Blogs

  • Toyota takes the Crown…

    At a time when the Prius is still the world's number one hybrid and darling of the environmentalists everywhere, some might wonder what Toyota's playing at with this new Crown hybrid that's just going through the media mill here in Japan as we speak.</p> <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/carsandtheclimate/WindowsLiveWriter/ToyotatakestheCrown_DE67/Crown%20blog1_2.jpg"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="163" alt="Crown blog1" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/carsandtheclimate/WindowsLiveWriter/ToyotatakestheCrown_DE67/Crown%20blog1_thumb.jpg" width="244" align="left" border="0" /></a>Prius and Lexus hybrids, OK, you can understand. But converting the Crown, Japan's long serving, conservative and rather stodgy executive saloon to earth-friendly hybrid power, is that really a plan?

    28 May 2008
    Green cars

  • In the new Laguna

    A two-pronged approach from Renault to the launch of its <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/Renault-Laguna/232927/"><font color="#0000ff">Laguna Coupe</font></a> over the weekend. First, boss Carlos Ghosn turned up to the Cannes Film Festival driving one of the neatly styled two-door cars. Then at the nearby Monaco GP circuit, Renault lined up F1 test drivers Romain Grosjean and Lucas di Grassi to give selected hacks a lap in the new machine.

    28 May 2008
    Anything goes

  • Lewis Hamilton: the complete performer

    Ah well, there goes another AH prediction straight down the drain. Kimi Raikkonen to clinch his second world championship by the end of August? <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/racinglines/WindowsLiveWriter/LewisHamiltonthecompleteperformer_B6DB/_O9T0002%5B2%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="240" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/racinglines/WindowsLiveWriter/LewisHamiltonthecompleteperformer_B6DB/_O9T0002_thumb.jpg" width="160" align="left" border="0"></a> </p> Err, perhaps best to delete that from the record. Not if Lewis Hamilton continues to drive as well as he did to win the Monaco GP. Or indeed if the Kimster puts in many more solid imitations of a one-armed paper hanger as he did at the wheel of his Ferrari.</p> Not only was this a seminal moment in the emergent career of the 23-year old McLaren-Mercedes driver in terms of his racecraft and tactical savvy in this most demanding and unforgiving of F1 environments, but could well come to be regarded as the moment the torch passed to the British team from Ferrari in the battle for the 2008 world championship.

    27 May 2008
    Motorsport

  • Renault gets its mojo back

    </p> Injecting glamour into a brand like Renault isn't an easy job but I reckon that the French maker <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarconfidential/WindowsLiveWriter/Renaultgetsitsmojoback_9381/D91ABSDEM1%5B4%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 5px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="180" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/autocarconfidential/WindowsLiveWriter/Renaultgetsitsmojoback_9381/D91ABSDEM1_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="right" border="0"></a>has just pulled off quite a result with the Laguna coupe.&nbsp;&nbsp; You see I've just spent the weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix. And aside from the small matter of our Lewis doing a brilliant job to win in the wet, Renault chose it as the location to show its new coupe to the world. This after all is a place where you see more Ferraris than Fiestas and every other person has the oversized sunglasses and Louis Vuitton bag look. Yet from where I was standing the Renault had the looks to fit right in.

    27 May 2008
    Confidential

  • Green, yes. Sexy? Um...

    </p> I'm just leaving the Sexy Green Car Show, the left-field eco motoring event that's just been held for the second year at the Eden Project in Cornwall. Yes, there's a detectable beardy-hippy vibe going on, but nobody here is banging on about banning cars. In fact, there are some positive messages here about the future of personal transport. Most striking is the number of bright ideas aimed at reducing the car's dependency on fossil fuels. <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/carsandtheclimate/WindowsLiveWriter/Greenyes.SexyUm_D2C0/1358831936%5B2%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-top-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin: 5px 0px 5px 5px; border-right-width: 0px" height="159" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/carsandtheclimate/WindowsLiveWriter/Greenyes.SexyUm_D2C0/1358831936_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="right" border="0"></a> Ford's launching its tax-beating <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Ford-Focus-1.6-TDCi-90-ECOnetic/232710/">Focus ECOnetic</a>, and the company reckons that reducing the CO2 emissions of ever new Focus sold by just 2 per cent will do more to reduce CO2 emissions than every hybrid car on the market combined.

    23 May 2008
    Green cars

  • Tomorrow's technology today

    </p> Full credit to GM for being brave enough to allow me to try an engine that's as far as seven years into the future - although it sounded like a diesel from 27 years in the past.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/stillatthewheel/WindowsLiveWriter/Tomorrowstechnologytoday_BA72/256526%5B2%5D.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="159" src="http://www.autocar.co.uk/csfiles/blogs/stillatthewheel/WindowsLiveWriter/Tomorrowstechnologytoday_BA72/256526_thumb.jpg" width="240" align="left" border="0"></a>That's because the highly advanced new power unit is still in the early stages of development, and it had been installed in a current-generation Vectra to give us a glimpse of the motor GM hopes will radicalise internal combustion. The powerplant in question goes by the distinctly unsexy soubriquet of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition, or HCCI for short, a technology that promises the possibility of combining the emissions cleanliness of petrol with the economy of diesel.

    23 May 2008
    Tester’s notes

  • Madrid show lacks Spanish passion

    22 May 2008
    Anything goes

  • Our Bentley sets sail

    21 May 2008
    Confidential

  • Shocking vehicle, shocking price

    21 May 2008
    Anything goes

  • Scirocco: an Audi by another name

    21 May 2008
    Tester’s notes

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