Displaying Items By Tag: Nissan

A year and a half ago, we got our first glimpse at a Civic Type R sporting a wing that didn't touch the sky. And now that more subtle Civic is going into production as the 2020 Honda Civic Type R Sport Line. It features a number of changes that make it more mellow looking, but American buyers hoping to order one are out of luck, as it's a European model only.

The obvious change is a low-profile wing that is almost more of a spoiler. It does still have pointy parts like the rest of the Type R's extroverted body, so it fits in nicely. Another significant change is the switch to 19-inch wheels, rather than 20-inch units. These look less extreme, and they will probably return a slightly nicer ride. The front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser also get a grey highlight rather than the regular Type R's red line. Inside, the red bucket seats are swapped for simple black ones with red and grey stitching.

The Type R is the ultimate Civic from a performance standpoint, and now Honda has created an ultimate version of the ultimate Civic: the 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition. It's an uninspired name for an eye-popping limited-edition car, only 600 of which will come to America.

The immediately obvious change to the car is the Phoenix Yellow paint scheme that's exclusive to the Limited Edition. It's matched with a black roof, mirror caps and hood scoop, plus some dark chrome badging. Also noticeable are a set of forged 20-inch BBS wheels, the brand having been selected since it has produced wheels for the NSX and S2000.

Honda has announced a new recall on more than 200,000 Odyssey minivans, model years 2018 through 2020.  Due to a safety defect, a wiring harness could potentially be pinched, which could create a short circuit and therefore a fire risk.

Honda first learned of a reported fire back in August 2018, but no information was provided to the company for further investigation. After a second fire in April 2019, however, Honda repurchased the involved minivan to examine it. In total, three fires were reported, and after months of internal testing and investigation, Honda identified the defect in January 2020. 

During a roundtable during a recent event hosted by Honda, we joined in on a roundtable interview with Honda Technical Consultant Ko Yamamoto and Honda Civic Type R Project Leader Hideki Kakinuma. Questions were asked about the Type R brand broadly, as well as the potential for some new projects. The answers were both good news and disappointing news for Honda fans.

The good news is that Honda takes the Type R name and brand very seriously. Yamamoto and Kakinuma explained that the name and its associated red "H" badge are only for vehicles with a racing connection, such as the Honda Civic Type R that has a couple of racing variants. As such, you won't be seeing a CR-V, Odyssey or Insight with the Type R name. Furthermore, the Type R name is only for Honda-badged vehicles, despite the existence of the Acura Integra Type R a couple decades ago.

Nissan is launching a subscription service model dubbed ‘Nissan Switch’, which the carmaker will test in the Greater Houston area.

Nissan is going to try its hand in the car subscription game. Similar to other manufacturer's subscription efforts, Nissan's is also extremely limited in scope. If you live within 20 miles of the South Main neighborhood of Houston, this service is open for business, according to Nissan's press release. That covers a decent chunk of the greater Houston area, but certainly not all of it.

There are two tiers to choose from if you do want to subscribe to Nissans. The first tier costs $699/month, and allows access to the Altima, Rogue, Pathfinder and Frontier. Now, we know what you're thinking: $699/month for a Rogue? There's more to it. Nissan covers insurance, roadside assistance, regular maintenance, cleaning and delivery. The best part of the service is that Nissan allows for unlimited switching between vehicles, so you can swap every single day if you so desire. Still, it's not cheap, and all of those vehicles can be leased for much lower monthly rates — you're just on the hook for all the typical costs of ownership. We'll also note the $495 "membership activation" fee that you'll have to pay at the start, adding even more to the cost.

Toyota has more Yaris-based goodness planned for Europe, not the U.S. The Japanese automaker teased its coming B-segment crossover that will start with the Yaris' GA-B platform and add a hair of extra length plus more ride height. The image of the rear corner shows a narrow taillight in bodywork with overtones of the larger, C-segment C-HR crossover. Planned for debut at next month's Geneva Motor Show, all the carmaker would give away with the teaser was that that the new offering "combines elevated ground clearance with intelligent all-wheel drive" and will feature "Toyota's latest hybrid technology." Toyota's European EVP Matt Harrison has previously said, however, that the car isn't "just a Yaris with body cladding and raised suspension." 

The C-HR connection isn't an accident. In a previous interview with Auto Express, Harrison explained that the C-HR has been a success in terms of gaining conquest buyers. The C-HR's market is growing in Europe as well as splintering, at the same time the supermini hatch segment that the Yaris lives in "is also growing, pulling customers down from the C-segment." A Yaris-based crossover would give Toyota a challenger for the Ford Puma and Nissan Juke, and give shoppers a less expensive option than the C-HR.

