AUTOMOBILE101 BLOG

You won't need an iPhone for true mobile integration Toyota joined the modern era when it  started adding CarPlay  to its vehicles early in 2018, but that hasn't done you much good if you're an Android user. You might get some relief soon, though.  Bloomberg sources  said that Toyota has agreed to put direct Android Auto support in its cars, with an announcement as soon as October. You could use the feature through Ford's SmartDeviceLink before, but that limited both their appearance on the center screen and limited their data access. Toyota wouldn't confirm or deny the apparent leak in a comment, saying that it recognized the demand for Android Auto and was considering direct support. The company would be late to the party, to put it mildly. Most major car brands have at least some kind of Android Auto support, and you'll even find it in niche makes like Koenigsegg. While it's unclear whether the absence of support hurt sales in a tangible way,...

Fifty years after introducing a six-cylinder engine in its 164 sedan model,  Volvo  has halved the cylinder count for  a new entry-level engine in the XC40 compact SUV . The turbocharged T3 gasoline engine is the Swedish manufacturer's first triple, even if it is not the smallest engine ever offered in a Volvo. Announced back in February , the T3 is being offered for now to European  XC40  buyers, but Volvo has said the three-cylinder will be part of  Volvo's XC40 portfolio in the U.S. sometime in the future. The current specifications for the XC40 T3 are fitting for an entry-level model: 156 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 195 pound-feet of torque from 1,850 to 3,850 rpm, and the sole transmission option is a six-speed manual gearbox. Later on, an eight-speed auto will join the manual, a must for United States sales. The 1.5-liter unit is actually largish for a triple, as three-cylinder units are usually closer to one liter of displacement or l...

More and more people are drawn into the big cities of the world. Consequently, all of these cities have one challenge to face: Not enough parking space and very congested traffic, especially during rushhours. This becomes even more problematic when big cars are just used by single individuals. Therefore, small, comfortable and safe cars are required and, in addition to that, the electric drive train provides possibilities to completely rethink what we know about individual transportation. EO smart connecting car 2 is the result of consequent and ongoing research, development, and optimization of the EO smart connecting car concept. Like its predecessor, it features normal driving driving diagonal turning on the spot even driving sideways and shrinking from ca. 2.6 m down to ca. 1.8 m while maintaining a comfortable seating position. Big windows guarantee a good perception of the surrounding environment while an intuitive user interface provides easy access to all drive ...

No one expected the SUV craze of the 1990s to be as big as it was, least of all Honda. To capture the rapidly expanding market, Honda, which had traditionally kept to best-selling sedans, superbly handling sports cars, and motorcycles, was forced to partner with Isuzu and rebadge its  Rodeo  as the  Passport . It was a smart move, because SUVs quickly supplanted sports cars as the cool cars to have for image-conscious drivers, putting models like the  Camaro  and Nissan Z on hiatus, and killing off models like the Mazda RX-7 altogether. Meanwhile, Honda quickly got to work developing an SUV of their own. Since Honda didn't have much experience building large vehicles, they went with a unibody and a drivetrain shared  with the Odyssey minivan . The  Pilot  debuted in 2003, and oh, how the makers of body-on-frame SUVs laughed.  It's not a real truck , they said.  It can't go off-road , they said. But as it turns out, a car-based SUV,...