Nother CarGuy

Toyota has officially lost its title of the world’s biggest automaker to  Volkswagen  following the release of its 2016 sales figures. Last year, the Japanese company sold a total of 10.175 million vehicles worldwide compared to the 10.31 million sales recorded by Volkswagen. This comes despite the fact that Toyota’s sales increased by 0.2 per cent last year across its Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino Motors brands. The impressive sales of  Volkswagen  are also particularly surprising considering the brand’s ongoing issues related to the dieselgate scandal. Fortunately for the brand, surging sales in China helped to offset any struggles in America and Europe. Toyota  was the largest carmaker by sales every year since 2012 and first took the crown from General Motors in 2008.

By inaugurating a  new car production facility , the Volkswagen brand has officially returned to Kenya, where it used to assemble the Beetle in the 1960s.  The plant is located in Thika, near the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, and it represents the company's third manufacturing facility in Africa, joining the ones in  South Africa  and Nigeria.  " After over 60 years of Volkswagen vehicle production in South and North Africa, I am delighted to now have a further site in Kenya. We will systematically continue to develop our position in the fast-growing African car market ", commented VW brand's CEO, Herbert Diess.  Present at the opening festivity, the country's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said: " A few months ago, this was only a dream. Now, Volkswagen's investment in Kenya has become reality. This is further proof of my government's determination to strengthen the production location of Nairobi, and to forge ahead with the industrialization of the ...

The Chevrolet Malibu is proving more popular than ever before, selling the best it ever has since being reintroduced in 1996. In the first 11 months of the year, more Malibus have been sold than any year prior, allowing the mid-size sedan to become the highest selling car for General Motors, displacing the budget Chevrolet Cruze. GM has tried for many years to perfect the Malibu and introduced a redesigned model in 2007 with high hopes. However, after the financial crises, it proved unsuccessful and even the 2012 Malibu failed to deliver. But in 2015, a  totally new generation  was released with an edgy design and advanced technologies and it seems to have done the trick. Last month, sales of the Chevrolet Malibu topped the Ford Fusion but are still someway shy of rivalling those of the Honda Accord and  Toyota Camry , reports  Automotive News . According to director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, Jake Fisher, “It's a serious competitor, there's no question....

IndyCar is considering adopting an F1-style windscreen or cockpit deflector to protect drivers says the  series’  vice president of competition and race engineering, Bill Pappas. While speaking at the Performance Racing Industry show in Indianapolis, Pappas said “Some sort of windscreen is currently the one we’re researching the most. We think if we can get something that gets the driver’s head below whatever we have in front of them – a windscreen – that should act as a deflector. “If you think about  Justin  [Wilson]’s accident, it was such a one-in-a-how-many-millions chance, but then you look back at Felipe Massa’s accident [in practice for the 2009 Hungarian GP], if he would have had some sort of screen in front of him, it probably would have deflected the spring. So, we’re looking at that as a more likely solution.” Further detailing possible solutions IndyCar could adopt, Pappas said that it is looking at the high-strength cockpits used by jet fighters and ...

The Dunsfold Aerodrome, better known as the  Top Gear Test Track  to us car enthusiasts, is set to be transformed into a housing and business development. The  BBC  reports that the Waverley Borough Council approved the plans on Wednesday and will see the closure of all the runways and up to 1,800 homes built. Additionally, the existing Dunsfold Business Park which already houses over 100 businesses will be expanded to create many additional jobs. If the Dunsfold Aerodrome was any regular unused airport, not much may have been made of this decision for car fans. However, it throws a spanner into the works at Top Gear HQ who have been using the facility since the show was relaunched by Jeremy  Clarkson  and Andy Wilman in 2002. Ever since , and even after the original hosts spectacularly left, the Dunsfold Aerodrome has been used to test the world’s leading performance cars, providing one of the rare places for cars to be tested with the same driver in th...

The 2018 BMW 530e iPerformance plug-in hybrid is the company's latest attempt to spread the electrification message around to some of its most popular models. BMW has  released more details  for the 2018 530e iPerformance plug-in hybrid, the link that adds electrification now to its core sedan lineup, following the  330e iPerformance  and the  740e iPerformance . It's the latest iteration of the  G30 generation of 5-series  that was announced in October.  BMW says the 530e is notable because it's the first time they're offering an iPerformance plug-in variant with either rear-wheel drive or optional xDrive all-wheel drive. Currently the 330e comes only in rear-drive and the 740e only with xDrive. It seems BMW would love to sell more plug-in hybrids in snowier climates. As in the 330e, the 530e gets a 2.0-liter turbo four and electric motor pairing for a total of 248 combined horsepower and 310 lb.-ft. of torque, according to estimated BMW figur...

Electric automaker startup  Lucid Motors  has just taken the covers off its very first model, dubbed the Air. Teased on multiple occasions in recent months, the Lucid Air will  directly target  top-of-the-range Tesla Model S versions and a number of ICE executive sedans. Priced from around $160,000 in the U.S., it doesn't come cheap but does promise a lot. For starters, the Lucid Air is powered by two electric motors, one driving the front wheels and one powering the rear, making for a grand total of 1,000 hp. Customers then have the option between a 100 kWh or 130 kWh battery pack, the latter of which provides a range of up to  400 miles  on a single charge. Like the Model S P100D, the Air's dual electric motors make it exceptionally quick in a fast line. As a matter of fact, the company claims it will sprint from a standstill to 60 mph (96 km/h) in a mere 2.5 seconds, identical to the P100D.  Although the Air has yet to be revealed in production-g...

Ferrari have managed to keep  their latest project  a secret, up until its official presentation held at the National Art Center in Tokyo. Built to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ferrari in Japan, the  supercar , which will be produced in just 10 examples, is based on the 488 Spider and was created by the Special Projects department and  Ferrari Styling Center  team in Maranello.  It  "marks a return to the targa body style evocative of several well-loved Ferrari road cars of the 1970s and 1980s ", as the automaker explains, meaning that unlike the  488 Spider , which uses a folding metal roof, the J50 has a pair of carbon fiber targa panels that stow behind the rear seats.  Additionally , Ferrari has went for the 1950s look with a "helmet visor" effect, which sees the sleek windscreen wrap around the cabin.  But these aren’t the only differences between the  two exotic vehicles , as the latest Prancing Horse has also adop...