After successfully leading the charge to develop and market a mainstream hybrid vehicle with its iconic Prius, Toyota is now looking 2013 Toyota FCV Concept (Photo: Toyota) to secure the lead in the race…

Toyota shows hydrogen fuel cell powered FCV Concept at CES

After successfully leading the charge to develop and market a mainstream hybrid vehicle with its iconic Prius, Toyota is now looking to secure the lead in the race to develop a successful mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.

The Toyota FCV was first unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show in November and is now making its North American debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It will then make an appearance at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit where it will be joined by some competition in the form of hydrogen-powered concept vehicles from Honda and Hyundai.

At the FCV's Las Vegas unveiling two models were on display, a Radiant Blue four-door FCV Concept and a camouflaged engineering prototype. Toyota has been extensively road-testing the prototype over the past year, including cold testing in Yellowknife and heat testing in Death Valley. The vehicle has a much smaller and more powerful fuel cell than Toyota's first prototype, which was Read Full Story
If there was ever a question as to whether Mazda is trying to bridge the gap between mainstream and premium the new 2014 Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press 3 is the answer. In some ways it even…

2014 Mazda3 Sport GT Road Test Review

If there was ever a question as to whether Mazda is trying to bridge the gap between mainstream and premium the new 2014 3 is the answer. In some ways it even bests German luxury brands and in most cases it squarely beats its similarly priced competition.

The upscale treatment is best experienced in the 2014 Mazda3 Sport GT, top of the line in the go-fast Japanese company's compact arsenal. Yes, there's no Mazdaspeed3 this year, our fingers collectively crossed for the return of the tire-shredding beast along with (hopefully) some of the refinements of this new naturally aspirated regular 3 included. These refinements boast a higher quality full soft-touch dash-top plus soft-touch front door uppers, much better electronics including a BMW iDrive-like lower console-mounted rotary controller that Mazda calls HMI (Human Machine Interface) Commander Switch and BMW-like fixed colour screen protruding up from the centre dash-top, plus a heads-up display unit in front of the driver, Read Full Story
Led by the Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius Plug-in, and with as many as 16 offerings in total to choose from, plug-based cars 2014 Tesla Model S (Photo: Tesla) recorded a major sales surge in 2013, jumping…

Plug-in electric car sales grow in 2013

Led by the Chevrolet Volt and Toyota Prius Plug-in, and with as many as 16 offerings in total to choose from, plug-based cars recorded a major sales surge in 2013, jumping by 84 percent in the US to almost 100,000 units total. While the Volt and Prius Plug-in led in volume, the Tesla and Nissan Leaf posted the biggest year-over-year gains, selling 18,800 and 22,610 vehicles respectively in the US last year - a gain of 130 percent for the Leaf. Conventional hybrids also saw a modest 15 percent increase in sales, reaching an all-time record of just under half a million vehicles sold. To put things in perspective these are still relatively modest numbers, with all battery-based vehicles together representing less than four percent of the total US new vehicle market. That's less market share than the Ford F-Series truck holds on its own. But the numbers show a growing acceptance of plug-in and hybrid vehicles by the motoring public, indicating that these vehicles are here to stay. The numbers Read Full Story
What to do, what to do? I have so many errands requiring the roominess of a van that a week simply won’t do. The question Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press shouldn’t be what to do,…

2014 Toyota Sienna XLE Limited Road Test Review

What to do, what to do? I have so many errands requiring the roominess of a van that a week simply won't do. The question shouldn't be what to do, but rather what to do first?

Haul a load to the dump and another one to the recycling centre. Take some more summer/fall stuff to my storage locker and pick up winter clothes and the family ski gear (if the snow ever comes). Swap the kids loft bed and the foldout sofa underneath for a new bunk bed, plus pick up a new twin mattress. Buy another shoe cabinet and some other furniture from Ikea. Go get the almost-new used stove and overhead fan/microwave from a Craigslist ad and dump the old one off at the dump. Pick up the new bathroom vanity. The list goes on and on, and then this coming weekend it'll be loaded up with significant other, kids and luggage for a five-hour road trip to visit my brother and his family.

