all-wheel drive sport utility that weighs almost three tons.

Our sister site GreenCarReports.com has full driving impressions of the new 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6, which you can see here. Otherwise, check out our review of the regular 2009 BMW X6 range by clicking here

A solar-powered car that uses less power than a kettle has travelled 3,000km from Darwin to Adelaide to win its category in the Global Green Challenge, one of the world's largest green car races.

The futuristic-looking Tokai Challenger was built by a university team from Japan car and won the race with a driving time of 29 hours 49 minutes over the course of four days, which equates to an average speed of 100.54km/h.

The team attributed their success to an electric motor with an efficiency of 97%, lightweight carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) bodywork and a race that was trouble-free with the exception of one puncture.

The Tokai Challenger is harnesses the power of the sun through 6m2 of solar cells incorporated into its bodywork.

The 62mph "Challenger" solar racing car uses 6-square-metre covering of high-efficiency silicon cells incorporated into its bodywork.

The car weighs just 160kg and is powered by a motor rated at about 2kW.

The Mazdaspeed has a classy external, a forceful turbocharged cylinder engine and a transmission certain to strike fear into the hearts of many American drivers. You get a lot of car for your money with a Mazdaspeed, but no amount of checked option boxes or dealer haggling will get you an automatic transmission.

The Mazdaspeed comes with only a speed manual, making the car a strict shift for you proposition. This boost the model's sporty image - as proven in this recent New York Times review - but it can limit sales in the United States, where automatics are vastly more popular. Still, for fans of the stick, Mazda is taking a refreshing, and rare, approach.

Automatics have become so popular and in some cases so efficient, that some pretty sporty cars aren't even available in manual. The new Ferrari California can't be had in manual at the moment (though a stick is coming), and neither can those Mercedes monsters the CL 63 AMG and CL 65 AMG. BMW tried the no-stick approach with the American versions of the latest M5 and M6 coupe, but die-hard BMW fans quickly grabbed pitchforks and torches.

BMW duly changed course and both cars can now be had with a speed manual. "Only in the U.S. and Canada do these cars come with a manual," says Martin Birkmann, manager of product planning and product strategy at BMW North America.

Mr. Birkmann says the latest generation of automover and semi-automatic transmission has become "incredibly more competent," but recognizes the street cred that comes with a car equipped with a manual. "You always get that extra nod from the valet," says Mr. Birkmann, with a laugh. Contrary to the industry norm, where an automatic is an extra cost option, some buyers are willing to pay extra to shift for themselves. In the 2010 BMW 650i Coupe, a 6-speed manual is a $250 option over the automatic-equipped base car.

While Mazda doesn't even offer a stick option for the pricier versions of its Mazda, the company said it was trying to make a statement with the stick-only Mazdaspeed.

"I think it's important that Mazdaspeed stay true to its roots," says David Matthew, vehicle line manager for the Mazda. Of the roughly 100,000 Mazda sold annually in North America, Matthew says the Mazdaspeed averages about 5 percent of this total.

"We're not out to sell of a lot of Mazdaspeed ," he explained. Instead, the 263-horsepower hatchback is a vehicle intended to add excitement to the entire Mazda lineup. Balancing a low price (the Mazdaspeed starts at $23,945) and fun-to-drive factor plays a big part in Mazda's decision to keep the car manual only. An automatic or paddle-shift mechanism would add cost and complexity, Mr. Matthew said.

This isn't the first time Mazda - the "zoom-zoom" Japanese car brand - has taken a shot at the American market with a manual-only, budget-minded sports car. The original Mazda Miata, introduced in 1989, was for many years available only with a manual. If you wanted a cushy drop-top with an automatic, there was the Chrysler LeBaron. More recently, the Mazdaspeed sedan was offered only with a speed manual.

Dates and cities have been announced for the "Zero Emission Tour" that will introduce the 2012 Nissan Leaf hatchback electric car to potential buyers in the U.S. markets where it will first be sold.

The car won't be sold nationwide for more than two years. Instead, it will be offered where Nissan has negotiated agreements with electric utilities. So far, that list includes Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Phoenix / Tucson, and Nashville (home of its U.S. headquarters).

Nissan will start taking reservations for the Leaf next spring, and hopes to gather 20,000 U.S. advance orders for the Leaf by the end of next year. That's when first deliveries of 5,000 cars will go to selected fleets and up to 5,000 consumers in the first markets.


The goal is to give Nissan real-world data on how drivers really use electric cars before the company offers the car more widely.

Compact size, midsize space

The 2012 Nissan Leaf is a five-seat hatchback about the size of a compact car, but is said to offer the interior space of a midsize vehicle like, perhaps, the 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid. It is a dedicated design, meaning it doesn't share body panels with any gasoline vehicle.

Nissan claims a range of 100 miles when its 24-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack is fully charged. An 80-kilowatt (108-horsepower) electric motor powers the front wheels.