Monthly Archives September 2014

Three months ago, we have reported that Volvo will start to provide the long-wheelbase version of the S60 sedan (the S60L) to the US market in 2015. More importantly, the S60L will be assembled in Volvo’s Chengdu factory, in Sichuan Province, China, and exported to the US dealerships. This is a first time a major automobile brand in US market that are importing fully assembled passenger cars from China.

As the date is coming, we provide you some of the detailed live photos of the Volvo S60L...

For some BMW M car owners, the act of using 6-cylinder engine for the new M3 (F80), and 8-cylinder engine for the latest M5 (F10) is a setback for the M department. Because the previous generation uses a V8 and V10 respectively.

Today comes a news that sounds encouraging. From our BMW insider, it looks like BMW is seriously considering to let the V10 configuration coming back for the next generation of M5 (G30 5-series), and also the future M6 too.

Below is engine bay of the previous M5 (E60 M5).

Also comes with the V10 engine will be the touring version of the M5 (G31 M5 Touring) will exist too...

Review Index

2014 Toyota Corolla LE – Part 1 (Exterior)
2014 Toyota Corolla LE – Part 2 (Interior)
2014 Toyota Corolla LE – Part 3 (Interior – Electronic Features)
2014 Toyota Corolla LE – Part 4 (Powertrain)
2014 Toyota Corolla LE – Part 5 Chassis and Suspension)

The latest Corolla has independent MacPherson strut front suspension, and its rear suspension is the torsion beam type. The MacPherson suspension is familiar to many people; and the torsion beam is not something that we can brag about. You can see the Corolla’s torsion beam in the rear suspension from the below photo.

The torsion beam is not a fully independent suspension, its advantage is simple cons...

You may challenge the rule that, a “true” luxury brand need to have a full-size sedan to prove the brand’s position; but at least most of the luxury brands in the world are doing this. Even for some brand that did not have in the past, are planning to do this – for example the Volvo S100 we reported a while ago.

For Cadillac, it does have a full-size sedan now (the XTS), but that it is based on the front-wheel-drive platform. In most people’s mind, FWD contradicts with “true luxury sedan”. For example you will not see a FWD Rolls-Royce Phantom, or a FWD Bentley Mulsanne...

Currently Toyota does not sell any rear-wheel-drive sedan in the US market that bearing the Toyota badge; but this is not the case for other markets in the world.

For example, Toyota is selling a full-size luxury sedan in some Asian market, including Japan itself. One example is the Toyota Crown Majesta, now at its 6th-generation (S210). The Toyota Crown Majesta has some relationship with the Lexus GS, but with a longer wheelbase of 115.2in.

For different markets, although the mechanical part is almost the same, the exterior styling of the new Crown Majesta differs...