The bowtie brand really wants us to take notice of the 2014 version of the Chevrolet Malibu. It only just got itself an emergency facelift and the details are available.

This new vehicle, has some relatively well thought out features to show off about. The sensible people, and fleet car managers, will love them.

According to Mary Barra, GM senior vice president for global product development, the newest version of the Malibu will be longer.

The shift is for a very important reason. With the current version, some rear space was lost. Going from 2012 to 2013, the rear legroom went down from 37.6 to 36.9 inches.

Exactly how much longer the new version is, we don’t get to find out right now, but it’s safe to assume that it will be at least as big as the version made two years ago.

Some styling changes will also happen since GM promises that the Malibu will receive a few styling cues from the newest Impala.

It’s always really impressive to see manufacturers give models that fall a bit lower in the range a bit of similarity to their bigger brothers.

Aspiration of ownership is part of it alongside the traditional brand attribute stuff that some mechanic came up with.

When they finally send it to the market, the 2014 Chevrolet Malibu is expected to be a tad more capable in selling than the current version.

It managed to sell 210,951 units in 2012, but the market leading rival Toyota Camry managed about twice that amount.

The post 2014 Chevrolet Malibu facelift details available appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

I actually believed hoped, that that single man could motivate enough people around him to make things work.

This has not happened. In fact, it seems that every other week we hear something about the sort of problems Fisker is burdened with.

We’re looking at a new one this time that was uncovered by accident. You see, another similar story of individuality has Fisker Karma models converted to something more conventional.

Bob Lutz is making V8 powered cars and since he’s removing the batteries from the base cars it uses he could send them back to the factory.

The response of the company was that there’s no need for this, despite the battery supplier being currently bankrupt.

Fisker hasn’t made a new car in quite some time and quite a lot of their eco-supercars have been lost to hurricane Sandy yet that doesn’t seem to bother them.

The company claims it still has plenty of vehicles on stock so that the new customers won’t really have any need for such a collaboration.

That’s quite surprising given how in the summer of last year Henrik Fisker actually said they produced 1900 units of the Karma by then.

Sales and profits have been so poor that by this time Fisker is looking for money and investors from China. On top of the plenty of federal loans and such they have to pay back, the accountants will have a lot of work in their future.

The post Fisker’s Karma still not success intended to be appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

Meanwhile, there’s also some action going in Tokyo. It’s fair to say that it’s the place where Japanese car makers are fighting their own battles.

Honda however, decided that unveiling a quirky new concept wouldn’t fit either locations. They decided to do it at the Montreal Auto Show.

Even I’d forgotten about it. Thankfully, Honda actually knew how to promote their new car without being overshot by all of the other launches.

The new concept is a small vehicle, which is dubbed the Gear Concept Study Model. Judging by the branding, we’d be almost certain that the Japanese brand has no intention of producing this.

It actually seems like a halfway decision between a microscopic kei car and the more traditional family hatchback.

As far as we gather, Honda is interested in capturing the imagination of the Gen-Y customers. The inspiration for this car came from fixed-gear bicycles.

That doesn’t mean you need to actually pedal it, but it is simple, sturdy, fun and very easy to customize. That sounds like it has everything you may want.

Honda says the Gear will be connected and cool and fun and all of that, but they won’t say exactly how that will happen.

It sounds like a car that looks great on paper and is never going to be made since they haven’t thought it through. That’s a disappointment.

The post Honda Gear unveiled at the Montreal Auto Show appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

When it comes to going electric however, things haven’t gone so brilliant. They’ve even gotten into some hot water over their recent announcements in the segment.

Therefore, with the Ford Fusion Energi, their plugin hybrid version of the great looking sedan they have readily available.

They need to be careful when it comes to attracting the customers who are interested in the green trend. They’re the sort of folks that love figures and details.

A buyer for any modern green car will round up so many numbers before he judges the necessity of a test drive that it’s unbelievable these people actually buy car.

The actual fuel economy figures are rated in accordance with the EPA at 108 MPGe city / 92 MPGe highway / 100 MPGe combined.

Oh but that’s not where the story ends. In terms of range things require a bit of extra explanation before fully understood.

Going all electric doesn’t get you very far. The Ford Fusion Energi will only manage 21 miles on its batteries alone.

Running into the fuel reserve and maybe going on a road trip should bump the figures up to 620 miles. That should easily cover going to and coming back from Vegas without any hitches.

Ford knows that with these figures they will beat the competition in terms of fuel economy but they will keep the “mileage may vary” warning up.

The post Ford Fusion Energi details officially available appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

While they all sold a lot of cars, few really produced an interesting 4×4 model that served more purposes than a high driving position and an image boost.

At the top of game we found Volvo’s XC90. For the first time up until then, the car was designed with what people needed from their cars rather than thought they wanted.

Volvo themselves were quite conservative in their estimates on selling the XC90 and that turned out to be problematic.

The exceptional package of value for money, practicality and safety really won over buyers and reviewers creating serious under supply issues.

Since then, Volvo sorted things out and the XC90 became one of their most successful models ever. Since 2002 to the present, the car underwent a few modifications, but none were dramatic.

Updates with fuel economy, emissions and a few styling tweaks is what we got to keep us over as the rest of the company was pulling itself out of bankruptcy.

It’s now been more than a decade since the original launch and Volvo are finally confirming a second generation of the XC90.

That new version will be introduced in 2014 and presented as a 2015 modelyear. A lot of the original characteristics will remain but Volvo will go big on the downsizing trend.

In fact, most Volvo XC90 models of the future are expected to be sold with four cylinder engines.

The post Volvo XC90 replacement coming in 2014 appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

It’s really not that big a deal to see them rival each other with all of the innovation and toys they’re capable of on a weekend and see them copy each other next week.

