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PSA: Toyota Prius has been Japan’s top-selling car for 18 straight months

Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrid, Japan, Hatchback, Toyota

2010 Toyota Prius – Click above for high-res image gallery

The Toyota Prius has been the top-selling vehicle in its home market of Japan since its redesign in 2009 for the 2010 model year, due partly to a series of incentives created by the Japanese government to promote fuel efficient vehicles – more specifically, hybrids. Those incentives ended in September, leading many to wonder if Toyota’s hybrid hatchback could maintain its stranglehold atop the sales board.

Apparently, the answer is yes. According to data provided by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Mini Vehicles Association, Toyota managed to sell 21,400 Prius hybrids in November, more than enough to earn the fuel-sipper the top sales spot over the second-place Honda Fit (16,677 units).

It seems that the end of hybrid vehicle subsidies did take something of a toll on Prius sales, however. Though still on top, sales of Toyota’s hybrid hatchback were down by just over 20 percent when compared to the same period one year ago, when the Japanese government’s incentives were in full effect. Still, Toyota’s green jellybean has enjoyed 18 months at the top and still has quite a few carlengths on the Fit, and that’s nothing to be sneezed at.

Gallery: 2010 Toyota Prius

[Source: The Mainichi Daily News]

PSA: Toyota Prius has been Japan’s top-selling car for 18 straight months originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tesla takes a tip from BMW, creates psychedelic Roadster art car

Filed under: Convertible, Tesla, Design/Style, Electric

Laurence Gartel Tesla art car

Laurence Gartel’s Tesla Roadster art car – Click above for high-res image gallery

We love ourselves some art cars. Be it a Warhol-liveried BMW M1 or a crochet-covered Morris Minor, few things flip our collective switch quite like the melding of art and automobiles. Tesla has introduced its first foray into the scene with a Roadster worked up by Laurence Gartel. The artist covered each and every one of the electric sports car’s body panels in a vinyl wrap with a trippy digital swirl design. Gartel has a history of working in digital art having begun experimenting in the medium in the ’70s, and Tesla is a company that identifies with individuals with a technology bent.

Tesla showed its Art Roadster at the Miami Art Basel Festival over the weekend, and the company spent some time motoring around the southern-Florida city during the event. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Gallery: Laurence Gartel Telsa Art Car

[Source: Tesla]

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Tesla takes a tip from BMW, creates psychedelic Roadster art car originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toyota Etios joins India’s B-car ranks

Filed under: Budget, Sedan, Toyota, India

2011 Toyota Etios

2011 Toyota Etios – Click above for high-res image gallery

Toyota will officially join the Indian B-car segment with this, the 2011 Etios sedan. A hatchback version, Etios Liva, will follow in April. While the styling is decidedly sedate, Toyota hopes to attract shoppers with the Etios’ low price point – 496,000 Rupees, or just under $11,000 USD based on current exchange rates.

Power comes from a 1.5-liter inline-four mated to a five-speed manual transmission. Tuned specifically for fuel efficiency, athe engine produces just 89 horsepower and 97 pound-feet of torque. The Etios is capable of achieving 17.6 kilometers per liter, or roughly 41.2 miles per gallon.

Inside, the relatively spartan interior uses a center-mounted instrument panel, and amenities like steering-mounted audio controls and red seat inserts are available in the more upmarket models. The Etios is offered in four trim levels – J, G, V and VX – with pricing as high as 686,000 Rupees (roughly $15,287) for the top-tier Etios VX.

Hit the jump for Toyota’s official press release, and scan through the gallery below to see high-res images of the India-only Etios.

Gallery: 2011 Toyota Etios

2011 Toyota Etios

[Sources: Toyota, Paultan.org]

Continue reading Toyota Etios joins India’s B-car ranks

Toyota Etios joins India’s B-car ranks originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cadillac CTS-V, Jeep Grand Cherokee named 2011 Internet Car and Truck of the Year

Filed under: Coupe, Sedan, Performance, Crossover, Cadillac, Jeep, Off-Road

2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee

2011 Cadillac CTS-V and 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee – Click above for high-res image galleries

The Internet Car and Truck of the Year voting jury has just announced its pair of winners for 2011, and top honors go to both the Cadillac CTS-V and Jeep Grand Cherokee. For 2011, the CTS-V is offered in a trio of body styles, all of which boast a 556-horsepower supercharged V8 and seriously good driving dynamics. Likewise, the 2011 Grand Cherokee remains one of the best off-road vehicles in its class, and points the way forward for the “new Chrysler.”