It's easy to appreciate how the minivan becomes an essential part of some families' lives. It's a vehicle that's Read Full Story
Back in December Kia teased us with an overhead silhouette of a 2+2 sports coupe concept car it would be debuting at the upcoming   North American International Auto Show in Detroit. But the image…

Kia teases GT4 Stinger Concept ahead of Detroit

Back in December Kia teased us with an overhead silhouette of a 2+2 sports coupe concept car it would be debuting at the upcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit. But the image and seating configuration was about all that the Korean automaker revealed, telling us only that the concept was created at Kia's U.S. design studio in Irvine, California and is "intended to turn heads while delivering superb driving enjoyment on both road and track."

Now with only days to go before the press portion of the Detroit show opens, the automaker has released a second teaser image and some more detailed information about the concept. There's still not enough information to paint a complete picture of the car, but it's sure to be music to the ears of automotive enthusiasts.

The car is called the GT4 Stinger Concept, and Kia has confirmed that it will indeed be a rear-wheel drive coupe, with power coming from a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder churning out an impressive Read Full Story
No one will mistake the 2014 BMW X5 for anything else, as the changes are purely evolutionary. The grille is a bigger and bolder Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press version of BMW’s classic…

2014 BMW X5 xDrive35i Road Test Review

No one will mistake the 2014 BMW X5 for anything else, as the changes are purely evolutionary. The grille is a bigger and bolder version of BMW's classic twin-kidney design, headlight treatment now inspired by the new 3 Series, and revised taillights larger iterations of other LED-enhanced lenses already available in the ever-expanding BMW lineup. Those who liked the outgoing X5 and BMW's new design direction should really like what they see in the 2014 model. I happen to love it.

A car, or crossover sport utility in this case (or sport activity vehicle in BMW-speak), is always much more than the sum of its parts. It's one thing to say the grille is bigger and bolder and contemplate how its 3 Series-inspired headlamps bookend those chrome-enhanced kidneys, or for that matter how its new chiseled LED tail lamps pull cues from its predecessor as well as various other more current BMW products, but take a walk around the vehicle from 10 metres away and it's easy to see how harmoniously Read Full Story
For Canadian motorists – and U.S. motorists north of the Sunbelt – winter means slogging your way through endless rain, snow, The next-generation McLaren P1 might not need windshield wipers…

McLaren developing wiperless windshield

For Canadian motorists - and U.S. motorists north of the Sunbelt - winter means slogging your way through endless rain, snow, slush, sleet, and road spray. It gives your wipers a non-stop workout, and often leaves you staring through a smeared, streaked windshield.

But if McLaren and other manufacturers have their way, those days may be coming to an end. No, automotive manufacturers aren't about to eliminate winter, but they are working on ways to eliminate the windshield wiper.

Mercedes-Benz has already taken one small step, eliminating the windshield spray jets on its SL sports car and integrating the windshield fluid delivery system directly in to the wiper instead. The German company calls the technology its Magic Vision Control System.

McLaren hopes to go a step further and borrow military technology to do away with the wiper altogether, using ultrasonic sound instead to create a type of ultrasonic force field that prevents anything from sticking to the Read Full Story
Just Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press what is Ford up to? Didn’t they get the memo? Offering multiple performance models under a single brand is abnormal behaviour! Not that I’m…

2014 Ford Fiesta ST Road Test Review

Just what is Ford up to? Didn't they get the memo? Offering multiple performance models under a single brand is abnormal behaviour!

Not that I'm complaining. The company behind the legendary Mustang muscle car, import sport sedan-beating Taurus SHO, and fabulous F-150 SVT Raptor sport truck, not to mention a lineup of performance-tuned Ecoboost-powered crossovers, the same blue oval team that recently shook up the compact segment with the shockingly good Focus ST, is now doing the same in the subcompact class with the brilliant little Fiesta ST.

If you don't love this little rocket you're not a car enthusiast, or at least not a performance car enthusiast. But even if you've grown fond of environmentally friendly electrics and hybrids, a large portion of which are produced by Ford, a performance car powered by an energy-conscious 1.6-litre four-cylinder that uses high-tech direct injection and turbocharging to make a heady 197 horsepower and 202 lb-ft of torque is a Read Full Story