Autos

As a former owner of a Mini Cooper S hatchback, I know how much fun these little cars can be and now there are even more choices for those looking for a small European car that emphasises fun; the 2012 Mini Cooper Coupe.  The first thing you’ll notice is the absence of the boxy shape and in its place you’ll find a somewhat sporty looking body; you’ll also notice the back seats are no more.  The back seats were pretty cramped on the hatchback but they did come in handy for those emergency situations.

The styling of the new car is unmistakeably Mini, which in this case, is not a good thing.  It looks like BMW engineers cut the top off the Cooper and went through the parts bin and found some leftover pieces of metal and glass and welded them to the top.  The Mini Cooper Coupe looks like something you’d see a guy build in his back yard.  I find it to be extremely ugly and stupid (Jeremy Clarkson voice).  The styling of the car reminds of the “bowl cut” hair-style from the 90’s (picture on the right, just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about).

BMW recently ventured into the hybrid market with the ActiveHybrid X6, which was a major failure and will soon be retired.  They’re giving it a second go with the ActiveHybrid 5 Series sedan which will be available in March 2012.

The ActiveHybrid 5 sedan is based on the 535i and features the 300 horsepower 3.0 liter TwinPower turbocharged in-line 6-cylinder engine from the same model.  The total output on the hybrid version is increased to 335 HP, thanks to the addition of the electric motor, and up to 330 pound-feet of torque which is sent to the rear wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission.

In an effort to save time and money, thousands of China based manufacturers have been cloning products from the rest of the world for decades now. Rarely are the products equal to the original in terms of quality and overall design. The first example I’ll show you is a clone of the Audi A4 known as the YEMA F-16. The F-16 is also used as a taxi and that particular model is dubbed as the E-Tax. The second model is the clone of an Infiniti EX known as the YEMA E-Series. And lastly, the VW Tiguan clone is dubbed as the YEMA T-Series

Lets take a quick look at a few pictures of the Audi A4 Avant and compare them to the YEMA F-16.

We showed you the G37 Black Bison Edition by Wald International last week and this week it’s the Lexus IS-F that will get some attention from us. Although I’m biased towards Infiniti, Lexus is still a fantastic premier luxury brand that I would purchase (if I could afford it of course).

The Lexus IS-F not only looks sexy and fast but there is a beastly 5.0 liter V8 sitting under the hood putting out an impressive 418 horsepower and 371 lb-ft of torque. In the stock form, the Lexus IS-F is very aggressive looking but the folks over at Wald International don’t agree. That’s why they have created the Premier Sports Line Edition package for the Lexus IS-F.

Last year I spent three days test driving and beating the hell out of the powerful Jaguar XFR sports sedan, I really enjoyed my time with the car.  One of the things I really like about the XF is its styling, it looks very different from the average European/Japanese sports sedan.  So when I heard Jaguar was making an XF station wagon, I was worried they’d ruin the design but I’m happy to report the XF Sportbrake looks pretty good.

Take a few moments to peruse the finer details of this publicity photo taken at the 1969 Detroit Auto Show. Should you presume that only lady car show models were seen in wide legged plaid pants in this era – consider yourself  wrong. I personally had a few pair of these high styling pants, and, while I could consider my plaid pants days a good memory or a bad one, it’s a fact that I was captured in my high school graduation photos wearing pants similar to these. Yikes!

Now let’s look past the fashion and hair-dos to concentrate on the introduction of a 1969 Ford concept vehicle dubbed “The Scrambler”. I’m not sure that I would call this a ‘pickup’ truck as the Ford sign does, since it’s really more of an adaptation of a two door station wagon. Auto style and function was changing,