You know how they say someone should make a hybrid minivan? Well someone does and it's Toyota and the product in question is called the Estima. In fact, Toyota has been selling the gas-electric people mover in Japan for over a decade, putting the world's first hybrid minivan on sale in 2001. The Estima was r
Honda has just released its new Odyssey minivan for the Japanese Domestic Market, and it has plenty of style and room for up to eight people. Honda factory tuning company Mugen will also offer performance and styling parts for the fifth-generation minivan.
The Subaru BRZ is many things: fun, affordable, communicative... but premium is not one of them. Yet that is precisely more of that upscale lo
Ever hear that the best stuff is saved for export? Just ask Japanese luxury car buyers. It's been decades since Japan's largest automakers set out to take on Europe's finest with dedicated luxury brands of their own, but they have kept those brands largely out of their own domestic market and sold them almost exclusively overseas. But that's beginning to change.
We want the Honda N Box +. Strangely enough, this video spot, shot in Japanese and gushing with production values that are a bit foreign to us, makes us want the little Honda even more. You see, we don't need to know Japanese to see that the kei car's 'universal bridge' feature isn't a gimmick - it actually looks extremely convenient - and that the car's multi-space system takes interi
Compared to last year's model, there's not much that's new in the 2014 Toyota Prius Plug-In hybrid –except the price tag. The nominally updated PHEV will lose $2,010 off of its base price while keeping all of the tech and options from the 2013 model. The new base model will therefore start at $29,990, while the Prius Plug-in Advanced model gets an even bigger cut – $4,620 - and will now start at $34,905. Those prices do not include destination fees, which Toyota has not revealed (not
Some automakers market the same cars around the world, while others offer different models – even under the same nameplate – for different markets. We're thinking of cars like the Volkswagen Passat or the previous Mazda6. Honda's been known to do so as well, with models like the Accord and Noah Joseph
Honda has officially launched the Fit sub-compact in its home market, ahead of its eventual arrival in
Toyota first launched Lexus in the United States back in 1989, but it wasn't until 2005 that it brought the luxury marque home to roost. But don't think that Toyota didn't find a way of selling many of its premium models in the Japanese Domestic Market in the meantime. The Lexus LS was sold as the Toyota Celsion, the Noah Joseph
Ever since Subaru released the BRZ, fans have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of the STI version. But despite the recent release of the tS package, the brand faithful will have to wait a little longer, because the tS stops short of the full STI treatment. But at least it looks the part.
Fans of the sweet-handling Subaru BRZ awaiting some performance enhancements got their hopes up earlier this month when parent Fuji Heavy Industries dropped some teasers hinting at an apparent STI version, but as was subsequently suspected, the model in question &nda
Japanese site CarWatch has revealed images of the next-generation Toyota Harrier, known to US and European buyers as the Lexus RX. The new model features a considerably more aggressive fascia in keeping with some of the latest
Psst! Remember late last month when we showed you those Japanese magazine scans purporting to show the next Honda Fit? The ones with the markedly more aggressive snout and Cuisinart-blade alloys? Yup, they were the real deal, but they weren't the standard model, they were images of the new Hybrid. We know this because Honda
We feel safe in saying it's time for Subaru to step away from the keyboard for a spell. The company just unveiled this new WRX STI tS Type RA in Japan, and while the car features all sorts of tricks to help it stand out from the rest of the WRX rabble, it also boasts a name that looks like the product of a good old fashioned QWERTY Hulk smash. Nomenclature aside, this Zach Bowman
Nissan has sold tens of thousands of Leaf EVs around the world, but at least for the moment, only buyers in Japan will get to trick their electric vehicles out with the company's new Nismo Performance Package. The NPP's various modules will improve the aerodynamics, driving performance and even the energy efficiency of your Leaf, thanks to technology built up in Nissan's Sebastian Blanco
Two bits of news about the upcoming 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid have been released, but still not enough to have a complete picture of the revamped gas-electric that will come to the US this October.
The 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander is just around the corner, at least in Japan. There, the first plug-in hybrid crossover will go on sale January 24 with an MSRP of between 3,324,000 and 4,297,000 yen (between US$38,800 and $50,200), including Japan's consumption tax. After government incentives, the CUV can be had for the equivalent of around $33,000. While prices are not accurately comparable across borders, the only other plug-in vehicl
As another model year approaches for the Nissan GT-R, another round of improvements are being made. Rather than simply bumping up the horsepower, Nissan has decided to make refining changes to its supercar, which was recently unveiled in JDM spec for the 2013 model year.
Honda Japan has dropped all of the savory details about its new Kei car, the cute 'n cuddly N-One.
Upon its introduction for 2008, we couldn't help but feel that the third-generation Forester was perhaps Subaru's most attractive design effort in many, many years. While there was little that was groundbreaking about the design, its simple two-box shape was – and is – clean and free of extraneous details. To be fair, the Japanese automaker has always been renowned more for their technological designs (e.g. all-wheel drive, boxe
