Toyota Motor Corporation, the world’s second largest Automaker has announced today that they will be debuting Highlander versions soon. Highlander is one of the popular vehicles of Toyota is making considerable revenue for Toyota. Even though their turnaround is less in 2006 when compared to its previous year, they do make a good chunk of revenue to the company.

Both Highlander and Highlander Hybrid are debuting in the first week of Feb, 2007 in Chicago Auto Show which is to be held in the Toyota Press Conference in Grand Ballroom in McCormick Place. The surprising part to this is that there were no spyshots or any other additional details to it till now.

This Highlander is expected to the first of its kind in the major overhaul of the Unit both design wise and performance. There are rumors that the Hybrid version is expected to have better mileage when compared to its current version. And another one states that 2008 version will be based on Avalon platform to have better room space for the 3rd row of seats.

For all those who have been waiting to get their hands on the least expensive car of BMW, here’s good news. The Bavarian Motorworks company is planning to release all new 3 Door 1-series sometime before the end of the year. Previous Official statement from the company said that it will take 2 years to release this new baby but now the gestation period has been reduced. This new series comes in 5 different models.

• 130i - 265 BHP, 0 - 62 mph in 6.0 seconds
• 120i - 170 BHP, 0 - 62 mph in 7.7 seconds
• 118i - 143 BHP, 0 - 62 mph in 8.7 seconds
• 120d - 177 BHP diesel engine, 0 - 62 mph in 7.5 seconds
• 118d - 143 BHP diesel engine, 0 - 62 mph in 8.9 seconds

Advanced technologies such as regenerative brake energy is being used, along with variable valve technology. The fuel consumption will be efficient thanks to High-Precision direct injection of fuel. BMW says that this technology will increase the fuel economy of upto 3%.

Ferrari has unveiled its new model F2007 in a press conference in Maranello, Italy. Its the 53rd F1 car designed and built in Italy. Don’t expect that you will see lot of changes because its pretty much similar to the previous model (248) with only slight changes in the configuration.

Baselined on 2006’s 248, this model has similar design philosophies of the previous model. There are some changes in the front. The Single keel which is normally present will be replaced for a zero keel setup. That means, the lower wishbones will be elevated upwards which results in a cushion aerodynamic effect. As awesome as it may sound, its actually increases the risk of the one who is driving.

Overall, the suspension is primarily redone to improve the aerodynamic efficiency. The next is the intake of the air at the top of the car. It is now totally changed. The sidepods are redone to include the new bigger cooling system; the entire car is stretched a little bit on a longer wheelbase.

With its weight increasing by 10kgs when compared to its predecessor, you can say that its designed to accommodate the safety regulation.

After a long wait and seeing all those digital images of Jaguar XKR GT3, finally the Coupé is revealed to the public today. With a large gathering in the NEC Birmingham, the Autosport International Show has attracted some of the top line cars in the Industry. This is definitively one of the most successful show for Motorsports.

This monster is powered with 4.2 liter V8 supercharged engine with a 475 bhp. It has full aluminium body which has some modifications from the older versions.

Richard Lloyd is one of the brain behind the design of this car. Along with him, a team of experienced squad had worked on the XKR model. Richard along with Apex Motorsports has revealed the first set of images of this car.

Even though its in pretty early stage, the first car built is already sold. That’s right. It is sold to Stuart Scott, MD of East Anglia’s Cambridge Business Travel. It is later announced that Scott along with an un-named co-driver with be giving it a round in a programme of six events.

Recently, many car companies are providing special car seats for babies, which undoubtfully attracted the clients.  But the recent tests conducted by the Consumer Reports are against these baby seats. Tests are conducted on some of the most popular cars in the market. Guess what’s the result. 10 out of 12 cars have totally failed in them. What a bummer.

It was found that the seat faced a very bad damage even after having the LATCH belts. Only the Baby Trend Flex-Loc and the Graco SnugRide with EPS performed well in the magazine’s tests.

The big question is after passing the crash tests of the federal government the cars have faced a big failure.  The Customer Reports suggests having the child seat at the center rear position of the vehicles back seat.

The parents who were attracted by the child seats are now in a big confusion about the unsafe infant seats.

GM is introducing its latest hybrid in Detroit. Its the Chevrolet Volt, which is a C- class sized, 4 door sedan.  This is an electric car with lithium ion battery pack.

The vehicle has good set of capabilities.  The turbo charged engine of 1.0 liter, 3 cylinder with 71 horse power. Besides from that, the car is powered by lithium ion battery. There is an electric motor with 161hp power.  This is connected to the front wheels to make the ride smooth and easy.

On the two sides of the car, there are plugs for home charging. The battery gets full charge in nearly 6.5 hours.  Using the battery alone it has a range of 40 miles.  With full fuel tank, it has a range of 640 miles.  The outer look is very impressive with short windows. You can view the outside scenes better because the upper part of the door is also glass.

The Chevy Volt can run in any combination of gasoline or ethanol.  The car is good for environment as the CO2 emission is very less.

CNBC TV announced today that their website will be covering the Detroit Auto Show 2007 all day on Sunday. So if you can’t make it to the show or don’t have a television channel you can access, you might want to check out CNBC. You can also check out Phil LeBeau’s Behind the Wheel auto blog for general car stuff. It looks as if the 2007 Auto Show will have a lot of concept cars and vehicles running on alternative fuels.

In all, it sounds like an exciting show that I wish I could be at. If you’re in Canada, you may want to check out the 2007 Canadian International Autoshow scheduled for Feb 16-25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (downtown on Front St.). You can see pics from the 2006 show.

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Fiat is making a comeback with its hatchback Punto Abarth. As we know, Abarth is a separate car maker which was acquired by Fiat long back, and turned it into inhouse tuning department. Its been a long time since Fiat is making use of its Abarth wing.

The Specs really looks awesome. With 0 to 60 seconds pickup in just under 7 seconds, its gonna compete against all its present rivals. With 190bhp being the standard for all the cars in this segment, its gonna enter the market with more than 200 BHP with a twin turbo engine.

Other than that, it has all the competition style features like Smart alloys wheels, the body is wider for better handling, roof mounted air intake among others. The sources say that it might enter the market around the price range of GBP 15,000.

Lets wait and see!

Ford has done it again. Ford Interceptor is the new concept car designed by Ford and it is to be displayed in the upcoming 2007 Detroit Auto Show. With all powerful Mustang in its brandline, it is tempting to release concept cars based on its model. But Ford has restrained from it and introduced a great design that I am sure is going to attract lot of customers. While some may say that there exists a similarity with Super Chief truck, I feel that the model is definitively different, new and innovative.

Interceptor has impressive set of features in its pipeline. With 400 HP 5 liter V8 engine, the car is assured to fly like a champ. Safety features include 4 point seatbelts and inflatable rear belts. The car is absolutely awesome and has a great potential to come out as one of the best cars of 2007.