Japanese Car News

[Schiffer]

all new Toyota vehicles have a Angry/Mad or a Evil face now :/ what happend to you toyota atleast they havent gone overboard with the Coaster.

[Magnum]

New Suzuki Swift

 

Suzuki has announced that its significantly improved Swift compact passenger car will go on sale January 4, 2017. As Japan's global compact car, the new Swift will be sold as an export at first, but will be produced and sold outside of Japan in the future.

The new model takes the previous model's styling and adds proportions with a low center of gravity and a dynamic form to create a total new Swift. The front mask, with its large-aperture front grille, presents an expression that has toughness and a strong sense of presence. 

The interior is designed around the driver to offer sportiness and excellent handling in order to offer an even more luxurious and advanced driving experience. It has a high-definition 4.2-inch large color dot liquid crystal multi-information display at the center of the meters for the driver to easily take in information regarding driving conditions, engine power and torque, and so on.

It also uses the new Heartect platform, which combines light weight with high rigidity. In addition to improving driving performance and fuel economy, it also contributes a great deal to riding comfort and loading performance. The thorough lightening of all aspects including body, engine and suspension has led to the new Swift losing 120kg of its previous version's weight.

The engine options are 1.2L naturally aspirated or 1.0L direct-injection turbo. The NA option has a proprietary mild hybrid system that combines ISG (a generator with a motor function) and a special lithium ion battery and the 2WD gets 27.4km/L (JC08 mode). The 1.0L turbo is compact but puts out 102ps and gets 150Nm or torque, which puts it on par with a 1.5 NA engine. It's designed for ease-of-use and an excellent drive in any driving condition from city streets to high-speed freeway.

For safety features, it is the first Suzuki model to include the Dual Sensor Brake Support (DSBS) collision avoidance system, which uses single-lens camera and laser radar. It also has High Beam Assist, which automatically switches between low beams and high beams according to conditions around the vehicle, and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). 

The price is 1,343,520 to 1,845,720 yen.

 

[iRage]

So after teasing the public with a tasty rear light of the next gen Camry...Toyota finally unveiled the entire car....not very impressed. Hope the Japanese variant, which have had different styling ques in the past, will look a bit better and less like a squashed platypus.

[iRage]

Further up its money chain Toyota unveiled its new Lexus LS model...

EDIT: Finally read about the specs...so the car will come with a 3.5L twin turo engine pushing close to 420HP with what Toyota.Lexus calls a DIrect-Shift 10 AT <need to read up on what a Direct-shift AT is>. In addition some markets will get a Hybrid variant as well.

Being their flagship it will be filled with every conceivable gizmo and safety package that Lexus/Toyota has and they are boasting of a dynamic fully integrated system.

Edited January 11, 2017 by iRage

[iRage]

Nissan unveiled its Motion 2 concept.

[iRage]

The new Honda Odyssey for the US market....hmm...the outgoing model looked a lot prettier...hope the Japanese variant would be better than this.

.

[iRage]

So we finally get to see the VItz TGR and Aqua TGR concepts (TGR = Toyota Gazoo Racing)....apparently not much detail had been given except for some basic specs. 

The Vitz TGR which will be the base for the Yaris WRC car which Toyota has been quite vocal about will have the turbo charged engine with tuned suspension, reinforced frame, etc...(as in the previous GRMN variant and the race versions have higher power outputs) the Aqua on the other hand still remains a mystery.

[B2Spirit]

All these new toyota designs proves 1 thing.

They should either fully embrace the spindle grille thing on Lexus or quit trying to do crappy variations of it.

The best example is the new camry. The XSE front end looks decent (apart from the cut n paste upper grille from the 2007 camry) while the base spec and hybrid front end looks downright ugly.

Even for the JDM model i am not holding much hope, considering how they botched the facelift of the current model.

Edited January 13, 2017 by B2Spirit

[sathyajithj99]

37 minutes ago, B2Spirit said:

All these new toyota designs proves 1 thing.

They should either fully embrace the spindle grille thing on Lexus or quit trying to do crappy variations of it.

The best example is the new camry. The XSE front end looks decent (apart from the cut n paste upper grille from the 2007 camry) while the base spec and hybrid front end looks downright ugly.

Even for the JDM model i am not holding much hope, considering how they botched the facelift of the current model.

 

[iRage]

and we see first glimpses of the facelift Vios...Only a 1.5L variant is announced. It would be interesting to see if Toyota would stick their 1KR-VET (1L TC) engines in to these since the 1.3L engines seem to be getting weaned out.

