–Overview: Now that the rear-drive FR-S has had its brief moment, the tC coupe resumes the role of bestselling Scion, a position it has occupied for most of the brand’s 11-model-year life. An affordable two-door hatchback coupe sits squarely on-target for this youth-oriented brand that Toyota still refers to as its “test laboratory division.” (Its latest lab experiment is to let Mazda build Scion’s first sedan.) The tC was last
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– Toyota is adding 1.37 million vehicles to the Takata airbag recalls after reports from the Japanese airbag supplier showed the Corolla as one of the highest at-risk vehicles for shrapnel-shooting inflators. – Faulty passenger airbags were installed in more specific vehicles than Toyota had previously known, according to the company. The cars in this latest roundup, other examples of which were included in previous actions, include the 2003–2007 Corolla and Matrix,
– Volvo had no problems selling out the 750-unit global run of high-performance S60 and V60 Polestar models it produced for 2015, and the company recently confirmed it is offering up a second, equally sized batch of the tuned sedans and wagons for 2016. At that point, though, Volvo hadn’t yet worked out how many of those 750 2016 S60 and V60 Polestars were destined for the U.S. Consider that mystery now solved.– – – –
-The era of uncertainty is over: The BBC has just announced that Chris Evans will head up an all-new group of Top Gear hosts. – Evans, a hugely famous British TV and radio host, is the first confirmed replacement for the departed Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. Evans has signed a three-year deal as the lead host of the show, according to TopGear.com. – The newly named host
– Carroll Shelby may have decamped to that big racetrack/chili cookoff in the sky, but the company he left behind continues his good work modifying Ford Mustangs. The latest example is the just-announced 2015 Shelby Super Snake, which promises as much as “750-plus” horsepower. – Last offered in 2011, when it was based on the GT500, the new Super Snake takes as its starting point the 2015 Ford Mustang GT,
–Overview: Introduced in 2007, updated in 2010 and again for 2013, the Mazda CX-9 remains one of the few three-row crossovers we actually find fun to drive. Even Mazda calls the CX-9 “the elder statesman” of its lineup, and it shows its age enough that its replacement is expected to appear at the Los Angeles auto show this fall. Although too old to reflect Mazda’s latest Skyactiv approach, the CX-9
-Jaguar Land Rover is showing off a prototype Range Rover Sport that can be remote-controlled via smartphone. Your James Bond fantasies are one step closer to reality. – The experimental prototype Remote Control Range Rover Sport does exactly what the name implies: Via a smartphone app, the driver can pilot the vehicle from a short distance away, controlling steering, accelerator and brake, gear shift position, and selection of high or
– Honda is adding 1.04 million more airbag inflators as part of the ever-expanding Takata airbag recall. – The company said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, after reviewing Takata’s revised estimate of 34 million defective inflators, told Honda to increase its earlier May recall expansion of 350,000 cars. The new recall is for passenger-side airbags on 2003–2007 Accord and 2001–2005 Civic models—two vehicles with the highest defect rates uncovered in
-For 2016, the Jaguar XJ gets its first thorough makeover since 2010. And you’ll have to squint extra hard to spot the changes. Or, if we’re being honest, any XJ on the road at all. – That the current XJ doesn’t appear in any way outdated after six model years is testament to two things: Ian Callum deserves his big salary, and XJs—and indeed, all Jaguars—sell in very limited quantities. Be it