So you want to own a painfully gorgeous Porsche 550, but you don't have $3.685 million? You don't say! If your heart is still set on a stunning sports car with classic lines, then Vintech may have a solution for you. The French company has created the P550 Tribute, and as the name suggests, the car is meant to evoke the famed Porsche 550. Though possessing classic lines, the P550 boasts a full carbon fiber body, under which is a modern chassis and a 3.0-liter four-cylinder boxer engine. The engine is expected to produce between 260 and 270 horsepower, sent through a five-speed manual ... Read More

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Ford hybrids to turn a profit in 2008 1200587460

Ford's been cranking out hybrid CUVs on the CD2 platform for four years now, and with over 40,000 produced, it's gotten to be old hat. Since it started in 2004, Ford's managed to make the Escape, Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute 30-percent cheaper to build. That cost reduction, coupled with the pending introduction of the hybrid Fusion and Milan ...
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Intrepid Chinese make their own Jeep Wrangler 1181661840

Click the pic above to see a galleryThis faux Jeep gets a pass, because it comes out looking so close to the real thing, though Jeep faithful will likely pick it to pieces. Pieces is how the story begins, with a Bejing Jeep 2020 that has a tryst with a Sawz-all. Predictably, the 2020 gets all broken up after its torrid affair, and needs to be put back ...
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Crossover Crazy: Mazda has five people-haulers from which to choose 1172150940

The well-known zoom-zoom tag-line in every Mazda commercial is being tested by a flood of crossover vehicles that don't exactly fit the company's sporty persona. To complicate things further, all five vehicles are close in price, with the difference from bottom to top being a mere $11,400. CX-9: Minivan replacement, seats sevenCX-7: Sporty and quick, seats ...
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Mazda working on rotary gas/electric/hydrogen "tribrid" hybrid 1168906440

Mazda has already made some hydrogen powered RX8 concepts powered by hydrogen. They say that their Wankel rotary engines are perfect for hydrogen as the heat generated does not hinder their performance. According to this article, the high temperatures do not cause a pre-ignition problem, sometimes referred to as "pinging" in piston engines. Now Mazda ...
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Detroit Auto Show: 2008 Mazda Tribute Hybrid 1168167840

Click the image above for a high-resolution photo galleryMazda's chosen Detroit to pull the cover off its all-new 2008 Tribute Hybrid SUV. The greenified version of the Japanese automaker's Ford Escape clone receives a unique front fascia, but once you get past that, if you've seen the new Escape, you've seen the Tribute. That's not a bad thing, because the ...
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Detroit Auto Show: 2008 Mazda Tribute SUV is a full hybrid, can go 25 mph on volts alone 1168146060

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/hardware/Finally_an_SUV_that_doeesn_t_suck_gas_New_2008_Mazda_Tribute_SUV_hybrid'; Mazda already has the hydrogen RX-8 and Mazda5, but the crown jewel of Mazda's environmentally better line-up may just be the brand-spanking new 2008 Mazda Tribute hybrid SUV. The hybrid is based on the current Tribute (which starts at $20,705) ...
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Mazda bringing the gullwings to Detroit 1165909680

Click photo for hi res versionMazda's sending its latest concept to NAIAS, this one named Ryuga. The gullwinged sports car is meant to build on Mazda's recently introduced "flow" design language first seen on the Nagare in LA. Not coincidentally, Ryuga is Japanese for "gracious flow." "Ryuga is Zoom-Zoom defined," said Laurens van den Acker, Mazda's global ...
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EXCLUSIVE: 2008 Mazda Tribute pics leaked 1162845660

click on image to enlargeLoose lips sink ships, and we discovered that Mazda's got a hole in its boat big enough to drive the next generation Tribute through without being caught. Mazda shouldn't feel bad about these leaked photos and computer renderings of the 2008 Tribute and its interior (follow the jump for those), especially considering the Mercury ...
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NHTSA investigating Ford Escape fires 1162584120

The National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into the cause of eight reported engine fires in the Ford Escape and Mazda Tribute.The model years being investigate are from 2001 to 2003, however, the Mercury Mariner platform-sharer is not part of the investigation, as it began its run in 2005.There are two other cases that ...
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Spy Shots: 2008 Mazda Tribute 1160659980

The next Mazda Tribute has been captured by the long lense of KGP Photography during some late-stage testing that affords us an uninhibited view of the next ZUV (Zoom Utility Vehicle) from Mazda. Clearly the overall shape of the Tribute's sister ute, the new 2008 Mercury Mariner, remains, but Mazda's version has a different front end that's decidely less ...