We’ve begged for Ford to begin selling some of its perceived-to-be excellent international wares in the U.S. and today we’ve learned our wait is over. Motor Trend is reporting that the next generation Ford Fiesta will be sold in the U.S. by late 2008, about a year after it’s introduced in Europe. The new Ford Fiesta is based on the same platform as the Mazda2 that was officially introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in March. We lamented at the time neither the Mazda or its Ford counterpart would ever be sold on U.S. shores, but apparently Ford had decided before the Geneva show that the Fiesta would be bound for the U.S. Continue reading Next-gen Ford Fiesta will arrive in U.S. by late 2009
Categories:Ford
At the Detroit Auto Show in January, Lexus showed a re-styled version of the LF-A concept that originally appeared on the show circuit in 2005 and has turned up periodically running around the Nurburgring in Germany. Until now, the LF-A has been powered by a 500hp 5.0L V-10 driving the rear wheels. At the same show, Toyota also showed a sports car concept called FT-HS that had a hybrid drivetrain. 
The Nissan Skyline’s 50th Anniversary exhibit opened Tuesday, April 24th at Tokyo Midtown, and that means that the new Skyline Coupe (a.k.a. Infiniti G37 here in the States) has made its first official appearance. The exhibit in Tokyo features examples from each generation of the Skyline, and the opening event was attended by luminaries including Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe. 
Toyota just announced that Kenji Fukuta will be replacing Hidehiko “TJ” Tajima as president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, Inc. (TMMTX) come May 1, 2007. Despite the misleading headline, Toyota does not have the authorization to name a new Texas president. In fact, we’re not sure who does. 
It looks like the dual-clutch preselector transmission is emerging as the leader in automated manuals. Volkswagen’s DSG has been around a while and offers fewer compromises than less purpose-built manuals. Ford’s champing at the bit to get their own trick DSG-like transmission into production, and it looks like we’ll see such a unit drop soon with the PowerShift moniker. Gearbox maker Getrag has several different variations on the theme, and word is they’ll start off in PAG brand like Volvo first and then trickle down to other Fords as a premium option. Volvo is a logical entry point, as the marque’s S40 T5 can be mentioned in the same breath as the A3 without the entire room snickering.