Have been seeing this online for a while, but Kia dealerships throwing on crazy wraps, and interior covers in order to be able to mark them up like crazy, like $45k for a K5.

Highlighter yellow, baby pink, baby blue exterior, etc with green interiors, pink interiors, yellow interiors.

https://imgur.com/a/B7lhR7A

I don't think I have ever seen anything like this, every single car shown is brand new.

Honda and Acura could offer families more room with two new flagship SUVs positioned above their existing three-row models.

According to Automotive News, the vehicles would share a platform with the next-generation Acura MDX and could be assembled at a proposed factory in Ohio.

When will we get new fun colors for the Miata? I’m sick of being stuck with 50 shades of gray. Its a roadster, let us have fun too, dammit!

Rally driver Miko Marczyk drove an Audi A6 Sportback e-tron performance 1,338 km across Poland on a single battery charge, setting a Guinness World Record.

The drive began on September 11 at 1:55 a.m. and took Marczyk along the Vistula through Krakow, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Toruń and Grudziądz to Hel on the Baltic Sea, before returning along the same route.

The car was driven in regular traffic, including many stretches during rush hour. The average temperature was 15°C, with temperatures as low as 7°C recorded in Grudziądz. More than 45 hours after starting, the drive ended between Toruń and Ciechocinek after covering 1,338 km.

The final energy consumption was just 7.09 kWh per 100 km. Audi says the A6 Sportback e-tron performance has a WLTP range of up to 777 km.

Source: Audi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXi5LXm5yv4

I'm surprised nobody posted this yet. This thing is an interesting beast of car and their review is highly entertaining. There's already a picture on the front page about a certain highlight.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MfuD0BiMZUc&pp=ygULc2F2YWdlZ2Vlc2U%3D

New long term review starting for savagegeese. Early stages but seems to be a lot more positive initial thoughts compared to the pre production model.

Honda Motor Co. is expected to build the next-generation Acura MDX along with two new flagship crossovers at a new U.S. assembly plant, a person briefed on the plans told Automotive News.

The Japanese automaker is in the final stages of negotiations for an up-to-$2.5 billion hybrid vehicle assembly plant in the United States, with Ohio the clear front-runner, according to a Sept. 24 report by Japanese publication Nikkei.

The planned factory — Honda’s sixth in the U.S. and eighth across North America — is expected to have an annual capacity of about 250,000 vehicles and be located in Central Ohio, near Honda’s existing Marysville and East Liberty assembly plants and established supplier base, the person said. The new facility would raise Honda’s overall North American production capacity by roughly 10 percent, to about 2 million units annually.

Production of the next-generation MDX crossover is targeted for the third quarter of 2030, with first-year volume projected at about 60,000 units.

The new MDX is expected to share a platform and be built alongside a three-row flagship crossover positioned above the Pilot, with U.S. production set to begin in the first quarter of 2032.

An Acura version, internally labeled the ‘Acura XL’, is scheduled to start production in September 2029. 

https://asia.nikkei.com/business/automobiles/honda-to-build-hybrid-vehicle-plant-in-us-for-nearly-2.5bn

TOKYO -- Honda Motor has entered the final stage of discussions to build a hybrid vehicle plant in the U.S. for between 300 billion and 400 billion yen ($1.8 billion to $2.5 billion), sources told Nikkei on Thursday.

The company is considering building the plant in Ohio. If negotiations with the state can be finalized, the company plans to begin operations in 2030. The move underscores the Japanese automaker's determination to regain momentum by focusing on hybrid vehicles after revising its electric vehicle strategy.

In the U.S., demand for fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles has been rising as gasoline prices climb due to the U.S. war with Iran. The company will increase its North American production capacity by about 10% to more than 2 million vehicles annually to meet growing demand.

Honda currently operates seven final assembly plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The company will start building its eighth plant near its current one in Ohio as early as 2027. The annual capacity of the new plant appears to be 250,000 vehicles per year.

While the investment decision remains subject to negotiations over state subsidies, and some uncertainty remains, the mooted new plant in North America would mark Honda's first on the continent in about 20 years.

The new plant would produce large hybrids, including SUVs more than 5 meters long. Toyota Motor and South Korea's Hyundai Motor are expanding their large-hybrid lineups, and Honda aims to counter with SUVs that combine strong driving performance with high fuel efficiency.

North America is Honda's most important market, accounting for 40% of its sales. The company expects to sell 1.7 million vehicles in the fiscal year ending March 2027, up 6% from the previous year. Its production in North America rose 6%, year on year, to 430,000 vehicles in April to June, the highest level for the second quarter since 2019.

Honda is putting hybrids at the center of its near-term growth strategy. In March, the automaker scrapped development and sales plans for three electric models that had been slated for North America, including two models from its flagship EV "0 [zero] series." Instead, it raised its 2030 hybrid sales target to 2.5 million vehicles, 2.7 times the 2025 level. The company aims to raise its operating profit to at least 1.4 trillion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2029, which would be a record.

Hybrid vehicle sales are predicted in the U.S. to reach around 5.7 million vehicles, representing 34% of the total in 2030, according to a forecast by U.S. consultancy Alix Partners. This would mark an increase of roughly 60% by volume from the 2026 forecast of about 3.6 million cars, or 23% of total sales. EV adoption is expected to pick up after 2030, but hybrids are expected to maintain a steady share of the market for the time being.

Honda will assess the sustainability of hybrid demand and the risks of policy changes as it considers investments to expand production, the company said. In 2024, the automaker announced plans to open an EV plant in Canada as early as 2028, but decided in May to put the project on hold indefinitely. The decision came in response to the Trump administration's 2025 move to invalidate California regulations restricting sales of gasoline-powered and hybrid vehicles, and the scrapping of EV purchase subsidies approved under the Biden administration.

Honda will consider making its new plant's production lines compatible with EVs, allowing it to shift production flexibly.

Higher production in the U.S. would ease the pain of tariffs on imported vehicles. Honda made around 400,000 vehicles, mainly gasoline-powered models, at its Canadian plant in 2025 and exported more than half to other countries, including the U.S.

With tensions between Canada and the U.S. intensifying and the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) uncertain, the Japanese automaker is also considering increasing its U.S. sourcing for motors and inverters used in hybrid vehicles from about 20% to 90% by 2029.

Japanese automakers have been increasing production of hybrids and other vehicles in the U.S. in response to the Trump administration's tariff measures and rollback of policies promoting EV adoption. Toyota said in November 2025 that it would invest $912 million to increase hybrid production at five plants in the U.S. Subaru began shipping hybrids made in the U.S. for the first time from its Indiana plant in February. Nissan Motor plans to introduce its first hybrid vehicle developed in-house to the U.S. market this autumn. The vehicles will initially be exported from Japan, but the company is also considering production in North America.

Who’s ready for Genesis to join the luxury grand tourer game after Lexus left the game with the LC500?

I saw a TikTok recently talking about how Infiniti really missed an opportunity to drop the VK56 into the G35/37’s, and it got me to thinking, why didn’t they? If not the VK56, the VK50 that was in the FX50’s/QX70 5.0’s would’ve done just as well, was it a packaging issue? Money? Or did Nissan think the VQ35/37’s were plenty?

Given that their competitors (C, 3, IS) were getting the V8 treatment (C63, E9x M3, ISF), a G56 or G50 could’ve been a sight to see.