Nissan is introducing a new educational program called Design Studio Waku Waku to get fifth and sixth grade students interested in automotive design. Kiddies will be able to submit their own sketches and drawings and get feedback from Nissan’s professional industrial designers. Hot damn! I would have killed to participate in a program like this when I was a kid.
[Nissan]
The Subaru Stella EV that’s been wowing world leaders at the recent G8 Summit has been recruited to serve in the Japanese postal service. Amazingly, it can reach 80% of it’s full charge in just 15 minutes, and it’s regenerative braking abilities suit the stop-and-go driving of a postal route perfectly.
[Subaru]
A freshened version of the Mazda Demio has just goes on sale in Japan today. List of very meager changes after the jump. (more…)
Want to Open a JDM Driving School? Then talk to Honda about their Civic fleet sales.
I’ve been a huge fan of the Mitsubishi i ever since I had one as a rental in 2007. It was extremely peppy for a 660cc kei car, and the styling was unbearably cute. Compared to the Subaru Stella CVT I rented on another day, it was a Lexus. The i-MIEV has a different, all-electric powertrain, but the motion is still directed where it counts, through the rear wheels.
But if I was the fuzz, I might want to hand over my badge and gun before driving one of these. While they’ll be used as minipatos (mini-patrols) on surface streets and leave the high-speed pursuits to the Mitsu GTOs and Subaru Impreza WRX STIs, you’ll still have to face down the occasional peace disturber, and this thing is only slightly more intimidating than Hello Kitty.
I’ve always thought the Toyota Soarer, especially the third generation that was also sold as the Lexus SC in the US, was ungodly beautiful. The fact that it shared the same platform with the Supra gave it sexually arousing sleeper potential. But that all went out the door when the fourth gen was bloated into a posh luxury yacht with completely superfluous folding hardtop convertible. I’ve been harboring secret hopes that when the Z40 was finally put out to pasture a sportier Soarer would return. Sadly, ’tis not to be.
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Honda has just released photos of the 2009 Acura TL. No proper horsepower figures have been divulged, but the horse’s mouth has at least confirmed that the TL will have the Legend/RL’s revolutionary Super Handling AWD system, which sends power not only front to back but side to side as well. (more…)
Mitsubishi’s funky bulldog-looking Concept-cX from the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show is headed for production with a 134hp 1.8L clean diesel mated to a version of the Twin Clutch SST transmission from the Evo X. It’ll be a bit smaller than the Outlander and will probably not look as cool as the concept.
[Car Central via Autoblog]
The seven most powerful men and one woman who lead the eight most powerful nations on the planet and make decisions that affect the lives of all of its inhabitants are meeting at a secret evil ice cave somewhere in Hokkaido right now. As part of the G8 Summit, Japan’s automakers are showing off their fleet of green vehicles. I can’t believe this, but I’m at a loss for what the first one on the left is, but the rest are the Subaru Stella electric vehicle, Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, and the Mazda RX-8 and Premacy hydrogen rotaries. Toyota donated 78 cars, ranging from a hydrogen-powered Kluger/Highlander to Crown and Lexus LS600h hybrids. Mitsubishi contributed i-MIEVs while Nissan showed off X-Trial clean diesels and Suzuki supplied SX4 FCVs.
[Image: Subaru]
One of Toyota’s worst-selling JDM cars was the Cavalier. It looked about as exciting as a 12-hour lecture on cardboard delivered by an octogenarian with a parched throat and you could have shoved your fist into the gaps between interior panels, which were themselves as brittle and hollow as a Leona Helmsley in her final days. These tolerances may may have seemed unbefitting of a manufacturer of Toyota’s caliber, but that’s because it was a rebadged version of the Chevy Cavalier, and they didn’t even bother to change the name. (more…)