Toyota’s difficulties related to the unintended acceleration issue appear to be worsening, as the automaker has announced suspended sales of eight models in the U.S. market. As of January 27, the Toyota recall list has been updated to include suspended sales of Camry (excluding hybrid versions), Avalon, Tundra, Sequoia, RAV4, Corolla, Highlander (excluding hybrid versions) and Matrix models. The move has also forced a temporary production halt at plants in Indiana, Texas, Kentucky and Canada.

As the Toyota Camry remains the best selling car in America, the sales suspension is expected to have a noticeable impact on Toyota’s dealer network, already reeling from a sluggish economy and tightening credit requirements. Prior to this latest setback, Toyota had announced aggressive leasing options and cash back programs in an effort to get customers into showrooms.

Honda is planning on giving the Toyota Prius a challenge…..again. Although the consumers have spoken and proved that they prefer the Prius rather than the Honda Insight, Honda is not willing to wave the white flag.

These numbers do not lie……

2009 Honda Insight Sales: 20,572

2009 Toyota Prius Sales: 139,682

Honda Insight MPG City/Highway: 40/43

Toyota Prius MPG City/Highway: 51/48

Can you blame drivers for choosing the Prius over the Insight? Let’s just say the average American drives 12,000 miles a year, and the average gallon of gas costs $2.75. We could save ourselves a decent chunk of change with the Prius. Even though the Prius is slightly more expensive, with the amount of complaints we have seen about the Insight, it makes the price worth it. Honda needs to step their game up. They have already worked up a new advertisement campaign for the Insight, and they are also looking farther into the future in hopes of eclipsing the famed Prius. Honda CEO Takanobu Ito alledgedly has told his researchers to develop a hybrid that has a better miles per gallon rating than the world’s most beloved hybrid(Prius). If the the next hybrid is going to be an improvement to the already establish Insight or a brand new design is unknown right now but its going to have to be something quite impressive to knock off the reigning champ.

As a bittersweet farewell to one of the most tumultuous years in automotive history, RideLust presents to you a re-cap of all the biggest industry events in 2009…and a few that slipped in under editorial bias.

Rick Wagoner, Bob Nardelli, and Alan Mulally spent weeks feigning humility and destitution in three piece Brooks Brothers suits in an attempt to wrangle a billion-dollar loan from an apparently benevolent Uncle Sam. Eventually, the government acquiesced and agreed to bail out both General Motors and Chrysler so as not to interrupt their steady production of poorly built, aesthetically unappealing vehicles.

Stunt double Ben Collins outed himself as Top Gear’s infamous masked driver, The Stig, potentially blowing the sweetest gig on planet Earth. Rather than kill him off, Top Gear attempted to counter the rumors by fingering (::snicker::) legendary racer Michael Schumacher as The Stig. Gearheads in America with an Internet connection that’s too slow to cope with downloading the weekly BBC broadcast still don’t give a rat’s ass.

There was some sort of F1 scandal involving Renault intentionally throwing the Singapore Gran Prix, but we were too immersed in our rally obsession to care. Just Google it or something.

As per their plan to cut costs and pretend to pay back taxpayers, GM made the logical decision to axe one of the only remaining brands that consumers still cared about, Pontiac. Shortly after the announcement, rumors began to circulate that the late John DeLorean’s company was interested in purchasing the rights to produce the Pontiac Solstice. The idea, much like the DMC-12, was short lived.

Drawing heavily from the blatantly phallic styling of the Ambiguously Gay Duo’s car, Porsche released it’s first 4-door sedan, the Panamera.

For those of you filthy Westerners who thought the agony wrought by your unrequited love for the gray market RS.4 was the most painful experience you were likely to endure at the feet of a Euro-spec hoon, rest assured that you were wrong. The new Renault Mégane R.S. is the latest sport hatch to roll out of Renault’s paddock, and it’s just as drool-inducing as you would imagine.

Flawless exterior design aside, the biggest selling point on the new Mégane R.S. is the revised turbocharged 2.0 16V (F4Rt) under the hood. Thanks to standard evolution changes and a corresponding livelier response at lower revs, continuously variable intake valve timing, and revised fuel-injection mapping, the powerplant now delivers 250hp at 5,500rpm and 340Nm of torque at 3,000 rpm. When mated to Renault’s new six-speed manual gearbox (PK4), the new engine propels the Mégane R.S. past the 0-100kph mark in 6.1 seconds and flying past 1,000-meters in 25.7 seconds.

For those of you who are already frothing at the mouth with anticipation and have the good fortune of living in Europe, the Mégane R.S. will hit dealer lots shortly after the new year. For the rest of you, the Mégane R.S has already dropped in Need for Speed: Shift, which we highly advise you to procure given it’s the closest you’re likely to get to owning one.

