The 2010 Toyota Camry will be out in the GCC by summer. The Camry models that come here are built in Australia, and now, that factory will add a hybrid model to their line-up. To celebrate the hybrid version of the Camry, Toyota Australia created this one-off concept for the 2009 Melbourne Auto Show, called the HC-CV.
Rolls-Royce has released brief details and photos of its smaller new ‘RR4’ model. Dubbed the 200EX for now, the baby Rolls-Royce seen here is still in concept form, but the final production version should be almost the same as this one, with a traditional name. And it is still a very large full-size car.
After the less-than-satisfying reveal of the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan, debuting at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show will be the 2010 E-Class Coupe, replacing and effectively killing off the CLK model line.
BMW seems to be hell-bent on creating cars that no one asked for. After the X6 and the X1, the latest example is the 2010 BMW 5-Series Gran Touring, to be shown at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show in near-production concept form. As with many previous BMW concepts, the confused car-crossover is a done deal for production.
Back in the late 80s and up till the late 90s, Ford offered a tasty hyper-tuned version of their best-selling sedan in America, calling it the Taurus SHO, and powering it with Yamaha-tuned “Super High Output” engines that came from Japan. It died out later, but with the proper revival of the Taurus comes the rebirth of the Taurus SHO, this time powered by an in-house 3.5-litre turbocharged EcoBoost V6.
The third-generation Renault Clio was launched in Europe ages ago, while the GCC still soldiers on with the old second-generation model which are built in Turkey. The real French-built Clio is now the recipient of a major facelift, and it will be launched at the 2009 Geneva Auto Show.
The Mazda 3 has been updated for the 2010 model year with a smiley new look and a new set of engines. Now Japanese and American markets will get a hotter variant of the new hatchback, with the re-introduction of the Mazdaspeed 3. Of course, as before, the GCC probably will not be getting any Mazdaspeed models.
Porsche has added yet another new model to the latest generation of the 911 with the new GT3. Released alongside is the GT3 RSR racing version.
While the appetite for petrol-hogs drive economies here, hybrid-electric cars continue to evolve in Western markets, with the introduction of the 2010 Toyota Prius and the 2010 Honda Insight at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. Both are very similar cars, and both come with a petrol engine that supplements itself with self-generated electrical power. Both also offer increasingly impressive fuel consumption figures, compared to any other hybrids before them.
For a long while, Ford had been publicly boasting about their development of a new turbocharged series of engines. The first of these has now been unveiled in not one, but three different models. The new EcoBoost engine will be an available option in the Ford Flex, the Lincoln MKS and the all-new Flex-based Lincoln MKT, all debuting at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.