small cars

BMW producing a front-wheel drive car ranks alongside hell freezing over on the plausibility scale, so the announcement of the Concept Active Tourer is sure to get Beelzebub dressing for the winter. The Active Tourer previews the look of a new small BMW, similar in size to the brand's current...

If you were to compile a list of the greatest American cars ever, it's unlikely you'd find many gas sippers near the top. But in Europe, where small cars rule and gas has long been more expensive, some of the continents most iconic cars were also fairly green in their day. That's why readers of...

Four new 2013 vehicles have picked up 'good' ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) crash tests. The Acura ILX, a small luxury car, the new Ford Escape crossover, and the Subaru BRZ and Scion FR-S sports car twins have all been awarded the IIHS top award for good performance...

Fiat is introducing a new variant of the 500 retro minicar to sit between the base 1.4-liter model and the high-performance Abarth. The 2013 Fiat 500 Turbo sits between the two other 500s, offering 135 horsepower and 150 lb ft. of torque from its turbocharged 1.4-liter MulitAir gasoline engine. In...

Will your next car be smaller than your current one? If you answered yes, then you're in good company, as a recent JD Power survey shows that 27 percent of new car buyers have downsized in the last year. The 2012 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) study, showed that only 13...

Although a very small niche group might see minicars like the Scion iQ and Smart Fortwo as a fashion statement, or as a way to reap special parking or commuting benefits, for most Americans—and even a lot of green-car shoppers—it's quite frankly a little hard to see the point in getting...

Scion has revealed that as much as 60 percent of Scion iQ buyers are new to Toyota, fulfilling Scion's brief of drawing in younger buyers. The figure is important for Toyota, as the hardest part of selling cars is often attracting buyers to the brand. With the cheap, entry-level iQ model in the...

Smart might have just unveiled the 2013 Smart ForTwo, but it doesn't take a genius to work out it's little more than a facelift with some new trim materials. While the car is gaining evolutionary improvements, Smart really needs the next generation of ForTwo, currently being co-developed with...

Incentives are nothing new in the world of car buying. Discounts here, extended warranties there--we've all made use of them at some stage. When you're targeting a car exclusively at younger buyers, as Scion does, sometimes the incentives need to be a little more inventive. That's why it's giving...

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...

Let's say you're in the market for a small car, and you want the most economical one around in your budget. What are the options? Quite varied ones, actually - everything from electric cars, through hybrids, range-extended vehicles, gasoline and diesel. You might notice a few glaring omissions from...

Buick isn’t the first brand you’d think of when it comes to fuel efficient, small cars, but next year Buick showrooms will welcome an all-new model which combines the two. Unveiled today at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, the 2013 Buick Encore Crossover packages a turbocharged 1.4 liter...

It's one thing Honda not sending its new Brio minicar over to the United States, so economy car fans are unable to sample its 52 mpg delights. That would all be okay if we found out it was a terrible car, but unfortunately for us, the first reviews coming from overseas are singing its praises. One...

Life is so unfair sometimes. Car companies have been dangling the carrot of smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles in front of us for a few years now and though we've managed to grab vehicles like the MINI, Honda Fit and Ford Fiesta (and the Chevrolet Spark is on the way), we're still denied many...

The all-new 2012 Scion iQ minicar starts at around $16k and earns an EPA-rated 36 mpg city, 37 highway, for a Combined figure of 37 mpg.

The Toyota Prius is the best-selling hybrid vehicle of all time and recently passed three million sales globally and a million in the U.S., over more than a decade. And when fuel prices rise, so has demand for the Prius and other high-mileage vehicles. So then, why hasn't it for the Honda Insight?...

Today's small cars are better than they've ever been, even if few of them are among the EPA's all-time gas mileage champs. And spurred by tighter fuel-economy laws, 40 miles per gallon on the highway is becoming the new target for subcompact and even compact cars. There's just one little problem...

It's always important for writers to check their cultural biases when analyzing the auto market. Or at least admit them up front. So we appreciate our colleague Scott Burgess being honest about his point of view: He doesn't like subcompacts. Nope. Doesn't have any time for 'em. Animus up front In...

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...

By Tim Healey Toyota's Yaris sometimes gets lost in the small-car shuffle, losing press to the Honda Fit, the Nissan Versa, and Toyota's own (admittedly larger) Corolla. The little subcompact quietly soldiers on with minimal changes for 2010. The biggest news is the addition of standard traction...