minicar

  • Tata Pixel Concept, 2011 Geneva Motor Show

    The world's least expensive new car, India's Tata Nano, is now selling across that country, with plans afoot to offer an upgraded version in Europe this year or in 2012. Meanwhile, carmaker Tata (which owns Jaguar Land Rover) is hardly standing still. At this week's 2011 Geneva Motor Show, Tata rolled out the Pixel Concept, its idea of an ultra-efficient urban car. The Pixel is aimed mostly at European and Asian markets, where fuel is far pricier than in the U.S. And many of its features are meant to make it stand out in crowded, space-constrained urban streets. Tata says the Pixel, which is...

  • 2011 Smart ForTwo with 'Heartthrob' Valentine's Day car wrap
    Valentine's Day Idea: Wrap Your Car In Hearts And Love

    Suppose your beloved walked into the garage this morning and found the car covered in pink hearts and declarations of love. That'd be a pretty impressive Valentine's Day gift, right? Well, start your planning for next year, 'cause this one will take more than a last-minute dash to the florist and...

  • volkswagen up concept motorauthority 005
    Volkswagen's 79-MPG Up Hatchback, But Only For Europeans

    With fuel-efficiency and emissions regulations tightening all over the world, carmakers continue to push the limits on how economical a production car can get. The latest entrant in the high-mileage stakes: a future edition of Volkswagen's Up minicar that will return 79 miles per gallon using a...

  • 2011 Scion iQ
    2011 Scion iQ Minicar Sales Delayed Until This Summer

    If you're eagerly waiting for the first 2011 Scion iQ minicar to show up at your dealer, sit down and have a nice cup of tea. You're going to have wait a bit longer. Scion's parent, Toyota, is delaying the U.S. launch of the iQ, originally scheduled to happen by March of this year, to sometime this...

  • Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric minicar crash-tested by ADAC, December 2010, screen capture
    Big Crash, Small Electric Car: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Barrier Test

    It's both true and not-so-true: Small cars are dangerous in a crash. It's true, in that the laws of physics indicate a heavier object will have more momentum than a lighter object when they collide, meaning the small one gets displaced. But it's not so true if you're looking at absolute levels of...

  • 2011 Smart electric drive  -  first drive
    The Missing Electric Car Segment: Minicars At $15,000 Or So?

    For the past few years, we’ve witnessed the success of low-volume, high-priced, highway-capable electric vehicles in the Tesla Roadster. We’ve also just recently seen the advent of medium-volume, medium -priced highway-capable electric cars like the 2011 Chevy Volt and 2011 Nissan LEAF...

  • 2012 Fiat 500

    The launch of the 2012 Fiat 500 at the Los Angeles Auto Show wasn't only the first new model from Chrysler's partnership with Italian automaker Fiat. It also added a new and attractive model to a category of cars that have always been an afterthought in the U.S. market: minicars, those even smaller than subcompacts. In this case, the four-seat 2012 500 is 140 inches long and weighs just 2,350 pounds. At the introduction, Fiat presented the 500 as a car that drivers and owners will be passionate about, one that buyers will fall in love with. Advertisements will carry the tagline, "Life is best...

  • Honda Brio prototype, introduced at the 2010 Thailand Motor Expo
    Honda Unveils Brio, Its Smallest Car, For Asian Markets Only

    The smallest Honda sold in the U.S. market is the 2011 Fit subcompact, its well-reviewed and enormously versatile five-door hatchback. But other markets demand different types of cars, and today at the Thailand Motor Expo, the company unveiled the Honda Brio prototype, a lightly disguised version...

  • 2012 Mitsubishi "i" electric car, powered by MiEV, launch event at 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show
    2010 LA Auto Show: 2012 Mitsubishi 'i' Electric Minicar

    It was the first electric car sold in volume anywhere in the world, starting more than a year ago, and now the 2012 Mitsubishi "i" is officially coming to the U.S. market. The U.S. version was unveiled on Thursday at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, though Mitsubishi provided few new details on how...

  • 2011 Fiat 500 launch event at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show, November 2010
    2010 LA Auto Show: Photo Gallery, 2012 Fiat 500 Launch

    The 2012 Fiat 500 minicar is the first all-new car to be sold as part of Fiat's takeover of Chrysler. It's also a very cool and stylish little vehicle that won numerous awards in its first year on the market ... and it's the kind of car conventional wisdom says will never, ever sell in the U.S...

  • 2007 Volkswagen up! concept
    2012 VW Up Minicar On Sale In Europe Next Year, Already Priced

    VW hasn't yet unveiled the final version of its upcoming Up minicar, which will be smaller than the smallest vehicle it sells in Europe today, the Volkswagen Polo subcompact. But the company has already discussed the car's price there: around 10,000 Euros, or about $14,100 at today's exchange rate...

  • 2011 Fiat 500 spied testing in Nevada, photo by KJ Elias
    2011 Fiat 500 Testing in Nevada: Exclusive Spy Photo

    The 2011 Fiat 500 will go on sale in less than six months, but the company is still hard at work roadtesting pre-production versions for North America. The latest proof is this photo of a Fiat 500 development prototype being road-tested outside Las Vegas, in the hot weather of Nevada. Our reader KJ...