Edited January 27, 2017 by iRage

[iRage]

"New" StingRay and Wagon R revealed

[Magnum]

55 minutes ago, iRage said:

"New" StingRay and Wagon R revealed

Its just plain ugly! The ongoing models are fine

[Magnum]

New Vitz

According to Toyota its designed with the Europe market in mind. Oh and theres a hybrid variant as well.

[Magnum]

Honda ceases production of current Civic Type 

 

Honda is ceasing production of the current Civic Type R at its Swindon plant in the UK. It will close this chapter of its history with a final model, the Black Edition, which will be produced in a limited run of 100.

[Gummybr]

Talking of Japanese car news, did any of you come across the "new" technology used in their Nissan Note?? Its apparently driven by the same engine as the Leaf but unlike any other electric vehicle it has a 1.2l petrol engine that charges the battery. Ok so the BMW i3 and the Chevrolet Volt have a similar system but they are more of range extenders. The Note doesnt come with a charging cable. According to the media the engine only works at the most efficient running speed to charge the battery and it claims a fuel economy figure of more than 30kmpl. 

The battery is now smaller and doesnt take a lot of space like on the Leaf

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/11/02/nissan-note-e-power-ev-series-hybrid/

http://www.drive.com.au/new-car-reviews/2017-nissan-note-epower-first-drive-review-20161219-gtdxqk.html

 

Edited February 9, 2017 by Gummybr
Needed to put in another sentence

[Schiffer]

On 2/2/2017 at 5:16 PM, iRage said:

"New" StingRay and Wagon R revealed

The FZ looks damn nice but the Stingray looks like a "Special Child"

[The Stig]

1 hour ago, PUKARIS said:

 

Dat name

 

 

[Davy]

8 minutes ago, The Stig said:

Dat name

Ironically, he talks about decency and "bad rear design" in his post. The times we live in I tell you.

[iRage]

Now this should be interesting to see...Mitsubishi's Crossover the "Eclipse Cross". Since they are using the Eclipse name i wonder if there will be any sporty variants to this (kind of like the Pajero EVO). Engine displacement and size wise it should fit in groupings the Lancer Evo was in...

Edited February 15, 2017 by iRage

[iRage]

Lexus finally released information on the production spec Lexus LC.

As it has been known for a while you get a choice of a 5L V8 engined pure gasoline variant or a 3.5L Hybrid variant.

The price tag is set from about 110,000USD for both variants...

I didn't read the entire article yet...but head over to the following site to check out the rest of the  images and read more about it:

https://carview.yahoo.co.jp/article/photo/20170303-20103130-carview/?t=0

 

Edited March 17, 2017 by iRage

[sathyajithj99]

On 17/03/2017 at 3:12 PM, iRage said:

 

Irage, is there going to be a new version of Aqua? 

 

[Gummybr]

14 hours ago, sathyajithj99 said:

Irage, is there going to be a new version of Aqua? 

 

Aqua Premio maybe.....

 

On other news Carlos Ghosen who helped Nissan back on to its feet has resigned as CEO (but will be the Chairman) and then came the news of Shiro Nakamura the chief design (Chief Creative Officer / Senior Vice president) will be retiring on the 31st. He is to be replaced by current Infiniti design boss. 

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/nissan-chief-designer-shiro-nakamura-retire

[iRage]

19 hours ago, sathyajithj99 said:

Irage, is there going to be a new version of Aqua? 

The pics you posted are from an old motorshow....can't remember which one; but this the Urban X and drop top concepts were all showcased together at the same motorshow.

But yes..the rumor is that there will be a new Aqua sometime in 2018 or so.

[kmeeg]

For those who still enjoy pics of old school body on frame vehicles;

2017 Toyota 4Runner (I think nothing change from 2014) 

4.0-liter V-6 engine 270 hp 278 lb-ft 5-speed auto

Edited April 18, 2017 by kmeeg

[iRage]

Pardon the language and out burst...

Such sad sad news....so the "unthinkable" rumor came true. Toyota has abolished the Mark X. One of the very few fun cars to drive from Toyota and its gone ! What do they do instead ??? They hope that the Camry will take its place in the JDM market ? Really ? That piece of FWD understeering $h!t of a barge ??? They could have done something so beautiful with the TC engine out of the Crown (which was the other rumor...that the next gen mark X would go TC).

 

Never selling my Mark X <3

 

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20170511-00010005-autoconen-bus_all