Alfa has impressed us wildly with their 8C Competizione supercar and now all enthusiasts’ eyes are on the MiTo, a name just confirmed to us by our contacts deep inside the Turin offices. The Mini and future Audi A1 (and next Volkswagen Polo sharing with the A1) ought to watch their backs for this speeding and stunning little Italian. Alfa is making it no secret that the priorities for the MiTo are to get uttered in the same breath with Mini as a B-segment leader worldwide, and then to spoil the launch party later this year for the A1/Polo.
Sources also confirm to us that development on the MiTo has been maniacally painstaking in order to arrive in exactly the form Alfa would like in order to make the biggest impact right away. The key words in Turin have been comfort, performance, and sophistication. That means being seen as premium and image-conscious with the hippest car-buying crowd.
(Click through to read more about the Alfa MiTo and see another illustration.)
While Mazda recently rolled out a facelifted version of the current Axela/Mazda 3 in Japan, the car is going on five years since its debut and a new model is on the horizon.
Japan’s The My Car magazine has put together a rendering of the upcoming next-generation Axela/Mazda 3. Not surprisingly, the rendering includes a lot of styling features borrowed from both the new Mazda 6/Atenza and the popular Mazda 2/Demio compact car.
Engines for the new Axela in Japan are expected to range from a base 1.5-liter four cylinder to a 2.5-liter four cylinder borrowed from the Atenza/6. Like the current car, both a four-door sedan and five-door hatchback are likely to be offered. Rumors have the redesigned model being shown in Paris this fall and it may be on sale in the spring of 2009.
Honda is planning to bring a concept version of its upcoming small hybrid offering to the Paris Motor Show this year, and the car is said to be a “clear picture” of the production version to come.
Honda has grand plans for its new hybrid, hoping that building the car from the ground up instead of retrofitting current models with hybrid drivetrains, will make the car better packaged, more efficient, and cheaper than its predecessors. Honda would like to make hybrids a significant portion of its future lineup, wishing to see the models account for 10 percent of passenger car output by 2010.
If you’ve got an idea for Question of the Day, a funny photo for Caption It, or just want to share a news tip, let us know at windingroadtips@gmail.com
A print-only report in our just-arrived January 18, 2008 issue of Autocar declares the revised Nissan 350Z will appear at the Paris Motor Show this fall, but the car will be powered by the 3.7-liter engine found in the Infiniti G37 and thus become a 370Z. This news isn’t terribly shocking since the G and the Z share a platform and have historically run the same displacement engine. Such a move is good news for fans of the two-seat, more affordable cousin to the G.
We’ll be on the floor in Paris to bring you all the news, but that’s not until October. Meanwhile, enjoy the gratuitous gallery of Nissan 350Z images below.
The drop-top version of the Lexus LF-A has peeked out from hiding a little bit early this morning in Detroit, and has started to make its sexy way across the Internet. Details on the car are sketchy for now, but there are loads of images available for your perusal.
The LF-A roadster has been created using generous quantities of both carbon fiber and aluminum, both said to provide the rigidity that the high-performance Lexus driver has come to expect. (Click on the thumbnails below to launch a gallery of LF-A images or on the jump to read on.)
BMW Boss Norbert Reithofer let the world know that Mini is planning to produce a small SAV in the near future during his address to the BMW board earlier this year. Now we have some spy shots, courtesy of Hans G. Lehmann/ Hidden Image, of the upcoming tall Mini.
Spotted in the streets of Munich, this Monte mule is Clubman based, but it offers the option of all-wheel drive and it will be a five-door. Expect the production version to debut at the Paris Motor Show next year.
(Click through to read our spy’s words on this upcoming Mini.)
The quick-with-a-camera folks over at CAR managed to grab a teaser shot of a new Renault concept car that’s set to debut at September’s Frankfurt show.
The snapshot of the coupe was captured at the launch of Renault’s new Laguna two-door, but according to the UK publication, the show car presages a production coupe that will launch at next year’s Paris Motor Show.
