Auto News 5

What started as the Toyota FT-86 concept and portended a joint-effort sports car between Toyota and Subaru is now the Scion FR-S concept that debuted at the 2011 New York Auto Show. It points the way toward a production car that will go on sale sometime in 2012. Scion cannot be more specific on timing due to the upheaval in the Japanese car industry from the earthquake and tsunami, which have wreaked havoc on all future-production planning and timelines.

Mercedes-Benz has been going all-out with the energetic celebrations for the 125th anniversary of the car. To make sure that it was not the only one having fun, the automaker debuted its Concept A-Class with a dancing and singing flash mob.

As more and more attention is lavished on new all-electric vehicles, there are still plenty of manufacturers aiming to cut carbon emissions with hybrid versions of their existing cars. At the New York auto show, Suzuki will dip its toe into the world of hybrids with the EcoCharge concept, a hybrid version of the Kizashi sedan.

The Range Rover Sport, like its more expensive sibling, the Range Rover, has a sense of occasion about it that no other sport-utility vehicle comes close to matching. Yes, I know it's ridiculously heavy, at close to three tons. Yes, I know that this supercharged version is sinfully inefficient. Yes, I know that it's outrageously expensive. But when I slide into this brown-on-brown, opulent cabin, I forgive the Range Rover Sport all of its sins. I can't think about those petty matters, because I'm too busy caressing the meticulously stitched piece of dark brown leather that stretches across the dashboard and the seats. I would love a club chair this well-upholstered in my living room. At this price point, the details are what matters, and the Range Rover Sport gets so many of them right. I even admired the outer corners of the front seat bottoms, which are done in a brown suede-like fabric that perfectly matches the adjacent brown leather. Hmmm, can I have a loveseat made out of that fabric to go with my club chair?

Subaru's Impreza WRX and WRX STI certainly help draw attention to the brand, but ironically, their plebian sibling -- the base Impreza -- may actually be much more important to the automaker. It's understandable, once you've seen the numbers: in both 2009 and 2010, the Impreza -- not the recently redesigned Legacy -- is Subaru's best-selling sedan, and the brand's third-best selling model line altogether.

Aficionados of powerful performance sedans will likely focus their attentions on the new 2012 Chrysler 300 SRT8, but the rebirth of the big bruiser isn't the only news tied to the large sedan. In fact, Chrysler has formally announced the 2012 300 will, at long last, be mated with an eight-speed automatic transmission.