In similar fashion, the competition in various poiints of the US market is serious business and unusually focused around the money and sales.

At the sports car leagues, the Americans only really have two proper competitors. The SRT Viper and Chevrolet Corvette have been at each others throats for decades.

Recently, SRT unveiled a brand new version of the Viper and it was just at this Detroit Motor Show that Chevrolet fought back with a new C7.

Some copying is going on, a lot like you’d notice with the Germans and it seems that there’s also something going on with the way the US car makers are getting on.

When it was introduced, the Viper came with an announcement saying that the first car ever produced would be auctioned off for charity.

Well now, can you guess what Chevrolet are doing with their first unit of the Corvette C7 Stingray?

Precisely, come the next Barret Jackson auction this weekend, the 6.2 liter V8 supercar will be sold to one lucky guy for quite the premium.

Whatever he pays will be going to charity, which is quite nice of a large corporation to be doing. Even if they do get more media coverage out if it than it actually costs to make the actual car.

The post First 2014 Chevrolet Corvette C7 up for auction appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

This one however is about as much as you can get of both these worlds. It’s called the Ford Atlas, currently being in concept state.

No crossing over to the world of production cars will happen but it is said to be a fairly good box of details and ideas of what such a thing may come from Ford eventually.

The next generation of the Ford F-150 pickup will be what gets inspired by the Atlas Concept. If they really do, that’ll be quite the pickup.

I know it’s a market leader and a world record holding one at that but boy do they plan to fill it with technology, advanced features and so on.

Active bodywork will determine whether or not you are going on a highway or forest road to open various vents, adjust ride height and deploy running boards.

This way you get fuel economy or off-road capability adapted to suit needs. The new frame construction which will lose weight is already a given but the new 360 degree camera isn’t.

If it does happen, boy, would that be an interesting gadget to have when rock crawling or maneuvering through a busy work site.

Speaking of work, Ford’s Atlas Concept features a Dynamic Hitch system. This is a device which can automatically line up the pickup’s tow hitch to a trailer.

Engine lineups are bound to get a makeover with even more emphasis being made on the Ford EcoBoost engines so really, the F-150 doesn’t seem like it will lose its place soon.

The post Ford Atlas Concept is more than meets the eye appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

Mazda, which in case you missed their entire history, is a Japanese car maker, just unveiled a new car at the 2013 Detroit Motor Show.

It’s a racing car, one that was designed with Grand-Am competing in mind, as a ramp up for the big show in Le Mans endurance racing.

Having had previous experience in the field they’ve managed to work in some of the new trends that have been happening since they won in the competition.

For starters, the 2014 Mazda6 came around and there’s another major trend moving into endurance racing.

That’ll be diesel power, the idea Audi introduced and then dominated with at Le Mans. This newly unveiled racer, the Mazda6 Skyactive-D racer might do the same to Grand-Am.

A race debut is scheduled quite quickly on January 26 at upcoming 2013 Rolex 24 event. It’s where the all the work the guys at SpeedSource will be translated into reality.

Mazda’s racing partner has come up with quite the impressive saloon car racer and since it uses the stock engine block (and a few other bits) and still develops 400 horsepower it should make them proud.

In this competition, Mazda will be fielding three vehicles with a fairly capable set of drivers, one of which is actually the younger brother of Dario Franchitti.

Should be one to watch for. It’s actually one that might not be capable of competing but is building on some interesting heritage.

The post Mazda6 diesel racer unveiled in Detroit appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

Better yet, let’s all try and remember the last time they came up with something that didn’t concern most of us be it for our safety or for the one of those around.

The latest from the NHTSA is pretty much on par with this lineup but it’s somewhat sadder since it involves a car very dear to our hearts, the Pagani Huayra.

According to the American big daddy in terms of safety, this car isn’t really that relevant and doesn’t come very high on their priority list.

This is because the hypercar that has most kids drooling over and most adults dreaming still didn’t receive its street legal status.

Despite this “niggle” the Italian brand has already sold 18 units of the Huayra in the US. All of the owners are well aware of the situation.

Let’s remind ourselves that these people are spending 1.6 million USD each to get a car that’s currently no more than a trophy or occasional track day car.

I’m sure that most of them will buy them for their collections and probably not drive them more than 5 miles per century, but that can’t be the case for all of them.

Surely some of them are still making calls to “the right people” in an attempt to get this small problem sorted out.

After all, you can’t simply turn up to the restaurant in a car that 30-40 other people in the country have, can you?

The post Pagani Huayra still not street legal in the US appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.

It’s loaded with very, very interesting cars be them in rarity or refinement but this time one stands out in particular among them.

That’ll be this pristine white 1986 Porsche 959. Being a 1986, their collector mind immediately imagined it as being one of the first ever made.

That’s not the case. This is not chassis number 1 from the lineup of the 959. This is actually the car that was built in order to make that one happen.

It’s the prototype, the beginning of it all. Whereas in the real world most people don’t care too much for the Porsche 959, collectors know it’s value.

Because of this car we now have modern advanced hypercars like the Bugatti Veyron and Lamborghini Aventador. Because of this car Porsche has the Carrera 4 in it’s lineup.

Because of this car, the Porsche 911 Turbo is always going to be a four wheel drive car which can make the power accessible to all those who aren’t racing drivers.

Aside from that, the Porsche 959 is impressive all on its own as it starred a 450 horsepower twin-turbo 2.8 liter boxer engine.

It also marked the premiere of magnesium wheels and all sorts of exotic materials being used in the top end of supercar land.

Also, you can take a bit of extra pride in knowing that this is one of the few cars that Porsche built mostly as a technical showcase since it was a financial disaster.

The post 1986 Porsche 959 prototype to be auctioned soon appeared first on Ultimate Car Blog | The Latest Car News, Reviews, Tuning.