In addition to the vehicles picked by the Internet Car and Truck of the Year jurors, the motoring public was able to cast its vote for the “Average Joe” awards. Unlike the professional jury, the public voters named the 2011 Ford Mustang GT as Car of the Year, its new 5.0-liter V8 and reworked suspension geometry making it more of a true sports car than a stereotypical muscle car. However, both the “Internet Pros” and “Average Joes” saw eye to eye on the Truck of the Year award, with the Grand Cherokee taking the cake from both segments of voters.

Vehicles aside, the ICTOY jury also honored recently deceased and legendary automotive journalist Jerry Flint with the 2010 Journalist of the Year award. Flint, who died on August 7th of this year, covered the automotive beat for over 50 years, and was once named one of the 100 most prominent business reporters of the 20th century.

For the full details on all of the awards, follow the jump to read the Internet Car and Truck of the Year press release.

Gallery: First Drive: 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe

Gallery: Review: 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee

[Source: Internet Car and Truck of the Year]

Continue reading Cadillac CTS-V, Jeep Grand Cherokee named 2011 Internet Car and Truck of the Year

Cadillac CTS-V, Jeep Grand Cherokee named 2011 Internet Car and Truck of the Year originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Today is the best day all year to buy a new car

Filed under: Car Buying, Etc., Earnings/Financials

Car Shopping

If you’re in the market for a new car, today just might be your day. According to both Time and TrueCar.com, a perfect storm of factors have collided to make this the best day all year for consumers to get the greatest deal possible on a new hunk of sheetmetal. With a perfect mix of dealer incentives and manufacturer rebates mingling with the fact that dealers are now staring down the barrel of end-of-the-month sales targets and a stack of 2011 models coming down the pike, savvy buyers should be able to call the shots.

Time reports that some models are seeing discounts of 19-37 percent off of their retail MSRP. If you’re clever, you just might be able to snag the keys to a 2010 Mazda3 for a hair over $10,000(!) or a 2010 Hyundai Accent for just $7,341 – a savings of around 31 percent off of the Korean’s sticker price. Head over to TrueCar.com for a look at other big savers.

[Sources: Time, TrueCar | Image: Joe Raedle / Getty Images]

Report: Today is the best day all year to buy a new car originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rasmussen Reports: More Car Buyers Looking For “American”

Filed under: Car Buying, By the Numbers

A Rasmussen Reports poll fielded in November – before General Motors’ IPO – finds a rise in the preference of “American-built” vehicles, as well as a willingness to accept U.S.-built Toyota and BMW products as the same as buying an “American” product.

Forty-one percent of respondents said they look for an “American-built” car first when they’re in the market for a vehicle. That sentiment is attributed by many analysts and researchers to a sense that people are showing more and more sentiment for “buying local.” That’s just a few points below the 44 percent who said they look for “the best possible deal regardless of where it was manufactured” while just 12 percent said they look first for a foreign-built car.

The sentiment favoring American-built car brands has risen quite a bit since Rasmussen conducted a similar poll in June 2008 when just 32 percent said they looked for an American brand first.

Good news for foreign owned automakers building vehicles in the U.S. Forty-one percent of respondents said they viewed buying a foreign brand of car that’s manufactured in the U.S. as “the same as buying an ‘American’ product” meaning those people believe a Mexican-built Ford Fusion is just as American as an Ohio-built Honda Civic. Forty-two percent, however, dissented from that notion while the rest were unsure.

The poll also found 59 percent saying they “consider just the Detroit Big Three – Ford, General Motors and Chrysler – to be American car companies.”

Fifty-four percent of Americans said they are less likely to buy a GM car because the federal government is/was the automaker’s majority owner. Still, in a separate survey in early June, 48 percent of those who planned to buy a new or used car in the next year said they are at least somewhat likely to buy either a Ford or a vehicle made by GM. Those findings included 20 percent who were ‘Very Likely’ to buy a Ford and 26 percent ‘Very Likely’ to buy a GM product instead.

[Source: Rasmussen | Image: Paul Sancya/AP Photo]

Rasmussen Reports: More Car Buyers Looking For “American” originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Details emerge on Next Autoworks’ 2012 compact car

Filed under: Budget, Etc., Hatchback, Design/Style

Next Autoworks

Next Autoworks, nee V-Vehicles, recently hired CEO Kathleen Ligocki to shepherd its planned 2012 car through to production. The design of the car itself was overseen by Tom Matano, who penned the original Mazda Miata and the 1993 RX-7. Matano recently shared some of the compact car’s details with Automotive News, which describes it as a “utilitarian five-door hatchback… a cross between a Nissan Leaf and a Lada Niva.”

