Rumormill

Rainer Michel, Vice President of Product Marketing & Strategy at Volkswagen of America, stopped by the AOL offices today for a chat about what VW has on tap for the 2013 model year. While much of what he had to say was either minor reshuffling of features or stuff we already knew – like ...

Wagon fever long ago caught on in Europe, but the fervor may be set to reach new heights. Porsche and McLaren are reportedly working on new long-roof versions of their Panamera and MP4-12C models, both evidently inspired by the new Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake. Autobild reports Porsche may ...

If you were hoping Mini might be bringing out a John Cooper Works GP version of its new Coupe hatchback bodystyle, we're sorry to disappoint you, but the Mini-obsessed folks at MotoringFile says it's not going to happen. Despite having gotten far enough into development that our spy shooters were ...

If you're looking for a phrase to capture the excitement of a new flagship sedan, "patent filing" is probably not it. Then again, the 2014 Acura RLX is the replacement for the Acura RL, the least interesting luxury sedan extant. (And yes, we're including Lincoln in that assessment.) Car and ...

Head overseas and you may run into a Chrysler 300 wearing a distinctly foreign badge: that of Lancia. The awkward stepchild of the Fiat group rebadges Chrysler vehicles as their own and gives them nameplates from their own back-catalog. Lancia calls its rebadged 300 the Thema, but aside from the ...

The Audi Q2 may soon be the smallest member of Audi's Q family, and a report in Autocar indicates that the company is taking no risks with its feature set. Charged with taking on the Mini Countryman and Nisssan Juke, Audi is giving the Q2 the kinds of looks and options it believes will stand up ...

Could General Motors be planning to dust off another moniker from its heyday and reintroduce a Buick Electra? The General filed an application to protect the trademark on June 5, which might hint at a future, full-size Buick model. Once Buick's top-of-the-line sedan, the Electra did the same ...

We've heard that Volkswagen will be turning up the wick on the next-generation GTI, and this newest report is certainly fanning those flames. Autocar now says the 2.0-liter turbo four in Volkswagen's next hot hatch will make all of 260 horsepower, but perhaps more importantly, the front ...

While we wait patiently for the fall launch of the 2013 Ford Focus ST – and for Ford to decide whether the U.S. market is worthy of the three-door Fiesta ST – our English-speaking friends overseas are consumed with other worries. Like whether the next Focus RS will, in fact, be a ...

There is no way to overstate how crucial the new Accord launch is to Honda's future. After some recent missteps, from the launch of the dowdy and unloved Crosstour to the yawn-inducing 2012 Civic, and with new competition mounting from Ford, Hyundai and Kia, Honda clearly needs a winner in its ...

Add another one to the endangered list. The number of traditional body-on-frame SUVs has been dwindling as manufacturers replace them with crossovers, which is the direction the Lexus GX 460 is heading. According to Ward's Auto, the GX will likely be supplanted by a unibody, three-row crossover ...

Fiat and Mazda teaming up, Consumer Reports eco-trim test, Aston Martin AM310, BMW Zagato Coupe, Dany Bahar suspended Episode #284 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Chris, Dan and Zach chat about Mazda and Fiat collaborating on the next MX-5 Miata and Spyder, Consumer Reports' ...

It looks as if Volkswagen aims to spread the Alltrack love around. Autocar reports the German manufacturer is currently mulling a lifted version of its next Golf and Jetta. European buyers would be able to sink their teeth into the smaller of those two creations, while Americans would be left to ...

Could it be? Could Subaru finally be killing the Tribeca? We'll admit it. We've been waiting for this day since we first spied the 2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca. So has every other too-clever-by-half automotive journalist who slammed Subie's range-topper when it debuted in late 2005, looking like it ...

Calling it "Holden's worst kept secret," a report in Australia's Drive indicates that the General Motors antipodean brand will announce "very soon" that it will be exporting "thousands of Commodores to the U.S. from 2013." Or, put another way, we will be getting thousands of Chevrolet SS ...

If we had a dollar for every time we read a headline that said, "[insert automaker here] considering a diesel for U.S. market," we'd have a pretty sizable stack of Washingtons. So why, then, is this story of particular interest? After the website Efficient Automobile wrote about the possibility ...

Typically when an automaker wants to roll out a new car, it does so at one of a dozen or so major auto shows held throughout the calendar and around the world. But with the bulk of the show season on break for the summer, rumor has it that Renault is planning a more glamorous location to unveil ...

German car magazine Auto Bild reports Porsche is planning build a sedan that will slot below the Panamera and compete directly with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. Citing no sources (so a grain of salt is recommended), the magazine claims the four-door, codenamed Pajun, will cost no less than $84,000 ...

The next-generation Subaru WRX and WRX STI are still shrouded in a cloak of secrecy. Or is it indecision? Either way, Car and Driver is reporting that when Subaru eventually pulls the wraps off whatever is going to wear the WRX badge, there's going to be a turbocharged version of the 2.0-liter ...

Forget cloth, the upcoming Lamborghini Aventador Roadster will use a removable two-piece carbon fiber hardtop, according to the Italian magazine Quattroruote. The weight-cutting measure means the convertible won't have to stack on the pounds just to include al fresco driving. The carbon fiber ...