Who knew a lifestyle that necessitates surviving almost exclusively on a diet of Ramen noodles and Natural Ice could prove so beneficial to the environment? According to Zipcar, their rideshare programs that currently dot an estimated 140 university campuses across the U.S. and Great Britian are succeeding in astronomically reducing emissions, and all thanks to the overwhelming response from college kids too broke to spring for their own set of wheels. By the numbers, Zipcar estimates they’ve cut CO2 emissions by 56 million pounds annually, which is roughly equivalent to the amount of CO2 that would be emitted by 4,800 dilapidated Honda Accords with Greek and/or obscure band bumper stickers affixed atop the more noticeable dents.

In addition to the significant environmental benefits, Zipcar’s service has also done wonders for solving many of the congestion problems plaguing certain campuses and university officials laud the program with praise. “I cannot say enough about our partnership with Zipcar; their commitment to innovation, marketing, and customer service has allowed us to create the type of brand awareness and customer loyalty that students identify with and respect,” said Tony Mazza, Director of Transportation for the University of Southern California (USC). “With over 20 cars and approximately 1000 members on campus – we are dedicated to continue growing our car-sharing program until our parking demand and environmental goals have been realized.”

Thanks to our dutiful following of VolvoXC60 on Twitter, we learned today that Rolling Strength’s revolutionary new crossover has made the list of finalists for Motor Trend’s 2010 SUV of the Year award. Of course to be fair, the XC60 was neither engineered or marketed as an SUV, but the majority of Motor Trend’s other finalists weren’t either. Given the current market and auto maker’s eagerness to distance themselves from the often negative stigma attached to SUVs, however, MT would be hard pressed to assemble a similarly lengthy list if limiting the criteria to only those vehicles explicitly billed as SUVs. Thus, the one aspect all the candidates have in common is ride height, multi-function capability, and an all wheel drive train.

In Sweden, a virgin with a 1973 Lincoln Continental and a cool $1 million spent about 5 years crafting a full scale replica of the Batmobile. Now, perhaps we’ve been spoiled by years of high-resolution studio photographs of some of the most beautifully engineered cars in the business, but to our discerning eyes the Swedish Batmobile looks a little, uh, shop class. It took the guy 20,000 hours to build though, so despite our penchant for going for the jugular we’re going to stymie the snarky criticism before it starts and simply give credit where credit’s due. Nice job, Sven.

Full gallery after the jump

In a few years, willingly setting foot inside a Chrysler dealership will no longer mean that you’ve given up on your dreams.

Chrysler’s new Italian overlords have apparently judged the market ripe for a pocket rocket invasion and news broke earlier this afternoon that the Fiat 500 will be hitting Chrysler dealerships in the West within the next two years. If things go according to the preliminary schedule, the first wave of about 30,000 Fiat 500 sedans will be shipped to the Chrysler plant in Toluca, Mexico and kickoff production in late 2010 or early 2011. Despite Chrysler’s hand in assembly and distribution, however, there’s no need to fear a “500 inspired” Chrysler. Despite their abundance of questionable business decisions Chrysler (or, more likely, Fiat) demonstrated the sagacity to leave the Fiat badge intact, effectively averting the massive market disaster that would inevitably follow a Chrysler 500.

What could be more American than stuffing your face with mass-produced chocolate bars and then entering to win a modern-day musclecar, the 2010 Chevy Camaro? They’re both full of empty calories but a lot of fun, so why not indulge? After all, the Camaro didn’t exactly come in as a featherweight, what, with all of the brake balancing weights haphazardly glued all over the rotors like some sort of cracked-out kindergarden art project. But hey, the car is unabashadly badass, and who the hell doesn’t like chocolate? As long as you can keep your diabetes in control it’s a combination made in heaven. And seeing as how it’s built to fit our good ol’ cornfed bodies, you shouldn’t have to go on a vitamin-water-and-glue-huffing diet to fit in the damn thing. Hop on over to Hershey’s to enter, and of course, no purchase is required.

Really, what car doesn’t look better with a hood blister full of Cibies? The Fiat 500’s rally-prepped Abarth R3T version certainly does, and would look even more appropriate blasting down a snowy mountain road with all of them blazing. That being said, it’s unfortunately not street legal and destined to take part in a “promotional rally series” – essentially a one-make affair entirely on Fiat’s tab, as a sort of exhibition publicity stunt. I’m not really complaining, ‘cuz if Abarth can do it then anyone with access to the various bits and pieces can as well.