The car’s build sounds just as intriguing: a spaceframe with non-load-bearing body panels attached. Countering a build process that is pricey by segment standards, costs are kept down by interchangeable door panels and taillight assemblies. Matano suggested he was after “an advanced concept car that would look like something by Ikea.” It all sounds like it could go quite right or very wrong, but before it can build anything, Next Autoworks needs to have its request for funds from the Department of Energy approved.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

Details emerge on Next Autoworks’ 2012 compact car originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Study: Rental car companies increase customer satisfaction, Enterprise tops

Filed under: Etc.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Economists and talking heads argue endlessly about our economy on a daily basis. “It’s back!,” “It’s almost back!” and “It’s never coming back!” seem to be the leaders among the varied viewpoints we hear and read about. One sector that has apparently begun to rebound is the car rental business. Not necessarily in financial terms, but from the standpoint of customer satisfaction, America’s rental car companies are returning to to a position last seen in the pre-recession days.

J.D. Power has released its annual North American Rental Car Satisfaction Study, and the results are positive for every company included in the survey. Now in its 15th year, this J.D. Power study examines customer satisfaction with the airport car rental process, and it looks at six specific factors: Costs & Fees, Pick-Up Process, Rental Car, Return Process, Reservation Process, and Shuttle Bus/Van. The highest score possible is 1,000 points and, for the 2010 study, the average Overall Satisfaction score is 750. This is up from 733 in 2009 and 734 in 2008. Every company in the survey has improved year-over-year in the survey.

This year’s big winner, however, is Enterprise, which received the industry’s highest rankings in customer satisfaction. Enterprise is no stranger to this award, and getting the nod in 2010 makes it seven years in a row for the rental car company. Following behind Enterprise, Hertz and National also performed quite well in the survey while Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Dollar and Thrifty rounded out the results. You can see how each one performed over at the J.D. Power results page.

[Source: J.D. Power]

Continue reading Study: Rental car companies increase customer satisfaction, Enterprise tops

Study: Rental car companies increase customer satisfaction, Enterprise tops originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 11:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Former Car Czar Rattner settles with SEC, sued by Cuomo

Filed under: Government/Legal

Steven Rattner

Former White House Auto Industry Task Force member Steven Rattner is being sued by New York State Attorney General and Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo for allegedly paying kickbacks to win investments in the state’s pension fund.

Cuomo is seeking $26 million from Rattner, and to bar him from trading securities in New York for life, an agreement that might hamstring Rattner if he can’t do securities work in New York any longer.

Rattner, who recently penned a book about his time on The Obama task force (“Overhaul,” [Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt, 2010]) that guided General Motors and Chrysler through bankruptcy, already settled a related case against him brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought a civil lawsuit against the private equity executive and former New York Times reporter.

Rattner’s former investment firm, Quadrangle, settled with New York State and the SEC last April, which was accompanied by a statement by Quadrangle saying Rattner’s conduct was “inappropriate, wrong and unethical.” Quadrangle agreed to pay $7 million to Cuomo and $5 million to the SEC without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

Continue reading Former Car Czar Rattner settles with SEC, sued by Cuomo

Former Car Czar Rattner settles with SEC, sued by Cuomo originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2011 Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year title in LA

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Hybrid, Sedan, Chevrolet, GM, Electric

Joel Ewanick, VP, U.S. Marketing, General Motors

Joel Ewanick, VP, U.S. Marketing for General Motors, and the Chevy Volt with the Green Car of the Year Award

The Chevrolet Volt drove off with the 2011 Green Car of the Year Award at the LA Auto Show this morning, beating out tough competition from the Nissan Leaf and ending a two-year diesel powertrain reign (at the 2008 show, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI was named the winner; last year, the Audi A3 TDI won). The other finalists for this year’s award, given out by Green Car Journal, included the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid , Hyundai Sonata Hybrid and the Ford Fiesta.

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Roland Hwang said during the ceremony that “the environment means business.” To be globally competitive, automakers need highly-efficient vehicles to compete and, “what this means is that green vehicles are going to go mainstream.” The Green Car of the Year award embodies this change. When it was first given out in 2006, it was sort of tacked on at the end of the LA Auto Show. Today, as it was in ’09, the ceremony was a highlight of the show.

Last year, Green Car Journal editor Ron Cogan made a point to mention the five vehicles up for consideration were notable because they were mainstream vehicles that were already available. This year, only three of the candidates are currently on dealer lots. With the high tech involved in the Leaf and Volt, though, we’re okay with the slight delay in availability.

If you were rooting for the Leaf, don’t worry too much. Today, that car won the Green Car of the Year title from TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk over in the UK. Still, in the U.S., the Green Car Journal award is the big one, and we want to know if the Volt claiming the first Green Car of the Year award of the electric era – and if there’s one message we’re heard here in LA this year, it’s that we’re really in the electric era now – make sense to you. Let us know in the comments below.

[Source: Green Car of the Year]

Continue reading 2011 Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year title in LA

2011 Chevy Volt wins Green Car of the Year title in LA originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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