2012

With a redesigned range of Civic sedan and coupe models, and no fewer than five separate variants, the new 2012 Honda Civic makes an aggressive effort to position Honda at the forefront of gas mileage. Unlike models from other makers, if you order a standard 2012 Civic with the 1.8-liter engine...

Summer is finally upon us and that means convertible owners will be cruising the highways with their tops down and the wind in their hair. Convertibles are traditionally more fuel hungry than their hard-top siblings due to the extra weight the vehicles carry, not only from their automated folding...

For years the question has been asked, “How long does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.” Ultimately the answer was three and similarly Mazda has hit a milestone that also uses the numeral three in it. This month marked the production of the 3 millionth Mazda3 or Axela as it...

Twenty years ago small cars were generally seen as low cost transportation that would generally only get you from point A to point B. Small cars have come a long way from that in today’s automotive market with manufacturers like Ford, Hyundai, Chevrolet, BMW and Audi just to name a few. Why...

About a year and a half ago, Scion launched a new webmagazine called ScionAV. The goal? To engage potential Scion shoppers (i.e. Millennials) on lifestyle topics like music, film, and fashion. It's the way marketing works in the Social Media Age: you don't just talk to customers in showrooms, you...

Good occupant safety can come in small packages—even those that get 40 mpg or more. That's one of the themes of the latest round of crash-test results and safety ratings released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Overall, there are now ten small-car and minicar models in...

A little over two months ago Nissan made the announcement that its upmarket Infiniti division would become the title automotive sponsor of the championship-leading Formula 1 team Red Bull Racing. To even the least knowledgeable motorsport fan here at GreenCarReports, the benefits of the deal for...

The President may be currently abroad experiencing the horror of European ramps, but his government has been busy at home ordering the very cars its stimulus program has helped to fund. The General Services Administration responsible for the upkeep of the federal government’s 600,000 strong...

Sometimes we get nicely produced video, and sometimes we get our codriver to shoot it on the fly. For the 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon we drove last week, it was very much a case of the latter--complete with a mutli-tone "bong" interruption from the Toyota Entune system. Our one-minute video...

Toyota executives will go to extraordinary, absurd lengths to avoid defining the body style of the new 2012 Toyota Prius V. Bob Carter, brand sales chief for Toyota Motors in the U.S., first responded with confusion over the question. Presented with a list of alternatives--sedan, hatchback...

When it comes to recalls they can generally come about in one of two ways: the government requires a company to recall a car due to a number of safety complaints or the auto manufacturer voluntarily makes a recall announcement. Obviously, the second situation is the more desirable because it can be...

So we have written about the 2012 Fiat 500 and a little bit about the 500C Cabrio. However, the thought came to our mind through a recent First Drive completed by our partner site, TheCarConnection.com, that maybe the Cabrio isn’t worth the extra cost. Now hang in there with us; the thought...

One of the most remarkable--and most delayed--of the promised new generation of electric cars is the three-wheeled Aptera 2e. The unusual, highly aerodynamic vehicle was designed by a startup automaker in Southern California. The resin-bodied car was a finalist at last year’s Auto X-Prize...

Everyone likes a good competition right? Honda seems to agree with the release of a new web-based songwriting competition. The subject matter—the 2012 Honda Civic family of cars. The prize—a 2012 Honda Civic valued between $15K and $27K and the bragging rights and tour appearances...

The list of compact cars offered with all-wheel-drive as an option is short. The list of compact cars that come with all-wheel-drive standard is even shorter: Subaru Impreza. For 2012, Subaru has restyled its Impreza compact sedan and hatchback, and fitted them with a new and more fuel-efficient...

It may have been bathed in lights better suited to the local nightclub, but when we set our eyes on the Nissan Leaf Nismo RC at the New York Auto Show back in April we were keen to see just what the 2011 Nissan Leaf derived electric race car was capable of on the track. We haven’t had long to...

One of the liberating benefits to owning an electric car is the ability to plug in and charge up wherever there happens to be a purpose-built charging station, or indeed a standard domestic power outlet. But while most of the electric cars on sale in the U.S. today comply with the J1772 standard of...

OK, so gas prices are hovering around $4 a gallon, and dispensing with gasoline altogether is getting more and more attractive. But for whatever reasons, plug-in cars aren't for you. Maybe it's the limited range of battery electric vehicles, maybe it's the $41,000 cost before incentives of the 2011...

There's nothing like a story translated from overseas media, concerning a related but not-quite-the-same model of a new hybrid car, to get people all in an uproar. So here's the real deal on the 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon/minivan: It will still arrive in U.S. dealerships this fall. That's...

The all-new 2012 Ford Focus launched this year and you probably have started seeing them out on the road where you work and live. The 2012 Ford Focus has been acclaimed for having class-leading technology like Self Park in a car that can start at as little as about $16K and maxes out near $23K...