Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of 2010 Ford Mustang teasers

Ford is continuing its painfully slow unveiling of the 2010 Mustang with another new image showing the car's front fender and the rear view mirror. It could just be the angle, but the photo shows a more curvaceous hood line that dips down to the headlight more than the current design. Another difference is the fender, which flows from the hood to the wheel well in one smooth line rather than the current one that has a more pronounced and angular flare. Finally, we get another view of the rear view mirror, the top half of which is now painted instead of textured black. Like us, you'd probably rather see the whole car by now, but Ford has seven more teaser images to go before it unveils the car in Los Angeles in more than a month and a half. So, like us, you're just going to have to get used to it.

[Source: The2010Mustang.com]

When Nissan launched the 350Z in '02, it was working hard to reinvent itself and the new Z was clearly its halo car in the U.S. market. Now that that the revival has come and gone, expect the new 370Z to take on a new tack as a harder edged vehicle. In fact, Nissan plans to take on Porsche, the most classic of all sportscar manufacturers, with its newest coupe. Equipped with a larger 335-hp 3.7-liter V6 engine and having gone on a serious diet, possibly shedding as much as 200 lbs, the new Z will definitely have the cojones to keep up with its foes, including the Cayman, and its shorter wheelbase and wider track should conspire to make it quite the handler as well. We'll get our first official look at the new son-of-Godzilla at the LA Auto Show, shorty after which the Nissan 370Z should show up in Japanese dealerships with U.S. delivery at a later date. Hopefully, not too much later.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Many thanks to Autoblog reader Aaron, who appears to have been in the presence of printed materials pertaining to the 2010 Nissan Cube, which is set to be unveiled next month at the LA Auto Show. Aaron captured the moment with his camera phone, and thus, we have what may be the first unofficial official look at the U.S.-market Cube's design. Or it could be something else entirely, but it sure doesn't look that way. Up front, the new headlamps and grille form a thin line above the front bumper, giving the boxy little dude a face we expect to see start talking at any given moment. Follow the jump for more analysis, and check out the scans in the gallery below.


[Source: Aaron]

We have an idea of what the next Mazda3 will look like based on some trademark renderings that Mazda supplied the European Union Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market; basically what they amount to are patent drawings. Based on these very rough outlines, somebody named Pascal Boissé from Auto-Motive D&C has created a rendering that gives us a slightly better idea of what the new compact car will look like. The results are a bit mixed, with the fenders and greenhouse meeting our expectations, but that happy-go-lucky front end may be a bit off. Recent spy shots don't show the snout protruding out quite that far. We may see character lines along the door's bottom edge, leading up to the rear arches as the rendering clearly shows. What we know for sure is that Mazda has been getting more expressive with its styling, as the revised 6 and recent concepts prove. We'll see the Mazda3 in person at the upcoming LA Auto Show and here's hoping that it's a bit more refined than the rendering above.

[Source: MSN]

The LA Auto Show is once again hosting its annual Design Challenge in which automakers are asked to let their minds wander and think freely about what future vehicles might actually be like. Last year's theme was green, but this year designers are being asked to imagine what motorsports will be like in 2025.

Mitsubishi's answer will be the MMR25 Rally Racer, a way out there concept that draws upon the automaker's long lineage of successful rally racing to create a sand crawler like we've never seen before. We've only got a sneak peek for now, so there's no telling what exotic or outright fictional engine powers the MMR25, but expect it to be just as crazy as those multidirectional wheels.


[Source: Mitsubishi]

The 2010 Ford Mustang teasers continue, with a darkened shot of the new 'Stang's seats and center console. The new thrones look mighty inviting, with a nice amount of padding and some American-friendly bolsters. The center console appears to be a little taller than the current Mustang, but we'll have to wait until we get a chance to sit inside at this year's LA Auto Show.

Hybrid vehicles are increasingly becoming mainstream, but so far all of the production units available on the market have used gasoline exclusively as the fuel for the internal combustion engine. Various manufacturers have also shown concept and one-off test hybrid vehicles with diesel and E85 capable flex-fuel engines. One combination we don't recall seeing is a CNG fueled hybrid. Toyota plans to address that oversight at the LA Auto Show in November with a CNG fueled Camry Hybrid. Vehicles running on compressed natural gas are nothing new, although the only one currently offered by a major automaker in the US right now is the Honda Civic GX. Since CNG vehicles have a shorter range, they have primarily been used by fleets with centralized filling stations. Toyota has built this vehicle as part of its wide ranging sustainable mobility strategy. With domestic supplies of CNG being comparatively plentiful, something like a CNG hybrid sedan could be a good option for someone who does most of their driving locally. Combine it with the Phill home fueling station and you'd never have to go to a gas station again. Press release after the break.

[Source: Toyota]

When is camo not really camo? When it's black and white tape stuck to the body of the 2010 Mazda3 sedan. The new 3 was recently caught in the U.S. and the new front end is essentially a reworked version of the Mazda6's, with a grinning, two-piece grille split by an angular bumper. Notice the bulges and fairings around the foglamps next to the lower grille, and the way the stretched headlights and flared fenders turn the hood outline into a wild polyhedral. The sculpted leather seats and roomy cabin look a treat as well. Assuming Mazda won't jack up the price or sink the driving dynamics, this could exceed the success of the current car. We'll bring you the full story from the LA Auto Show in just about sixty days. Thanks for the tip, Kris!

[Source: Auto.cz]

The Dita Von Teese-style burlesque unveiling of the 2010 Ford Mustang continues today with another image showing the dash and steering wheel, along with brief glimpses of the new IP, seats and passenger-side door panel. Riveting, no?

We couldn't help using our elementary Photoshop skills to lighten up the artificially dark picture, and after a couple of tweaks of the virtual knobs, the new switchgear and matching stitching on the steering wheel and seats came into view.

Compared to the current 'Stang, the new dash is more steeply raked and the materials appear to be of a higher quality, but until we're able to run our hands over it all at the LA Auto Show this November, we can't be certain.

The five previous teasers are available in our gallery below, and it looks like we can expect nine more images to be "unlocked" on the2010mustang.com between now and the its official unveiling.


[Source: the2010mustang.com]

The LA Auto Show is still a couple months away, but images of vehicles set to be unveiled in the land of fruits and nuts are already leaking onto the web. GM's Chilean website had the above photo of the production Saab 9-4X available for all to see earlier today, so now we know the production model looks almost identical to the 9-4X Biopower concept from last year's Detroit Auto Show. We'd be interested to see if the concept's integrated tail pipes and large front/side air dams make it to production but, judging from spy photos we've seen, probably not. The 9-4X will be built on the same platform as the upcoming front- or all-wheel-drive Cadillac SRX, which will also be unveiled this auto show season.

We don't have many details on the 9-4X just yet, but it will have a turbocharged 2.0L engine with 245 hp and 265 lb-ft mated to a six-speed automatic. The concept also ran on ethanol, which is also likely for the production vehicle considering that two thirds of all vehicles in Sweden are of the flex fuel variety. Other engine choices could include GM's 3.6L V6, which is likely to be found under hood of the SRX at launch, and an upcoming 250-hp 2.9L diesel. Either way, European customers will likely have an engine lineup twice as large as what we'll be offered in the U.S.

UPDATE: Saab has confirmed that the image above is not the production 9-4X, but rather a creative photoshop of the 9-4X Concept from last year's Detroit Auto Show produced by third-party reps down in Chile.


[Source: Motor Authority]