The thrilling Toyota GR Yaris won't be sold in North America but according to Car and Driver, the Japanese marque is cooking up something special for those missing out on the hot hatch.

Polestar is one of the most prolific producers of teasers and their latest one deals with the brand's in-car Human Design Interface developed with Google.

YOKOHAMA — Nissan's new chief executive said on Tuesday he would accept being fired if he fails to turn around Japan's second biggest automaker which is grappling with plunging sales in the aftermath of the scandal surrounding ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Makoto Uchida, who took over the top job in December, put his job on the line at the automaker's shareholders' meeting, where he faced demands ranging from cutting executive pay to offering a bounty to bring Ghosn back to Japan after he fled to Lebanon.

PARK CITY, Utah – Adding all-wheel drive to the 2021 Toyota Avalon is pretty much an instance of "Hey, why not?" The latest-generation Avalon, like its Camry platform-mate, was never meant to have four driven wheels when it launched, but here I am less than two years after driving that supposedly front-drive-only full-size luxury sedan for the first time. What's changed? Well, the easiest answer is that the Camry got all-wheel drive, so hey, why not add it to the Avalon as well? All the engineering done to send power to the Camry's back wheels could just as easily be done to the Avalon, as they share the same TNGA-K platform.

Now, the answer as to why the Camry got all-wheel drive is a bit more in-depth, as we describe in its own first drive. In short, customers and dealers were demanding an all-wheel-drive Camry from nearly the second the new generation launched, and people were continuing to leave sedans for crossovers in part due to all-wheel drive. As a result, Toyota of North America tasked its own Michigan-based engineers to create an all-wheel-drive Camry using components from the TNGA-K SUV models, the RAV4 and Highlander. Oh, and while you're at it, they were told, do an Avalon, too.

PARK CITY, Utah – The next-generation Camry was in the bag, on-sale, and receiving positive reviews. High-fives, team. The new car was wildly improved, having adopted Toyota's new TNGA-K platform that would go on to proliferate throughout the lineup, including the all-wheel-drive RAV4 and Highlander. But the new Camry, like every predecessor since 1991, would be front-wheel drive only. That there is a 2020 Toyota Camry AWD shows that something quickly changed.

All-wheel drive had been considered during the development of the new Camry, but was nixed. One gets the impression it was a decision made in Japan. Then the car launched, and almost immediately a vocal group of North American customers and dealers started asking why all-wheel drive wasn't offered and could it be added. This coincided with a continued mass exodus from family sedans to family compact crossovers, at least in part because of the reassurance all-wheel drive provides (even if a good set of tires should functionally do the trick). Toyota of North America made the decision to quickly change course, to offer all-wheel drive on the Camry, and put its own engineers in Michigan to work.

To create the 2020 Camry AWD, those engineers needed to rework almost the entire floor pan to accommodate a prop shaft and rear axle. The only engine paired with all-wheel drive would be the 2.5-liter four-cylinder, which in this application produces 202 horsepower and 182 pound-feet of torque (205 hp and 185 lb-ft in the XSE trim). Besides it being the sole gas-only engine offered by its AWD donor, the RAV4, only 6% of Camrys sold pack the optional V6. On paper, that 2.5-liter would seem to be the same in the Camry and RAV4, but they are in fact different in tiny ways, and it's the RAV4 unit that finds itself in the Camry AWD. The minuscule output difference between the standard Camry (203 hp and 184 lb-ft in all trims but its own XSE) and the Camry AWD is actually the result of a slight restriction in the exhaust caused by the need to package extra hardware at the rear.

The engine is joined by the RAV's eight-speed automatic transmission, which possesses the required output for the prop shaft needed to power the rear wheels. That piece of hardware actually comes from the Highlander, but the rear axle and multi-link rear suspension are modified from the RAV4. To accommodate all of the above, an electronic parking brake was fitted and a new gas tank was created in a saddle design that arches over the prop shaft. To ensure there was enough room for the new tank, engineers turned to the Camry Hybrid's back seat, which is 10 mm higher to accommodate its battery pack. Trunk space remains the same.

The Nissan Navara is getting a refreshed N-Guard variant in Europe adding new premium features to the pickup truck's range-topping trim.

As of this year, Toyota will have yet another small SUV in its lineup which will slot under the C-HR and will share underpinnings with the new Yaris.