It means Australia’s own has won the only truly national newspaper Car of the Year contest. Motoring editors and key writers from News Limited newspapers throughout Australia have extensively researched, tested and judged all cars released this year to determine the proud winner. The extensive list was culled to 10 finalists. These were recently tested on all manner of road conditions, including Goulburn’s Wakefield Park raceway, to determine their final finishing order. Continue reading CARSguide Car Of The Year Winner 2006
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While everyone was lining up in orderly rows to watch the official unveiling of the Sentra SE-R and Altima coupe at Nissan’s LA press conference, we snapped a few pics of a pre-production model of the 2007 350Z. Although the exterior has gotten a few subtle tweaks that only those of us in the Z-car enthusiast camp would notice, they deserve a brief mention. While the headlamps and taillights have been revised with new housings, the most striking change was the addition of a power dome that eschews the two creases that formerly flanked both sides hood. 
Car companies and electronic manufacturers are always conspiring to come up with new high-tech gimmicks for our cars. Almost invariably, they either distract the driver from driving or else help him keep his eyes on the road. Champions of road safety (and cool flashing lights) that we are, of course we prefer the latter. With more cars on the road each passing day – and average driver skill not improving one bit – staying on the road is enough of a challenge without toying with an unintelligible driver interface (iDrive, we’re looking at you), being distracted by in-dash DVD players or looking for directions from a sat-nav screen. 
The Accord is Honda’s best-selling vehicle. Last month it outsold the Civic (22,488 vs. 20,143 units) and to date this year 324,555 units have been sold. The Accord and Accord Coupe are Honda’s bread-and-butter cars, so it is with great interest that we view the sketch above, which is the Honda Accord Coupe Concept that will be unveiled at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in early January. 
Volkswagen’s “Cross” lineup continues to expand. First, there was the CrossPolo. Next came the CrossGolf. In Mexico, you can even snag yourself a CrossFox. Now, European families can get in on the action with the similarly butched-up CrossTouran. Based on the newly redesigned Touran, the CrossTouran adopts the soft-roader looks of its siblings, but remains a regular MPV underneath it all. 
Pontiac will continue it’s GT class racing efforts with the new GXP.R, a car that replaces the successful GTO.R (pictured). The GXP.R is being tested today for the very first time in Florida. Pontiac is looking to rack up wins, so it’s decided to continue its development partnership with Pratt & Miller Engineering who spent most of last season working on the new car. The GXP.R, photos of which GM has yet to release, is set to bow at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona carrying primary sponsorship from Leighton Reese’s Banner Engineering. 
Toyota has announced that the 2007 Tundra CrewMax (read: four-door model) will be unveiled at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in early January. But why wait until Autoblog arrives in Detroit next month to see the big behemoth, we have a blurry cameraphone pic of the CrewMax for you now. The photo was found by Autoblog reader Terry D. on SnoWest.com, a snow mobile forum of all places. 
The roster for the 2007 Formula One season has been released by F1’s international governing body, the FIA (Federation International d’Automobile). Most of the information was already known, but even after it’s all been confirmed, there remain a host of question marks. Tobacco sponsorship is on its way out, and Honda has yet to name a replacement for its outgoing title sponsor Lucky Strike. Honda’s kid-sister team Super Aguri has also listed a “TBA” along with their official title of “Super Aguri F1 Team”, indicating they’re still searching for a title sponsor as well. 
Although several months old now, the Ferrari Classiche program had one of its big coming out parties at the LA Auto Show last week. A beautiful 275 GTB sat at the back of the Ferrari booth, glowing as brightly as the modern 599 GTB grand touring cars out in front. One of the first Classiche cars, it was sporting a wholly new engine under that elegant bonnet. Similar to what Mercedes does at the Classic Car Center in Irvine, CA, Ferrari offers Classiche customers the chance to have their classic or vintage vehicle restored using factory blueprints, parts, molds and technicians to guarantee its authenticity. 
With its four siblings getting a 5-star crash rating, and perfect scores for the past two years, we imagine there were few of you worrying about the safety of the new CR-V from Honda. The NHTSA awarded the little sport ute 5 stars across the board on crash ratings and gave it a little smiley-face sticker too. Passengers in the new Honda are surrounded by a full range of standard air bags and held upright by standard stability control. 
Jaguar unveiled a mildly tweaked 2008 S-Type at the Bologna Motor Show today to what we imagine could only be a reaction of complete indifference. As we reported earlier, the S-Type’s replacement will be called the XF and be a much better car in every way compared to its predecessor, which makes a refreshened S-Type for 2008 a big snore. The changs for 2008 include disseminating the racier S-Type R’s bumper and mesh grille across the entire range, as well as what appear to be smoked lenses for the headlights. 
An anonymous tipper has just informed us that Hertz will be auctioning off a large batch of its very exclusive rental car, the Shelby Mustang GT-H, to Ford dealers from Thursday, December 7th through December 21st. If we understand our source correctly, six auctions will occur around the country beginning in Manheim, PA, then moving to Hayward, CA; Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Fontanca, CA; and finally back to Manheim, PA. 113 models of the Shelby GT-H, all used as rental cars, will be auctioned off in total, with each auction getting 15 – 20 units to sell.