Monthly Archives May 2014

Mitsubishi as an automaker is having a hard time recently in the US market. However, do not be confused with the whole Mitsubishi Group. It not only make cars, its business covers many industries such as mining, telecom, electronics, construction, oil/gas, and even real estate, financial institutes, foods/beverages.

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is what we are talking about. Today officials from Mitsubishi Motors told medias that they have extended the life of the current Lancer Evolution X, which means we will see the 2015 model year of this fantastic car.

The Lancer Evolution X can be considered a totally different car than the normal Lancer sedans...

According news from Jeep, they are issuing a transmission control software update for the Jeep Cherokee build before 5/5/2014.

The issue was brought up by the Cherokee owners that complaining jerky transmission operations during driving. The Cherokee’s 9-speed transmission is sourced from ZF. As you may remember from our previous technical analysis of the ZF 9HP transmission, due to how it is designed, the downshift from 8th to 5th, 8th to 4th and from 9th to 5th gears will be quite challenging for this transmission.

While we are not sure the exact details of this software update, it is quite possible that the jerky feeling may be partially contributed by the factor menti...

Five days earlier (May. 23), Lexus trademarked the “IS200t” name for both Europe (reg. #012902251) and Australia (reg. #1624592). This means the 2.0L turbo 4-cylinder engine in the current NX200t, will make its way to the Lexus compact sports sedan.

In our previous report, we forecast that the engine on the IS will be making more horsepower, reaching the 250hp mark. We will keep you updated once more information is available.

Today Volvo officially released how the interior looks for the next-generation XC90. From the images we can see the center console is occupied by an iPad-like huge LCD screen, and a “Home” button on the bottom, which is similar to the iPad layout. This is because the XC90 is the first vehicle that utilized Apple’s CarPlay system.

Volvo does not say anything about the mechanical part, but please take a look at our previous report here. The new XC90 is expected to come with a 4-cylinder turbo+supercharged engine, output is around 302hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. The XC90’s 8-speed transmission will be provided by Aisin, and AWD system sourced from Haldex.

Today GM released the 2015 Corvette’s option guide. Although there is no pricing yet, you can get a glance of how your Corvette can be optioned.

Note that the GM developed 8-speed transmission is available for all trims. For this new transmission we welcome you to take a look at our comprehensive technical review.

For your easy reading, we have compiled the option guide into one PDF file, which can be downloaded here.