Auto News 5

In a weird way, the CR-Z reminds me of the original raison d'etre behind the Pontiac Fiero. To push its own small two-seater into production, Pontiac brass had to sell the car as being a fuel-efficient commuter runabout that happened to look (and, by 1988, drive) sporty.

The exterior of the 2011 Nissan Quest would struggle to be any more different than that of its predecessor while remaining recognizable as a minivan and appealing to consumers. Its styling is rooted in that of the Forum concept that Nissan showed in 2008 at the Detroit Auto Show and features a high beltline along with what appears to be a pretty long wheelbase. Inside, Nissan moved the gauge cluster back where it belongs -- leaving behind memories of the center-mounted controls of the last-gen Quest -- and added Nissan/Infiniti's familiar infotainment system.

In our recent drive of the outgoing, first-generation Bentley Continental, several of us expressed the desire, perhaps naïve, that the new Conti GT might have its engine in a different location than in front of the front axle. What, did we think they were going to wedge that W-12 into the back seat? Silly us. There's simply no getting around the fact that the Conti GT has been, and will continue to be, a short-nosed car that's packing a lot of hardware into a very small space. And, as Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen, Bentley's patrician chief, explains, if they were to mount the engine on top of the axle, the car would have a very high center of gravity.

Toyota, for now, has simply announced that the the Tesla-powered Rav4 EV will be at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show and kept all other details to itself. That means we won't know the vehicle's range, charge time, launch date or price until next week at the earliest. Unless more images are released, we won't know what it'll look like until next week either, though if the original Rav4 EV is any indication, the changes won't be too radical save perhaps some aerodynamic improvements.

The U.S.-spec 2012 Mazda5 is likely the last vehicle to bear the now-famous (or, to some, infamous) Nagare design language. Aside from the new sheetmetal, the six-seater mini-minivan gets an updated interior similar to that of the Mazda3 compact and a new four-cylinder engine that provides slightly more horsepower. The 2.5-liter mill makes 157 horsepower in the Mazda5, a 4-horse improvement over the outgoing 2.3-liter unit. Like the old powerplant, it will be offered with a manual or automatic transmission, though we don't yet know if either will be receiving an extra cog. Currently, both transmissions offered on the Mazda5 are five-speed units.

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