  • 2011 Scion iQ

    Sales of the Smart ForTwo minicar plummeted after gasoline came back down from $4 a gallon, but Toyota's Scion brand is readying its own minicar for sale in the U.S. The latest word is that the 2011 Scion iQ will land at dealers in March. The Scion iQ was first unveiled as a concept car at the 2009 New York Auto Show, and then shown in production trim at the following year's show. It's taking a while to make it to dealers, but Scion VP Jack Hollis confirmed at a press event last week our earlier report that the new iQ will arrive in the U.S. early next year. Of all brands sold in the U.S...

  • 2009 fiat 500 convertible 500c 2 022
    Reward For Old Fiat Owners, Finally: New 2011 Fiat 500 Special Edition

    It hasn't been easy being a Fiat fan in the U.S. these last, oh, 20 or 30 years. Sneers of "Fix It Again, Tony!" due to rusty and unreliable cars were followed by Fiat fleeing the U.S. market in 1983 with its tail tucked between its legs. But now, with the imminent debut of the 2011 Fiat 500 late...

  • Smart Expressions vinyl-wrap option - plaid pattern
    If No One Notices Your Smart ForTwo, Why Not Wrap It In Plaid?

    You've got to be at least somewhat extroverted to drive a 2010 Smart ForTwo minicar, the smallest car sold in North America. People stare at it, point at you, and often ask you variations of, "What on earth makes you want to drive that?" Now, for the most extroverted of Smart owners, there's a new...

  • Undisguised 2011 Chevrolet Aveo, SB-Meridien photo digitally altered with permission by AveoForum
    2011 Chevrolet Aveo Shown Sans Disguise; Thanks, Photoshop!

    Some auto writers (not us, truly) have been known to sneer at car forum sites. But we try to monitor the forums regularly, 'cause sometimes you see the darnedest things. Take, for example, this photo of a 2011 Chevrolet Aveo in undisguised form, minus the usual spy-shot camouflage. It comes from...

  • Tata Nanos shipped sideways on flatbed rail car outside Bangalore, India, from YouTube user Auroajay
    How Short Is a Tata Nano? Enough To Ship Sideways On a Train

    You've surely seen car-carriers full of brand-new vehicles on the highways. But many new cars roll out of the factory onto trains that carry them over much of their journey. Now a new video from India shows a trainload of diminutive Tata Nano minicars passing by an onlooker in Bangalore. The...

  • SAIC Roewe E1 electric minicar concept, Shanghai, April 2010
    2010 Beijing Motor Show: SAIC Roewe E1 Electric Mini-Car

    Sadly, we weren't able to cover the Beijing Motor Show, which opened last week. It's too bad, too, because China is on track to become the world's largest single car market, its fuel efficiency regulations are far tougher than those of the U.S., and its industrial policy for the auto sector focuses...

  • 2011 Scion iQ at 2010 New York Auto Show, with Scion's Jack Hollis

    Well, it's done. The public are streaming in, and the two media preview days of the 2010 New York Auto Show are over. It wasn't a hugely significant show, but clearly the apocalyptic meltdown that automakers were experiencing last year has lifted. Sales are starting to come back, slowly, and while they're still at just two-thirds the level of three years ago, there's no more free fall. Beyond that, with the issuance of final 2012-2016 fuel-economy rules, automakers have a single clear set of standards they must meet, and they're already planning to do just that. With the new era in mind...

  • Aston Martin Cygnet in zebra stripe pattern
    Aston Martin Goes Green With Zebra-Skin Baby Swan From Toyota

    Last summer, lots of people thought it was a joke when famed British sports car maker Aston Martin said it would offer coachbuilt versions of Toyota's tiny iQ minicar, in the guise of the greenest Aston ever, the Cygnet. (A cygnet is a baby swan, by the way.) Well, it wasn't a joke. And now Aston...

  • Proton Country concept, 2010 Geneva Motor Show
    Tiny Lotus Engine Powers Proton Series Hybrid Mini-Car Concept

    Normally we wouldn't cover a Malaysian mini-car concept exhibited at an auto show in Switzerland. But we're making an exception for the Proton Concept, which will be unveiled next week at the Geneva Motor Show in three different body styles. That's because Proton is the first maker to use the new...

  • 2009 fiat 500 convertible 500c 2 008
    Small Engines Get Even Smaller: Fiat's Turbocharged Twin

    As we keep saying, one of the ways that automakers will meet more stringent fuel economy regulations is by making smaller engines that work harder. Now Fiat has one-upped its European competition by announcing it will offer a 900cc turbocharged twin in European models of its Fiat 500 mini-car. That...

  • Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car - front - December 2008
    2013 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Price To Be Set At $22K

    Mitsubishi Makes More News With the i-MiEV

  • Nissan Global Compact Car (Micra/March)
    Nissan Planning Two Small Cars Under $10K For U.S. Market

    Small cars aren't always cheap; increasingly, automakers are breaking that link with well-equipped and desirable compacts and subcompacts. Nor are small cars always green, though there's often a correlation. Now Nissan has said it will bring not one but two sub-$10,000 cars to the U.S. The company...

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