Turbocharging has been a common practice within many European auto makers. However this is not the case for Japanese companies. For example Toyota, currently it only has one model that is equipped with a turbocharged engine (the Lexus NX200t). Talking about Honda, it is better, since both of the new Acura NSX and Civic Type R are turbocharged.

This trend will finally come to Honda’s hot seller model: the Civic. From an interview with Automotive News, Yoshiharu Yamamoto, Honda’s head of global R&D department, has confirmed the below message:

– A 1.5L turbocharged 4-cylinder engine will be standard on the next generation Civic;
– Naturally aspirated engine is an upgrade op...

We have been covered the all-new 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata extensively in the past year, and you can see lots information from our articles here. Today Mazda finally released the curb weight spec for the US market model.

Here are the numbers:

2016 MX-5 Miata with manual transmission: 2,332 lbs
2016 MX-5 Miata with automatic transmission: 2,381 lbs

For your reference, the current 2015 Miata weights 2,480 lbs (manual transmission), and 2,542 lbs (automatic transmission). So the new model is looking at a 150 – 160 lbs weight saving from the current one.

We have reported the upcoming Cadillac CT6, a full-size flagship luxury sedan from GM last month (see report here and here). Today Cadillac officially announced the debut day will be Mar. 31, during the 2015 New York auto show. Together it also released one image of how the CT6’s body is constructed.

Information highlights:

– 64% of the CT6 body structure is made with aluminum alloy;
– All exterior body panels are made with aluminum too;
– Almost all structural components in front of the firewall are aluminum (this is similar to the BMW E60 5-series)
– Rear parcel is full aluminum

Please see the below press release for more details.

[expand title=”Click to view press re...

People have been talking about the upcoming Volvo flagship sedan (the current S80 successor) for a while. Rumor has indicated the new flagship will be named “S90”, and Volvo built the Concept Universe and Concept You back in 2011 to give us a hint of how the new sedan will look like. Below is a spy shot shows the C-pillar section of an real S90 prototype (note: this photo was taken on Aug.28, 2013).

The S90 will be based on Volvo’s latest SPA platform (Scalable Product Architecture), you can see our brief analysis of the SPA design here. Powertrain will be similar to the XC90, including a top T8 trim which is composed of a 2...

The current Honda CR-Z is a very unique hybrid car in the market: it is the only hybrid car that offers manual transmission in the market. However, sales of the CR-Z is plagued by its weak power output, which has only 130HP from a tiny 1.5L engine plus the electric motor.

But please be rest assured that Honda is going to address this issue in the next generation CR-Z, which is due in 2017. The current CR-Z is based on the Honda Fit platform, however the new CR-Z will be riding on the Civic platform several years later. Therefore you can consider the future CR-Z to be a high performance version of the Civic Coupe.

On its initial launch in the US market, Honda will dump th...