Archive for the ‘Cube’ Category

Think that the design of the Volkswagen New Beetle is more hideous than iconic?

Apparently you're not alone. Business Week has posted its "Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years," including a number of models present and past, and the New Beetle is just one of the newer and still-produced models on the list. Others include the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Avalanche, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Honda Element, Hummer H2, Jeep Compass, Nissan Cube, and Toyota Prius.

They're particularly tough on the Escalade, sounding more like SUV-haters than design critics: "The perfect car design if fuel, practicality, maneuverability, and class mean nothing...

Korean automaker Kia seems to be on a roll these days -- at least on the design front. Its boxy Scion xB/Nissan Cube competitor, the Kia Soul, has held its own in the face of discerning auto journalists, and the sporty Kia Forte Koup looks to do similarly well. Now the company has shared renderings of its new premium model, the VG, which will arrive in Korean showrooms later this year.

The VG debuted at the Seoul Motor Show last spring as a front-wheel-drive concept dubbed "KMD-5", and rumor has it that the VG will remain a FWD when it makes its first American appearance at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. Depending on public and press reaction...

If you want to get an automatic transmission—as most car shoppers prefer—on a Nissan, you'll most likely end up with a CVT. That's, to put it as simply as possible, a belt-and-pulley system rather than gears and hydraulics.

Nissan has just announced that the CVT it uses across most of its lineup in place of conventional automatic transmissions will soon get some important drivability and performance improvements.

Relative to the current-generation CVTs that are available in most of Nissan's car and crossover lineup, including the 2009 Nissan Cube, plus the Nissan Sentra, Rogue, Altima, Murano, Maxima, and some Versas, the new transmission...