Auto News 5

It doesn't take much time driving in the U.K. to understand why small city cars are so popular here. Narrow roads lead to tiny parking spaces, gasoline costs the equivalent of $8 a gallon, and the amount of road tax you pay is directly linked to a car's carbon-dioxide emissions. No surprise, then, that subcompact hatchbacks are everywhere. Vauxhall, the General Motors brand that is paired with Opel, saw how much Europeans loved cute runarounds like the Fiat 500 and the Mini Cooper, and launched the Adam to grab a piece of the action.

The Lexus LF-NX compact crossover concept was one of the most controversial debuts of this year’s 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show thanks to its angular, aggressive styling that took Lexus’ spindle grille to a new level. Despite the mixed feedback, though, Lexus is bringing the LF-NX concept back for the 2013 Tokyo Auto Show with a turbocharged engine replacing the previous LF-NX’s hybrid powertrain.

To celebrate the beautiful fall weather, I recently took a trip to Chicago in the 2013 Volkswagen Beetle Turbo Convertible to meet up with some friends and explore the city. Over approximately 500 miles of driving round trip, I was pleasantly surprised by the Beetle's versatility, as it showed its strengths as both a pleasant highway cruiser and a peppy city runabout.