While not much is visible from CAR’s image, it does appear that the fastback coupe will draw heavily on Renault’s Fluence concept (shown above) that debuted at England’s Louis Vuitton Classic Concours d’Elegance back in 2004. The handsome (and oh-so-French) coupe was a luxury four-seater, though there’s no word on whether the production car will follow suit. (Click on the link below to view the teaser shot and more details)
+ CAR: Renault Laguna Coupé
Despite huge amounts of publicity generated by last year’s Paris Motor Show IROC showcar, Volkswagen doesn’t plan to sell a production Scirocco in North America. In fact, trade publication Automotive News goes so far as to quote VW’s executive VP in America, Adrian Hallmark, as saying “We don’t want it.”
As the story goes, VW fears that selling the model in the U.S. would be too difficult, because it believes that doing so would risk cannibalizing GTI sales. The GTI (and its ilk) have a tough enough row to hoe given American buyers’ historic distaste for hatchbacks, and the German automaker doesn’t want to confuse matters even further. Of course, this didn’t stop them from importing the current Rabbit, GTI, or Audi A3 for that matter… but we digress.
Our take? If the production car looks similar to the IROC concept, then VW is indeed probably better off not trying to shift this car in the States. However, if the car is more in line with the Scirocco of yore (a racier hatchback, or even a dedicated two-seater), we could see the model working. Of course, last we heard, the car’s design direction was in doubt, so who we’re not even all that sure what the end result will look like.
Us? We’ll just have to slake any VW coupe joneses with a nice, used Corrado VR6 instead.
This year’s Louis Vuitton Classic Awards have just been handed out, to a 1961 Scaglietti-bodied Ferrari 250 GT California Spider and Citroen’s outrageous C-Métisse concept from the Paris Motor Show.
The LVC Awards survey vehicles shown at some of the world’s most prestigious concours events (think Amelia Island, Meadow Brook, Pebble Beach, and the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa dEste), and was voted upon by various luminaries in the automotive design community.
(Click through to the jump for the official LV press release)
Boy, is this a big deal story for Saturn as a company, for its dealers, for the Saturn faithful (and future faithful), and for people wanting quality for their cash outlay in general. What you’re looking at is the 2007.5 Opel Astra three-door and five-door models, and both of these versions will be available, with very little change from what you see here, by August of 2007 in the USA and Canada.
Show to the world this past Tuesday, December 5th, at the Bologna Motor Show in Italy, the introduction to North America of this freshened Astra – GM Europe’s real bread-and-butter all-star and the number two selling compact range of cars in Western Europe – continues the Opels-into-Saturns-into-Opels deal begun earlier this year with the Saturn Sky (Opel GT), the Vue (Opel Antara), and Aura (Opel Vectra). But the Astra takes it to a whole new level of commitment given the car’s very importance to the GM Europe portfolio. Granted, the humble goal for Astra sales in North America over the first twelve-month period, according to GM Europe chairman Carl-Peter Forster, is “anywhere between 10,000 and 20,000. But,” he quickly adds, “…we’re confident of delivering over that.” Western Europe has absorbed 1.2 million of this new generation Astra since it went on sale in March of 2004, and the car has been praised to high Heaven in the EU motoring press.
In word that should surprise exactly no one, DaimlerChrysler will produce a version of its Dodge Avenger concept from this year’s Paris Motor Show. The car is likely to be built on the same platform as the new Chrysler Sebring, and given DCX’s enviable track-record of translating the design spirit of its concepts into production vehicles, it should look very similar to the French show car. Look for the Sterling Heights, Michigan-assembled Avenger in showrooms before the winter’s out. Currently, Dodge dealerships make do with the mid-size Stratus, an elderly model that does much of its trade through fleet sales.
According to an internal memo to its dealer networks, the automaker will also begin building its next-generation minivans on September 1, 2007.
Maybe we had a serious case of jet lag, but we’re still in the process of unpacking uploading some misc. stuff from the Paris Motor Show. But rather than let it go to waste, we’ve compiled a couple of additional video clips, including this one of the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 Versace unveiled at the show.
Cadillac CTS-V Laps Nurburgring in Sedan Record 7:59:32
Opel Insignia Hatchback Spied Undisguised 
The Rise of Hyundai: From Mitsubishi Borrower to Possible M-B Supplier
First Look At Possible New MG TF
So Long Super Aguri: Financial Woes Cause Formula One Team to Call it A Day
