forbidden fruit

It's easy enough to find a hybrid these days, with plenty of automakers offering cars that blend gasoline engines and electric propulsion to one degree or another. More difficult is finding a hybrid vehicle suitable for more active families, those with greater need for space and practicality. Where...

There are many reasons why certain models aren't sold in certain markets, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating when you can't get hold of them. For fans of diesel vehicles, there are almost too many to count--few vehicles in Europe don't have a diesel option in the range, but only a...

The most frugal Civic U.S. drivers can currently buy is the 2013 Civic Hybrid. The low-key sedan manages 44 mpg in city, highway and combined driving, sips gasoline, and goes about its business with relative anonymity. In Europe, things are a little different. There, the Civic is a five-door...

The car you see in the images above has actually been in the making for several years, and for drivers in India it's one of the more significant vehicles released this year. It's called the Mahindra e2o, and you may recognise its previous name, the Reva NXR. The Reva name is already big in electric...

If you were to associate Volkswagen with one particular fuel-efficient technology, it'd probably be diesel. VW's range of diesels is expanding in the U.S, but it's massive in Europe--accommodating a market where over 50 percent of buyers choose diesel vehicles. As a result of Europe's love of...

Following yesterday’s leak of the new e-Golf electric variant of Volkswagen’s latest MkVII Golf, comes the first photos and specs for the latest Golf GTD diesel-powered hot hatch. Volkswagen has been offering high-performance Golf diesels since 1982, but so far none have ever been...

Selling luxury vehicles is a delicate balancing act. Concentrate on your most wealthy clientele and the market is lucrative, but limited. But go too far the other way, catering for the mass market, and you risk damaging your reputation. This is the barrier Mercedes-Benz has had to cross in...

Kei-jidosha, or 'Kei cars' are one of our favorite "forbidden fruits" here at Green Car Reports. Strict tax, insurance and parking regulations in Japan result in vehicles designed to set dimensions and engine sizes. So specific are they to Japanese roads and market conditions, they're rarely sold...

It takes driving an emerging-market car like the Honda Brio—as we did briefly this past week—to understand just how much the small cars we get here in the U.S. (and Europe) have improved over the past decade or so. The five-seat Brio is about a foot shorter than the Honda Fit but about...

Last year, Fiat's 875cc, twin-cylinder turbocharged engine won the 'International Engine of the Year' award, seeing off competition from Ferrari, BMW and Audi, among others. The award highlighted the importance of the new breed of tiny, efficient engines, and rumors began to surface that Volkswagen...

As today marks the start of the 2012 Paris Auto Show, we’re likely to see lots of interesting green cars over the next few days that we’ll never see in the U.S. Among them, the all-new 2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion diesel, capable of a claimed 88.3 mpg imperial, or 73.5 mpg U.S...

You'll be familiar with diesel cars, and familiar with hybrids, but as yet no manufacturer sells a diesel-electric hybrid car in the U.S. In Europe, things are different. Earlier this year, Peugeot launched the world's first diesel hybrid car, the 3008 HYbrid4. Positioned to compete between...

You'll no doubt be familiar with the term 'platform sharing', a name given to basic automotive architecture that finds itself used on a variety of models in a range, or even across manufacturers. The basic underpinnings of a Volkswagen Golf can also be found under an Audi TT, A3, Volkswagen Jetta...

You may have just read our take on the Volkswagen Up, an excellent minicar that unfortunately won't be coming to U.S. shores. What you may not have realized is that it has two siblings, sold under different branches of the Volkswagen-Audi (VAG) empire, SEAT and Skoda, known as the Mii and Citigo...

If diesel is your fuel of choice for high gas mileage, then you might be a little disappointed with the limited selection of vehicles available. Certainly, the U.S. lags behind Europe as far as choice of diesels is confirmed, but there seem to be some glaring omissions in North America's diesel...

The trickle of European and Japanese small cars into the U.S. is slow but steady. We've got the MINI, we have the Fiat 500, and Ford and Mazda have graced us with the Fiesta and Mazda2. Compared to overseas markets though, there's still a lot of small metal that we're missing out on. So where are...

Most magazines and countries have their own 'Car of the Year' awards, but the accolade of 'World Car of the Year' is undoubtedly the most presigious. This year, Volkswagen's diminutive up! minicar has won the title, as judged by 66 top automotive journalists from around the world, and beating 33...

Electric cars have some clear benefits over combustion-engined equivalents--zero local emissions, inexpensive "refuelling", luxury-car levels of refinement from silent powertrains--there's a lot to like. But what about pushing the boundaries of engineering? Freed from the constraints of the...

We've been following the progress of Volkswagen's up! for quite some time. First, we saw the up! Lite concept. Then the up!, a rear-engined minicar. VW then teased some electric up! taxis, before we finally saw the production version - and several more concepts - at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show...

Sometimes at an international auto show, a new concept car is unveiled that is truly stunning -- but is unlikely to ever make it to the U.S. We call them Forbidden Fruit. Like most Forbidden Fruit, we feel sad when we can’t take them home. That’s how Nissan’s latest concept...