Nissan spent the better part of this week showcasing a spiffy electric car designed to deliver more power than current hybrids. The car, due to go on sale in 2010, carries a 300-kilo lithium-ion battery that Nissan claims can accelerate faster than a comparable gas engine. Exact specifications are unknown, but the new battery technology [...]

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[Bloomberg] Honda Motor Co., encouraged by U.S. demand for Fit subcompacts, is reviewing its Japanese lineup for other possible imports as near-record fuel prices spark interest in cars once viewed as too small or quirky.
“There are a couple of things that we are looking at again, whether they make sense right now,” Dan Bonawitz, Honda’s [...]

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JD Power and crew do a good job measuring vehicle quality for the first three years of ownership and their measurements have once again put Lexus ahead of all manufacturers for the 14th year in a row. Lexus leads the list with just 120 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100). The distant runner-up, Mercury, comes up [...]

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It’s a sign of our times when even the Japanese car makers are desperate to get rid of big trucks. There are reports that Nissan, one of only three car companies that recorded a sales increase in July (albeit only 1.4%), is reportedly offering dealers bonus cash rebates of up to $5,000 on top of [...]

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Slow sales of Honda’s Pilot SUV and Odyssey minivan have led Honda to announce it’s ready to shed some production of its two largest vehicles in favor of more Civic compacts. The cuts will wipe out Pilot and Odyssey 10,000 units total at Honda’s Lincoln assembly plant but will leave employees on the payroll. Instead [...]

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Here’s something different: Toyota has announced that it plans to export large cars produced in the U.S. to the Middle East and other emerging economies around the world.
Toyota, which mostly sells its U.S.-made cars only in North America, is planning to offload expensive gas guzzlers all around the world. The plan is also motivated by [...]

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Just like Toyota has the Scion in America and the Dahaitsu in Asia, Honda now has it’s own sub-brand just for China’s bustling car market. Honda will work with it’s Chinese partner, Guangzhou Honda, to create a new division with the name “Li Nian”, meaning “subject” in Chinese. Guangzhou already makes Odyssey minivans, Accord [...]

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Jim Press, in a recent interview with Business Week claimed Toyota received secret and highly controversial funding from the Japanese government for the incredibly popular Toyota Prius hybrid sedan. Toyota though has come out and rejected the claim, going as far to imply that Press is lying about that Prius’s funding came from a secret [...]

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